February 8, 2011 Board Meeting

Peace and Environment Resource Centre Board of Directors Meeting February 8, 2011

Agenda

1. Check-in (5 mins)

2. Select Time Keeper (1 mins)

3. Approval of Agenda (2 mins)

4. Approval of minutes from

5. Board * Mike formally removed from board. * Robert's resignation

6. Financial Report (15 mins) * Include funding proposal updates * Donate-A-Day

Break (10 mins)

7. PEN (15 mins) * Report * Editor's Contract

8. Partnership Requests (10 mins)

9. Update of volunteers (5 mins) *Are there new volunteers *state of existing volunteers

10. Discussion on PERC Policy (15 mins) *PEN Advertising Policy 11. Other Business (5 mins) *PERC archives

12. Check-out (5 min)

Minutes

The meeting was called to order at 5:46pm. Kristin Miller chaired the meeting and Valerie Doucette took minutes.

Present: Valerie Doucette, Kristina Inrig, Kristin Miller, Margaret Jensen, Diana Brushey, Sabrina Bowman, Pamela Shreiner, Keith Shackleton, Lothar Steigerwald, and Ellen Ramsay.

1. Check-in: Everyone checked in.

2. Select Time Keeper. Keith volunteered to be timekeeper.

3. Approval of Agenda. Sabrina moved to approve the agenda. Kristina seconded. Carried.

4. Approval of minutes from previous meeting. Kristin notes that the check in and check out details must be removed from the minutes. Approval of minutes once amended moved by Sabrina and seconded by Valerie. Carried.

5. Board Mike Kaulbaurs, low attendance, being removed from the board. Still signing authority until Monday until things are taken care of. Robert Smith's resignation was submitted as of November 23, 2010. Other changes: Kristin's tenure is ending and as of next AGM she announces she will be stepping down. Part of the PERC policy that a chair not run for so long and also for personal reasons. Still deciding whether or not she will be a board member. Brenda has also stepped down but Kristin admits she did not email the entire board to let them know as she should. Brenda remains part of the board and also may still be part of her committee.

Right now the PEN committee still needs attention and is important but it is more important to focus on fixing the Admin Committee. Kristin working on signing authority issue in the next few weeks. Who will volunteer to sign cheques? Valerie, Keith, and Pamela all volunteer to be signers of cheques, while Kristina and Kristin remain signing authorities. It is decided to remove Kristin from signing authority but add Diana instead so five people will be able to sign. Kristin moves to make Pamela, Valerie, Kristina, Diana and Keith all signing authorities - superceding all previous signing authorities an any names other than those listed are to be removed from authority. She also includes in this motion the clause that Diana cannot sign on her own cheques as a staff member. Lothar seconds this motion. Carried.

Lothar working on reducing cost of telephone and Internet. Choosing to stay with Primus since offered good new price. Package for telephone and DSL for one year at $79.95. Right now pay about twice that. Lothar and Diana will serve as contacts if there is something wrong with the Internet technically or otherwise. Need to fix up the contract, however, to clarify wording for the organization. Kristina moves that we enter into this new contract and also authorize Diana and Lothar to finalize the contract and act as new contacts for these services. Valerie seconds this motion. Carried. Need to cancel Bell contract but this will likely be done automatically with the new service provider.

Kristin asks about the current location of the mail keys. Lothar points out where there are two located in a drawer while he is in possession of one.

Diana suggests that PERC needs petty cash for office supplies such as twine for mailings, printer labels, etc. Kristina moves that PERC set up a petty cash of $100 and give Diana access to this fund. Keith seconds this. Carried.

Lothar asks whether or not we need Primus to set up email addresses for PERC. Diana notes that she will look into this and Margaret insists that her current email account not be disturbed.

Admin and management committee chair needed as well as a new treasurer for the board. For these two roles a notice will be put in the PEN and aim to find a treasurer by May. Would be nice if treasurer could do both roles. Kristina willing to act as treasurer as long as she will not longer be head of Program Committee. Diana notes she is still working on tax receipts and is going through older records. Kristin decides she will stay on the board as a regular member after she steps down as chair. Kristina is OK to stay on as vice chair. Sabrina moves that Kristina becomes interim treasurer while the organization still seeks a new treasurer by May (the AGM). Sabrina volunteers to chair the Program Committee. Lothar notes that he has experience being a treasurer. Lothar willing to chair the Admin and management committee. Should meet by conference call to transition things over ot Lothar. Sabrina's motion seconded by Keith. Carried.

