Board Minutes September 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 (month)(year)

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

• Location: ___ & Google Meet
• Start Time: 6:30pm

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

• Meeting Chair: Keith
• Minute-taker: Adam
• Board attendance: Marcel, Heather, Adam, Derek, Colin, Matthew, Sarah, Keith
• Staff attendance: Alex, Vaughan, Coreen
• Regrets:
• Absent:
• Guests: Devin Clarke

Call to Order

• Meeting called to order by at pm.

Logistics for Next Meeting

• Date: October 7th (as the 14th is holiday)
• Location: Downtown shop.
• Chair:
• Minute-taker: Adam

(regrets - Heather) --update on Calendar

Approval of Agenda, Minutes, Reports (29 min)

MOTION

To approve the August 14 minutes.
Moved:	Heather
Seconded:	Derek

Aye	No	Abstain
all	none

MOTION

To approve this month's agenda.
Moved:	Marcel
Seconded:	Heather

Aye	No	Abstain
all	none

President's Report (1 min)

• Keith has done lots of work on various committees and with staff. Budget meetings with staff and with finance committee. Something regarding book-keeper Robin will come out next month. Working on a side project building up bikes for Boyle Street.

Treasurer's Report (4 min)

• July had a surplus. As of last $103k in operating accounts, $91k less $ ear-marked for winter cycling grants. Waste Down Tune Up funds not yet received-- are we expecting direct deposits or invoicing them as we go?-- Heather will look into it. Casino account will pay about 4 more months of rent at the downtown shop, will have to start using the operating account for that in December-- according the look-ahead, this should be ok until our next casino next year. In fact we have surpassed Keith's comfort level for end of August, and are approaching Sarah's conservative comfort level! Kudos to board, staff, and volunteers on this. Debt to Adam and some Mastercard balance are also on the books.

We asked for volunteers to help with the routine audit, and received 9 responses! These need to be reported on at the AGM.

CIP grant reporting?

H.R. & Ops Committee Report (8 min)

• They did meet. Not much to report. Jonathan reported on the status of his last meeting with staff.

• Policy on staff volunteering or overtime? - Will be circulated before the next meeting, for voting on-- Matt will do.

• Communications with staff, Jonathan having had the leave the board (due to increased responsibilities at his community league).

MOTION

To accept the TOR as previously circulated (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LXa_4CUf_a2V3wmDHK4gmrJ0UuxQSwsIt7rouKgO8dE/edit) with changes to reflecting that the committee is not responsible for onboarding and performance review of the board itself, and that it is only the ED's responsibilities on that committee that the committee takes over in the absence of ED.
Moved:	Adam
Seconded:	Heather

Aye	No	Abstain
all	none

• Action Items: Matt will update the document with those amendments by next meeting.

Finance Committee Report (8 min)

• see Marcel's report

MOTION

To accept (with amendments?) the TOR as previously circulated (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1g863XyEHBauNvvlCfLtR0h6VhP5_wLUelqhvjNZt38Y/edit)
Moved:	Sarah
Seconded:	Keith

Aye	No	Abstain
all	none

The following people sent an email indicating they wanted to join the Finance Committee. The Committee’s TOR states that members must be appointed by the Board. Marcel brings these names forward for discussion of who to add to the committee.

• Ankush Handa, volunteer
• Lee Wiseley, attended September 5 Finance Committee meeting
• Kieran Dunch, will be available after September 12, 2024
• Michelle Trinh, sent resume and is a CPA, was unable to attend Sept 5 meeting
• Ron Cherlet, was unable to attend Sept 5 meeting
• Nathan Binnema, has bookkeeping experience

Decision tonight was to add a couple of names that folks are already familiar with and can vouch for, and for Sarah & Marcel to work on interviewing the others and/or inviting them to attend the next mtg, also to keep in mind of some of them would be interested in Treasurer, Board member at large, finance committee, etc.

