It began in May, with the Proclamation from the City of Kingston, which then appeared in the Kingston Whig-Standard newspaper the week before the Conference.  Then on Friday the 30th of May, the giant 25' banner celebrating "Child and Youth Counsellor Week" was strung across Princess Street in downtown Kingston.

By Tuesday afternoon, June 3, the damp cool weather turned sunny as CYCs from across the province started pouring into Kingston.  Around midnight, 4 vans of kids and staff from the Thunder Bay CAS, over 1000 kilometres away (!), arrived at their hotel in Kingston.
The following morning, under a bright and warming sun, the OACYC "Winds of Change" Conference began in earnest.  After another damp day on Thursday, and a packed and lively pub that evening, it ended on a beautiful sunny Friday.  And the 340 CYCs in attendance headed back to their hometowns with a strong sense of the remarkable "winds of change" sweeping through our profession … and the expertise of our CYC presenters.

Great workshop!"; "Fantastic training, very well presented [Conduct & Attachment Disorders]";
"Excellent. I want to put a similar program in place in my secondary school.  Good resources [from Attendance Programs]";
"Lisa [Pieta] knows her material [on setting up a private CYC practice]."
Can I do this [Therapeutic Storytelling workshop] again … so much to take in and think about";
"Awesome.  Got lots of ideas for new games [in Survivor worshop]":
"Thoroughly enjoyed [Autism Spectrum]. I'm able to take strategies and implement them."

The average scores for all 40 workshops set a new record.  On our 1-to-10 scale for the 4 items we evaluate, they came out at 8.80 for "content/information presented," "style/method of presentation" was 8.59, for "presenter's knowledge/background on the topic" it was 9.32 and the "overall" rating was 8.77.  The fact that the majority of presenters were OACYC members, and Certified ones at that, just confirmed what we've always felt -- a lot of pride in the professionalism of our members.

Also on the plus side was the range of resources and other sale items available.  SourceResource books had an extensive display and the OACYC increased the range and number of books it had for sale.  The launching of new OACYC clothing and accessory items was also a hit.  The canvas bags with embroidered logo in matching colours went in half a day and business was brisk with the new golf and T-shirts, and bracelets.  Even the cool-weather items like fleece jackets and "hoodies" were going at a great rate.  If you missed getting any of these, watch for the next OACYC event in your area.  We were in  Thunder Bay this past fall.