The Royal Canadian Numismatic Association’s new president, Jacques Poitras, is stepping into the role as the organization marks its 75th anniversary, promising to blend four decades of collecting with a businesslike, forward-looking approach. The Edmundston, N.B., collector becomes the RCNA’s 35th president and brings eight years of board experience plus a long résumé of service awards, including multiple Presidential Awards and RCNA Fellow honours.
Drawing on a 32-year career in the private sector, Poitras plans to apply tools more common in corporate boardrooms than club meetings, including a “balanced scorecard” approach to measure how well the RCNA is meeting its goals. He believes this data-driven framework will help identify weaknesses, sharpen priorities and better align the association’s limited financial and volunteer resources.
Strengthening communication is another pillar of his plan. Poitras points to the CN Journal, NumisNotes, social media and especially an updated website as essential to reaching members and attracting new ones. He also wants to see greater promotion of the RCNA’s pre-convention and post-convention virtual seminars, which extend learning opportunities beyond the annual in-person gathering.
Education – particularly modernized correspondence courses and new material for young collectors – ranks high on his agenda. Poitras is pushing to update the long-standing adult courses in both English and French while also helping the youth committee finally launch a long-discussed course tailored to younger hobbyists over the next 12–16 months.
Despite ongoing challenges around volunteer capacity and technology, Poitras is bullish on the future of Canadian numismatics, citing a busy national show calendar and growing businesses as proof the hobby is “healthy and strong.” With the RCNA’s 75th anniversary celebrations culminating at the 2026 convention in Winnipeg, he is focused on laying the groundwork so the next generation can one day celebrate a “Century of Numismatics” under an even stronger national association.
The full feature, “A steady hand guides RCNA forward,” appears in the latest issue of Canadian Coin News (Vol. 63, No. 18, Dec. 2–15, 2025), released today.
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