Dave Mowat's Blog

my very own endowment fund? wow guys

Dave Mowat — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 10:14:38 -0700

After seven years at the helm of Vancity, you’d think I’d know my co-workers by now. Yet, the folks at the credit union have still managed to wow me.

It seems they’ve set up an endowment fund at the Vancity Community Foundation, seeded it with $25,000 in startup funds, and named it after me.

The Dave Mowat Climate Change Endowment Fund will fund a variety of climate change projects with the proceeds of the fund, currently about $1,250 a year. The great thing about endowments is they live in perpetuity; the larger the seed money, the more that is distributed as grants every year. And the original $25,000 won’t be touched.

While I’m not sure that naming it after me was entirely necessary (though I appreciate the sentiment) what I do know is that this is a great way to fund to climate change projects and keep a financial gift working for years.

I would love to see the fund grow over time, and anyone can donate. Just follow the instructions at the link here.

The environment and I appreciate anything you can do.

Here in Edmonton, I’m enjoying myself immensely and while things are different, I smile often at the similarities between Vancity and ATB. Great people and a deep-rooted will to get the best deal for the customer are the two biggest.

And the added plus of living in Edmonton is that the ski season could start any time!

Dave

Dave’s last blog . . .

Dave Mowat — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 13:35:45 -0700

It’s my last week as Vancity CEO and I can’t help but feel nostalgic. How do I capture seven incredible years of working in a great organization? Vancity’s Statement of Values and Commitments, The Big Switcheroo, the Vancity story and “An Inconvenient Truth” – just a few of the my big moments. And as for An Inconvenient Truth, who are we as a financial institution to talk about climate change? Actually, I can’t think of anyone better—and it brings me full circle to what I meant seven years ago when I committed Vancity to effect positive change in our communities. I have been completely taken by surprise at the way that you – on ChangeEverything - have embraced this message. Thank you for showing the there’s a convergence of thinking about what a financial institution and a community can do when they work together to effect positive change. I leave knowing that Vancity is in good hands. I’ll keep my ears open across the Rockies as I continue to hear all the good things that Vancity and ChangeEverything are up to in the days ahead.

still spreading the good word

Dave Mowat — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 09:50:02 -0700

Back online. Last week did the 'Truth' show for 200 business folks at the Vancouver Board of Trade. I have another show today for 400 and a few more coming up in May and early June. And speaking of spreading the good word, I just handed over a prize to EnviroWoman, the winner of ChangeEverything’s New Year’s Resolution’s contest.

EnviroWoman has given up plastics for a year. Big deal, right? Yeah, well, try going without deodorant, shampoo and basic food items and see how you like it. I know it would be a tough one for me. We even had to change the prize – a mytreat VISA gift card – as it’s made of – you guessed it – plastic. Maybe I should talk to VISA about making our gift cards biodegradable . . . Somewhere in our VISA marketing department someone has stopped taking my calls . . .

bittersweet news

Dave Mowat — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 14:32:19 -0700

I’m in London, England at a conference, but I wanted to check in now that it has been announced I'm leaving Vancity. I'm heading back to Alberta to head up ATB Financial. It's a great opportunity with a huge potential for growth. It's been an incredibly tough decision and I didn't like being away when the news was released, but the timing had to accommodate the approval process of ATB Financial. I've had an amazing 7 years, but I really feel that the organization is in great hands and well set up for future success and to see me to move on. I'm at Vancity till June and will continue with my "An Inconvenient Truth" work and and will keep sharing my journey.

Our member presentation

Dave Mowat — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 13:44:24 -0800

My nerves must have paid off. Things went smoother last night at the premiere of our Can you handle the Truth about climate change? at the Ridge Theatre.

The rain and traffic were a challenge, so I appreciate everyone persevering to make it out and I look forward to their feedback.

All in all, I think it wasn’t bad for a show we cobbled together in a few weeks, and I’m getting more comfortable with the content. Though we started a bit late, I watched the clock so we could get to questions.

Other than a few minor fact flubs, (it’s degrees, not percent, Dave! That’s the banker in me) I didn’t stumble and we had no techno glitches (much to the disappointment of the CBC reporter who wanted to see some rougher edges).

