Board Minutes October 2009
Edmonton Bicycle Commuters' Society
Board Meeting Minutes
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Attendance
Voting:
- CHRIS CHAN, President
- MICHAEL JANZ, Vice-President
- BILL SELLERS, Secretary
- NEIL CAREY, Treasurer
- ERICH WELZ, BikeWorks Director
- KEEGAN McEVOY, Communications Director
- LAUREN PRICE, Volunteer Director
- DEREK PLUIM, Office/Sponsorship and Fundraising Director
- KEITH HALLGREN, Membership/Registration Director
- JASON PONTO, Policy Director
Non-Voting:
- DAVID FELDMAN, Meeting Chair
- JIM STORRIE, Project Coordinator
- ALEX HINDLE, Staff Mechanic
- COREEN F, EBC Volunteer
Regrets:
- SHARON BARKER, Community Events Director
Summary of Action Items
- Neil to provide a monthly financial report at each meeting.
- Erich will handle email inquiries directly related to BikeWorks.
- Lauren will handle email inquiries directly related to volunteering with the EBC.
- Keegan will handle all inquiries which do not fit into either of the above categories.
- Jim will provide a report in writing prior to future meetings.
- Michael determine a date and location to hold a board retreat.
- Alex will inform Bikeworks volunteers about issues surrounding children in Bikeworks.
Minutes
- Call to Order
- Approval of agenda
- Introductions
- Approval of last meeting's minutes
- Reports
- Concerns regarding neighbours / children-in-shop policies
- Discussion Item: New board skills, interests, etc.
- Report from Jim (I was not able to take minutes for this)
- Old business
- Paid mechanics
- Insurance
- Safe
- Employee Expenses
- New business
- In-camera item
- Committee discussion: who will chair which?
- Mailing list responsibilities
- Erich will take on inquiries directly related to BikeWorks.
- Lauren will take on inquiries directly related to volunteering with the EBC.
- Keegan will take on all inquiries which do not fit into either of the above categories.
- Sustainability Week
- Heritage Festival
- Closing
David calls meeting to order at 7pm.
Derek/Keegan move to approve the agenda;
(Information only: board members and attendees introduce themselves.)
As the minutes from the last board meeting were not available, board decides to postpone this until the next board meeting. Passed by consensus.
Alex raises concerns about a child in the neighbourhood who has been frequently wandering into the shop of late. The child has a developmental disability and is difficult to handle. He also suggests that this may be a liability problem, as the shop is full of potentially dangerous tools and objects.
Chris suggests forwarding this issue to the policy committee, as we do not have standing policies about children in the shop.
Bill suggests we keep contact information for this child's guardians on file.
David suggests documenting her visits for liability reasons. Further, he suggests that these sorts of incidents are why BikeWorks should have an incident log, and suggests its creation.
Erich requests that Alex inform the EBC BikeWorks mailing list about this issue.
David suggests moving this discussion to the end of the meeting. Also asks if the board is interested in the possibility of a board retreat, to explore this topic in greater depth.
Michael speaks in favour of the retreat, and suggests postponing this discussion until that time.
Erich advises that the board attempt to become more proactive and less reactive, through the development of better policy, citing the concerns raised in item four. Erich/Michael: move that planning begin for a board retreat.
Michael will send out invites and inquiries to determine a potential date for this event.
Lauren asks if returning board members are happy with the status quo, and if not, where they would like to see changes.
Chris explains that prior board did not prioritize the development of organizational policies.
Keegan suggests that the policy committee should be very active as soon as possible.
Davidsuggests the possibility of board development workshops through the government organization he works with, though he explains that a full workshop would require about three months of preparation time, as the 'mentors' would need to properly examine the organization.
Michael suggests an in-house 'halfday' workshop might be prudent before locking in to that amount of prep-work.
David requests that in the future, Jim's reports be delivered in writing before the board meetings, not orally during them. Jim agrees and will do.
