Greetings CAPhO Members

I can hardly believe that Christmas is just around the corner and that we are already composing this December newsletter... and there is so much to tell you about!

We are moving forward with the development of a new strategic plan for CAPhO. The facilitated strategic planning session for the Executive Committee that was scheduled for November 2015 has been postponed until the end of January 2016. Expect an update after that session.

Results from the online Membership Survey have just been tabulated and sent to the CAPhO Executive for review. Currently, there are 308 CAPhO members and I am happy to report that we had 93 members take the time to respond to this online survey - that is a 30% response rate! After my first read of the survey results, I can tell you that membership responses show that you are reasonably satisfied with CAPhO. The survey results indicate that there are some specific areas on which CAPhO members think the Executive should focus moving forward. We will take your suggestions to the strategic planning session in January and our goal is to address your concerns within a strategic plan that we can act on.

This coming year, there is going to be a shift in the CAPhO Officers - I will be moving to the Past-President position, Mark Pasetka will become President and sadly... Jennifer Jupp will be leaving. The call for nominations for President-Elect has closed and an email vote to acclaim Philip Shaheen in this position has been sent to you. Look for the email with the subject line: "CAPhO President-Elect Election - Please Vote" in your inbox. Email me or any of the current CAPhO Officers if you have any questions or are interested in putting your name forward for other volunteer positions on the CAPhO Executive.

I would like to congratulate Tara Leslie and the CAPhO Education Committee for their excellent work organizing three educational webinars during 2015. If you did not have a chance to attend the webinars in real time, visit the CAPhO website, log in and view the webinars (go to the Education & resources tab) when you have time.

I would also like to applaud Jennifer Jupp, Chris Ralph and Coleen Schroeder for their hard work on the launch of the Fellow of CAPhO (FCAPhO) designation. FCAPhO was created to recognize pharmacy practitioners who excel in oncology pharmacy practice in Canada. Details are on the CAPhO website so please take a look and consider applying! (The deadline to apply is Monday, January 18, 2016.)

Thanks for the work by the CAPhO Awards Committee, led by Coleen Schroeder. We have some new opportunities for grants and awards available for CAPhO members. I urge you to apply for these grants and to take the time to nominate co-workers for the awards that CAPhO offers.

The Communications Committee continues to keep us updated via Twitter, Facebook, the Compass and other social media - great work Chris and team!

The CAPhO Executive with the support of Sea to Sky has also been hard at work behind the scenes collaborating with other organizations such as CAPCA, the University of Toronto and CSHP on topics such as oncology pharmacy education, credentialing and patient safety with oral chemotherapy. We should have more specific information to announce in early 2016! Be sure to keep reading the CAPhO eNewsletter to stay informed.

Finally, I wish you all a healthy, happy, holiday season that you are able to celebrate surrounded by family and friends.