How do we know what the members want?

Who provides the input for Council decisions? You do, and it's not necessary that you excel at making yourself heard above the crowd. When we have a major topic on which to decide, we will come to you. Our "owner linkage" mandate is to regularly consult a broad and representative group of the membership for their views.

This is different from the approach taken by most boards, which tend to hear input primarily from groups with a predefined stake in one outcome or another. As owners of the association, all members have a stake in major decisions, including you, even if we are considering a topic that is not front and centre on your personal radar screen.

We want to know what the majority of members – or major opinion groups within the membership – think, and then we act in accordance with what we hear. There is enormous diversity in our membership (define diversity as you will), and this approach is the only one that promises equitable benefit to the greatest number of members, and not merely to those who are the loudest.