January 18, 2007 BoD Minutes

PERC BoD Meeting
January 18, 2007

Present: Steve, Randal, Joe, Kristin, Margaret and Mike

Guest: Kristina Inrig from Tucker House Renewal Centre

Regrets: Jason

Minutes: Steve

1. Check in 7:30 pm

Kristin chaired the meeting

2. Assign a time Keeper

Kristin suggested that one of the Board members be responsible for helping keep the meeting on schedule by keeping track of the time. Each agenda item had a nominal time assigned to it. Joe volunteered to be timekeeper.

3. Adoption of Agenda

The Agenda was adopted as presented. Moved by Steve. Seconded by Joe. Carried.

4. Approval of the December 14, 2006 minutes

The following clarifications to the minutes were noted:


 * Under Business Arising, Colour Issue of the PEN: Margaret noted that the word "members" was used when it should have been "volunteers".  Mike added that a questionnaire was not used to solicit opinions of new volunteers regarding whether reading the PEN had played a part in their being attracted to work at PERC.


 * Under PEN Editor's Report: Margaret noted that Steve had not made the comment that a PEN article was "inflammatory". That particular comment was made by Randal.


 * Under Finance: There was a clarification that 6 issues of the PEN would be produced in Fiscal Year 2006-07, rather than in 2007 as originally stated.

The minutes were approved as amended. Moved: Joe. Seconded Steve. Carried

5. Business arising from minutes

i. Proposed PERC Anti-Harassment Policy:

Kristina Inrig has emailed a copy of the policy developed by Tucker House for PERC to consider.

Kristin and Jason are looking at this policy as well as the draft prepared by Jason. Kristin reported that she hopes to have a draft ready for discussion by the April Board meeting. The intention is to be able to present a policy for approval at the May AGM.

Kristin wondered whether the policy should include potentially harassing activities of PERC members. Mike replied that since members are not part of the PERC committee structure or staff there is not much that we can do about their activities (i.e. they do not fall under any of the PERC management structures). Our main concern should be whether an issue involving a PERC member also involves a PERC staff person or volunteer. Then we can get involved.

ii. PEN Editor's Report from last Board Meeting

Margaret wanted clarification that a discussion during which comments were made about an article on Israeli Apartheid did not, in fact, represent a formal critique of the PEN Editor and the Editorial Board. It was agreed that the minutes should be amended to read, "No consensus was reached" on this issue.

Bike Rack for future meeting: The Board should consider developing guidelines for the way in which Minute takers record discussions. The objective is to strike a balance so that minutes reflect the issues covered without getting into too much detail.

6. PEN Editor's Contract Renewal (Joe presented)

A Board PEN Editor Contract Committee (Joe, Kristin and Steve) met on December 18 to review the PEN Editor's contract. Joe prepared a draft contract based on this meeting that removed many of the redundancies that existed in the current contract and made some other minor adjustments. He met with Margaret to discuss it. Margaret agreed to this draft.

Joe then circulated the draft to Kristin and Steve who made some more changes. The revised draft was unacceptable to Margaret for a number of reasons.

It was agreed that the contract would be sent back to the Board Committee for further revisions and that the contract could hopefully be finalized before the next Board meeting.

7. PERC's Business Plan (Kristin presented)

Kristin started by expressing her appreciation for the work on this Business Plan done by Francis.

Mike presented a brief background on how the Business Plan (BP) came to be written:

Francis and Kristin carried out a "SWOT" analysis of the organization (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats). A financial analysis was also carried out. They also looked at the way other NGOs functioned

There was nothing really surprising in the draft BP although there were some interesting points about where people tend to volunteer.

Most of the recommendations contained in the draft BP are things that we already know. One especially important recommendation is that PERC needs to develop a Marketing and Communications strategy. The plan does not contain a lot of advice on how to do things.

The draft BP has been posted on the WIKI. Board members need to read the report individually and then sufficient time should be set aside at a Board meeting or a Board retreat to discuss it.

Break

8. Search for new Board members and Board Resources (Steve)

Steve noted that Kristina Inrig was still interested in joining the PERC Board. She has started doing the volunteer orientation at the PERC office and is attending the Board meeting this evening. The plan is for her to complete her orientation and, if she is still interested, Steve will put forward a motion at the February Board meeting recommending that Kristina be made a PERC Director.

'''9. Next PERC AGM: May 2007

May 3 was proposed as the date for the PERC 2007 AGM. Time to be determined (either 7:00 or 7:30 pm).

Mike is to check with the church whether the meeting room will be free on May 3rd.

Joe announced that he would be finishing his 3rd term on the Board (for a total of 6 years) and would not stand for the Board again.

Kristin suggested the idea of a Board retreat to discuss some of the important issues facing the organization.

Mike noted that we would need to have a solid agenda developed before setting a date.

There was agreement that retreat would be a good idea. Some of the issues that could be discussed included the Business Plan and PERC's strategic direction.

Bike Rack for next meeting: Kristin, Steve and Kristina will meet to identify a proposed agenda for a Board retreat and present this at the next Board meeting

10. Reports

i. Finance: Joe

Joe presented the Cash Flow sheet. He noted that a lot of the income expected in January actually was received in December.

There will be a small shortfall in January. Small - since the Coordinator has been laid off and we are not paying his salary.

Even with the Coordinator lay off, we are likely to have approximately a $2000 deficit at the end of this fiscal year (March 31st).

Joe presented a Budget projection for 2007-08. This included an entry under Income of $7000 that we would like to seek as funding for a series of PEN articles on the environment.

Margaret queried how this item could be in the budget when she had not been included in any discussion leading up to this proposal.

Mike and Joe attempted to explain that this was a budget "proposal" intended to explore ways in which the organization could generate sufficient funds to continue in existence. This budget was only intended to provide a general direction to PERC. If approved, Mike and Joe would then meet with Margaret to discuss the proposal in more detail: i.e. if a grant for up to $7000 is possible, how might the proposal be done, how much work would be required, etc.

Margaret had a question about the proposal to include some colour pages in the PEN. She asked Joe whether we could afford the extra $200 required for the 4-page colour insert. Joe answered that we did not have enough money at this time.

Joe noted that he would be away in sunny Mexico from February 1st to February 28th.

The draft Budget was approved as presented.

ii. PEN Editor's Report (Margaret)

Articles for the Feb-March issue of the PEN are due by today and Events by the 25th.

Mike will confirm with the Church that the meeting room is available for the PERC AGM on May 3rd and then let Margaret know so that she can put the required notice of the meeting in the PEN.

iii. Committees


 * Admin-IT: Usual struggles


 * Admin-Finance: Still looking for a Chair


 * Communications: Moribund


 * Special Events: Short staffed


 * Library: Have found a good Co-chair for the committee


 * Participation: Have found a good Co-chair for this committee as well.


 * PVN: Have found some good Co-editors and things are picking up. PVN may change its name and perhaps expand its reach to complement the PEN a bit more.  The PVN will be launching a 40 day Vegetarian or Vegan Challenge shortly aimed at PERC volunteers.


 * Athena Project: A bit hung up as it waits for some IT support

Mike is re-starting the RFD workshops (Revolution for Dummies) that provide support to volunteers.


 * Coordinator: Mike did not present a report as such. He felt that he had covered most of what he wanted to say already.

11. Any Other Business - There was no other business.

12. Date of Next Board Meeting February 15

13. Check-out The meeting ended at approximately 9:45 pm

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