February 15, 2007 BoD Minutes

Minutes - PERC BoD Meeting
February 15, 2007

Present: Randal, Kristin, Steve, Mike, Margaret, Jason, Kristina

Regrets: Joe

Minutes: Steve

1. Check-in (approximately 7:40 pm)

Note: Randal arrived at approximately 8:00 pm and Jason arrived at approximately 9:20 pm. As we did not initially have quorum, discussion of some of the agenda items was delayed until quorum was achieved.

2. Assign a Time Keeper

Kristina volunteered to be Time Keeper

3. Adoption of Agenda

The Agenda was adopted as presented.

Moved: Kristin. Seconded: Randal. Carried

4. Approval of Minutes of January 18, 2007 BoD meeting

There was a short discussion on whether the minutes accurately reflected the discussion with respect to the PEN article on Israeli Apartheid. It was agreed that the wording was accurate.

The minutes were approved as presented.

Moved: Kristin. Seconded: Randal. Carried.

5. Business arising from the Minutes

i. Proposed PERC Anti-Harassment Policy

(Jason was not present during this portion of the meeting.)

Kristin noted that she had met with Jason to discuss the draft policy which he had been working on. They had made some progress, but there were a number of issues which still had to be resolved. The updated draft will be posted on the wiki and it was hoped that a close-to-final version would be ready for discussion at the March Board meeting.

iii. Board Retreat - Agenda possibilities

Mike, Kristin and Steve had met to discuss a possible Board retreat and potential agenda items.

It was felt that, for a Retreat to be meaningful, the Directors attending should be those who will be staying on the Board through the end of the 2007-08 year.

It was also felt, by this group, that the PERC Business Plan should be the basis for a Retreat agenda. Following this approach, specific issues on the Agenda to be discussed would include:


 * Context in which PERC operates,


 * Membership


 * Role of the PEN


 * Use of Virtual Volunteers


 * Improving PERC's community profile


 * Next Steps

There was a short discussion of the obvious need to ensure that any activities that might be implemented as part of "Next Steps" fell within PERC's mandate.

Margaret suggested it would be useful to look at PERC's mandate to see whether our current activities are consistent with it.

Margaret also suggested that it might be relevant to review the wording of the PERC Mandate to assess whether all Board members actually had the same understanding of its objectives.

Note: Randal arrived at this stage of the meeting, so quorum was achieved. The agenda returned to issues which needed Board approval.

ii. PEN Editor's Contract

Kristin and Steve met with Margaret after the January Board meeting to work on another draft of the 2007 PEN Editor's contract. The draft (Draft #3) was presented for discussion.

The Board and PEN Editor were able to agree on all clauses of the contract except one which referred to fundraising and PEN redesign.

It was moved that the Board approve the rest of the contract, with the exception of this single clause. Steve and Kristin would meet with Margaret again and work out an acceptable wording to replace the clause in question which read as follows:

"The Editor will not be asked to be responsible for any fundraising for the PEN other than the one Fall issue of the Insider, specified in (2-H), and she will not be asked to be responsible for redesigning the PEN."

It was agreed that the revised clause would be circulated to Board members by email for approval and that, if the approval was obtained, the revised contract could be signed before the March meeting. Failing this, the entire draft contract would be tabled again at the meeting.

Moved: Steve. Seconded: Randal. Carried

Break

6. Search for New Board Members (Steve)

Steve noted that Kristina Inrig was still interested in joining the PERC Board and was presently attending her third Board meeting to see, firsthand, how the PERC Board functioned. He also noted that Kristina had started her volunteer orientation program but had not yet finished it. Steve and Kristina had also met to discuss Board work and to answer any questions that she had about the Board.

This being the case, Steve was prepared to move a motion that Kristina be appointed a PERC Director, with ratification to take place at the PERC AGM in May.

Before the motion could be put, there was a brief discussion regarding the relevance of the standard PERC volunteer orientation to prospective Board members and whether it was necessary for a Director to complete the entire orientation. Mike noted that, for all other PERC committees, completion of the orientation was mandatory but that Board members seldom completed it.

Steve noted that preliminary work had been done in the past with Dianna Graham on an orientation that better met the needs of Directors, but the work had not been completed. He suggested that Kristina had had an adequate orientation regarding the Board and PERC and moved that she be made a Director, subject to ratification as noted above.

The motion was seconded by Randal. Carried.

Kristina then volunteered to join the Board Development Committee.

7. Reports

i. Financial: There was no financial report due to the absence of the Treasurer

ii. PEN Editor: (Margaret)


 * The deadline for articles for the April issue is mid-March. The theme will be "Gardening".  Notices for "Events" should be submitted by March 20th.  A notice for the Garage Sale should be submitted as well if we want to have it appear in time.


 * CKCU at Carleton University is still doing interviews on PEN articles.


 * PEN Volunteers have not changed.


 * The PEN is receiving a fair number of unsolicited articles.

iii. Committee Reports (Mike)


 * Not a lot of spectacular stuff to report.


 * Mike noted that the "40 Day (Vegetarian/Vegan) Challenge" is in progress and that he is also striving to purchase foods produced within approximately 100 km of Ottawa. Results and a blog can be accessed via links on the PVN.

iv. Coordinator's Report: (Mike)

Mike noted that there was not much new to report. In response to a question about the status of various events, he noted the following:


 * the Hearts and Minds event has been "put on the shelf" for the time being and the Special Events Committee will put its efforts into the Garage Sale instead.


 * the Music Benefit will not take place in the near future.


 * Special Events Committee is working on committee development.

8. New Business - There was no new Business

9. Date of Next Meeting

The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, March 6th. The normal Thursday meeting night is being changed to Tuesday to allow Jason to attend.

10. Checkout The meeting ended at approximately 9:40 pm

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