April 3, 2007 BoD Minutes

Minutes - April 3, 2007 PERC BoD Meeting
Present: Joe, Randal, Kristin, Kristina, Steve, Mike, Margaret

Absent: Jason

Minutes: Steve

1. Check-in

2. Assign a Time Keeper: Kristina volunteered to be time keeper

3. Adoption of Agenda

The proposed agenda was amended so that �Approval of Agenda� was placed before �Approval of Minutes of the March 6th Board Meeting. A report back on the PERC Harassment Policy was inserted after Board Development. Other Business was added after the Co-ordinator�s Report. The agenda was adopted as amended. Moved: Steve. Seconded: Randal. Carried

4. Approval of Minutes of March 6, 2007 BoD meeting

Joe noted an error in the Financial report, second paragraph: Replace: �...Joe noted that, in 2005...� with �...Joe noted that, in 2006...� The Minutes were approved as corrected.

Moved: Margaret. Seconded: Joe. Carried.

5. Financial Report

Joe presented his financial data. There were a number of clarifications and explanations of the figures. Margaret pointed out that the PEN Editor�s fees were incorrectly shown as $600 instead of $700.

Joe explained that PERC�s income over the past year has been lower than its expenses and we will be showing a deficit of more than $3,000 on our March 31 year end statement (FY 2006-07).

He noted the following to explain the lower than expected income:


 * The income due to the Membership Challenge efforts has been a disappointment.


 * A number of special events did not take place in 2006-07 as scheduled.


 * The Membership Challenge did not bring in as much money as hoped for.

For 2007-8, the budget indicates a grant of $7,500 from TD Friends of the Environment. Mike is planning on submitting a proposal for a project, for this amount, to cover the costs of a PEN series on climate change. The proposal is about 75% completed.

Joe noted that, although our income statement shows an amount of $544 as �Cash on Hand�, $500 of this amount is actually owed to Joe (who loaned it to PERC).

There was some discussion about various aspects of the budget. Margaret suggested that PERC look for new funders for projects and also noted that the budget seemed to be �reactive� rather than �proactive�.

Regarding cash flow, Joe noted that, if we get a $7,500 grant from TD FOE, we should be in the black about mid-fiscal year, although we will fall into the red as the year goes on. If we don�t get the grant, we will be in trouble.

Kristina and Margaret suggested that, under the circumstances, PERC should look again at the possibility of changing to a project-driven organization rather the current volunteer-based model. Kristina also suggested that we approve the budget as presented and then, over the course of this year, look at other options for income generation.

The Board accepted the Financial Report.

Joe moved that the Board approve this Budget (as corrected) for presentation at the May AGM. Seconded Margaret. Carried.

Margaret proposed the following Motion: That the Board resolves to discuss alternative funding options at the Board Retreat. Seconded: Kristin. Carried.

Break

6. AGM (May 3rd)

Kristina asked about the Agenda for the AGM - when would the Board be working on it? Steve answered that we always followed a standard agenda and Mike read through the agenda from the 2006 AGM to show what we would be doing. Mike suggested that the Board member job description be described at the AGM before the call for nominations so that anyone wanting to join the board would be clear on our expectations.

(Kristin will present a board �job description� before nominations are called.)

It was also suggested that the board President�s remarks include an indication that work on a PERC Harassment Policy has been ongoing and that a draft is nearing completion.

Steve will circulate the draft AGM agenda before the meeting

7. Board Development

Kristin and Kristina met and started work on Board member recruitment and Board orientation. They are putting their efforts up on the wiki under �Board�. The first priority of the Board Development Committee is to find a new Secretary and Treasurer.

We discussed the idea of putting notices of these positions up on web sites such as those run by Volunteer Ottawa and Charity Village.

The suggestion was made that those approaching PERC to volunteer on the Board be directed to Steve (or someone else on the Board) rather than to the Coordinator. With this in mind, Kristin will be asking the IT people to establish an email address �Board@perc.ca� that will forward PERC email to Steve�s home email.

8. Harassment Policy

Jason was not available to meet with Kristin since the last meeting, so no progress was made on this file. Steve will contact Jason to see if he will be continuing on this project or whether Kristin can take it over and finish it.

9. PEN Editor�s Report (Margaret)


 * The deadline for the May-June PEN is April 18 for articles and April 20 for Events.


 * The theme of the May-June issue will be �Children as Peace Makers�


 * There will not be a summer issue of the PEN in order to save costs.


 * The status of the fall issue depends on the success of the grant application that the Coordinator is presently preparing.

10. Coordinator�s Report


 * Mike noted that, while the current financial situation is not great, he is hopeful about the 2007-08 budget since he is confident about getting a relatively large grant for the PEN series on climate change due to the increased public awareness of this issue and environmental issues in general.


 * He was also quite impressed at the feedback that he received to a draft ad for �virtual volunteers� that was placed on the PERC web site. He feels that there is a lot of potential to bring in new people this way if we can address the issues of orientation, training and management.

One way this could be accomplished is through a �moodle� or web-based training and orientation program.


 * The RFD (Revolution for Dummies) activity is picking up steam again. The next workshop will be on April 13th.


 * The Athena Project is working in cooperation with Ottawa�s �Just Food� project which aims to help Ottawa citizens find locally grown/organic food.

11. New Business/Announcements

Steve put forward the idea of sending out a questionnaire to PERC members asking for feedback on the PEN layout and graphics (i.e. design aspects and not content).

Margaret did not feel that anything useful could be gained from this strategy. Few people were likely to respond to a questionnaire in any case and it would be difficult to design the questions in such a way that they would produce meaningful information.

Mike suggested that one way to attempt to address these concerns would be to put some sample questions up on the wiki and see if we can reach agreement on those that might be useful. Mike undertook to develop some sample questions.

12. Next Board Meeting

The AGM that will take place on May 3. We will choose a date, at that time, for the next Board meeting.

13. Check-out: The meeting was adjourned at 10:15 pm

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