6. Financial Report. Ellen on hand to discuss our financial status. Finances are good, only outstanding is printing for Pam and required to file our tax return in September. Kristina will prepare this with Ellen. Diana's T4 needs to be prepared by end of February. Kristin signed some government forms for Ontario, need to locate these. Should reinstate quarterly financial statements at meetings. Kristina will be sure to incorporate these. Kristina will work with Ellen to set up new Quickbooks file and prepare statements using this program. Kristina moves that there be a new Quickbooks file for the new fiscal year and a proper bank reconciliation each month. Keith seconds this motion. Carried.

7. PEN. No chair for pen committee but at this point. System in place to get PENs out to community centres, however. Outstanding things are more outreach for distribution and potential increase in advertising. Kristin will remain on as chair of pen committee for the time being. Diana has prepared a form for people to sign up to volunteer to take a bundle and distribute in their community. She is also attempting to find out for sure who is currently distributing and where. Still not completely sure if library will accept PEN issues for distribution. Library has budget issues, useful to find out who is on the committee for that and see if they will reinstate support. Diana is working with new volunteer who may eventually becoming distribution coordinator. Mike will be staying on to help with distribution. Diana would like to have help with label printing and bundling. The board asks her to email this around and some people should be able to come and help. Margaret reports taht next issue is Greening Sacred Spaces and the articles are due on the 15th of February. The notice for the need of a treasurer is in the issue. Margaret's editor's contract is needed for this year. Should not change too much from last year. A group working to defend security certificate issues approached Margaret seeking endorsements for their cause - Margaret put her name forward but clarifies with the board that she did not speak for PEN generally. PEN as a newspaper should not be endorsing issues or causes but this should be addressed as an organization through the board. Keith moves that endorsing causes or political movements formally must be put through the board, but can be done through email. Seconded by Sabrina. Carried. Supporting or partnering on events or program related activities is still up to the Program Committee.

8. Partnership Requests. Program committee report. Diana notes that the report for the first year of the Trillium grant will be coming up soon along with needed financial updates. Diana suggests that for the e-pen should be sending out electronic newsletter, may be falling short in numbers subscribed. Conference call needed to address this in the next few weeks. Recognition event also needed at some point. Kristina notes that time between when PEN goes to print and when we distribute it is a great time to make sure the website is up to date with at least two articles. Intern Patrice Elsten coming in for the next PEN (part of Algonquin College Professional Writing program). Has specific interest in businesses.

Kristin asks if there can be online tools for the board such as a newer wiki or a place to share files. A shared calendar is also suggested and discussed as possibly using Google Calendar. Valerie will set up a shared Google Calendar and send out invites for it. This can be embedded in the website.

9. Update of volunteers. Diana working with PEN intern as well as distribution volunteer. A couple of more have come on to do some writing. It is suggested to go to Carleton University and speak at different committees to ask people to help. Work on Volunteer Ottawa, which Sabrina suggests will be biggest source of help. Kristin offers to meet with volunteers to help orient them. Sabrina suggests working with volunteers to see who are the most motivated for possibly contributing more to the board. Kristin will be contact for Treasurer posting on Volunteer Ottawa site.

10. Other Business. Issue of clean air in the PERC office - Sabrina offered to help Diana with this issue. HEPA vac is suggested to help clean bookshelves of dust. An air purifier is suggested.

Pamela voices interest in taking over as Chair but has some ideas about how she would like to change PERC and the board. She discusses her vision about making room for innovation and creativity and working with meetings that are less heavy and more fluid (incorporating principles of the 'art of hosting'). Wants to try out different things. Kristina points out that it is OK to experiment and learn from these experiences. Next meeting is before the AGM, will be first session where we try something new that still maintains board meeting requirements. AGM is decided to be Monday, May 30th at 5:30. Board members are asked to bring snacks.

Diana is helping to take care of receipts and updating memberships for large donations. She will take care of sending out thank yous. Kristina notes that in the future Ellen should be doing this since it is part of her bookkeeping role. Diana points to a large issue of a recent accusation of PEN being anti-semitic. She crafted a well worded response but this is something that should be addressed at board level since there is no PEN support committee.

11. Check-out. Everybody checks out.

Meeting adjourned at 8:31 pm.