Chris explains that Alex Hindle and Esjay LaFayette will be working through the winter. BikeWorks will run on reduced hours, and Alex and Esjay will use the extra time to focus on shop development, maintenance, and if possible the construction of bicycles for a spring bike-rental project.
Alex asks about signing authority for cheques–is the board currently able to sign paycheques?
Chris explains that the minutes from the post-AGM board meeting need to be approved, and signatures need to be collected from the old board, before the new board will have signing authority for payroll.
David suggests contacting the bank in order to speed this along, for Alex and Esjay's convenience.Chris agrees and will do so.
Chris explains that in order to update EBC's insurance paperwork, he requires the approved post-AGM board meeting minutes, and financial information from the last fiscal year.
Chris explains that the 'safe' in BikeWorks is actually meant for fireproof/waterproof storage of documents, and is not at all secure.
Chris/Derek move to allocate a $500 budget for the purchase of a secure safe.
Carried.
David requests that financial reports be brought to each board meeting from now on. Neil agrees and will do.
Alex requests that the board consider issuing a budget to BikeWorks staff as well, for maintenance, the purchase of cleaning goods, replacement of broken furniture and fixtures, etc.
Erich requests a $400 monthly budget for Alex and Esjay, to be used for these purposes.
David suggests granting signing authority to Neil as an alternative to issuing a budget.
Erich disagrees, suggesting this would create too much process.
Keegan expresses concern about potential overspending.
Keegan/Michael move for the creation of a $250 monthly budget.
Carried.
David advises finding opinionated posters on the EBC mailing list and asking them to join committees, explaining that the purpose of the committees is to delegate as much work as possible away from the board.
Chris explains that we have four mailing lists:ebc-board@edmontonbikes.ca(just board members and chair); ebc-bikeworks@edmontonbikes.ca(mechanics); ebc-core@edmontonbikes.ca (board members, chair, employees, committee members, and other interested parties), andebc-members@edmontonbikes.ca(all members).
Jim advises recruiting as many female members as reasonably possible to the BikeWorks and policy committees, as inclusivity/non-sexism has become a frequently mentioned issue.
Michael suggests that responsibility for nominating spokespeople (to present at public events, hearings, etc.) become the purview of the advocacy committee.
Jim requests permission to post contact information for board members in his office (behind the lounge). Granted by all present.
Chris/Michael move to insert an agenda issue regarding responses to inquiries on the mailing list.
Chris explains that recently we have had issues with multiple organization members responding to the same inquiries to the mailing list–and conversely, inquiries going without response.
Lauren suggests it would be helpful to have a set of 'canned responses' to the most common inquiries.
Chris explains that some of these already exist on the ebcboard@gmail.com account. Erich will copy them over.
Michael explains that this event is taking place on the University of Alberta campus from October 19 to 23, and is a useful outreach opportunity.
Chris recommends that we take a repair stand and bicycle as an interesting prop, to enhance our presence there.
Jim has been in contact with the event organizers and will handle the details.
Chris explains the situation regarding the past Heritage Festival this summer: Enmax, one of the sponsors for the event, had arranged for their name to be on the bicycle parking. The old board was not favourable to this arrangement and pulled out of the event, then offered to rent EBC racks to the Heritage Festival at a deliberately exorbitant fee ($2000). Heritage Festival declined and purchased their own racks. Chris attended independently and was able to still take in a large amount of donations for the EBC; he explains that the Heritage Festival is typically very lucrative for the EBC, as well as something offering great exposure. Heritage Festival's operators are currently hostile to us and uninterested in our participation thanks to this year's events.
Chris suggests we make normalizing relations with the Heritage Festival a priority
Chris/Keegan move that he be given permission to send as many conciliatory letters as necessary to do so.
David will not be present for the next board meeting.
Keegan volunteers to chair the next meeting. Chris approves.
Michael requests that Jim apply for the University of Alberta's ESL intern grant. Jim agrees and will do; Michael will forward related information to the board mailing list.
Chris/Michael move to adjourn.