Board Minutes April 2024

These minutes are not yet approved. They are scheduled for review and approval at the upcoming board meeting.

Bike Edmonton Board Meeting Minutes for April 2024

Board meetings are open to Bike Edmonton members and the public.

• Location: Google Meet
• Start Time: 7:00pm

Please RSVP to board@bikeedmonton.ca if you plan on attending. Please include a brief summary of any agenda item you would like to table. Thank you!

Attendance

• Meeting Chair: Keith
• Minute-taker: Adam
• Board attendance: Derek, Heather, Sarah, Colin, Matt, Marcel, Keith, Adam
• Staff attendance: Vaughan, Alex, Coreen
• Regrets: Stephen
• Absent: Nazz, Daniel
• Guests: Jonathan Woelber

Call to Order

• Meeting called to order by Keith at 7:09 pm.

Logistics for Next Meeting

• Date: May 13th, 2024
• Location: Google Meet
• Chair: Stephen
• Minute-taker: Adam

Approval of Agenda, Minutes, Reports (5 min)

MOTION

To approve this (April) agenda, the March 2024 minutes), and reports as presented below.
Moved:	Derek
Seconded:	Heather

Aye	No	Abstain
	none
passed

President's Report

None available this month, Stephen has been busy.

Treasurer's Report

February's deficit was small, $2k, which is good. The general acct is at ~$30k, meaning we probably made money in March. We paid off most of the credit card to make room for a parts order. Marcel has lost online access to the Casino acct-- so he's banking in person till they fix that. It's probably at about $41k or so. We owe 2 months $800 on our storage sublease (Sarah sent out a draft lease this afternoon-- Pres and VP have the authority to sign, so provide feedback to Keith if needed).

Profit/Loss statement: again, Feb deficit was down to $2k from maybe 10k last year, so that's great-- mostly due to Greg's salary.

Treasurer or Secretary will try to add financial statements to the wiki prior to the meeting next time, for folks to be able to review on their own screens.

Checklist of action items from last month's Treasurer's report:

• Debts $6k to Bergeron and $7k to CRA: - the former was half-paid today, the rest may be paid after bike sale this month. The latter is being paid off $2100/mo.
• AGLC ok with board member Matt receiving sublease payments on the storage space?: - no, so that can't come from Casino acct. That's probably fine for us.
• Utility payments to come out of Casino acct going forward: - Marcel will ask again. Jonathan's experience on another board is that they are ok with this.
• Matching $5k from AB govt crowd-funding platform: - received.

H.R. Committee Report

They met. Will get TOR done soon. Plans for this year: do employee reviews, gather employee files together in one spot. Matt is to be "the point person" for communications with staff.

Finance Committee Report

Nothing to add to the Treasurer's report right now.

MOTION

To receive these reports.
Moved:	Matt
Seconded:	Sarah

Aye	No	Abstain
	none
passed

Current & Completed Business (30 mins if we keep it really tight!)

Updates on Action Items From Previous Meeting (1 min)

• Everyone log your hours for the past month.
• Everyone sign reports that you have reviewed each month.
• Committee Chairpersons to post all committee meetings to Bike Edmonton Events calendar (unless the event must explicitly be private: then use "Bike Edmonton Internal" calendar)
• Committee Chairpersons to ensure wiki is up-to-date with committee TOR.

Documentation of online votes

March 18, 2024:

MOTION

That we give notice to close [the South Shop] June 30th.
Moved:	Matt
Seconded:	Sarah

Aye	No	Abstain
Derek, Daniel, Keith, Stephen, Heather, Colin, Marcel		Adam
passed

Cash balance required for winter operation

• Sarah: looking at the actuals that we have, and projecting forward using the income projections from Coreen in the case of closing the south shop, she has concerns about our remaining solvent through the winter. From April to end of August, we're looking to make $140k, a total revenue for the year of $225k, we she sees as leaving us in a fiscal deficit of $75k, which we don't have reserves for. Much appreciation expressed to Sarah (and Keith) for this work. Colin wonder where the deficit comes from structurally, compared to the last 5 years say. Increased staffing is part of that, as is previous spending on lawyers & etc around unionization. Marcel feels we will make more from the bike sale than what is projected, and staying open through June will help too. Adam wishes we could turn the analysis into criteria for knowing when we have to act on cost-cutting as actuals come in-- Sarah agrees. Heather feels the real question is how to increase revenues-- open more hours, getting grants, getting charitable status (Jonathan points out that the latter was 'soundly rejected' last time-- Heather feels the criteria around advocacy may have changed, Jonathan feels this is likely not sufficient). Colin wonders about a fundraising committee. Adam pointed out the one factor in BE's growth has been Chris Chan's service; with that being less, we may have to shrink back to sustainability. Will discuss further in-camera.

Update on move plans (5 mins)

• Staff had not been informed that end of June was definitely the end of our lease, so they will need more time to provide a perspective.

