Board Minutes June 2013

Approved at the July 2013 Board meeting.

EBC Board Meeting Minutes for June 2013

Board meetings are open to the EBC members and the public.

• Location: BikeWorks North, 2nd floor office
• Start Time: 6:30pm

Please RSVP to [board@edmontonbikes.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: Sarah
• Minute-taker: justin
• Food by: Lee
• Board attendance: Neil, Paul, Chris Corrigan, Adam, Sarah, justin, Anna, Lee
• Staff attendance: Chris Chan
• Regrets: Leila, Coreen
• Absent: None
• Guests: None

Call to Order

• Meeting called to order by Sarah at 6:38 pm.

Approval of Agenda

• Motion: To approve agenda. Motioned by Adam. Seconded by Paul. Motion Carried.

Approval of Last Month's Minutes

• Motion: To approve May 2013 minutes. Motioned by Adam. Seconded by Lee. Motion Carried.

Logistics for Board Retreat

• Date: Saturday July 7 @ 10am-3pm
• Location: Outside if weather is nice, BioSci Building on U of A Campus is weather is poor.
• Chair: TBD
• Minute-taker: TBD
• Food by: TBD
• Topics tabled for the Retreat from past meetings"
  • (June 2013) Hiring 3rd staff for fixing up bikes for sale
  • (June 2013) Rental program?
  • (June 2013) AGM logistics: Date (Sunday Sept 22 or Oct 6?), location, budget, board member recruitment, etc.

Logistics for Next Regular Meeting

• Date: Wednesday July 24
• Location: BikeWorks South, 2nd floor lounge
• Chair: Paul
• Minute-taker: justin
• Food by: Sarah

Reports

President's Report (5 min)

President's Report

• Discussion notes:
  • No report submitted. Neil: Leila is a less active president than others have been in the past, is this causing any problems for our Executive Director? Chris Chan: No, I have never relied on the executive as an executive.

Nothing to approve/return.

Treasurer's Report (15 min)

• Treasurer's Report
• Discussion notes:
  • Paul: off the budget because of no received grants. Neil: We received $3,300 from the provincial goverment. We received the last Community Spirit Grant. Also, $2,500 for our adapted bike program. Paul: Should be ~$5,000 ahead of budget. Neil: May is not done being calculated. We are looking healthy but don't have hard numbers. Chris Chan: How is the north shop specifically doing? Paul: Will look into that and get back to you. Still having the odd hiccup, but learning. As far as help goes, could use help with collecting cash from safes and doing deposit. Adam: I can do this for the next month for the south shop. Neil: 1 person-1 shop is more manageable. Adam: If we are ahead of budget, maybe we could look into the cell phone/bookkeeper ideas.

• Action Items: Paul will provide a report for May by June 30, 2013.

Nothing to approve/return.

Executive Director's Report (10 min)

Executive Director's Report Project time allocation sheet

• Discussion notes:
  • Chris Chan: I get the impression that the board does not read the emails that I send out. Would appreciate if everyone would read the website and newsletter. Adam: I noticed that you started including an hourly breakdown of your work. Chris Chan: Leila asked me to do that. Adam: I think that was a miscommunication. Sarah: No, we asked for that.
  • Chris Corrigan: There are hurdles listed in Advocacy, anything you'd like help with? Chris Chan: You and I can have a meeting later to figure this out. Particularly around the municipal election, but there is a template to follow. Sarah: Is there a date or timeline to giving attention to the election? Can we talk about this at the retreat? Adam: Getting board members involved would require a significant download of information. Chris Chan: This is not related to the retreat in timeline.
  • Discussion of a work cell phone for the Executive Director. There is general agreement to explore the possibility, since so much of the Executive Director role is about coordinating. Could also assist with taking care of social media aspects of the position. It is suggested that since we appear to be ahead of where we expect to be at this time, we should decide to allocate $45/month to paying the bill for a work cell phone. Chris Chan can find one which suits his needs and submit bills to the board.
  • Square up - Neil: Can we use the cell phone for Square Up? Chris Chan: No that is something that lives at the shop. We did not get a used iPad donated as we hoped. We can purchase one if we desire. It would have POS benefits. The check-out process would be much more simple. Neil: I would like more contemplation about the work required of volunteers and possible expense. And talking to Coreen about her feelings about changing the POS system. I don't feel like we should make a decision until we've talked this through more. Better for a winter transition. Chris Chan: I have been going really slow because of the cost of an iPad, but realized we are paying quite a bit in PayPal fees right now. Neil: This is reflected in our revenue. Sarah: Chris can bring this up at a later date in a different report.
  • Mailing memberships - Adam: Can this be done at locations other than the south shop? Chris Chan: The printer there is only one of good quality. Neil: It doesn't have to be done from BWS.
  • The election - Anna: The election has a huge component of advocacy and visibility. Should put in some thought around strategies/directions for the campaigning, so the board is doing some of the legwork and not putting it all on the Executive Director's plate. Paul: We should prioritize it, 1 in 4 year opportunity. Adam: I would be happy for bikes to stay off the table. Neil: It's more of an idea of directing resources toward bike-friendly politicians. Chris Chan: We should ask strategists/bike-friendlies if it would be easier or harder for them if bikes were an election issue. Adam: This seems to be something we would rely on advocacy individuals and Chris Chan for. Paul: Can we endorse candidates? Neil: If we aren't worried about our charitable organization status. Anna: Leery of offloading the visioning to Complete Streets level, since they know less about the board policies and directioning. I want us to put forward a direction for them to take to the ground. Adam: can Anna write up a little piece so we can understand what you're asking us to decide. Anna: It sounds like there might be time at the retreat to discuss this. Sarah: There is definitely time at the retreat. It sounds like Anna wants us to make it clear where our vision and goals align with our action and advocacy with respect to the election. Chris Chan: Put this to advocacy, board members can join up with them. Anna: I don't know if this is the committee level. Neil: Committees are there to get things done. Sarah: It seems like we have a solution to this - talk about it at the retreat. Adam: I will try to write something up before hand.
• Motion:Add $45/month to budget to allow Chris Chan to acquire a work cell phone. Motioned by Neil. Seconded by Anna. Motion Carried.
• Action Items: Chris Chan will purchase a work cell phone.

