| 
| 
| 
Diana Ferguson
Diana Ferguson accepts the Chairman's Award at the 2003 CPA National Conference in Halifax. The Award was renamed in her honour at this Conference to coincide with the CPA's 25th Aniversary and is now known as the Diana Ferguson Award. |
Founder of the CPA Highlights on the Formation of the CPA "Though my connections, I got a hold of a mock-up of the Record of Employment (ROE) from the Canadian Employment and Immigration Commission (CEIC). I thought it was going to be a real nightmare for payroll professionals to administer. I sent the mock-up to some of my clients and several called and wrote to express their concerns. CEIC found out what I had done and came to talk to me. I told them they should be talking to other payroll people besides me," said Diana when discussing the catalyst that formed the CPA. Diana decided to tell Ottawa how payroll professionals felt. She phoned a cross-section of her payroll clients and invited them to lunch in August of 1978. "The first half of the meeting we talked to the CEIC about how to fix the ROE and the rest of the time about setting up an association." With the signatures of payroll colleagues Roy Middleton, Estelle Veroni, and Harry Heywood, the CPA was incorporated on December 5, 1978. One of the first tasks of the newly-minted CPA was to organize a half-day seminar on the new ROE. It was supposed to come into effect January 1, 1979. "We decided to hold the seminar and use it to raise the profile of our new association with potential members. We sent out brochures to 1,000 subscribers of the Canadian Payroll Manual and another 5,000 companies in southern Ontario with more than 100 employees," said Ferguson. "Within five days of the mail out, we had already received 200 confirmations, the maximum number we could accommodate. A week later, we had another 200 who wanted to come. Fortunately, we were able to schedule another session the day after the first one, but we still had to turn away 300 people. None of us had done anything like this before, but it worked." "I think we just hit a chord at the time. Before starting Berwick Ferguson, I used to work in payroll and for me, and a lot of other people, it was more than just a job," Ferguson said. "The first year, I ran things pretty much like a dictator. Going from zero members to more than 900 over a short span meant we did a lot of things quickly." Ferguson said the initial Toronto workshop was followed in the fall of 1979 by a cross-country tour on federal source deductions. She moderated the sessions along with CEIC and Revenue Canada representatives. "The six-city tour drew 821 people and netted about $100,000 for the CPA after expenses. That put the Association on a solid financial footing." Diana's whirlwind two-year tour as the CPA's first volunteer president ended with an appropriate parting gift from the Board of Directors: a set of luggage. She was made an Honorary Life Member at the Association's third National Conference in 1985. Other Accomplishments
Awards
|
