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Welcome New Member Stephen Parkes!

Stephen Parkes, Small Business Coach

Stephen Parkes, Start-up Business Coaching and Mentoring CEO of StephenParkes.ca., a local start-up-business coaching business located in Sherwood Park. Stephen has over 30 years of experience working in several industries in roles from mechanical engineering, manufacturing operations, sales and product support and technical service. He has been teaching and training internal staff and external customers about products and services for each company.

Stephen has been involved in business operations from the shop floor to roles of International Business Development Manager to Managing Director, to now CEO. With a history of supporting business development and growth Stephen has learned many aspects of business from start-up to development and growth over many years.

With all of this knowledge in hand he started his own businesses and applied what he has learned is successful. Stephen now helps guide new entrepreneurs, young to old, in starting new businesses from scratch up to about year three. He looks forward to helping many new and current businesses success in today’s economic circumstances.

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Wanted: Volunteer CEO

Volunteer Position

Are you looking for a way to:

  • make a difference in the business world?
  • apply your leadership experience in new ways?
  • work with a team with a visionary mission?

This is an opportunity to lead a cooperative in building a variety of services for business members. The successful CEO will have an opportunity to develop the resources necessary to generate a salary or other compensation by the end of the term.

Wayfinders Business Co-operative (WBC), a start-up social enterprise, is seeking a committed volunteer to work as a Chief Executive Officer. Wayfinders is incorporated as a for-profit co-operative in Alberta, and is ramping up to serve thousands of Members across Alberta and beyond. We are building a platform service co-op to support small business Members. Members are small business owners, self-employed, freelancers and gig workers. It is expected that under the CEO’s supervision Wayfinders Business Co-operative will reach a critical take off in a matter of months.

Description:

This is an unpaid position for a six month term with a possibility of an extension. The incumbent will assist with strategic planning and implementation of a vision and mission, including directing business planning, financing, marketing, team building and delegation to volunteers.

Skills and Experience:

We require an experienced corporate leader with well developed skills:

  • strategic thinking
  • communications
  • team leadership
  • financial management
  • service programming
  • project management

Other qualifications:

  • results-oriented
  • sensitive to requirements of both applied technology development and human services
  • knowledge of co-op governance would be a bonus
  • experience taking a start-up to scale up would be desirable

Work Conditions:

  • The CEO will report to the Board of Directors.
  • Some evening work will be required.

Industry: Co-op sector, Information Technology, Community Economic Development

Employment Type: Volunteer 

Job Functions:

The CEO is responsible for  leading:

  • strategic planning in alignment with the vision and mission
  • directing business planning
  • locating and securing financing
  • directing marketing and promotion
  • team building, and
  • delegating to volunteers

Compensation:

This is an unpaid position until there is a sufficient revenue stream. Wayfinders uses a subscription-based revenue model.

The main reward offered at this time is:

  • Experience satisfaction of working with dedicated people to help create a positive business environment
  • Learn new ways to apply yourself and your talents
  • The feeling of making a real difference in the world

Contact

Randal Adcock, President

780-993-2467

randaladcock@gmail.com

Please note that only those applicants’ skills and experience align with the role’s requirement will be contacted. 

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2020 Hindsight

Hindsight is not about regret. Its about lessons learned from experience that we can carry forward with insight to foresight. Its a kind of intelligence.

Every decision is a return-on-investment decision. The outcomes of your decided actions have to be worth more than the inputs. At Wayfinders we have made considerable progress as we develop, incubate and test a number of processes. Our outcomes are laying the foundations for a major shift in economics and business models.

2020 Gratitude

Gratitude was the theme of our successful Seasonal Celebration on December 14th. It continues in this year end review.

We now have our Founding Fifty! Thanks to Leo Campos for recruiting most of you from his vast social network!

Thanks to David Boroditsky of Arrai Innovations, for donating a number of computers that we can use as servers for our platform!

Thanks to Our Many Volunteers

Wayfinders has been almost completely dependent on the spirit of volunteerism. As you can see, some people wear multiple hats. If you’re not already working with us, we encourage you to get involved one way or another and apply your experience and expertise to meet our many needs.

