2024 UWSA Annual Report released

Last year we announced three strategic priorities to guide us over the next three years: Advance Governance Excellence, Enhance Member Experience, and Outreach for our Future.

Here are just a few highlights from the report about what the UWSA Operations Team has been up to over the past year in these areas and beyond.

• We created an online toolkit and training material for directors and began a training program for the president-elect.
• We’ve done an initial assessment of where we stand on Excellence Canada certification requirements and submitted recommendations to the Board of Directors for better aligning our by-law with the MoA, the Ontario Not-for-Profit Corporations Act, and our values.
• Our Member Advisory Committee provided confidential guidance and support to more than 100 members this year.
• The Area Representatives Council has reps from 42% of departments, representing 44% of all UWSA members.
• Membership share is up 10.5 percentage points over this time last year (to 62%), with 2,029 members out of 3,284 eligible staff.
• We struck a Contract Staff Working Group to identify ways we can better serve staff in temporary appointments.
• We have increased our collaborations across campus, including with the Office of Indigenous Relations, the EDI-R Office, Organizational & Human Development, HR, FAUW, CUPE, and Sustainable Transportation.

Our new look

Based on our strategic plan and member feedback, we undertook our first brand update since 2009, enlisting Ranni Branding and Marketing to deliver a new, professionally designed visual identity. With its signature triangle shape hinting at both a megaphone and the celebration emoji—and literally breaking through the barrier of the letter A—our new logo represents our work amplifying staff voices, celebrating members, and helping staff grow and thrive. We also have a new colour palette and shapes. The new look represents our intention to be strong, celebratory, and forward thinking in all that we do.

Our "your voice starts here" tagline remains the same. We heard the concept of "a staff voice" come up a lot in conversations with members and in our member survey, and it really is the essence of what we do.