• Alex is interested in a board member obtaining a building permit to make changes to the internal walls at the downtown shop (we want this done before the south shop closes)-- Matt volunteers. Marcel is concerned about permit and related costs adding up, so ideally Alex to provide him with a cost estimate-- Alex agrees to do so but feels the timeline will be a simple rubberstamp and the cost should be low.

Finance Audit (2 mins)

• In-progress per Marcel.

No particular number of members is required, it's just an invitation to look early if concerned rather than waiting for the AGM.

CIOG Grant (1 min)

• We applied, haven't heard back.

Property Tax Exemption (1 min)

• City has wrote back that we are eligible on both properties.

OBSA Window Repair Grant (1 min)

• Hearsay is that it went through. To confirm with Stephen next time.

CIP Grant Reporting (1 min)

• Carried over to next time, as Stephen is not present.

Waste Reduction and Re-use Grant (3 mins)

• They asked us for clarification on one item, now we're waiting for them to decide

Ken Amesbury Shirt Project (5 mins)

• To summarize, this member floated an idea to make some T-shirts. Heather: unclear details include the slogan to be printed, whether it is a fundraiser to BE, the quality of the shirts, inclusivity ex women's sizes. Keith feels we should let him go ahead and try something. Marcel's understanding is that it's neither a fundraiser nor requiring any funding from us, it will be print on demand-- he tends to agree with Keith. Coreen notes we have cases of shirts sitting around from previous attempts. Sarah notes we need to be protective of our brand-- Derek agrees.

MOTION

Motion: we authorize Ken to create a T-shirt not explicitly referencing Bike Edmonton, OR simply logo + "volunteer."
Moved:	Adam
Seconded:	Matt

Aye	No	Abstain
Heather, Sarah, Marcel	Derek	Keith
pass

Individualized Donors Thank-Yous (3 mins)

• Per Chris Chan's suggestion.

The spreadsheet is at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UaufChrrLeE4A7zDpmlHXQHtjK4av2gngWGO30LdL8I/edit?usp=sharing

• No discussion tonight.

Pop-up Store Options (3 mins)

• Marcel has determined this might not be feasible, probably a non-starter, unless someone gives us money (he asked a couple of organizations, no responses yet).

• Coreen agrees with tabling this for now, and coming up with a more focused plan.

Update on value for members homework (3 mins)

• We agreed that this exercise is unnecessary. Members have endorsed their support the services we already provide through their generosity in our fundraising campaign.

Update on CoE 20 Bike Clinics thing (__ min)

• Coreen feels that given our current capacity, some of the bike builders may be interest in doing some of these outreach bike-tuning events. Administrating this will take some time, but it should be net positive, and it maintains our relationship with the City. Events after the move will be easier. She thinks bike valet parking would be harder to staff. Adam encouraged her to make these decisions with respect to profitability and sustainability, not implicit obligations.

Introduction to Jonathan Woelber

Jonathan chose to attend today for a few reasons. 1, to give an update on our outreach program with Boyle Street, which may be able to go forward now that they have some space in the Bissel Centre location, so Jonathan and volunteer Bruce MacKintosh will be doing that. He is also prepared to fill out board vacancy. He is past president of BE, and has been a volunteer since 2013, and continues to be a volunteer at the downtown shop.

New Business

Keys For Shops

• Heather feels it would be good to have a set of keys held by the board, as a matter of preparedness.
• Coreen: there is a list of all the key-holders on Google Drive, and they all sign a keyholder agreement. Board members Matt and soon-to-be member Jonathan already have keys.
• Tabled.

6 month Board Retreat

• Heather and others have proposed it. Matt points out this is a good idea given high board turnover. Further discussion was in-camera.

Funding for Shop Manager Facilitator

• As our shop managers are merging their work, normally the ED would be involved in that. Keith doesn't feel anyone on the board should take over facilitating that. There was a suggestion to take some money to hire a facilitator to help shop managers figure this out. There was little interest in this from board or staff.

Resignation of Board Member Gino

MOTION

Whereas our bylaws state that a member absent from 3 meetings in a row without adequate notice or excuse will be considered to have resigned, we recognize Gino's resignation from the board.
Moved:	Adam
Seconded:	Keith

Aye	No	Abstain
	none
pass

Documentation of Whatsapp thread (5 min)

MOTION

Whereas our Whatsapp chat contains a wealth of information for ourselves and for future board members to reference, transcripts of the preceeding month's Whatsapp discussion thread will be appended to the in-camera minutes of each board meeting going forward.
Moved:	Adam
Seconded:	Heather

Aye	No	Abstain
	none
pass

In Camera Session

MOTION

To move in camera.
Moved:	Heather
Seconded:	Colin

Aye	No	Abstain
	none
pass

Jonathan Woelber was added as a director by in-camera vote.

MOTION

To move out of camera] discussion.
Moved:	Adam
Seconded:	Marcel

Aye	No	Abstain
	none
passed

Adjournment

MOTION

To adjourn the meeting at 10:32pm.
Moved:	Keith
Seconded:

Aye	No	Abstain