Accountability Questions

1. Is CESO a government agency?
2. Doesn't CESO interfere with the free-market economy?
3. Why does CESO work in countries that have a questionable record on human rights?
4. How do I know CESO isn't corrupt?
5. How often does CESO get evaluated and what is the evaluation process?
6. Are VA skills up-to-date?
7. How do you ensure that VA skills are current?
8. Can someone who has no Canadian experience, but is an expert in their field, be a CESO VA?

9. Why does CESO sometimes provide VAs to wealthy clients?

Financing Questions

1. Exactly where does CESO’s funding come from?
2. What is your operating budget for this year?
3. How do you spend your money?
4. How is your funding broken down?
5. What does CESO assistance cost?
6. How Cost-Effective is CESO?

Recruiting and Selection Questions

1. Why would skilled people do this for nothing when they could be making money?
2. What would we be expected to contribute in terms of time, responsibility and reporting?
3. Are people in our age group accepted (mid 50s).
4. How can I get a CESO Volunteer Adviser to help me?
5. How do you recruit and orient VAs?
6. How does the recruiting process work? Is it a computerized system?

Organizational Structure Question

1. Who is entitled to vote at the CESO Annual General Meeting?

Accountability Answers

1. Is CESO a government agency?

CESO is not a government agency. CESO is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1967 and supported by government, corporations and individuals.

We help client businesses grow, local economies improve and government agencies develop through our volunteer specialists who are dedicated to sharing their skills and experience to improve the quality of life for people at home and abroad.

The backbone of CESO is our roster of Volunteer Advisers (VAs), Canadian men and women who donate their time, talents and experience to help others. We have a roster of retired and semi-retired individuals with technical and managerial expertise.

CESO is governed by an elected board of directors.

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2. Doesn't CESO interfere with the free-market economy?

No. CESO typically helps clients who could not afford to hire consultants.

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3. Why does CESO work in countries that have a questionable record on human rights?

CESO is non-political. We support the Canadian government’s belief that more can be accomplished through dialogue than through isolation.

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4. How do I know CESO isn't corrupt?

Accountability is one of CESO’s core values. We have adopted the "Ethical Fundraising and Financial Accountability Code" developed by the Canadian Centre for Philanthropy, in consultation with charity leaders throughout Canada. Its primary purpose is to assure donors of the integrity and accountability of charities that solicit and receive their financial support.

CESO commits to manage our resources and to report accurately and completely on them to our sponsors, our clients, our volunteers and staff through an audited annual report.

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5. How often does CESO get evaluated and what is the evaluation process?

As an institution, once every five to six years; each bilateral project is evaluated at the mid-term and often also at the end.

6. Are VA skills up-to-date?

The people who volunteer with CESO may have retired or be semi-retired from their job, not their vocation. They remain in touch and fully informed. They are highly active, motivated individuals who bring a lifetime of practical experience to an assignment.

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7. How do you ensure that VA skills are current?

Our volunteers are asked to update their resumés and CVs at least once every two years. Those who have been on the roster for years have a track record of successful assignments which confirms their expertise.

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8. Can someone who has no Canadian experience, but is an expert in their field, be a CESO VA?

Yes. Sending a client a VA with no Canadian experience does not contradict our mission. CESO VAs are defined as "Canadians who have a lifetime of experience to share." In some instances, there are areas in which a VA has experience that does not apply to Canada (ie. Cacti growing, mango processing). In all official documents, the term Canadian refers to landed immigrants and Canadian citizens.

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9. Why does CESO sometimes provide VAs to wealthy clients?

The assignment is of importance to the community and the client is the catalyst. Our clients range from those who can afford a modest contribution toward CESO operating costs, to those who pay not only the assignment costs but also an administration fee. The fees are used to cover the costs of future assignments with clients who can not afford to pay. CESO also undertakes assignments with international finance institutions and other organizations in Canada and abroad. They are charged a fee, in addition to all assignment expenses, in order to increase the amount of funds CESO has to cover the cost of new business development.

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Financing Answers

1. Exactly where does CESO’s funding come from?

We are largely supported by two federal government sources through contracts with the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC). We also receive funding from our clients, multilateral agencies and by more than 300 Canadian corporations and foundations plus scores of VAs and others.

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2. What is your operating budget for this year?

See the most recent Annual Report.

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3. How do you spend your money?

More than 80 per cent of our monies go toward the direct costs of VAs carrying out assignments. Those costs include airfares, gas/mileage, lodging, insurance and logistical costs of country representatives abroad and our Canadian regional offices. The remainder goes to general administration, communications/public relations and corporate expenditures.

While we couldn’t exist without our roster of volunteers, operating an efficient, effective organization the size of CESO takes time, energy and the skill of a full-time staff of people across the country.

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4. How is your funding broken down?

1. The majority of our funding in International Services comes from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the remainder from clients, trust funds, Canadian corporations, VAs, and others.
2. In National Services, the majority comes from Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) and the remainder from clients, trust funds, Canadian corporations, VAs, and others.

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5. What does CESO assistance cost?

Professional services from CESO volunteers are affordable. Volunteer Advisers receive no salary.

National Services: CESO Clients generally pay a minimal administrative fee, and an application fee.

International Services: CESO Clients generally pay only for costs such as the Volunteer Adviser’s travel, lodging, meals, workshop materials, and other necessary services.

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6. How Cost-Effective is CESO?

CESO is recognized as one of the most efficient and cost-effective organizations of its kind.