Board of Directors

Thanks to the leadership provided by our board we are developing and implementing strategies!

  • Klaas Rodenburg, Vice Chair (past)
  • Janet Kluthe, Director (past)
  • Litzy Baeza, Director
  • WIlliam Fritzberg, Director
  • Darryl Heuman, Secretary
  • Randal Adcock, Chair, Treasurer

We continue to need directors on our board. In particular, we need people with backgrounds and interests in business administration, finance, accounting, fund-raising and marketing. Co-op board governance training is available. Please let us know if you are interested.

IT Team

There is a lot of IT work being done quietly on a weekly basis. The IT Team is responsible for defining our Members’ software needs, finding open source software that we can use, custom programming, testing, documenting and maintaining the software installations. Now that we have hardware the Team is also working on setting up the hardware and operating systems. We also have a special thank you to Dave Yadallee, of NetKnow, for accommodating our yet-to-launch “wayfinders.coop” domain name.

Thank you to our regular IT Team members:

  • Ye Liu, Web Designer
  • Shun Li, Web Designer, Programmer
  • Jessica Manirakoze, Web Designer, Programmer
  • Alain Katihabwa, System Administrator
  • Veronica Olkotun, Web Designer, Project Manager
  • Bratatti Bhattacharya, Quality Assurance, Business Analysis
  • Linshia Baby, Project Management
  • Preet Grewal, Business Analyst
  • Yogesh Patel, Programmer, Business Intelligence
  • Peyman Hessari, Business Intelligence
  • Liam Manese, System Administrator
  • Carlos Campos, Business Intelligence
  • Jenny Lucas, Lead Business Analyst
  • Casey Strong, Lead Programmer
  • Michael Boroditsky, Project Manager
  • Darryl Heuman, Chief Technology Officer
  • Randal Adcock, Chief Innovation Officer

Finance Team

The Finance Team is responsible for overseeing the budget, bookkeeping, and production of financial statements. We could use additional financial expertise, especially in financial planning and funding proposals, including crowdfunding campaigns.

  • Kirsha Campbell, CPA
  • Evelinne Teichgraber
  • Randal Adcock, Treasurer

Membership Team

Our new Membership Team has been working on a subscription model for online services as well as our New Member Onboarding package/program. The Team is planning more videoconference events and activities, similar to the Cafe. This may include business coaching, webinars and maybe even a symposium on the future of work. Let us know how you would like to be involved. You should expect to see a Member survey very soon.

The Member onboarding package will help new Members fully navigate the services and the co-op governance system, to receive full membership benefits.

Thank you to:

  • William Fritzberg
  • Klaas Rodenburg
  • Litzy Baeza
  • Jenny Lucas
  • Preet Grewal
  • Katrina Ingram

We also need people with experience in social media management, hosting online events, human resource management and crowdfunding campaigns.

2020 Events

This year we set up a series of Cafes to connect with various thought leaders and hot topics. We are grateful for our guests’ contributions to help grasp important issues and build greater competence:

  • Jenny Jones, Mental Health & Wellness in Stressful Times
  • Mark Anielski, Economics of Happiness and Well-being
  • Amanda Knight, Leadership Post Covid-19 & the New Normal
  • Beth Sanders, Building Healthy & Authentic Communities
  • David Dodge, The Future of Edmonton’s Environmental & Economic Transformation
  • Laura Cunningham-Shpeley, Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues
  • Hazel Corcoran, Co-ops for the New Normal
  • Litzy Beaza, Tapping into Cross-Cultural Intelligence in these Global Times)
  • Melissa Halama, Mental Health and Covid Fatigue
  • Louis Grenier, Why Co-operative Advantage?
  • Hussam Tungekar, Starting a Business During the Pandemic

Creative Cluster and the Impact Series

Leo invited a number of “creative types” among Wayfinders to form a creative cluster. Starting  December 2019, Leo, Paul Cheung and Randal  put together a short series of interviews with local community leaders. These can be viewed here.  Thanks go to our guests:

  • Doug Piquette , Edmonton Regional Immigrant Employment Council
  • Leo Wong, MacEwan Innovation Institute
  • Barbara McKenzie, The Business Link, and
  • Martin Garber-Conrad, Edmonton Community Foundation

Recently Wayfinder Paul Cheung has been hard at work putting together a series of podcast interviews with Members. You can look forward to meeting these Members and getting to know their businesses in this series with the working title Marketplace. Maybe you would like Paul to feature your business.