The “time to take action” seemed to go over well. Thanks Pembina Institute. Check out onelesstonne.ca. And thanks to Ian Bruce of the Suzuki Foundation for helping me answer audience questions.

At this point, I’m not trying to change the world (as if I could), but to get people thinking about what role they can play in solving this problem. If one person learned one thing last night then I did my job. At least my mom said she did. Thanks mom.

Off on March Break. Back at it later in the month.

the first show

Dave Mowat — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 09:13:48 -0800

So, I did my first show; for Vancity employees. It was a perfect audience to work out the glitches and nerves. The good news is that overall it was pretty good. Obviously I have some work to do. I went over time, which is something I have to watch out for and we had a techno hiccup that threw me a bit. (It involved a slide featuring a photoshopped picture of me with Cameron Diaz. A practical joke from my "trusty" team. Enough said).

All in all, for a first run, it wasn’t bad. Many staff said they learned something. A few said they were inspired (inspired – wow!). A few called to correct my facts. It’s interesting, but even though I pretty much do public speaking for a living in my job as CEO, I don’t usually talk for this long a period of time. I must confess I got a little nervous.

But nerves are good though, right? Keeps you on your toes.

Let’s hope the nerves are working in my favour tonight when I do it all over again for Vancity members at the Ridge Theatre.

Winning the Oscar...

Dave Mowat — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 13:52:17 -0800

So it was a big night for An Inconvenient Truth at this year’s Academy Awards. Gore got a few trips to the podium, first as a presenter and then when “An Inconvenient Truth” got its statue for best documentary. As for the best song win, well, I don’t know about you, but I must say I didn’t see that one coming. Overall, with billions watching around the world you couldn’t ask for a better way to get the climate change crisis message out, except for maybe the Superbowl. Well, maybe next year.

As for me doing my part to get the message out, our first Truth presentation is for staff on March 7 at the Vancity Theatre. We had our first rehearsal last week and we have another one this week.

We are also filling seats for our member event set for March 8 at the Ridge Theatre. I keep looking at the calendar wondering why this has to be the shortest month of the year. Hey, if they can move up Daylight Savings time, surely they can tack a few days on to the end of February so I have more time to practice.

One of our biggest challenges has been trying to find ways to cut Gore’s presentation to add a “solutions” section. So many have seen the film. They don’t need to be convinced that climate change is real. They want tips on what they can do about it. To build an “action” section of the presentation we needed to trim the Gore slide show in half . . . but, where to start? How do you cut something years in the making?

Then help came from another Gore-trained presenter here in BC. His name is Jim Stephenson and he’s a retired UBC economics professor who went to the Gore boot camp in December, a month before me. We were all given mentors – others who had been through the training. Jim’s turned out to be very hands-on, providing him with a 40 min-version of the show.

I’m told his mentor is now delivering this presentation three times a week and has done it at least 40 times where she lives in the Southern coast of the US. Jim has done it 10 times, mostly for small groups here in the Vancouver area. I’m grateful to him for sharing his work. As a banker, I have a particular fondness for operational efficiency.

So, as we enter into the last few weeks before the show all I can do is hope that I do Jim - and Gore for that matter - justice. I’m currently working on memorizing the script so I can speak directly to the slides and be free to walk around and engage the audience. This will take time. We’re lucky enough to have an expert from the David Suzuki Foundation on hand at the presentation to answer scientific questions that go beyond my ability to answer.

Any questions they can’t answer, we will work to get answers to and respond by email. My challenge right now is keeping the show to a tight schedule to allow for questions to the Suzuki folks. I don’t want to run out of time before we can get to them.

Jim will be attending my first show. He has offered to rescue me if needed. Let’s just hope I don’t have to take him up on that one . . .

I’m looking forward to spreading the word

Dave Mowat — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 14:28:03 -0800

After seeing “An Inconvenient Truth”, I was chatting with my friend Robert Safrata about the film and its impact on me; people I know and love – people I can put my arms around -- will be deeply impacted by global warming. Did I really want my grandchildren and their grandchildren wondering why my generation knew about this problem and did nothing? Suddenly, I felt like I should do something. I just wasn’t sure what I could do.

