CARP’s Annual Gathering of the Clan: Annual General Meeting Recap

Article By: Ross Mayot

29 October – 1 November 2009

For the most part Annual General Meetings are pretty dry and routine affairs. That’s not our approach and doesn’t reflect our New Vision of Aging. That’s why we combine the AGM with the CARP conference and the Zoomer Show. It’s our one opportunity each year to bring our Chapter Chairs, Reps and Advisory Board members together with staff to experiences and re-charge our common mission to advance and protect the interests of Canadians as we age. There are three components to the gathering—The CARP Conference, the AGM and the Zoomer Show. Here is a brief re-cap of each of them.

This year we held CARP’s 2nd annual CARP Conference on Healthy Aging and Longevity, in the Grand Banking Hall of the Suites of 1 King West in Toronto.

Presented by Moses Znaimer, in the style of ideaCity, the day overflowed with the insights, passion and talent of 22 remarkable presenters. From the opening musical notes by a 9 year old cello prodigy, the presenters continued to inspire and intrigue the audience of 250 throughout the day. Sectioned into four sessions—New Vision of Aging, Extraordinary Lives, Self-Deliverance and Healthy Living, presentations ranged from genetic and anti-aging research; the exceptional lives and accomplishments of centenarians; courageous and compassionate stories about choosing the timing and manner of one’s dying process; research into smell and taste loss; awareness of the growing number of viruses and microbes threatening our health; to the therapeutic value of laughter in life. For a full run-down on presenters, please visit www.carpconference.ca.

It was an invigorating day that I’m sure not only raised the level of awareness about what is going on in the world of science and medicine relating to healthy aging, but also stimulated new appreciation of the possibilities and potential for personal longevity.

The CARP AGM and Working Sessions

There are basic administrative requirements to the AGM—election of Directors, Financial report and other administrative duties—but those things don’t really give our members a true sense of what has been accomplished in the year, so we kicked off the AGM with two videos. The first was an energetic video in which Moses articulates his new vision for CARP and his coining of the term “Zoomers”. It also captured his meetings with Chapters and members during the coast-to-coast national tour of 14 cities from Victoria to St. John’s over the past year. That was followed by a video that recognized CARP’s 25th Anniversary with commentary from CARP founders, Lillian and Murray Morganthau, and brief overviews from CARP’s management team on the accomplishments of the past year.

Following the video presentations, Moses and the CARP management team fielded questions from the floor.

Dr. Ron Keast, Chair of CARP’s Advisory Board provided a brief report from the Advisory Board, that included the Advisory Board’s endorsement of the applications to the CRTC for ZoomerMedia’s acquisition of Vision TV, ONE:The Body, Mind, Spirit Channel and the local Joy TV stations in Vancouver and Winnipeg. Dr. Keast also announced the winners of CARP’s 25th Anniversary “Top 25 Canadians” Award. A list of the winners will be posted on CARP’s website.

An important item of business during the AGM session chaired by Susan Eng, was an amendment to the CARP by-laws, eliminating the age requirement to become a member of CARP.

Following lunch, there were reports from Susan Eng, Eric Vengroff and Ross Mayot. And Dr. Colin Powell of CARP’s Advisory Board made a brief presentation on the ongoing need to increase the number of Geriatric doctors and Gerontologists in Canada.

On Saturday morning Bill and Esther VanGorder made an excellent presentation and skit on Frauds and Scams. And Eric Vengroff made a presentation on his recent participation in the "Olympiad" in Italy, organized by 50 & Piu, Itay’s equivalent of CARP. The Olympiad is their annual get-together for health, fitness and fun with various games and events over three days. Perhaps CARP will have a delegation of Chapters participating in 50 & Piu’s Olympia next year.

Over to the Zoomer Show

That session concluded the morning and we bused everyone over to the Zoomer Show at the Direct Energy Centre. In its second year, the Zoomer Show has become Canada’s largest consumer and lifestyle show aimed at Zoomers, with over 250 exhibitors, including CARP’s Affinity partners, and 22,000 people attending the show. It was an exciting and stimulating environment in which to learn about the growing number of businesses and organizations serving CARP members and the Zoomer demographic. CARP had a cornerstone booth at the Show that was very popular where members could meet and talk to CARP staff, get their pictures on the cover of Zoomer magazine, win any number of prizes and sign up. Hundreds did just that.

All in all, a jam-packed four days intellectual, professional and social exchange, and further proof that CARP is The Leader in creating a New Vision of Aging for Canada.