Draft Minutes of the April 20, 2006 PERC AGM

Minutes - PERC AGM - April 20, 2006
Attendees:

Board Members: Randal Marlin, Stephen Gurman, Joe Parchelo & Jason Lawrence Ex-Officio Board Members: Mike Kaulbars & Margaret Jensen

PERC Members: Gerard Daeschel, Peter Blanchard

Guest: Sandi Stohar

Volunteers: Michael Goguen, Denise MacDonald, Elise Legault, Rachel Muston, James Gelleta, Connie Hawkins,

1. Welcome by Chair and Introduction of the Board

Steve Gurman welcomed those attending and introduced the Board. Steve explained that the Board was below its mandated minimum number of 5 directors due to the resignations of Adrienne Armstrong, and Celina Tuttle. PERC Bylaws required that we hold a Members’ Meeting to appoint new directors within 60 days of our dropping below quorum. This 60-day requirement had resulted in the AGM being held in April, rather than May.

2. Roll Call of Members:

PERC members present were recorded.

3. Adoption of Agenda:

Motion to adopt agenda by Randal Marlin. Seconded by Joe Parchelo. Carried

4. Approval of Minutes of May 12th, 2005 AGM

Motion to adopt, Joe Parchelo. Seconded by Steve Gurman. Carried

5. PERC Board Chair's Report:

Steve thanked the Board, Mike Kaulbars & Margaret Jensen for all the work that they have done over the years. Steve noted that Celina and Adrienne had each missed more than five Board meetings and, as a result, the Bylaws called for their removal from the board. Steve explained that both Celina and Adrienne had joined the Board despite having many other commitments and that they had been a great asset to the organization. He thanked them for their service to the organization.

Since the Board had fallen below its mandated quorum, we had a need for additional directors. The PERC Bylaws call for a Members' Meeting to be held within 60 days of the Board falling below its quorum. We had held a Members meeting on the 13th of February but this did not result in a new Board Member being identified. The bylaws therefore required us to have another Members' Meeting� within 60 days. This should have required a meeting last week, but due to Easter, we delayed the meeting slightly.

In an effort to boost PERC's finances, we launched a Membership Challenge. This involved each PERC member being asked to recruit two more members. At the same time, Connie Berry, a former PERC Board member has undertaken a special fundraising drive with PERC's most committed donors. The funds raised through this campaign are to be matched� against the number of new members recruited. While the campaign has been moderately successful, the organization is still looking at a projected budget shortfall of approximately $10,000.00, which will be further explained by Joe Parchelo in the Treasurer's Report.

6. Treasurer's Report:

Joe Parchelo distributed PERC's financial statements for April 05 through to March 06 (attached). Joe presented a financial review of the last year. We discussed how a large portion of the PERC's money comes from members this is also the most reliable source of revenue. This is why the membership drive is so important and why it is vital to the survival of PERC.

Questions: Margaret Jensen noted that in the 06/07 budget the Editor's� fees have not been paid as they are shown. Margaret also noted that the Peace Fund� is shown twice in same fiscal year.

Joe explained that it is now shown as cash flow i.e. when it comes in it gets recorded in the budget.

Mike Goguen asked about the progress of the Membership Drive from those that have already been participating.

Joe responded that the Membership drive brought in sufficient funds to allow us to make a commitment to carry on with all current PERC activities. While we have not met our target we have seen a strong enough commitment from the members and volunteers to suggest that we will come close to our requirements.

Joe moved to approve the financial report. Seconded by Randal. Carried

7. Committee Reports:

Overview by Mike: Mike presented an overview of the context within which the PERC operates.

He noted that it has been an interesting year. The demographics of PERC volunteers is changing. We are now getting more volunteers who are new immigrants looking for language skills and training rather than having a strong commitment to peace and environment issues as in the past. We depend on our volunteers to carry out highly skilled and complex tasks. We are finding that we have fewer volunteers able to fill leadership positions and chair the committees that run the PERC.

We are also seeing a lot more transience� in our volunteers. These volunteers tend to leave just as they are getting skilled enough to take on additional responsibilities.

We are finding that we are faced with increased competition for charity dollars. Natural disasters, and those related to climate change seem to be on the increase, e.g. the December 2005 Tsunami and floods in New Orleans. Many people donated to these very worthy causes and we wouldn't want to take away from that, however, it makes it harder for us to raise funds when so many of our potential donors have given their funds allocated to charities to disaster relief.

