CALA Hosts 1st Virtual AGM

On April 30th, 2020, CALA hosted its first virtual AGM.  CALA’s Board Chair, Jeff Zimmer, and Andrew Adams, CALA’s President and CEO welcomed over 120 attendees who logged in to hear updates and reflections on the past year at CALA.

Highlights for 2019 included the work that CALA has been doing to ensure its accredited laboratories meet the deadline for transition to the revised ISO/IEC 17025:2017 standard.  By the end of 2019, 63% of CALA-accredited laboratories had successfully transitioned to the revised standard.  During 2019, CALA has also been working towards its own evaluation to the revised ISO/IEC 17011:2017 standard.  This is the standard by which accreditation bodies (AB) like CALA must conform.  As of April 24, 2020, CALA was formally approved as conforming to the ISO/IEC 17011:2017 standard.

A recap on revenues and expenditures by Board Treasurer, Dalibor Ambrus, revealed total revenues for 2019 were $4.12M which was 1.5% lower than budget and 6.5% higher than fiscal 2018.  Also, in 2019, CALA accredited 9 new laboratories to the ISO/IEC 17025:2017 standard, and saw various increases in training metrics including a growth in the number of students, classes offered, and the number of international students.  Proficiency testing saw a slight increase in participation during the year.

In 2020, CALA will no longer be offering proficiency testing as part of its compliance to the ISO/IEC 17011 standard.  In order to meet the impartiality requirements of the standard, accreditation bodies cannot offer proficiency testing services.  This resulted in the creation of Proficiency Testing Canada Inc. (PTC), a separate and completely independent entity, with its own management, branding, and board of directors.

Towards the end of the meeting, both Mr. Zimmer and Mr. Adams recognized the many volunteers that, without whose contribution and dedication, would make CALA a very different kind of organization.  In particular one of CALA’s volunteer assessors, Dr. Mike Gao was recognized for his years of service, professionalism, and integrity, and became the recipient of the Serge Villard award. You can read more about the award and Dr. Gao in this announcement.

If you would like additional details, you can read about it in the 2019 CALA Annual Report found here.