Draft Minutes of the November 8th Board Meeting

PERC Board Meeting November 8th, 2007

MINUTES

The meeting was called to order at 19:35. Kristin Miller chaired the meeting and Kristina Inrig took minutes.

Present: Steve Gurman, Kristina Inrig, Mike Kaulbaurs, Kristin Miller, and Margaret Jensen. Guest: Moe from Just Food.

1. Check-in: Everyone checked-in.

2. Select Time-Keeper: Margaret

3. Adoption of Agenda MOTION to approve agenda. Moved by Kristina, seconded by Steve. Carried.

3. Approval of Oct 18th Minutes MOTION to approve minutes. Moved by Steve, seconded by Margaret. Carried.

4. Presentation about Just Food (JF) - Moe provided info about JF (see handout). -Highlights: JF has 2 staff at four days per week, one at 3 days, and project staff. Core funding from City of Ottawa ($20,000) + Community Garden Network ($30,000) + project funding (Trillium, Ace Bakery, & personal donations). Incubated from Social Planning Council (in-kind). Huge volunteer roles. Membership of 1000+. Annual budget is $150,000. -Moe discussed several partnership opportunities. � Ongoing relationship with PEN (Food portion of Spring issue) � Athena: duplication of efforts may be happening. JF is aiming to be the source of local food information. Possibly just direct over to the JF website. Don't want it to be a competition of who is putting it on faster. Athena should be pointing to Just Food and not duplicating it. Mike suggested she speak to Rachel. � Volunteers interested on food sourcing to work together. Shortage of solid volunteers. � If PERC has any criticism to share (such as Harvest Chart on minutes), please talk to JF directly. It would be better if these weren�t listed on the PERC website. � We hope you will help direct people to JF for food issues especially buy local. We have overlapping interests so we should be working together. JF wants to help contribute to policy level. � Moe wonders what we are working on and how we may be able to work together. Mike suggested Climate Change and Food Security issues. Just Food is focusing on practical grassroots side. Mike could follow-up if there are other specific projects that we could work together on.

6. Business arising from last meeting:

1) PEN Editor Contract: Revised draft on contract is tabled.  A question about the funding sentences that were cut was referred to Mike to review before next meeting.

2) Membership Campaign: Nothing new to report.

3) Harassment Policy: An e-mail was sent questioning the wording of the new harassment policy stating that it seemed highly formal. The Board agrees that we are happy with the current policy as it is. -Kristin noted a concern with the wording of "Non-Discrimination Procedures" under Responsibilities of Supervisor.  MOTION to replace with "Policy on Harassment.� Moved by Kristina, seconded by Steve.  Carried.

Another issue was a concern about what is displayed on personal websites or e-mails. The board agreed that this was not a board matter as it has nothing to do with PERC e-mails or website. What Mike is doing on his own time is not relevant to the board. Mike did note that the inappropriate card was not listed on purpose. ACTION: Kristin will respond to this concern.

4) Business Plan: Kristin has started working on it. Update to be provided next meeting and meeting with Committee Chairs can be scheduled for new year.

5) Board Development: Committee met and is working on recruitment.

7. Financial Report: Steve provided the Cash Flow document. There was a shortfall in October for memberships so we could run a deficit of approximately $150.00. The membership campaign will have a goal above the membership projections and we also need to consider lack of grant in November. MOTION to accept financial report. Kristin moves, seconded by Steve. Carried.

8. PEN Report: PEN needed to be digitized in order to print in colour. We hope it will come in on Monday. Kristina wondered how the next issue will be produced. Next issue is in January. Deadline is December 15th and events December 20th. ACTION: Margaret and Mike are going to work together for a plan for future issues.

8. Committees/Coordinator: -Current highlights: � IT Admin - still trying to sort Committee issues out. � Creatives: Working on Creative Commons images that can be used. This is different from coppermine. It is a Wiki-based gallery spaces of images. May later have waiver for Flikr to ask permission to use photos. � Library: new books have been purchased. � Participation: no PVN editor. James is taking it over again possibly. Hopefully there will be a redo of the volunteer section of website. New Volunteers haven't been responded to as promptly as originally thought. This PEN issue was difficult. � Web: Athena needs to be reviewed.

9. Coordinator -Two big trends to note: � Distinct shift in the number of phone inquiries vs. Electronic. A much higher % of electronic inquiries don't call to discuss. This results in a lower response rate and we are not having as many volunteers. Normally we would have 5+ per week. � Donor trends: Number of people donating is down and number of people volunteering is down. Size of donations is down, but donation amounts are larger.

-Other: �Square Dance: will hopefully going to happen in November. � pure know-how (natural products): new trend to watch

10. Other Business -Margaret wondered if we could start meeting at 7pm. This may be too rushed for some.

11. Next Meeting: Tuesday, Dec 18th at 7:00pm.

12. Check-out: Everyone checked out.