December 14, 2006 BoD Minutes

BoD Minutes December 14, 2006
Present: Steve, Joe, Randal, Kristin, Jason, Mike and Margaret

Guest: Kristina Inrig - Executive Director of Tucker House Renewal Centre

Minutes: Jason

1. Check-in

2. Adoption of Agenda: The agenda was adopted as presented:

Moved by Joe seconded by Randal. Carried.

3. Approval of the Minutes of the Nov 9th Board meeting

The minutes of the November board meeting were approved as presented.

Approval of the minutes was moved by Randal and seconded by Joe. Carried

4. Business arising

i) Colour issue of PEN: Joe and Mike have reviewed the cash flow situation. Mike suggested that within this year's budget we could do at least one colour issue. Margaret confirmed that the cost would be $200.00 to add colour to the front and back pages of the paper. Margaret felt that this initiative may not increase readership or, if it does, the increase would be short lived, based on her experience with format changes in the past.  Joe noted that the board has already agreed that the PEN requires a fresh new appearance.

Mike mentioned that fewer new volunteers were turning up as a result of their finding out about the PERC through reading the PEN than in the past. In many cases, new volunteers had not noticed the PEN until they became volunteers and then realized that the PEN could be found in many of the places that they already frequented. This was an indicator of the PEN's lack of visibility.

ii) Harassment Policy: Jason and Kristin were not able to make the suggested changes to the Harassment Policy.

Mike suggested that the board should have a policy in place to protect all PERC volunteers from harassment.

Kristina Inrig said that she has done similar policy work with Tucker House and she would be glad to share her experience.

5. PEN Editor's Contract Renewal

Margaret's current (amended) contract ends on Jan 1st 2007.

Joe: The PEN sub-committee of the Board met to discuss PEN layout, but has not discussed the Editor's contract.

Margaret noted that the PERC has not met the terms of the current contract. The Editor's honorarium has not been paid for the last three issues.

The PEN sub-committee agreed to meet on the 18th of Dec 2006 to discuss the PEN Editor's contract. A report of that meeting, the current contract and any proposals will be available at the next meeting.

6. Search for new Board members and Board Resources

i) Kristina Inrig - Executive Director at Tucker House Renewal Centre has expressed interest in serving on the PERC Board. Kristina noted that her duties at Tucker House involve working with many environmental organizations and that she is also the Ottawa Coordinator of "Faith and the Common Good" which links faith communities that are interested in the environment. With this background, Kristina felt that there was a good potential for collaboration between PERC and Tucker House. She would be able to distribute the PEN to the groups with which she works and the PEN could publicize their activities.  Kristina felt that her membership on the PERC Board would be positive for both organizations.

Steve welcomed Kristina's comments and suggested that she go through the PERC orientation, ask any questions that she needed to and then make a decision on whether she still wanted to join the board.

ii) 	Steve reported that Lawrence Cumming, with whom he had been in discussions regarding a possible Board position, will not be able to join.

Lawrence, who has a background in international development, evaluation and volunteer organizations, has mentioned that he would be willing to be involved on a board sub-committee. This possibility will be investigated over the course of the next few months.

7. Reports

i) Financial: (Joe)

Joe noted that he did not have the Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss Statements for November ready to present to the Board since the accountant has been busy with exams. However, he was able to tell us that PERC had a bank balance of $73.01 at the end of November and a number of unpaid bills. Included among these are payments to the PEN Editor for the last three issues of the PEN.

December is usually a good month for income and Joe stated that, if projected income materialized, we would be able to make most of our payments by the end of the month. PERC had already received $3500 during December as of the date of this meeting.

Unfortunately, if we want to end the fiscal year in the "black" we will still need to lay off the Coordinator again for 3 months, starting January 1st, 2007.

We will also need to cut back one issue of the PEN to reduce costs so there will only be six issues in Fiscal Year 2006/2007. This will result in a single issue for Feb/March. The issues for the rest of 2007 seem safe (they will be produced during the next fiscal year).

The $1000.00 grant from Peace Fund Canada may not materialize.

Joe moved that the Board accept the Financial report. Steve seconded. Carried.

'''ii. PEN Editor's report'''

Before Margaret started her report Steve noted that he felt that one article from the last issue of the PEN did not fall in line with the PERC's mandate to promote Peace and Social Justice. (The article was "Boycott Israeli Apartheid") He felt the article was misleading.

Margaret said that PERC should not be afraid to deal with controversial issues and that the mainstream media do not offer balanced editorials. She felt that the article dealt with an important story that has not been covered by the mainstream media.

Randal agreed with Steve saying that as a registered charitable organization we should be careful to not be political. He felt that the article was inflammatory.

Kristin: Steve should bring his concerns about this article to the PEN Editorial Committee, or write a letter to the Editor etc. This was not the proper venue to bring up this kind of concern.

Mike suggested that we should not focus on this particular article but should look at the broader issue of how to deal with controversial topics in the PEN, where there isn't sufficient space to present all the facts.

Board members presented a number of points of view about how to decide when a PEN article was appropriate or not but did not reach any consensus on this issue.

Margaret's report:


 * The Next PEN issue will have an open theme. The deadline for submission of articles is January 15th, for the Feb/March issue. Notices of events should be submitted by the following week at the latest.


 * Margaret will be applying to TD-FOE for funding for one issue in collaboration with another organization, perhaps the Fair Trade Network. She felt that this approach might be more attractive to TD-FOE as well as being good for the PERC.


 * "Children as Peacemakers" will be the topic for the Spring issue.


 * The Earth Tones Drum Circle has raised $350.00 over the last year and has donated this money towards an issue of the PEN.

iii) Committees


 * IT: Has recently has recruited another excellent member.


 * Finance: Expects to table a draft budget for the next fiscal year at the next meeting


 * Communications: Basic Communications Plan is nearly done – presentation will be given at the next board meeting


 * Fundraising:

- Membership: Canvas has been a little disappointing. Mike will be approaching individuals who have not met their pledges for new members to try and get them to fulfill them.

- Special Events Committee is under strength. Hearts and Minds will need help to be successful. The Square dance faired well raising $500.00. Unfortunately Elizabeth McDermott is no longer with the committee.


 * Library Committee: Doing well. Jenn Decker shows promise


 * Outreach: Athena project has run into some problems due to limitations of wikipedia


 * Participation: Part of the business plan being prepared looks at the use of virtual volunteers as an ongoing resource.

8. New Business

There was no new business.

9. Date of next meeting: 18 Jan 2007

10. Check-out: 2200 hrs

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