Faran Schaber looks back at his term as president of Alberta Wildlife Association

As his two-year term as president of the Alberta Wildlife Federation comes to a close, Faran Schaber is looking back with a sense of pride about the organization’s accomplishments during his tenure. Chief among them is the successful rebranding campaign that saw the Alberta Fish and Game Association change its name to the Alberta Wildlife Federation.

Schaber says he’s also happy to have helped the AWF establish a new mission, vision and values statement, which was set to be released during the federation’s annual conference in February. As well, the AWF’s Wildlife Trust Fund was rebranded as the Alberta Habitat Fund while he was in office.

Elected as president in February 2023, Schaber previously held a number of other positions within the federation, including zone director and first vice-president, so he is certainly familiar with the organization’s goals and challenges. He will remain on the executive as past-president, and continue his work on several committees.

“The trade name had been an issue for many years,” Schaber says of the federation’s rebranding. “The reason that a name change wasn’t done sooner was that the organization owns so much land that it would have cost a small fortune to change all of the deeds to a new name.”

When the AWF’s CEO, Kelly Carter, came aboard in 2022, however, he introduced the idea of operating under a new name, which was a game changer, says Schaber. “It was a hard push with some of the membership, but I think they’re realizing that we’re gaining more traction with government having a new name.”

The name change has also cleared up confusion among the general public. “For some reason, a lot of people associated us with government because of our name,” Schaber says. “They thought if there’s an animal hit on the highway, they should call us to look after it. That problem seems to have dropped away since we’ve come to the trade name.”

One thing Schaber says he won’t miss about being president is all the meetings he had to attend. A retired master electrician who now spends his days farming north of Edmonton, he says he occasionally had to multi-task to keep up with his duties. Says Schaber with a chuckle: “There were times when I sat in the tractor on the cellphone having a meeting when I should have been seeding!”

Learn more about the AWF’s programs and positions at www.albertawildlifefederation.ca.