The 2010 Spring Meeting of the Canadian Woodland Forum will be held April 7th and 8th at the Ramada, Crystal Palace Hotel, Moncton. I have attached an agenda for the event.

Also please be aware of two other events taking place at this location:

NBFTA Executive Meeting April 7th (evening) at the Ramada, Crystal Palace, Moncton – time and room number to be determined.

NBFTA AGM will be held at 1 PM on April 8th – at the Ramada, Crystal Palace, Moncton – room number to be determined.

AGENDA: click here to view

The Emergency Meeting of the NBFTA set for February 6th, 2010 at MCFT has been canceled. Our next scheduled meeting will be at our AGM in Moncton, Thursday April 8th at 1 PM at Crystal Palace.

More details to follow.

Thanks

Todd MacPherson, President
NBFTA

By for now

Todd

===========================================

Hello Members

As a follow up to out last emergency meeting and subsequent acceptance of the ARPFNB to our terms, we are now in full support of the current Right-to-Practice Legislation. With that in mind, I am required to call one more emergency meeting for the general membership on Saturday, February 6th, 2010, at 10 AM in room 224 at MCFT.

The purpose of this meeting is to ratify the latest version of the legislation document. After that we will begin a 6-week public relations campaign, as required by law. The ARPFNB is holding their Annual General Meeting a week prior to ours and if for some reason their membership votes against the legislation then I will cancel our meeting. The Private Members Bill can not go forward unless both associations approve the latest draft of the legislation.

I can not stress enough the importance of this meeting. Forestry as you know it in New Brunswick will change forever with the enactment of this legislation. In order for your voice to be heard you must attend the meeting.

Attached to this document is the Act, rough draft of the By-laws, and a letter that was mailed out to various members of the forest community seeking their support of the legislation.

This meeting is open to NBFTA members in good standing only. To participate, your dues must be paid in full at the door.

(Note to Executive Members – I would like to meet with all of you after the emergency meeting to go over the applications for the NBFTA Scholarship. We received two applications so it should not take long.)

If any of you receive this email more than once, I apologize.

See you all on February 6th.

Sincerely;

Todd MacPherson
President
New Brunswick Forest Technicians Association
www.nbfta.org

I have felt it necessary to call an emergency meeting of the NBFTA general membership in regards to ‘Right to Practice’ legislation that was initiated by the Association of Registered Professional Foresters of New Brunswick. The meeting will be held Saturday, November 14th, at 9:00 AM  in Room 224, at the Maritime College of Forest Technology (most of you know it as MFRS), in Fredericton.

As a bit of a background for you, the NBFTA was involved in the RTP process for a number of years but after many meetings and much discussion the process was abandoned. This was due to lack of support and the government not wanting to invest the time or resources for a public bill.

In late 2008 until the present, RTP was revived by the ARPFNB, because their membership demanded it an an AGM. The new approach is to go forward with a private members bill and pay all of the associated costs out of pocket.

In the spring of 2009, at our AGM in Moncton, Jen Hacking, the Executive Director of the ARPFNB, asked if she could speak to the general membership at our AGM. We accepted and allowed her to speak. The result of her meeting was that Chris Finnamore and Gareth Davies agreed to be representatives for the NBFTA in all future RTP meetings.

As a result of feedback from those meetings, the NBFTA Executive has twice voted that we no longer be part of the process as we felt it was not in the best interest of New Brunswick Forest Technicians and Technologists.

So why am I calling this meeting? We will reveal the full transcript of events at the emergency meeting but in a nutshell, we have had verbal complaint(s) from our Membership that the Executive may have overstepped their authority in making this decision on behalf of the members. Also we have received a formal letter from John Kershaw, President of the APRFNB, where he has addressed our concerns. Whether we agree or not with his letter is up for debate.

The Executive works tirelessly on behalf of the Membership and we are always looking out for all of our best interests, so I take complaints seriously. The main reason that the NBFTA Executive voted against this is that we disagreed with the entire process to move forward with RTP. This is such an important issue because if the proposed legislation
becomes law, here are some of the significant changes that will occur:

- The NBFTA will merge with th ARPFNB and a new association will be formed.
- All Technicians and Technologists will have to join if you want to
practice forestry in New Brunswick.
- Membership dues will go up significantly as the cost of running the
new Association will increase dramatically.
- Our financial resources will be seriously depleted paying for legal
bills and getting the legislation passed through a Private Members Bill.
Any remaining funds will transfer to the new Association.

There are other concerns in the draft legislation that we would like to explain at the meeting and will prepare a presentation, followed by a question and answer period. At the end of our presentation any other member will be allowed to make a RTP-related presentation, followed by a Q & A. My only request is that you inform me at least 1 week prior to the meeting with your estimated time allotment.

No other issues will be on the agenda. At the end of the presentations, the general membership will vote and the decision will be final. I can not stress the importance of this meeting. We need a quorum to allow for
a vote, otherwise the decision on the Executive is final.

Attached you will find the most recent draft of the legislation and an OCR conversion of a letter that was mailed to me by ARPFNB President, John Kershaw. Please read it over before you attend so you are better informed. There may be some typos in the text below as it was created by computer software after scanning the document.

*note – I did not publish correspondence at this time as it is intended for Members viewing only. If you did not already receive a copy in your email (sent October 22, 2009), then that means that your email address on record is out of date or you did not provide us with one. I can be reached by sending an email to todd.macpherson@nbfta.org.

Thank you for your time,

Todd MacPherson
President NBFTA

The main item on the agenda will be the ‘Right to Practice’ draft legislation.

I hope to see you all there.

Regards,

Todd MacPherson

Find below links to the newsletter I’ve distributed to our membership. It has quite a bit of information that will be of interest to NBFTA members.

This month in the Forest Practitioner: An update of the progress made on drafting legislation for mandatory regulation of foresters and forest technologists in the province. A preview of proposed changes contained in the draft.

The Forest Practitioner (English) at http://arpfnb.ca///uploads//Website_Assets/_Newsletter_Summer_09.pdf

Without pictures & colour: http://arpfnb.ca///uploads//Website_Assets/Summer_09_newsletter_no_photos.pdf

En francais: http://arpfnb.ca///uploads//Website_Assets/Newsletter_Summer_09_French.pdf

Sans photos: http://arpfnb.ca///uploads//Website_Assets/Summer_09_newsletter_french,_no_photos.pdf

Jen Hacking, RPF

Executive Director/Directrice générale

1350 Regent St., Suite 221

Fredericton, NB

E3C 2G6

506-452-6933 tel

506-450-3128 fax

info@arpfnb.ca

www.arpfnb.ca

At the NBFTA AGM we were invited to take part in this process and reserved decision until we could have a formal meeting to discuss this. That meeting took place today, April 22, 2009, and the Executive has decided that we need to be included in this process in order to have our voice at the table.

The current position of the NBFTA, with respect to this legislation, is that we neither support or reject Right to Practice Legislation. That is something that the general membership will decide in the future. Two members of the Executive will be involved in the process, representing the best interests on the Association.

Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns.

Thanks

Todd MacPherson, CFT
President NBFTA

AGM 2008 Minutes

Please be advised that the application deadline for the MCFT Field Instructor position has been extended. You will find the Job Ad by clicking on the link below.

MCFT Field Instructor

See you all in Moncton

Click Here to Download 2008 AGM Agenda