When based on a modest rate of $350 per day, the national value of CESO volunteer time on assignment was approximately $3.2 million in 2006-07. Added to this is the value of "in-house" services provided daily by hundreds of volunteers across Canada who supplement CESO's small staff by working as recruiters, fundraisers, evaluators etc.

Our revenue supports the work of Volunteer Advisers on assignment. It helps to fund the costs of selecting, briefing, mobilizing and ensuring volunteers on assignment, as well as accommodation of volunteers. It also supports our Country Representatives in countries outside Canada.

CESO's accountability system calls for on-going monitoring of its effectiveness. Assignments are evaluated in detail upon completion and, often, one year after completion. Also, CESO spending and services are audited regularly by independent evaluators.

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Recruiting and Selection Answers

1. Why would skilled people do this for nothing when they could be making money?

CESO is about humanitarianism and altruism. It’s about improving the quality of life for people at home and abroad. Our mission is to build capacity in governance and economic development through the transfer of knowledge and skills by Volunteer Advisers.

Volunteerism is one of CESO’s core values. We are committed to utilizing the skills and expertise of retired and semi-retired men and women who volunteer to fulfil our mission. We have a roster of volunteers who donate their time and talents to be mentors and advisers to clients.

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2. What would we be expected to contribute in terms of time, responsibility and reporting?

If invited to become a CESO Volunteer Adviser, you would be expected to attend an orientation session either in Toronto or at one of our other offices across Canada.

You would be expected to prepare for the assignment by familiarizing yourself with your client. At the conclusion of your assignment you would be expected to file a report with CESO in a timely fashion.

The first thing you should do if you are still interested, is to send your résumé to volunteers.toronto@ceso-saco.com. If we don't feel there is a need for your skills we will be honest and tell you. The last thing we want to do is waste your time or raise your expectations. I would suggest you go to our web site section on Volunteering and read through it .

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3. Are people in our age group accepted (mid 50s).

A. The answer is yes. The average age of our Volunteer Advisers is about 62. If selected for an assignment, younger VAs who are not retired, often use their vacation time or leave time.

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4. How can I get a CESO Volunteer Adviser (VA) to help me?

Anyone interested in a VA can obtain and fill out an application form. For National Services, the application is available on the web site. For International Services, they are available from a Country Representative (CR). The CR sends it to the CESO Operations Centre. A Contract Director or Project Manager then checks the application to make sure its meets CESO requirements for assistance. CESO then identifies suitable VAs and passes their information on to the client. This takes about 2-3 weeks. Once the client selects a VA, CESO will draft an agreement outlining the responsibilities of the client, CESO, and the VA. CESO also makes the travel arrangements.

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5. How do you recruit and orient VAs?

Anyone interested in becoming a CESO volunteer must submit their resumé. To ensure the quality and capabilities of VAs, we only accept applicants after they have passed our stringent screening process, which includes an orientation, registration, interview and reference checks.

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6. How does the recruiting process work? Is it a computerized system?

The recruiting of potential candidates from CESO's roster for an assignment is computerized in its first phase.

• The system we have is based on sets of industries, skills and keywords.

• All VAs are skilled by the Roster Department when they join the roster. Based on their CV, appropriate industries, skills and keywords are chosen and entered into the database. However, there has to be sufficient supporting information in the CV in order for a certain skill or keyword to be chosen.

• When starting the recruiting process for an assignment, recruiters use several combinations of industries, skills and keywords, based on the assignment requirements. The names of VAs who have that combination of skills come up. Sometimes the list of VAs who have the combination of skills is quite long.

• The recruiter then carefully reviews the CVs of the VAs who came up during the computerized search and selects a few whose CV is most relevant - closest to the assignment requirements–and approaches these VAs by phone, e-mail or mail to ask them if they would like to undertake the assignment.

Sometimes a keyword is very important for an assignment but your computer file may not have this keyword. This is because, as a rule, there has to be sufficient information in a CV to support the inclusion of a keyword, and your CV may only mention a degree or activity related to that field, without going into detail.

VAs chosen for a given assignment have usually spent most of their career in the respective sector, and this is reflected in their CV. Since the specific keyword was considered to be crucial for the assignment, they were considered to be the ideal candidate.

If VAs would like to discuss the skilling used for their file, or the level of detail needed in order to have a certain keyword included in their computer file, they should contact Roster Services at volunteers.toronto@ceso-saco.com.

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Organizational Structure Answer

1. Who is entitled to vote at the CESO Annual General Meeting?

Sustaining Members of CESO are entitled to vote at the CESO Annual General Meeting (AGM).

Sustaining Members of CESO are defined as those who have made a contribution of $100 or more in the past year. Only Sustaining Members have the privilege of voting at an annual meeting.

Sustaining Members do not have to be Volunteer Advisers (VAs). At the 2001 AGM in Victoria, several VAs raised the issue of voting privilege. Their premise was that the time VAs give should be equal to a financial contribution. The Board of Directors agreed to reassess this issue and struck a committee to research the matter. The committee presented its report at the September 2002 meeting of the Board.

The research indicated that some organizations have structures for representation at the AGM but none has a direct relationship between voting privilege and a commitment of volunteer time. Some have a system where membership is connected to volunteer time but that membership does not include the right to vote at the AGM.

The committee did not recommend a change to the CESO bylaw on voting privilege. The Board subsequently accepted and approved the committee's recommendation.