The unusual involvement of the National Executive Committee in the organization of this year's convention was in itself an opportunity to realize that we could greatly standardize the organization of the Society's main annual event by defining a timetable with its critical steps for organizing a convention.  Next year's virtual congress could help establishing the procedure for building the core scientific program of the congress, i.e. its parallel scientific sessions.  I hope that my experience as co-leader of this year's scientific program and my ideas can help this team.

A priority Shannon and I share for CMOS is to develop greater member engagement to help recruit and mentor our young scientists, but also for our Society to become more and more a public voice for atmospheric and oceanic science and its multidisciplinary connections.  This year, I had to put aside the writing of the Newsletter “the Wave/l’Onde” due to my heavy involvement in the organization of this year's congress and my other occupations, but I intend to come back to it as I still firmly believe in the importance of communicating among ourselves our efforts, our successes, our actions that move us forward in our 3 strategic objectives (governance and membership and especially the members as such, scientific excellence, and education and outreach.

In an era when the impacts of climate change are no longer future, but real and lived, and of the great misinformation on the internet and social media, can we envision a greater role for our Society as expert-communicators or in mentoring our youth through its more engaged members ? Can we imagine a Society at the service of the society (the public)?  Our CMOS mission statement reads as follows: CMOS is the national scientific society of individuals dedicated to advancing atmospheric and oceanographic sciences, as well as related environmental disciplines in Canada.  The Society’s Mission is to promote meteorology and oceanography in Canada within the academic, government and private sectors.  Our mission statement ends as follows : CMOS, through its educational and outreach efforts, seeks to enhance public understanding of weather, climate and environmental issues in general.  Can we do that better ? Can we use this mission statement to help us as our selling pitch to recruit new members and keep our current ones engaged and eager to renew their memberships.

To conclude, if all goes as planned two years will still be too short to accomplish and complete everything, but we, the Halifax Chapter, hope to leave a legacy that will enable CMOS to facilitate the organization of its congress, to advance towards its vision, to live its mission, and to do so in an environment that respects equity, diversity and inclusion.

The plan is ambitious, but if the will is there, we can truly become what we strive to be: a scientific and expert Canadian voice reaching out to the public and future generations to offer a better understanding of meteorological, oceanographic, climate and environmental issues in general.

Best regards and looking forward to work with you,