Software as a Service

When we started our current websites, none of us knew how to create a WordPress website. Our fantastic IT Team made a lot of progress this year. We developed and posted a very good landing page for visitors, and working prototype for a Wayfinders community site. We also have new prototypes for a job board and crowdfunding sites. These help us to understand how these services work so we can develop better integrated services using our new web framework.

With the addition of volunteer Contributors Michael Boroditsky and Casey Strong, we have adopted the site development framework called Django, which is written in the programming language of Python. This framework will allow us to develop our complex platform using a common user interface that precisely meets our Member requirements. The result will seem like a single management console for each of our Members.

We are developing the following software applications on this platform:

  • Member directory
  • Bulletin Board (announcements)
  • Time management (calendar)
  • Value management ( workflow, finance, social benefits and maybe barter)
  • Business match-making (and gig job board)
  • Discussion forum (social media)
  • Event management
  • Videoconferencing
  • and more

Summary

Wayfinders is developing its management capacity. We are using a variety of tools such as Slack, Basecamp, Zoom, and project management, and gaining expertise in their use. Over this coming year we will migrate that activity to our own integrated cloud platform.

As volunteers working on teams we are creating our own communities. The best rewards of volunteering are the sense of belonging and the sense of contributing something of value that is appreciated. Isn’t that what a business community is all about?

Beyond these immediate benefits, Wayfinders is building a unique platform to support small business management so our Members and future Members will be able to focus on what they do best and depend on each others’ complementary skills, talents and interests. Hopefully we will be able to resume in-person meetings and networking sometime in 2021.

Best wishes for a successful 2021!

  • Randal Adcock
  • President
  • Wayfinders Business Co-operative

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Welcome New Member Dean Heuman

Principal and Senior Strategist Focus Communications

Dean is co-owner/operator at Focus Communications along with his wife Sue Heuman.

Focus Communications tells unforgettable stories that connect with audiences and customers. We imagine, write, message, design, plan, and promote. We stage magical events that improve lives. We listen and engage communities to lead citizens through change. We have the scope of a large agency, and the spirit and heart of a small one.

Focus Communications offers customized services that start with strategy and mix marketing, communications, and PR. We engage audiences, stage events, and attract attention through traditional and digital marketing.

Visit us at: www.focuscom.ca

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Welcome New Member: Mark Botkin

Mark was born in Saskatchewan on a small farm where he learned the value of community engagement & support. At the University of Saskatchewan he became involved with the community that formed from the student body where he developed life-long personal & professional connections. Among other things, Mark worked at the University radio station and graduated with an advanced degree in biochemistry. He then moved to Edmonton where he worked at the University of Alberta in an elite selection of public|private labs, Including the J.S. McEachern Canadian Cancer Society labs, the Mike James X-ray crystallography lab, and ChembioMed Ltd, a private biomedical start up formed on Campus.

Mark’s resume is long and complex, but one of the early highlights was Myrias Research Corporation, a company started by one of his long term colleagues where they built the world’s first parallel supercomputer and brought millions of investment dollars into Alberta, mostly from U.S. sources. Mark has worked in a number of exiting and innovative technology start-ups and has considerable experience attacking large and difficult problems with software, firmware, and computer hardware. He also has something of a flair for mechanical design. Much of his work has been in the leading edge of various technological niches.  

Currently he is trying to break into the construction industry bubble with building envelope manufacturing productivity software. This software was used to build the iconic Calgary Climbing Center’s facility in Canada Olympic Park in Calgary, and was the subject of a nomination for a 2020 CanBIM Innovation award. In a completely unrelated market, Mark is also trying to expand the reach of the bicycle, especially ebikes, to include a much larger segment of the population, by making them more comfortable, using a seat design that he holds a patent on.  His preliminary reading about Wayfinders Business Cooperative suggests it holds opportunities to connect with like-minded people in Alberta and possibly gain access to resources that are crucial to the continued success of his life-mission. Mark also wants to see if there are ways he can give back, with a view to strengthening the Alberta Economy and establishing a non-resource based life for its citizens.