Motion: To approve the June 2013 ED report as presented. Motioned by Adam. Seconded by Lee. Motion Carried.

BikeWorks Report (10 min)

BikeWorks Report

• Discussion notes:
  • Paul: I want to talk about vandalism. We have nothing there to tell them who we are as an organization. I want to let them know that we are a non-profit whose goal is to strengthen community cycling. Either way, something should be done. Sarah: That might not deter those who are breaking in, but might bolster community around holding each other accountable. Adam: Is there a manner of escalation in this move? Paul: It would talk directly to those who are doing it. Neil: But whether there is something productive in this move. Anna: Would we want to indicate the services we offer to potentially deter the theft? Chris Chan: Putting reading material for them to come look at in the dark won't do much. Outreaching to organizations that typically work with the individuals doing this will be more likely to work. We haven't been doing tune-ups at the Mustard Seed and Bissell Centre this year. Anna: Does Coreen need anything from us? Neil: We haven't been asked for anything in terms of resources yet. Sarah: Should we move on?
  • Adam: Coreen mentioned the phone. Can we have an auto-message that someone will have listened to before getting through to the shop? Chris Chan: These services go through the phone company. I don't know how to set this up ourselves. Or we could pay to have it done for us. Anna: Maybe we should look into this. Neil: Let's find out more to make an informed decision.
  • Sarah: Anything else for the report? Adam: Any issue with a week off for Coreen in July? Chris Chan: I'm taking three days that month.
  • Adam: Should we make a complaint to the city about the dumpster? General agreement that we need to encourage Coreen to pursue action as required, including complaining to the city.
  • Sarah: Reminder of the time, anything else to discuss from the report? Anna: Coreen mentions Women & Trans* Only days. What do we need to do? Adam: Web-based stuff isn't worth our time. Neil: We have been targeted before. Sarah: We should discourage attention toward negative behaviour. Chris Corrigan: I have heard of things happening in the last week that reinforce why we have it. Chris Chan: I'm not worried about this, I'm worried about female volunteers safety and comfort. Adam: We could make posters. People have noticed the "Backbone" ones already up in the shop and like the campaign. We could think about having a campaign like that which can make it clear people's assumptions. Sarah: Can we encourage Coreen to create them, or do you want to Adam? Adam: I like playing with stuff like that. Anna: We can put a post on that Thinktank site to see if anyone has made up resources already. Sarah: It sounds like Coreen is too busy to take on anything additional. It would be valuable to put on a workshop for people. justin: The Gender-Based Violence Prevention Program with the Student's Union at the U of A might have resources or funds to support a workshop. Anna: I can ask Melanie with GBVPP if something like this can be set up. Sarah: It is important that we are rolemodels in these situations ourselves.
  • Sarah: do we need to talk about banked time/overtime? justin: Coreen didn't have a problem with actually going over hours, just the distribution of her hours.

Motion: To approve the June 2013 BikeWorks report as presented. Motioned by Anna. Seconded by Adam. Motion Carried.