MOTION

To add Lee Wiseley and Nathan Binnema to the Finance Committee.)
Moved:	Adam
Seconded:	Sarah

Aye	No	Abstain
all	none

Fundraising Committee Report (8 min)

• Fundraising Committee Report September 2024: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fx7SQpqJaxxhPTjdnFvMNAQjySCTBHl3YGealT7QYbs/edit?usp=sharing

There is a long and detailed fundraising plan, which is linked in that report. Colin will look after donors and and membership, Heather grants and partnerships (ex-- with Boyle Street?), Matthew businesses and partnerships. Alex is a skeptic of the bike-friendly business program, which he feels cost $ for stickers and didn't go much of anywhere last time.

Colin would like to summarize and appreciate our donors at the upcoming AGM.

MOTION

To accept the TOR as previously circulated (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PqDOONh4mtY0aLNfnv6qW6zEm0EynE5E/edit), with an amendment that access to member information is only as granted by the Executive Committee on a case by case basis.
Moved:	Adam
Seconded:	Heather

Aye	No	Abstain
all	none

• Action Items: name will ____ by (date).

• Update on cycling caps fundraiser: idea from volunteer Ken Amesbury, ordering "cycling caps," as he previously did for t-shirts. Heather wanting to know how to take payment? Coreen suggests our POS sale system or our online store. 15% will come as profit to BE. Heather sought input on several designs-- input was given. Coreen suggests a higher margin for it to be a true fundraiser. Alex feels this style of cycling hat may have niche appeal-- don't expect a large uptake. Similar fundraisers have resulted in unsold stock in the past.

Current & Completed Business (19 min)

Updates on Action Items From Previous Meeting

• Everyone log your estimated volunteer 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.
• Reminder of our Code of Conduct
• Reminder of conflict of interest policy

COMPLETED

Waste Down Tune Up update (3 min)

• Heather reports that Karly has 7 interested community leagues; 2 fit well with the mandate, and she will go back to a few others. Mccauley, sherbrooke, lessard, yellow bird, big lake, queen alexandra, lendrum so far. No $ spent yet. Karly gets paid on deliverables.

Winter Biking grant update (3 min)

• Sarah reports that city is reviewing the proposed changes. They have been clear that it is meant to be for winter biking supplies only, not covering any administrative time or costs, Sarah acknowledges Coreen's concerns that there will be some staff time involved. The other option is to return the funds. Alex feels a cycling skirt might have niche appeal, Coreen concerned the items have not been sampled & etc-- Sarah responds that its with the city now. Keith has been working on building up bikes. Alex feels that in general if the board is going to working on operational stuff, it would be better to be running these things past staff earlier-- they may seem "Scroogish," but they do have a lot of experience in these things-- Sarah did circulate this to staff and board 1wk before submitting to City.

Tracking of any other grants-in-progress or grants-in-planning (4 min)

• Re CoE 20 Bike Clinics project, Coreen reports it has generally been proceeding well. Colin feels this could be covered in Fundraising Committee in Future.

AGM Planning, Board Recruitment, and Retreat Planning (5 min)

• October 27th may be too early for auditted financials. Will do November 3rd. Adam will book a space and send notice to members. Keith and Marcel will contribute paragraphs to an annual report to be put together by Colin. Board retreat should be w/e of Nov 16-17 or 23-24, and we can talk about the agenda for that later.

Business Item 1 (__ min)

• Discussion notes:

Business Item 1 (__ min)

• Discussion notes:

MOTION

Moved:
Seconded:

Aye	No	Abstain

• Action Items: name will ____ by (date).

Business Item 2 (__ min)

• Discussion notes:

New Business

Budget Discussion (Sarah - 8 min)

4 Scenarios were circulated to staff and board

• Scenario 1 is a balanced budget (BE has a surplus of $111.80 at the end of 24/25). It assumes that all staff salaries and hours remain the same in 24/25 as they were in 23/24. Keith and I considered written feedback from Alex as well as a feedback provided by Coreen at a budget discussion meeting to generate the revenue and expense projections. We used Scenario 1 as the basis for the other 3 scenarios.

• Scenario 2 assumes that we increase staff salary costs by 10%. The board would have to determine how they wanted to assign those increases- no assumptions were made on that point in the scenario. It uses the same revenue and expense projections as Scenario 1 as raises won't affect the revenue generated and only staff expenses increases. It leaves BE with a deficit of $17,888.20 at the end of 24/25. --Is this sustainable? Maybe, according to Keith's analysis. Sarah less sure.

