Amber McMillan is Executive Director and Chief Visionary Officer at the Rogers Society
VICTORIA – When Rogers Society was founded 33 years ago, its goal was to build the community around Rogers Elementary School.
In providing childcare and children’s camp services for over 31 years, their mission was well accomplished. Now the organization has expanded its scope by becoming the largest Responsible Adult Certification provider in BC, and they’re now also offering Strategic Planning programs to businesses and non-profit organizations.
“We have transformed from our core values and purpose to become something very different,” notes Executive Director and Chief Visionary Officer Amber McMillan, PMP AHPP OTF PROSCI CVA EQP NLP MCPC. “We used to have a community centre and within it there were multiple childcare programs and partnerships that provided community impact. Now, we serve the same industry on-line with education and certification.”
“In addition to being online educators, our offices are mostly virtual, offering support for not for profit and profit organizations in strategic planning support, professional coaching and leadership training. Although our trajectory seems to be very different, we remain focused on having social impact through community contact.”
As well as serving as Executive Director at Rogers, Amber also works as an Executive Educator at universities across Canada, including our very own University of Victoria. Her focus is on developing project management skills to better empower students in managing projects, streamlining ways of working and leveraging knowledge and technology. She is also an Impact Coach, supporting professionals to achieve their own passionate pursuits.
“At Rogers Society, we can help organizations and professionals through uncertainty, as we did, and share how to hold your head up in the midst of relentless change. Our goal is to share our own learnings while providing customized support.”
Strategic Planning packages include facilitation services and coaching, as does their Leadership Training.
They host the Responsible Adult Certification through their online platform where people involved in the childcare industry can gain insightful training that prepares them for working with children. RA certification is required to enable people to work with children throughout the province.
“Early in the pandemic, with the need for our own staff to be trained as RA’s, we saw the need for an asynchronous option so we went on-line and met that need. That initial course, built by industry professionals and with regular updates, remains today,” she says. “We didn’t set out to become online educators but we saw the need, felt our own organizational change coming and forged a new path. It was through our own strategic planning, that we transformed our organization and we now offer that support for others.
“With our Strategic Planning programs, we stand in the gap to help others, who are experiencing rapid change as we did.” Amber notes, adding they have a team of professional contractors enlisted to help deliver services to their clients.
She points out their offerings stand out because of their uniqueness.
“We provide these services today because we had to strategize ourselves to thrive through change,” she states. “Things don’t always go the way you plan, and you have to be agile. We are learning it ourselves, and our goal is to share that learning to positively impact others.”
“In almost every industry, the pace of change is high, so to survive and thrive, organizations and leaders need to find customized, experienced support. There are a lot of disillusioned professionals out there, and we’re here to help.”
rogerssociety.org
amber@rogerssociety.org