Committee Highlights


 * IT Admin - signing on a number of new people. Lothar has joined Krishna and has updated most of the equipment.


 * Finance - seeing positive development of a committee structure


 * Communications - Creating a business plan for the PERC. Francis and Kristin Miller have asked that all members participate in its development.


 * Video Committee/Communications - Machinima� is a very exciting prospect, it uses animated films for training


 * Fundraising -  this committee is shifting responsibility for Membership to the Finance Committee


 * Special Events -  has had a very successful last year. Hope to have another Hearts and Minds� night in the fall as well as another music benefit. Have plans to start a campaign called "Give a Gnome a Home"� in which we will place a concrete Gnome on someone's lawn ask them for a donation and a name of next lucky Gnome recipient. Basically this would be like a chain letter involving Gnomes. We feel that this idea is innovative and sounds like it could be fun.


 * Library Committee - is very active and has accomplished a lot, with much thanks to Elise Legault.


 * Participation - PVN has become a critical tool for communicating with volunteers and has been very successful thanks to new PVN editor Denise MacDonald.


 * Athena Project - is a project led by Rachel Muston. They are creating a web-based resource on the Wiki that will be used to help people find alternative, socially conscious (green) consumer goods.

9. PERC MEMBERSHIP CHALLENGE (Mike)

Mike explained how PERC was facing a large deficit at the beginning of the year. The usual fundraising options no longer exist and we had to discuss the possibility of reducing or cutting PERC services including the resource center and just focusing our efforts on the PEN. We even considered closing down the PERC.

It was decided as a last resort to launch a major membership drive combined with a fundraising challenge. Volunteers would be challenged to recruit new members while special funds would be solicited by Connie Berry to “match” the recruitment efforts. If sufficient new members were not recruited, the funds would be returned to the donors. So far we have received a commitment from approximately two-thirds of the volunteers to recruit new members. While this is less than we had hoped for, the commitment that we have seen has been very heartening and we propose to continue PERC operations through the next fiscal year.

Questions: Margaret asked if we are doing anything different in terms of Memberships that may have led to a decline in member numbers. Connie explained that we are doing the same things that we have always done. Mike noted that we have scaled back production of the PEN, and that changes in society may also be another reason. Society is becoming more transient�.

Mike Goguen suggested that we should be networking with other environmental groups and carrying out joint activities to raise our profile.

Mike Kaulbars replied that we already have memberships in many local environmental groups. He noted that experience has shown that it is very difficult to coordinate joint activities between different groups.

Mike Goguen: The mayors walk was a successful event for networking�. We need to update our events list and put these events online�.

Mike Kaulbars: There are already two websites with events listings that we do not want to duplicate�.

Jason suggested that we put a link to these lists on our website.

Addendum to Membership discussion: Mike noted that PERC is finalizing arrangements with PAYPAL and Canada Helps.org, to allow payments to be made online for membership renewals or donations.

Break 8:40

Reconvene 9:00

10. Nominations and Election of Directors

Steve: Jason was elected at the last AGM but Randal, Joe and Steve have come to the end of their term.

Joe asked that the minutes of the last AGM be amended to show that he was re-elected in 2005. He is therefore not standing for re-election at this AGM.

Steve: given that Joe is in mid-term, only Randal and Steve are up for re-election

Randal noted that he was happy to continue on the PERC Board.

Steve declined the opportunity to address the meeting.

(The re-election of Randal Marlin and Steve Gurman was put to a secret ballot)

Election Results:

Steve 9 in favour 0 against

Randal 9 in favour 0 against

Nominations to the Board

Steve called for nominations to the board and described the orientation process and probationary period. No names were put forward.

11. Other Business/announcements


 * Randal thanked Jason for the article about the PERC that he had submitted to Glebe Report.


 * Jason noted that he had a table for PERC at the ECO-STEWARDSHIP FAIR on April 22nd and that he would require assistance in running the booth.


 * Gerard Daeschel noted that there was also an event being run by the Sierra Club on the 21st in the Sparks St Mall


 * Steve said Joe Wood had contacted us with regard to a NO WAR PAIX march.


 * Cindy Sheehan will be making a presentation on May 4th at Carleton University.

12. AGM Adjournment

Steve moved to adjourn the meeting. Mike Kaulbars seconded the motion. Carried

The meeting was adjourned at 9:25 pm.