3 minute read
ADDRESS FROM THE PRESIDENT
Tammy Morin Nakashima
ADDRESS FROM THE PRESIDENT Change
In 2015, Justin Trudeau campaigned declaring, “It’s time for a Change.”
News of every source exposes that the United States is enduring change. In BC for the first time in 65 years, our government faced an anomaly with the balance of power being wielded by a minority of only 3 seats. Quite the change. And Graduates of Cohort 8, Class of 2017, your lives are forever changed. Today you have become BC Notaries Public.
History now proclaims the record of your sacrifice and devotion and the collective investment by loved ones, friends, cohorts, and educators supporting and cheerleading you to realize your dream. You have a foundation of law, technique, business strategies, and practices. But clearly at this milestone, it is not that you have arrived, rather that the door called Change summons you to cross its threshold to define your own success.
As you walk through it, what awaits you?
Settled at your desk, you are poised to face the day. An elderly woman calls in the midst of your hectic conveyancing schedule explaining that next week, Thursday, she will be no more. She needs you to go to her home to take instructions to ensure her Will clearly records the gifts she wants given. She asks you to please help her with her final wishes. Do you dismiss her, presuming she’s lost capacity? Do you take the extra few minutes to explore the circumstances? What questions do you pose? What advice do you offer? You are the trusted advisor to every one of your clients. Do you have the time to follow through, start to finish?
Clients and others, too, will challenge you. You will be asked to compromise your standards—to take shortcuts. It is your steadfast discipline and integrity that will set you apart as the trusted professional you aspired and trained to be. At your own hand, your reputation is built. Notary Gordon Hepner’s 2016 address to his cohort bears repeating.
The words of Lieutenant General
David Lindsay Morrison, senior officer in the Australian Army, resonate with us: “The standard you walk past is the standard you accept.” Introduced to us by
Professor Ron Usher, those words nicely sum up the importance of the ethical attire we all wear and the moral courage and leadership expected of us. It also speaks to life itself. The standard you walk past is the standard you accept.
Joined today to a unique group of Professionals in Canada under the banner “Tradition of Trust,” remember your word is your bond. Proudly build your future on that foundation. Forge lifetime friendships. Be successful. Be profitable. Be a good leader. Be a good boss. You are a member of the BC Notaries who are recognized for providing more than 90 years of trusted legal services in this province. You have over 360 colleagues, so you are never alone.
Let me comment on that reallife story about the elderly woman. Because of Change, a conversation that would have never occurred 21 years ago took place. A woman plagued with unbearable suffering was able to exercise a measure of control. I met with my client and recorded her wishes. She was comforted to know her final affairs were in order. Her properties were conveyed to her heir before she passed. Her Will empowered her son to execute her final acts of kindness and selflessness. She was respected. She was grateful. She had peace. The work you do changes the lives of those around you.
I conclude with these words from Tom Brokaw.
You are educated.
Your certification is in your degree.
You may think of it as the ticket to the good life. Let me ask you to think of an alternative.
Think of it as your ticket to change the world. s