Robert owns an environmentally friendly courier company here in town, and he always seems to have his finger on the pulse of these things. He told me about the Al Gore boot camp program where people were getting trained on doing the presentation, and it just made sense for me to take part.

So, I applied to Gore’s training program, and, happily, I was accepted and suddenly there I was the day after New Years, heading to Nashville. The program trained 1,000 people to take Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” message into the world. There were a few hundred in my session, including scientists, environmentalists, politicians - an equal split between Republican and Democrats, as well as a few celebrities. In fact, Cameron Diaz was in my group, and she’s one smart cookie. She doesn’t look like she does in the movies. (I hope she doesn’t read this.)

Anyway, when I got back, I had a chat with a Globe and Mail reporter, and to my surprise the story hit the front page of the Report on Business section. This was starting to feel big. As my take away from the Gore program, I was expected to “Pay it forward” and spread the message by delivering the Gore presentation at least ten times in my community. I was worried that I’d have trouble filling ten slots. People saw the movie, did they want to see my giving the same presentation? I wasn’t entirely sure.

Let’s just say, I don’t think that’s going to be a problem. Since I did a few interviews in January, we’ve been flooded with requests for me to do the show. That’s a relief.I haven’t felt this popular since my fraternity days at UBC.

Since climate change has emerged as a major global issue and recent reports prove the science is no longer in doubt, everyone is looking for what they can do top help out. I’m now preparing my presentation, condensed the Gore show (my communications expert is calling this section Core Gore) and included a meaty “solutions” section that will focus on what people can do to take action against climate change. The nice thing about being at Vancity is that we have a lot of solutions a lot of other organizations probably don’t have.

I’m looking forward to spreading the word, especially to business audiences, who may now be waking up to the real threat of climate change and wondering what they should be doing about it.

We have our first show for our employees on March 7 and for our members on March 8. I’m not afraid to say I’m nervous. I’m not Gore. I’m not a scientist. I’m just a business leader and a person who has access to a lot of people and an opportunity to make people think and maybe even change their behaviour. But I’m preparing, and I’m rehearsing and I’m getting ready to take on this huge challenge I signed up for.

Not to go over the top here, but I do feel like we’re all standing on the edge of a new day here and are looking out at what could be a new future. The decisions we make over the next few months and years can determine how future generations live. It can change history . . .

Best not get ahead of myself here. First, let’s get through a rehearsal. More later . . .

The day the penny dropped

Dave Mowat — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 12:19:54 -0800

There are things I depend on in this life – Sunday night dinners with the family; that the Rolling Stones will live to tour again, and that my grandkids can ski the Helm Glacier.

If you had asked me years ago if I thought global warming or climate change was real I would have said “sure”. If you had asked me “when?” I probably would have guessed a hundred, maybe a thousand years from now. I mean, the Helm Glacier isn’t going anywhere soon, right?

Two years ago when Vancity started towards going carbon neutral I put my hand up to go on a program to lower my emissions myself to set a good example. I’ll admit at first I wasn’t thrilled about the idea of trading my Audi in for a hybrid Accord. It’s interesting, but Hybrids have more power than you think, though the silence when you stop in traffic takes some getting used to.

The things I did to lower my emissions – the carpooling, the teleconferencing to reducing my business travel, the small things around the office – the double siding of paper, the turning off the lights and computer monitors, the banning of paper coffee cups, were not always second nature for me. I didn’t always get why I was doing these small things. How could they have any real impact? But I started seeing the impact they have, and over time they became part of my lifestyle.

As a banker and a business leader, I’m convinced that “green” business is good business, but, personally, I’m going to be brutally frank here –the personal reason for being environmentally conscious wasn’t exactly sinking in. The parts were all there, but they weren’t quite fitting together to form a complete picture for me.

Then I watched “An Inconvenient Truth” and the penny dropped. Big time. It was Gore’s message – calm, rational, unhysterical - that broke though. The proof was in the show and it was undeniable. It was the timeframe, though, that rattled me most. Forget a hundred or a thousand years from now. Climate change is happening now.