Alberta Bike Conference Committee Report (2 min)

• via email from Bernadette: "The dates will be Sept 28-29 (1/2 day on Sunday). We will have 3 session topics: education, infrastructure and advocacy. We are looking for speakers on each topic, plus group activities etc. I think we'll be sending out invites etc in the next few weeks, so if you know of someone who might be interested, please let us know."
• Discussion notes:
  • Sarah: We should email Bernadette to ask if there are people we want to extend invitations to, or presenters for the topics.

Mid-year Retreat Planning Committee Report (10 min)

• Discussion notes:
  • Date: July 7th, 10am-3pm
  • Topics: Any particulars we should discuss other than SMART goals, etc?
  • Not discussed further

Current & Completed Business

Updates on Action Items From Previous Meeting (5 min)

• Everyone log your board volunteer hours for the past month.
• Leila will send Coreen Cam W's contact info. DONE
  • Coreen will arrange to receive the cement blocks he would like to donate for BWS yard.
• Chris Co will send Cam W the google group invitation for Complete Streets lists and info for upcoming Advocacy Meetings.
• Chris Ch will contact Kornelsen family to discuss Memorial Ride in August.
• Paul (voluntold?) will review Bylaws and draft edits re: board election of members in good standing by July 30.
• Leila will ask Paul about timely reimbursements, getting a credit card for staff to make larger purchases, and thoughts on hiring a book keeper.
  • Action Item: Neil will draft policy surrounding use of an EBC credit card, specifically pertaining to expenses paid by the casino fund.
• Chris Co will help with membership mailouts.
• Justin will take the steps to become a signing authority as new Secretary.
  • Action Item: Paul will look into whether this makes sense to do now or to wait.
• Chris Ch will update website with new board positions.
  • Action Item: Anna and Neil will be Chris Chan's point people about website and google accounts administration.
• Adam will contact Matt M regarding interim board member position. DONE. via email: "appreciated being asked to join, but he's moving to Camrose."

Board Vacancies (10 min)

• Neil via email: "Bylaw 5.e. makes it part of our responsibilities to fill board vacancies between general meetings, until they can be elected properly at the next general meeting. So, no special general meeting will be required."
• Sarah via email: I appreciate Justin's proposed approach; I'd also be in favour of putting out a time limited call for applications. Definitely including those candidate that ran in the last election to apply.
  • What are the next/necessary steps to fill the vacancy? Email members? Include the invitation in the newsletter?
  • Do we have an application (or draft) already? If not, what would we like to know from potential candidates? Can we upload this application to the website? When will the closing date be?
    • Application from 2011
    • Application from 2012
    • We should also include all the board job descriptions, code of conduct, etc
• Could we make announcement at Bike Month events? (If so, which ones? who can do this?) Perhaps create handbill to recruit potential board members or board committee volunteers?
• Discussion notes:
• Neil: We already have an application. Someone can tweak it for what we need right now and then put out a call out with the newsletter. Anna: We can put a link to the board job descriptions on the wiki.
• Action Items: Neil will do simple updates to website to promo this. Anna will send out an email invite to the board to forward on to our networks.

New Business

Municipal Election Campaign (10 min)

• Review current EBC presence. Review issue(s) that we should focus on. Set Top 2-3 priorities for EBC Muni Campaign (reflecting on our 2013 Organizational/Board goals?). Review Chris' proposed actions.
• Discussion notes:
  • There is an Advocacy meeting next Tuesday. Can do overall visioning at the retreat.

Staff Performance Review Policy (10 min)

• Draft Policy is on the wiki at Staff Performance Review Policy
• Discussion notes:
  • Neil: I have concern around if we need to make it more specific. Paul: We should make it open to extraordinary review. Add "...and c) on an as needed basis, at the discretion of the board".
• Motion: To strike an ad hoc HR Committee to implement Executive Director Performance review. Motioned by Adam. Seconded by Neil. Motion Carried.
• Action Items: Adam will chair the committee and send out an email to solicit other committee members.

Move bank account (__ min)

• From RBC to Servus??
• Discussion notes:
  • Neil: We pay $60/month to RBC. Should be consolidating our accounts. Don't want to have two banks. Adam: We need a plan for the new credit card, consolidation of bank accounts, in place for the AGM, to be implemented in December for the board changeover. General agreement.
• Action Items: Paul will explore options open to us for consolidation by July board meeting.

AGM Committee (__ min)

• Sept 22?
• book hall, publicize nominations, Grainge & Allsopp awards
• Discussion notes:
  • Adam: We need to form a committee. Anna: It's an event, so it is event planning. Neil: I would prefer to push it to October.
• Motion: to hold the EBC AGM on October 6, 2013, location at the discretion of the AGM Commttee. Motioned by Anna. Seconded by Lee. Motion Carried.

Adjournment

• Motion: To adjourn the meeting. Motioned by Anna. Seconded by Adam. Motion Carried.