2024 AGM: Difference between revisions
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*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. | *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. | *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. | *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 - | ||