Board Minutes January 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 January 2024

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

• Location: Google Meet
• Start Time: January 8, 2024 7pm

Please RSVP to [email protected] if you plan on attending. Please include a brief summary of any agenda item you would like to table. Thank you!

Attendance

• Attendance: Alexandra, Daniel, Keith, Marcel, Matthew, Nazz, Sarah, Stephen, Greg Glatz, Coreen, Vaughan, Alex, Chris
• Guests: Adam Burgess, John Collier (left at 7:50)
• Regrets:
• Absent:
• Meeting Chair: Stephen
• Minute Taker: Alexandra

Call to Order

• Meeting called to order at 7:10pm

Logistics for Next Meeting

• Date: February 12, 2024 time TBD (Stephen to set-up poll)
• Location: North Shop, in-person
• Chair:
• Minute-taker:

Reports to be reviewed

President's Report (5 min)

• Verbal report
• Meeting with Greg and shop managers concerning closing of south shop.
• Negotiating timing and logistics of Greg departure's

Treasurer's Report (5 min)

• Need report link
• Chris: Servus will not call in our loan on Jan 18. It is not due until Dec 2026. What happens on Jan 18 is that our amount owing increases $20,000. If we pay before or refinance, then we will save that 20k. Our loan increases, and our monthly payments increase because the principal increases.
• Marcel: my understanding is if we pay 40k by the 18th, we have paid the loan. If we don't, we owe 60k.
• Chris: That's correct.
• Marcel: Servus has never told me if they would extend the loan or refinance. We also wrote a letter to Servus and politicians saying we'd like an extension.
• Chris: The refinancing and extensoion until March is a specific CEBA thing; check their FAQ or main page. You would have to explicitly go to the bank and say "this is what we want to do". They may still say no.
• Adam: The FAQ says you just have to apply by Jan 18th, and that that extends it to March.
• Marcel: Okay, I will talk to the bank.
• Stephen: The link is in Chris's email from earlier.
• Chris (comment in chat): Marcel, when you discuss refinancing with the bank, recognize that an interest rate of anything less than 34% would still save us money. That is probably a higher interest rate than they would normally consider charging, but is still favourable to us.

Committee Reports (5 min)

• Finance committee
  • Verbal report: Desire to have internal audit, all other discussion captured on rest of Agenda.

Executive Director's Report (10 min)

• Director's Report

Approval of Agenda, Minutes, Reports (5 min)

MOTION

To approve this January agenda, the December 2023 minutes, and reports as presented
Moved:	Matt
Seconded:	Keith

Aye	No	Abstain
Passed

Current & Completed Business

Updates on Action Items From Previous Meeting, Reminders (5 min)

• Everyone log your volunteer hours for the past 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.
• Reminder of our Code of Conduct
• Reminder of conflict of interest policy

CEBA Loan

• Adam Burgess, intro and ideas
• Adam: I am a past EBC president. The org still means a lot to me. We had some conflicts then, but not as dire. We lost an ED, went through a hiring process, and moved the North Shop. I was also the ED for a while when there was no ED, so I experienced the volume of emails. I think the CEBA loan is a really big priority to pay off. I don't think payments on a 60k loan were in the voted on budget. I am offering to make a private loan for part of that portion, conditional on having a couple of more key people to Bike Edmonton and seeing if they'll be involved still. If we can make plans to max out the crowdfunding amount to 10k, perhaps with personal phone calls to former board members, explain to them one-on-one as to why this is the time to make a contribution. My wife also has to agree to 25 - 30k. Before John Collier asks me if I have that money to lose, I am now a physician, and I'm married to a lawyer. I think my take on the expense and the passed budget, the part-time admin position that is proposed will cost much more money and effort than that will save the board money, especially in the first year. I think you should put out the call to people personally, like I put out the call to Jogn Collier that this is the minute to support Bike Ed. Existing staff should also take on as many admin tasks as possible. I might be starying into not knowing what I'm talking about, but if we're still paying someone to negotiate with the union, that's a cost to save as well.
• John: I spoke with Adam earlier: i too think repaying the CEBA loan is a priority. We are more than willling to donate 10k to the "get rid of CEBA fund".
• Marcel: Thank you to Adam and John for the generous offers. The fundraiser is more to cover our operating expenses. The loan was not in the budget because we weren't sure of the consequences of not paying it. Being able to pay some of it would probably be helpful negotiating with the bank. There is promise here, but I'm not sure what to do with it.
• John: I don't think that not hitting the magic 40k is an option. If we give them 39,999 we still own 20k on Jan 19th. We have got to go all in. I'm not 100% sure what Adam's offer is entailing, but perhaps the president, treasurer, and other interested parties, get together tomorrow and move very very quickly.
• Adam: My offer is premised on paying the 40k. Anything else is magical thinking.
• Sarah: What I think we need to do given interest of time is put a motion forward authorizing Marcel and Stephen to negotiate loans and donations.
• Stephen: That seems reasonable.
• John: I cheerfully offer my place up for a meeting. Just let me know a time.
• Adam: Let's do my office on Whyte at 4.

Motion on Loans and Fundraising

MOTION

That the President and Treasurer have the authority to do all things necessary to negotiate, sign and execute any agreements required for a private loan and/or bank loan, or some combination thereof to extend, pay off or otherwise ensure the CEBA loan is handled to the extent Bike Edmonton will not need to pay $60,000 before the January 18, 2024 CEBA DEADLINE, provided that the Finance Committee approves the arrangements in a timely manner.
Moved:	Sarah
Seconded:	Keith

Aye	No	Abstain
All
Passed

Crowdfunding Campaign

• Marcel: when do we receive the funds?
• Alexandra: Donations immediately, matching 30 days after the end of the campaign or when we hit 10k.
• Marcel: Can we send out an update?
• Keith: Can we extend the campaign and have a meesage form the board about the things we ared oing: allowing Greg to leave, shop plans, etc. Things that say "thank you for your donation, here is what we're doing, etc."

Greg: Yes, that sounds good.

• Chris (in chat):If John C donates $3500 of his donation via the crowdmatching site, that will hit our $10k immediately and trigger the fund match transfer immediately.
• Stephen: Do we want to hold off on the update and extending if John C will max out this campaign?
• Alex: I'm concerned about the optics of closing the south shop and losing our ED when people are giving us a bunch of money.

In Camera Session

MOTION

To move into in camera session with Dr. Greg Glatz as guest
Moved:
Seconded:

Aye	No	Abstain

MOTION

To move out of in camera session
Moved:
Seconded:

Aye	No	Abstain

Adjourned at 8:pm