– Welcome to WBC Mark!

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Welcome New Member: Jenny Lucas

Jenny is passionate about technology. She started by learning Basic and Assembler computer languages in the early 80’s. Currently she has experience in about 25 different computer languages, and she has experience with infrastructure: networking, servers, business continuity, and more. Over the years, she has discovered her greatest skill: to be able to communicate with both technical and non-technical people — a translator, teacher, and a geek. I can help solve your business needs and do the research and assessment of various software tools. I can gather your IT needs, requirements and any constraints to provide the best options possible.

Jenny Lucas
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Welcome New Member: Mila Sokolyanskaya

Mila Sokolyanskaya is a Career Development Professional with over four years of experience helping immigrants find their new voices in Canada. Mila is an immigrant herself originally from Russia. She came to Canada in 2012 as an international student and got her Human Resources Management Certificate. She is a human-centred design supporter when it comes to training or change management, and also she is a Diversity and Inclusion Advocate. Mila currently runs an Immigrant Youth Engagement Program at Edmonton Mennonite Centre for Newcomers.

Mila joined Wayfinders Business Co-Operative to advocate for diversity and assist with developing organizational long-term goals.

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Welcome New Member Katrina Ingram

Katrina Ingram @ Ethically Aligned AI

What we do: we help organizations build certifiably better AI systems and help consumers to make sound choices in selecting trustworthy AI-enabled products or services.

About: Katrina Ingram is a seasoned executive with over two decades of experience running both not for profit and corporate organizations. She worked at her first technology start-up during the late 90s dot com boom. Katrina left the technology sector for the media industry, first joining the CBC and then CKUA Radio Network, where she served as the Chief Operating Officer. Since leaving CKUA Radio in 2017, Katrina has helped establish the Alberta Podcast Network, consulted with TEC Edmonton’s health accelerator, led a cannabis start-up in the HR recruitment space, launched an audio content production company and completed her master’s degree.

Ethically Aligned AI draws upon her diverse background in senior leadership and operational roles in media, marketing|technology, as well as her education in artificial intelligence and ethics.

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Welcome New Member: Alain Katihabwa

About Alain | I believe that every human being deserves living in a community where he|she is fulfilled at all levels. Building such communities requires values like empathy, trust, compassion, culture and skills sharing, helping each other, …  I hold and cherish these values and have found so does Wayfinders Business Cooperative! I strongly believe that I can be part of building a community of trust such as WBC. Professionally; I have spent many years working in (IT) Information Technology in the private sector and international companies. I am looking at new opportunities to be part of intercultural working teams as well. Happy to join the Wayfinders community and to contribute my efforts with other members to foster a culture of success and solidarity.

Alain has been a valued Contributor to Wayfinders IT Team since June, 2019.

T: 587.921.8709 | e: katihabwaalain@gmail.com

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WELCOME NEW MEMBER: Claude de Blois

Mr. de Blois travelled 2000 km to Edmonton from out east by recumbent bicycle to get a GMCC Accounting diploma – a number of years ago – a diploma he has not used much since he started working as a transit operator for the City for the past 15 years.

What can Claude offer at this time to WBC community? In his words: I play flute (by ear); I am an excellent final proof-reader, meaning I can edit out or otherwise ward off embarrassing typos or unintelligible dreck and turn it into something the average reader can understand; I can translate from French to English fairly well; I can do some small accounting or tax related projects. I’m glad to be joining WBC because I want to do business and hang out with other progressive fellow-travellers. “We’re all just dancing as fast as we can” – Shirley MacLaine

PS. We welcome Claude de Blois into our evolutionary growing community & wish him a productive and successful journey with Wayfinders Business Cooperative!

| Email: cdbflute@gmail.com | Mobile: 780.200.8823 

Claude De Blois