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Article

CAP Foundation

Title

CAP Foundation – Board Of Directors’ Annual Report 2016

Abstract

The 2016 calendar year was the CAP Foundation’s third full year of operation. It was a year of intense activity in which the Foundation Board launched its first major fundraising campaign, oversaw delivery of its existing suite of activities to enhance and enrich physics education in Canada, and laid the groundwork for new educational initiatives in support of the CAP’s strategic plan. During 2016, the CAPF Board met 19 times. Two of these meetings (at Congress in Ottawa and late September in Toronto) were attended in person by many Board members and the rest of the meetings were carried out by teleconference.

Based on planning undertaken in 2015, the CAPF launched its Ignite the Spark fundraising campaign just before the 2016 CAP Congress. The impact of this campaign was substantially increased by the agreement of the Carswell Family Foundation to match donations to the CAPF (up to $50,000) made in response to this campaign. The CAPF Board is deeply grateful for advice and support from Dr. Alan Carswell that made this result possible. The initial success of the Ignite the Spark campaign has provided the CAPF with resources to pursue new initiatives to help Canadian students understand the impact of an education in physics and to enrich the experience of that education. As of early 2017, implementation of some new initiatives, including a poster distributed to all Canadian high schools, a series of short videos profiling physicists pursuing non-academic career opportunities, and the organization of student-industry connector events is already underway.

The CAPF Board is grateful to the many donors who, in 2016, supported the educational activities of the CAPF through donations at the time of their CAP membership renewals or in direct response to the Ignite the Sparkcampaign appeal. The CAPF Board is particularly grateful to Dr. Alan Carswell and the Carswell Family Foundation for their encouragement and remarkably generous support in this, the third full year of CAPF operation. The activities supported by the CAPF are only possible because of the substantial contributions of time and effort by individual CAP members, the CAP Board, and CAP staff members and the CAPF Board is deeply grateful for those contributions. The activities supported by the CAPF inspire students and educators to pursue excellence in physics teaching, learning and discovery. Students and educators alike are inspired and encouraged by the activities of CAPF to reach high goals in the research, teaching, and learning of physics in Canada. Ultimately, the objective of the CAPF is to contribute to Canada’s capacity to meet future challenges by animating the next generation of physicists.