DCA - About the …

De DCA is opgericht in 1990 en voortgekomen uit twee verschillende verenigingen. Het heeft een bestuur dat iedere twee jaar ge- of herkozen wordt op de Algemene Ledenvergadering rond begin April. Het bestuur doet lang niet alles alleen: er zijn veel vrijwilligers, die allen een deeltaak op zich nemen. Zonder de steun van onze leden zou de DCA niet kunnen bestaan.

Since 2000 we have increased our memberships with a phenomenal 100. That was thanks to the help of dozens of volunteers, an electronic newsletter, a fresh web site and great events. Our weekly emails are read by an estimated 1000 people mostly in the Ottawa region, but also from Vancouver to Halifax and from Toronto to Houston, Texas.

Who joins the DCA

The majority of our members live and/or work in what is called the Ottawa Valley south of the Ottawa River and north thereof in Quebec where it is called Outaouais. The Greater Ottawa region we serve is about 100km diameter with Ottawa at the center and includes Nepean and Kanata in the west up till Gloucester, Orleans and even Hawksbury in the east end. From the south our region stretches from Perth, Manotick and Stittsville into Gatineau, Hull and Buckingham in the North. There is still a 'hard-core' of founding fathers and mothers living in the Merivale and Bells Corner parts of Ottawa.

In the early fifties till the late sixties there was a influx of Dutch immigrants, quite some with a agricultural background that settled in the region. After the post war immigrants the Dutch baby boomers arrived. Since then a much smaller but consistent stream of Dutch headed for Canada. Many of the post war immigrants arrived as Dutch couples while our younger members tend to be either single or mixed couples with one of the two being Canadian. But there is no real rule, although most often first generation immigrants some members are Dutch and have never even visited the Netherlands while other members are born and bred Canadians who have lived in The Netherlands for several years.

Ottawa is the hi-tech center of Canada (The Silicon Valley of the North) and also is home to the National Research Counsel so Ottawa attracts quite a few young engineers. As you may expect the young of age tend to be more mobile and easily move to places were opportunities arise. So we see a lot of them leaving us after a few years of membership while it is quite an effort as an Association to attract the new arrivals.

How we are organized

The Dutch Canadian Association Ottawa Valley / Outaouais as we are officially called is registered with Industry Canada as an incorporated non-profit organization. We prefer The DCA to the long version of our name or if we need to distinguish ourselves from other regional Dutch Canadian organizations The DCA Ottawa.

Being incorporated makes us a legal entity allowing us to sign contracts e.g. to obtain a subsidy from the Netherlands Embassy, to make commitments with restaurants to organize events as Het Oranje Boven Bal or to hold a current account at a bank. So your membership fees and payments for an event go into an bank account in the name of the DCA. As a legal entity the DCA could be held liable if things go wrong. Without being incorporated each and every one of the members could be held personally liable for the whole amount of any claim. The good part is that as a member our being incorporated shields you from such mishaps. Being a good 'citizen' we have insured the DCA against liabilities i.e. if we did do something wrong there are means to compensate the injured party.

Our Letters Patent and Bylaws describe how we conduct our internal DCA business. They define matters as who is member, who is allowed to become an executive, how often an AGM (Annual General Meeting) is to be held, the formal purpose of the Association, its goals, how these are to be pursued etc. The nitty gitty of the unavoidable legal work.

To participate in the activities of the DCA you must become a member and pay an annual membership fee. As member you not only get to attend events but are expected to volunteer as the need arises in organizing events, activities and other tasks. We don't have a Friends of the DCA organization so if you "draag ons een warm hart toe" or just wish to support us financially you can also become a (non-volunteering) member without ever participating in any activities. A number of subscribers to the De Postbode© and visitors of our website show their appreciation for what we do in this manner.

Just getting together and being Dutch doesn't get much done, therefore the members appoint an Executive Board of Directors and an auditor at the AGM. The DCA Board takes responsibility to actually get things done with the help of the members. The auditor is usually one of the members not pcw or kpmg and verifies the financial accounts assuring your membership fees and other income are well spent.

DCA Board meetings are held about once every two months, getting the board together to arrange and manage the events and other matters is always somewhat of a hassle so you it shouldn't surprise you that although allowed non-exec members have never attended board meetings.