• Scenario 3 assumes that we decrease staff costs by 20%. No assumptions were made on how those costs would be decreased. It assumes revenues will fall by 10% as a result of cutting hours. This would leave BE with a surplus of $36,111.80. The Finance Committee notes that when the board decided to end the ED role, the board also motioned to pay for admin help. This scenario envisions that BE would be in a position to pay for such help at end of fiscal next year.

• Scenario 4 assumes that we decrease staff costs by 40%. No assumptions were made on how those costs would be decreased. It assumes revenues will fall by 20% as a result of cutting hours. This would leave BE with a surplus of $72,111.80. This scenario envisions that BE would be in a position to hire an ED at end of fiscal next year.

These scenarios take into account no new fundraisers or grants. Colin hopes his committee could deliver something in this regard.

Sarah would like to go the AGM with a balanced budget, she feels members deserve that. She also feels that continuing as an operating board is not sustainable long-term.

Alex notes that he and Vaughan are at 25h, the minimum to qualify for benefits, so a reduction there would makes their jobs less viable.

Coreen feels that staffing cuts would result in a greater reduction in income than what is in the draft budget. Also that potential revenue is underestimated, as evidenced by recently exceeding monthly target in various ways.

Adam is a skeptic of quickly hiring someone external to the organization. Also skeptical that we were ever a governance board or had an ED that wasn't really more of a general manager, doing a lot of nitty gritty work, so suspicious of any spreadsheet showing that's possible soon.

Marcel leans towards scenario 1-- would like to give a raise, having trouble seeing how in the numbers yet. Marcel thinks revenue could improve a lot if we were open more hours-- members are saying they'd like more access. Coreen says it's not necessarily that people want more shop hours, they just want more space on Saturday afternoons.

Alex agrees a full- or part-time ED would be premature. The work of delineating staff roles will identify hours/roles that they can do that match a lot of those duties. They could work on this more when the summer rush cools down.

Keith is struggling with the disconnect between 6 months ago when we thought that closing South shop would decrease revenue, which haven't come to pass. Why is that? Just an open-ended question.

Sarah is mindful something Chris said at the board retreat about budget discussions, where there was much larger deficit than planned for. "They made the budget that they wanted to make, and there was a lot of hopes and prayers attached." We don't want to squander the hard work of achieving solvency. Coreen appreciates that, and feels our budget is now a lot closer to reality. She notes that it kind of burns to hear priorities re: an ED and a cash cushion rather than taking care of staff.

Adam suggests something like scenario 1-- costs could still be cut through attrition, and a bonus could be offered if we exceed targets.

Keith notes that a raise could be mandated in bargaining, and he'd like it to have been voluntary & genuine rather than forced.

Colin supports something like scenario 2, with a commitment to fundraising to make it happen.

Keith mentions the best way to raise revenue is to leverage volunteers, and the AGM is the best time to tell membership how they can best help us-- ex bike-building. Bike building is about 50/50 paid/vounteer-- volunteer should be higher. Alex and Coreen agree should mobilize more volunteer time-- but it will take staff time. And the volunteers aren't nearly so productive in that time. Do the paid bike builders really yield that much revenue over and above their salaries? Keith has looked at it in different ways and it's hard to say. For examples the hours they've all listed on bike tags only equals 50% of the hours they've been paid for. Coreen mentions that they do spend significant hours on shop maintenance in other ways.

MOTION

To pass scenario 2, with increasingly optimistic fundraising projections to make it balanced.
Moved:	Colin
Seconded:	Marcel

Aye	No	Abstain
Matt, Marcel, Colin, Adam	Heather, Sarah, Derek, Keith
not passed.

It was determined to set a special meeting for Sunday, September 15th, at 7pm. Open to staff.

New Business Item 2 (__ min)

• Discussion notes:

In Camera Session

MOTION

To move in camera.
Moved:	Sarah
Seconded:	Adam

Aye	No	Abstain
all	none

• Please list how long you believe your topic will take to discuss:
  • Name (___ min)
  • Name (___ min)

MOTION

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

Aye	No	Abstain

Adjournment

MOTION

To adjourn the meeting at __pm.
Moved:
Seconded:

Aye	No	Abstain