Advocis’ 2025 board reflects commitment to governance reform

At Advocis’ 2024 annual general meeting (AGM) last summer, a member of the association, skeptical of a board with no new members, asked if the board would be providing a strategic vision.

What a difference a year makes.

Ahead of the 2025 AGM in June and for the first time in the association’s 119-year history, Advocis members were presented with vetted board candidates — seven candidates for five positions. As a result, the nine-person 2025 board has four new members in total and a new chairman in Curtis Kimpton (Kimpton was a board member previously). CEO Kelly Gorman, who was appointed last fall, has provided vision in the form of a multi-pronged business plan.

The updated board reflects Advocis’ commitment to strengthening governance, after the association operated at deficits in 2022 and 2023. Other governance changes related to the board include evaluations, training in financial oversight, leadership succession planning and strengthened mandates for key committees, such as the finance and audit committee.

“We are continuing the important work of implementing long-overdue governance reforms that will strengthen accountability,” said an association document on governance that profiled the vetted board candidates.

Since the association stabilized its finances as announced at last year’s AGM, the board had “lots of good conversations” about engaging members, and moving forward with transparency and changes in process and governance, said Al Jones, who returned as chairman in 2024. (Jones, now past chairman, was also chairman from 2008 to 2010 and a board member five years prior to that.)

“One of the best ways of engaging members is [providing] the opportunity to have a voice,” he said, referring to the recent vote on board membership.

In preparation, the association’s governance and nominations committees, along with the board, assessed the skills needed for a stronger board, Jones said, and a skills-and-experience matrix was developed. Now, when considering board candidates, “it’s not a tap on the shoulder,” he said.

When interviewed for this story, Kimpton said he brought to the board “a bit of that governance piece,” and that governance will be a key priority for him this year. He’s worked with other non-profits and charities “where we’ve gone through ups and downs, and I’ve led through those challenges,” he said.

Leadership requires asking the right questions, Kimpton said, as well as getting the board to look beyond the status quo of what’s been done year over year to “how do we change for the future and look to build across the country.”

When asked about his role in overseeing Advocis’ management, Kimpton said that, for any board, the “main focus is on our number one employee” — the CEO — “and making sure we monitor her,” following protocols. Gorman is “working hard” on the association’s business plan, he said, and he looks forward to the association accomplishing it.

A surplus in 2024

While cost-cutting drove the association’s 2024 results — staff compensation dropped 28% — professional and consulting fees increased by 25% to $2.5 million. “A lot of those external supports were … help for us to have a place to vet some of our thinking, so that we did solid work,” Jones said. The association posted a $1.8-million surplus for 2024.

Last year, Advocis also settled wrongful dismissal claims from former longtime CEO Greg Pollock and former chief operating officer Julie Martini, plus paid nearly $100,000 to settle a dispute with a vendor. Additional cases are ongoing.

The association is moving beyond “legacy issues,” Jones said, “so we can get to the work at hand,” including chapter structuring and attracting younger members. Advocis’ new emerging leaders committee, for example, will act an an advisory group and support membership growth.

To appeal to younger generations, “we have to be, as a board, exactly what our membership has asked for, and that is being open and transparent,” Kimpton said. He added that the profession overall needs to attract new advisors.

Along with reforming governance and creating a pipeline to the industry, Advocis’ business plan includes providing member services, increasing demand for the association’s credentials and advocacy.

Jones said the association will engage its “community connections” — Advocis’ corporate partners, including managing general agencies. “We’re moving in a positive direction, and we’re pulling them into the conversation,” he said.

Kimpton said he was “excited” about the association’s future, and that members are beginning to feel that way too.