From the Desk of Janet Barclay

This is my final week as a member of Professional Organizers in Canada (POC). I joined POC shortly after establishing my business in the summer of 2002, on the advice of Margaret Miller, who was President at that time and one of the association’s founders. Since then, I’ve watched the organization go through many changes.

When I joined POC, there were fewer than 100 members across Canada. A few months later, Margaret asked me to take over for the Director of Membership, who had to resign her position for personal reasons. She told me that it was mainly an administrative role, preparing membership kits and sending them out to new members, but as the membership grew, so did my workload, to the point where I actually had to recruit a volunteer to look after the membership kits while I attended to other Board responsibilities. By the time I stepped down from the National Board in October of 2005, there were over 500 members, representing all 10 provinces.

One of POC’s major initiatives is National Organizing Week (NOWeek), which is held each year during the first week of May, in order to raise the profile of the association by volunteering organizing services to other non-profit organizations.  In 2003, I volunteered alone to organize a file storage room for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Hamilton Burlington, which was a huge project that brought me back to their location several times before it was finished. In later years, I had the opportunity to work with other local organizers at Ronald McDonald House and Habitat for Humanity.

The most exciting project I participated in as a POC member was the redevelopment of the website. With the growth of the organization, we needed a more user-friendly navigation system and a membership database that tied directly into the registration process. Little did I realize when I volunteered to head up the project how much time and energy would be involved! It can be very challenging to work with a volunteer committee strictly by email, especially when each committee member is busy running his or her own business. A few committee members had to resign due to other demands, and others just stopped participating, but thanks to a few core members, Alex Fayle, Nada Thomson, and Lynn Fanset, we were finally able to see the new site launched – after more than a year of planning and working with Zoonini Web Services.

Of course, the Annual Conference has always been a highlight, and I’m hoping to attend again, possibly as an exhibitor in the Vendor Expo.

My reasons for leaving POC have nothing to do with the changes in the organization, and everything to do with changes in my own business. When I joined, I was marketing myself as a career consultant / professional organizer – a strange combination, but one which allowed me to use my knowledge of personality type to help others to choose a career or to develop organizing strategies best suited to their personality type. A year or so later, fellow POC member Hellen Buttigieg asked if I would be willing to look after her electronic newsletter, as this was something I did for my own business that she wasn’t interested in learning to do herself. It was then that I realized that I got more pleasure from working on my computer than from hands-on organizing, and I began to evolve from a professional organizer to a virtual assistant.

I look forward to staying in touch with the many friends I’ve made during my time with POC, who are too numerous to mention here. I will definitely stay in touch with what’s happening in the association, due to the many members who have chosen me as their virtual assistant and/or web designer, including Patricia John of Room 2 Room Organizing Services, Cindy Milligan of Get It Together! Residential Organizing Services, Lisa Rosen of ICanSeeTheFloor.com, Hellen Buttigieg of We Organize U, and last but by no means least, Wendy Hollick of NEAT SPACES Professional Organizing Service, who has also become a close friend.

 Special thanks to all those who have accompanied me on this journey!