Bike Edmonton Annual General Meeting Minutes for 2024
- Location: Strathcona Community League Upper Hall
- Date: October 26, 2024, 1pm.
Attendance
- Meeting Chair: Keith
- Minute-taker: Adam
- Attendance: nn members in good standing
Call to Order
- Meeting called to order by at pm.
- Land acknowledgment (Keith)
- Explain “Members In Good Standing” voting for motions (Tom): A member in good standing is a Regular Member who has been a member for at least one calendar month and any honorary members shall be considered members in good standing. A regular member who has lapsed for no more than six months shall also be considered a member in good standing immediately upon payment of their dues.
Anyone may become a member today in order to join the board, but only Members in Good Standing can vote.
Approval of Agenda
MOTION
| To approve the agenda.
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| Moved:
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Sarah
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| Seconded:
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Derek
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| Aye
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No
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Abstain
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| All
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0
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| carried
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Approval of Minutes from 2023 Annual General Meeting
| Aye
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No
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Abstain
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| All
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0
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| Carried
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Reports
President's Report
- Keith has been president for 1 year, board member for longer. It was a busy year for staff, board members, and volunteers. In February we were in a cash crunch, but with a huge response to our fundraising drive around ~$60k donated. Our budget now is in a much better spot. These finanical pressures were 2-3 years in the making. These year we aim to have an operational cash cushion in March (when our reserves are typically lowest). We get a casino every 2 years, next one in mid-2025.
- 16 board members have joined this year, and many have not been able to continue due to life circumstances or the workload that the board entails. Staff have been putting in a huge amount of work also. Changes this year include losing our executive director and board becoming an operational board; closed south shop and consolidated to North side (with a storage space downtown). There is an expanded area downtown for bike sales, and added a storage space downtown. Keith is proud of the work that has gone into making those changes successful. We are also decreasing our paid bike-building, so there may be fewer bike sales depending on how volunteers can respond to that. Revenue numbers from recent months have been good, and there have been operational advantages to consolidating to one shop, for example fewer walk-ins have to be turned away. For example September bike sales are $10k this year from $5k last year.
- We remain in union negotiations-- had negotiations in November with previous ED Greg and in May with the bargaining committee of the board-- and we will be asking one of the new board members today to join the committee. We understanding that membership expects us to get this done. Scheduling with the union has been a barrier.
- And finally we have cycling caps for sale today!
Treasurer's Report
- $48k surplus this year, compared to deficits of $98k and $70k in the previous years. As of Aug 31st: $99k in operating acct, $17.5k in Casino acct (which pays rent). The biggest changes in our financial status this year were: the donation drive earlier in the year, removing the executive director (at his own recommendation) in February, and closing the south shop in July.
- Audits were done for 2022-23 and 2023-24 financial years-- the latter is not quite completed due to some delays, the audit committee got all the information from the treasurer last week. An audit commit with 10(!) volunteer members did a really good job. The audit of the 2022-23 financial year was favourable. They did recommend exploring options for inventory tracking.
Shop Managers' Update
- Alex: We're all here because we believe bikes make the world a better place, and we see the look in people's eyes when they understand something new about their bike. Online reviews express thanks for the teaching and atmosphere in the shop, which makes me proud. We've been running community shops in Edmonton for almost 40 years, and volunteers have always been at the heart of the shops, so thank you to everyone who has made those spaces possible. Your work matters, you make a difference in people's lives, and a big thank you this year especially for helping keep the shops running.
- Coreen: Over the year, we helped 5000 people with bikes, parts, and repairs. Customer spent 1320h fixing their bike. Record $112,000 in bike sales (439 bikes). We sold 920 tires, 1027 tubes. Bike builders are the unseen heroes in the shop, working after-hours to build up bikes-- they tuned up almost 300 bikes, accounting for 85% of bike sale revenue. We also run events and build partnerships (Bissel Centre, Eco-Stations, etc). Right now we're sitting on more good-quality bikes than ever before. There were tune-up events throughout the summer with City of Edmonton. Winter tire program.
- Vaughan: The south shop closure was a big change as we've been in the neighborhood since the late 80s and in that space for almost 10yrs. It was hard, but our volunteers rose to the occassion.
- Alex: despite this disruption, we did flourish this summer at the downtown shop post-move, a growing sense of optimism. There is one shop, but with the off-site storage there is actually a larger and more complicated physical operation than ever before. Losing the south shop was hard, but there have been silver linings: easier to share work and become more efficient, etc. Hoping to make the shop even more useful to the community. Volunteer Appreciation party will be Friday November 27 downtown.
