August 19, 2009 Board Meeting

Peace and Environment Resource Centre

Board of Directors Meeting

Wednesday August 19, 2009

The meeting was called to order at 5:44pm. Kristin Miller chaired the meeting and Valerie Doucette took minutes.

Present: Kristin Miller, Valerie Doucette, Kristina Inrig, Robert Smith, Margaret Jensen, and Thy Da Meas.

1. Check-in: Everyone checked in.

2. Select Time-Keeper:  Rob Smith.

3. Approval of Agenda:  Kristina moved to approve agenda as amended. Rob seconded. Carried.

4. Approval of minutes from last meeting.  Kristin amendments: $5000 was not from Friends of Environment, but from an anonymous donation. $3450 is from Friends of Environment (in process). Rob motion to approve. Kristina seconded. Motion Carried.

5. Round table introductions.  Thy Da is with Leadership Support Team (LST) - guest at meetings working on board development with Kristin and Mike. Three people on this committee, they have lost someone recently. Recruitment, retainment, orientation and other activities like that under board development. Everyone introduces themselves and welcomes Thy Da.

6. Board Development Support for the board, talking to Valerie about orientation and work with her on the orientation to see if she has feedback on it. Bring other things that PERC do into the board meetings, attempting to get recruitment and retainment. Kristina asks about Thy Da's role - definitely working as LST but helping Kristina and Mike with board development. Kristina points out that it's somewhat redundant ... could just be one committee (Board Dev and LST). While Thy Da is not sitting on the board, she may occasionally attend board meetings. Kristina notes that for board orientation there are only four lessons that board members need to take. Kristin notes that they are creating a more standard board orientation. Mike going to follow up with potential board members, Mike left town Thursday or Friday and is gone until next week. Future recruits for the board should be referred to Kristin as chair of the board.

7. PEN Report. Food issue of the PEN - Margaret asks about FOE funding. Sacred spaces, need to talk to Kristina about that issue. Hello Volunteer issue was discussed at last meeting, Margaret questioned if should we continue running it and the consensus was yes - we need profiles for this. Valerie has been profiled, Margaret confirms. Thy Da has also been profiled. Valerie makes suggestion about the politeness of interview request. Profiling Mike as a volunteer as opposed to paid staff is a possibility. Margaret asks a question about distribution: is the PEN going out to community centres? Mike is handling mailing, distributions to community centres. Handling volunteers? No one. Kristina asks about putting the PEN in stores. It is noted that Margaret distributes quite a few. Suggestions that some are sent out to Barrhaven (Rob), and also to take them out to Tuckerhouse (Kristina). ACTION: Clarify with Mike to see if these things are going to community centres and libraries. Agenda item for next meeting.

7. Financial Report. Rob - wasn't able to figure out what to do for this last month - did not know where to deposit things, what to do, since Joe does everything - although he did provide him with a nice handwritten summary. This month we've received 800 dollars, so that's good. Two general office expenses to be paid. Anticipated balance as of tomorrow is 2400. Kristina: did we get 5000 cheque? No, need to check with Joe to see who the anonymous person is so we can bug them. Kristina notes that since it's from a numbered corporation, it might not be trackable. ACTION: Rob will look into this. Kristina notes that we will need to reexamine the budget if that doesn't come in; since it is a significant amount. Kristin: if there's a way we could do that for next meeting if it's not coming in and thus develop a new budget.

FOE: Rob was able to contact someone in Toronto, bunch of people shifting positions so person in Ottawa and Toronto are both not on the grant. As soon as Joe scans a pdf the cheque it will be deposited right away - he will do that tonight and Rob will call him tomorrow. Kristina notes that in her experience it is very fast and also stipulates that we should proceed with the assumption is that it is coming through for the next issue; thus it will have all the TD logos and everything we do to sponsor it. Rob strongly recommends a two person system for a control where if it is not received there it will be received elsewhere - also for normal mail, not to have this happen again. Kristin says that it should definitely be Rob and perhaps one other person depending on who is working for the grant, ie, Kristina and Rob if they are working on that. Rob notes that he should definitely be the second contact. Kristina says that the person who writes it should be the first contact. Kristin states that if we need a third it should be her or Joe. Rob notes that there is a PERC email and Kristin notes that there used to be board@perc.ca but it's not used and that PERC should have another outside email as long as it is checked regualrly. Valerie notes that often email can have a forwarding feature for email copies.

Rob notes that in terms of other things - no monthly report for this month. $5000 will affect our budget and we need to figure that out. Good news is that because Rob volunteers his time, his work has a $400 annual donation. He has sent in his application and hopefully it will go through. There is a thing called KPMG CEO of the community so he will apply for that as well - if he gets it then it's 1000 dollars towards a charity of your choice - Kristina offered to help him. KPMG volunteers every October/November and they want to do an environmental charity volunteer so Rob wanted to suggest us for that.