Questions
- Can you explain our involvement with a union? Keith - there was a unionization drive ~1.5yrs ago and CUPE accepted. A labour board hearing determined that all our staff were in scope except the ED who isn't here anymore. So we're working towards a collective agreement. CUPE provides a negotiator to the staff, and we have a negotiator on contract who has experience with non-profits who charges us very fairly.
- Do we know how we're doing on volunteer hours compared to last year? Reason for asking being that if bike building is more on volunteers. Answer - we have a number of 4200 volunteer hours logged. By the way, the bike building night that Jan runs is the most under-rated thing we do! Our budget does account for lower bike sales to offset the decrease in paid bike building.
- Molly - From financial reports in years past, BE has established that bike building is a net gain, and adds to foot traffic for accessory sales and word of mouth, and the free membership with a bike sale sometimes turns into a recurring membership. A lot of volunteers don't have the time and interest to fully build up a bike. So this will end up putting more on the plate of staff who already do a lot of work. Keith - Looking historically, when only Jan was building bikes (2019) we were selling $80k in bikes, and after adding more paid bike building there was only a small increase. Coreen - That number you're looking at includes rack sales and bike rentals as well. Keith - It's listed as bike sales. Molly - But bike building nets money. Matt - We haven't seen that. Nobody on the current board is against building bikes, but we've just gone through a season of begging for money, and we owe it to those people to show some [finanical discipline]. Maybe we can hire more bike builders and build more bikes in the future. We welcome more help on the board to make these decisions over the next year. Keith - if we look at total bike builder hours and how many bikes that should equate to, it's more than what they produce. Sarah - I'm glad the membership is hearing this, but we had to make hard decisions. The budget was the most contentious vote we had all year and was not unanimous. We went through several scenarios, and the majority of the board felt we owed it to membership to present a budget that was balanced with a bit of surplus so we wouldn't have to come cap in hand again. One of the difficulties the board has run into with not having an ED is that the board is made up of volunteers; we are not able to put in the direct time that a full-time ED is able to. There have been failures of communication with staff this year, but the reality of moving from a governance to operational board has been very challenging. There has been burnout, fatigue, attrition from the board. Alex - I acknowledge what Sarah just said. The budget that was passed was a split vote from a small board, and I know that Colin has moved to defer implementation of this change until the new board meets in December. Alex is looking at numbers that show a profit from bike building, and I do believe it's correct. Sarah - if it's from staff, we requested that many times. Alex - I disagree, and I think out of an understandable desire to be cautious, we're shrinking when we need to be bold. Chris Chan - On these bike builder numbers, the board can make a different decision, but I didn't see a request for these numbers. My analysis shows they make profit.
- Were the previous deficits cumulative reported cumulative?
- Where did the 3-year membership option go? Answer - we'll take that as a note.
MOTION
| To receive the reports as presented.
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| Moved:
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Adam
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| Seconded:
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Heather
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| Aye
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No
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Abstain
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| All
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0
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| Carried
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Budget 2024-25
- Highlights: small surplus. 20% cut in staffing costs.
- Marcel: What I really appreciate about this budget is that we've started to project our finances month-to-month so that we understand how our accounts will look in 6 months from now.
- Keith: These numbers are like reading the tea leaves, and it won't be all on the backs of staff. The biggest part will be the work volunteers and membership continue to do.
Questions
- Question: What are our staffing costs now compared to last year? A: $15k, from $26k. Budgetted going forward: $12k.
- Molly: Can you provide the math on the cost-effectiveness of bike building? A: We can provide the board's rough analysis.
- Question: This has all been about running a bike shop. What about advocacy and outreach? A: Most of that work has been going on through volunteer efforts. We continue to try to talk to city counsellors to talk about the execution of a bike lane plan. And do have granted projects going forward.
MOTION
| To approve/accept the 2024-25 budget as presented.
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| Moved:
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Keith
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| Seconded:
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Adam
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| Aye
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No
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Abstain
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| most
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4
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| Accepted
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Board Elections
- Nominations: Karl Tracksdorf, Rebecca Houle, Brent Adam, Derek Walter, Derek Kramar, Colin Margetts, Thomas Lee, Adam Burgess, Heather Young-Leslie, Brad Goertz.
MOTION
| To accept the nominations.
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| Moved:
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Sarah
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| Seconded:
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Adam
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| Aye
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No
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Abstain
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| All
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0
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| Carried
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Adjournment
MOTION
| To adjourn.
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| Moved:
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Heather
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| Seconded:
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Matt
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| Aye
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No
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Abstain
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| All
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0
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| Carried
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