Kristina asks about the status on PEN contract? Kristin notes that we have to look at that - 2008 still hasn't been signed. Kristina asks: what is the process in place for admin/management for PERC now that we do not have a coordinator? Rob notes that financially we are having a difficult time paying our PEN editor so we will have to figure something out. Margaret says that perhaps we should hold off on contracts until there is money to pay somebody. While there is a brief discussion about Margaret volunteering not to be paid, Kristina notes that it is misleading not to have a contract but continue to accumulate a bill in the budget - for Margaret's safety we need to have her contract in writing. Consensus that there was an outstanding amount from 2008 for Margaret. Kristina points out that the goal for this year is to get out of debt - so we need to know explicitly what we owe to get out of debt. We may change our plan if we have these factors made clear. ACTION: Rob will figure out which issues are to be paid and perhaps we could negotiate a solution. Kristin: Margaret you need to think about it and we can talk about it later. Set up a meeting before next board meeting in September. When is the next meeting? We haven't decided yet.

9. Web Discussion.   Kristina notes that we must be reducing our operations very specifically to have the PEN be one of the main programs and web presence as a separate one. It won't work if we keep the same structure we have right now, part-time web coordinator would not be able to take care of too many programs. We have to restructure in order to achieve this, it won't work unless we simplify our structure. Members will be here to support the web and PEN. Kristina also suggests that we shouldn't be having volunteers unless they are part of these key projects, and that PEN distribution should be wholly the responsibility of PEN. There shouldn't be all these administrative duties if we streamline things more simply. Redistribution of responsibilities - no use in having a PEN if it doesn't get anywhere. Valerie notes the exciting potential to reinforce our mandate and have outreach to the community through this project. Rob notes that we have the financial side of things but we don't have the human capital side of things. What are the duties and responsibilities to keep PERC functioning that are mandatory and which ones are not? Kristina notes that Mike should write list of human capital requirements of PERC so we can examine the responsibilities. ACTION: next meeting for LST - human capital reports. Kristina notes that there are committees in existence - can we combine, merge, cut the structure of these committees. Kristina: board needs to come to consensus on projects that are possible and not possible. Volunteer roles may change - not as much about the volunteer but more specific projects that may have room for independence. This year, no special events funding, Kristin points out. Kristina notes that we should get moving on these decisions since we may miss deadlines for grant applications approaching.

Four main areas of focus are suggested for PERC: Admin, PEN, Web and Library. Kristina notes that we would be moving to a more staff-structured management of programs - two staff would be paid for running programs. Margaret should reflect on PEN structure, what is human capital there, then Mike can help with idea of admin and management. Margaret notes that the main intent of the volunteer program is to get them to take leadership roles and Kristina agrees that this is definitely doable. While Margaret thinks that the changes suggested are not that drastic, Kristina notes that there will be four rather than 17 committees, which makes a big difference in focus. Kristina moves to accept the spirit of the web proposal as written and in order to focus on the list of the four priorities? Kristin seconds, all in favour, motion carried.

Next meeting is suggested for September 16th at 5:30pm.

Refreshment Break

10. Discussion on PERC Policy.  Kristina starts by noting four policies to look at that will impact structure. Policy on honorary patrons - does this even exist? Focus on the General PERC Policy. Section on paid staff must be revisited, Kristina notes, since we don't have a coordinator anymore. There is nothing in this policy that talks about other paid staff, so probably best to add a line: "The board can determine at their discretion other program or administrative positions required to fulfill the mandate of PERC (subheading: other staff).  This means that it's up to the board to determine what other staff we want.  Agreed not to delete coordinator role from policy since it could be revived later as needed.  Agreed to add a line under the coordinator, though:  "In the event that there is no coordinator, the board will determine how to redistribute responsibilities to other staff and volunteers."  ACTION: Valerie to update policies to be reviewed. For the section on organizational structure or committee structure, Kristina suggests to write: "The core organizational structure consists of at least the following committees - in the event that the board takes on new responsibilities, new committees will be determined at that time. The bare minimum are three committees: Program, PEN and admin/management committees. Library is not mandatory for PERC to have. In terms of our policy, these committees report directly to the coordinator or responsible staff person. In the event that ther is no responsible staff person, the committee will report directly to the board. Kristina notes that all we have done is added more flexibility to this structure. Kristina moves to approve the general PERC policy as amended. Kristin notes that she would like to be able to read them over for more consideration. Motion not seconded, motion not carried.

Focus on the Management policy. Kristina suggests that the referral to staff committees needs to be revisited since it may need to be reworded. Volunteer poilcy is included in this; needs to be started and looked at for the structural processes. Create new policies to add to our current policies? Kristina suggests the need for a fundraising policy? Missing are fundraising policy and board development which might be something that the sub-commitee starts to look at.

Next meeting still need to talk about management policy. Any other policies to discuss for future meetings? While we have decided on these two for next meeting. For October: PERC directors and candidates for board members. The other thing we should look at is policy for advertisements in the PEN. PEN policy: official pen policy and practices? Statement of mandate of PEN needed to be reviewed. ACTION: Margaret to dig this up and bring it to the board. Thus in November the board will talk about PEN. Policy for adverts and add mandate, make it an official policy.

11. Other business?  Applying for grants for the fall for the grant projects? individual programs don't need a policy ... strategy issue - committed, what is the next step? first next step is to get the structure right - september. Fall priority to find core money, development. Kristina outlines next steps: first to reorganize structure, then to apply for funding, then to apply for more funding to deepen project. Staff person could help with funding. This does not affect this fiscal year, we'd be aiming for 2010. It is noted that we should make sure not to take too much on as an organization, to remain small. Also the most important thing is to focus on not losing our memberships.

12. Check-out. Everyone checks out. Meeting adjourned at 7:47pm.