Board Minutes December 2012

These minutes are not yet approved.

Attendance

• Meeting Chair: Duncan
• Minute-taker: Micah
• Board attendance: Justin, Anna, Leila, Lee, Sarah, Adam, Duncan, Micah, Chris
• Staff attendance: Chris Chan
• Regrets: Neil, Bern
• Absent:
• Guests: Alex Hindle, Brett Rosenberger

Call to Order

• Time: 6.48
• Location: ED S 327
• Food by: potluck

Approval of Agenda

• Motion: Adam: I move to approve; Sarah: Seconded; carried.

Approval of Last Month's Minutes

• Motion:
• Anna has edited Wiki Minutes Template to include time allocations for each topic (please submit when adding your agenda item) and action items at end of each topic to highlight who needs to do what by when. The latter can then easily be copied into next meeting minutes under Updates on Action Items From Previous Meeting.
• Please be more specific about who says what.
• Micah: I move to approve last month's minutes; Anna seconds; carried.

Date, Location & Food for Next Meeting

• Board Retreat: Sunday January 6, 2013 @ 8:30am-4:30pm. Education North rm 2-103 (Kiva Room). Potluck lunch (allergies? restrictions?). Please BYO dish, cutlery, mug.
• January Board Meeting: Wednesday 23 January
• Sarah will take notes since Micah will be absent.
• Micah will try to book this room (Ed S 327) again as people seem to like it better.
• Food: Duncan

Reports

President's Report (5 min)

President's Report

• Discussion notes:
  • Leila will be temporary chair.
  • See report.

• Motion::
• Action Items: none

Treasurer's Report (5 min)

Treasurer's Report

• Discussion notes:
• Motion::
• Action Items: Name will... by (deadline)

Executive Director's Report (5 min)

Executive Director's Report

• Discussion notes:
  • Anna will ask a connection about monitors
  • Duncan: don't use google group anymore; Adam: are we going to maintain an archive? Chris: still exists; just not for continued use. Leila: Is this the same thing we have access to? Duncan: yes. Leila: I was looking through; google quite new to me; is there an archive? All posts seemed extremely recent; couldn't find emails I sent to group in past. Chris: I haven't touched anything; there is an ebc-board email account that has been archiving emails since 2008; anyone can have access; passwords in passwords document. Adam: list of all emails; had to actually click through back arrows. Chirs demonstrates.
  • Duncan: board backup emails: you, Chris, should not have access, correct? Chris: Yes. I could gain access if I wanted to [technically, since has admin privilege].
  • Leila: Duncan has access to all the passwords- do we all? Chris: No, just exec at this point. Need new one to share with rest of board.
  • Anna: new website looks lovely; where do we access reports eg Complete Streets- why not publicly available through our website? Chris: Complete Streets is there now. Anna: I think that things in the public interest would be sought by the public on our website. Chris: I will post it to the website.
  • Leila: still link to wiki on website? Chris: Yes.
• Action Items:
  • Duncan will change password for backup board email address
  • Duncan will make passwords available

BikeWorks Report (5 min)

Report, Dec 2012

• Discussion notes:
  • Leila: Once again, her report is really great, awesome.
  • Anna: WCB coverage: volunteer coverage through WCB; board of director coverage: through what? Chris: we don't have it. Anna: co-operators? Chris: that's for DNO- directors' liability, not injury. We pay for our volunteers as workers.
  • Alex: when I left there was no clear training on safety; Adam: there are things we could do: have work gloves; we could come up with some other things. Anna: good thread on Think Tank: what is your shop doing for OH&S? Might be worthwhile to look into this. eg, WHMIS on everything. Coreen is going over the volunteer training; maybe we could ask her to go over safety. Sarah: Health and safety is def board. Duncan: really? - workplace. Chris: staff responsible for volunteers, therefore Coreen. Problem is she's on;y 20 hours. Leila: if we do download this responsibility to her, we should send her to training and pay for it so that she's qualified. We've never had MSDS forms. Maybe write it into manual. Adam: or help her form a committee. Sarah: yeah, collaborative effort.
  • Coreen's big-picture questions. Adam: Spoke with Coreen and she realises that answers might take a while to develop. Anna/Duncan: this would be ongoing.
  • Coreen's hurdles: Leila: re: anti-oppression training- would we pay for this? Duncan/Chris: we should see what she wants first; she might already have connections. Micah: like one of the workshops APIRG puts on? Leila: not sure. Justin: seems to me that she's looking and if we know of anything, we could volunteer the information, but not particularly soliciting. Anna: The Good Life has held anti-oppression workshops, and now they have volunteers who run them. Could liaise with them. Even just ask them to come up and deliver a workshop. Duncan: I'm in Calgary frequently, maybe in new year, could meet up with them. Knows Ethan? Anna: Jackie and Johnny are good people to connect with. Anyway, Leila will talk to her (non-action item).
• Motion: Anna: I move that we sign her up for WHMIS training. Adam: should we research whether this would be effective? Alex: I've taken it and it's not that rigorous, it's mainly common sense. Leila: something more institutional; talk to her and see what course she would find most appropriate. Anna: I withdraw my motion. Alex: I think it would be a good idea for BW manager to have current first aid.
• Action Items: Leila will liaise with Coreen to see what she would like to see in terms of OH&S; bring recommendations to the board for next meeting. (Duncan: remember budget for board & staff dev'pt!)

Retreat/Orientation Committee Report (30 min)

Retreat Committee Report

• What are the 3 things you personally hope to gain at the Retreat?
  • we are to write them down on blue paper
• Extend to 2 days i.e. Saturday Jan 5 and Sunday Jan 6?
  • Some of us might not be available; Adam: could change time range of Sunday's agenda?; Duncan: prefer 3,5 h Saturday and 10-4 on Sunday. BUt that still might restrict people. Anna will send out a poll.
• Review proposed agenda.
  • Sarah: if we can't fit whole agenda onto one day, could maybe do another day altogether. Adam: longer period of time all at once might be more effective. Micah: still involves booking off more work.... Duncan: mission/values not as clear as I'd like it to be; stuff for a strategic planning weekend and not necessarily a board retreat. Perhaps separate event later in the year. Anna: so remove it altogether from retreat agenda? Duncan: yes; plan a strategic planning day would be useful; could find a facilitator maybe. Adam: we have this stuff floating around; if those things are truly unclear, I feel like we need to truly nail them down; time that we spend visioning, identifying skills, falling over like logs into each others' arms etc; might need to allot some quality time to these activities. i.e. at the retreat. Sarah: so could we do it before the retreat? A few people: no. Duncan: we need a lot of time to do this. If we want to do strategic planning, it's really important but hard to fit into like 90 minutes. Adam: we need to see the board proceeding together on shared goals that we've hashed out, not necessarily rewriting values etc. Alex: will we be reviewing what was hashed out at last board retreat? Duncan: I seem to recall we lost a lot of the information from the last one. Anna: which one? Alex: I was at both and both generated useful information. Way to inform current board on what the thinking was last year. Adam: yeah we should uncover those documents and go over them before the retreat. Anna: of course viewing historical things is important: look to timeline: group togetherness for the first 2 hours. Then presentations from groups on policies (see agenda).
  • Anna: re: presentation topics: covered at past board retreats, found in manuals for orienting new members, etc. That we are to prepare between now and the retreat.
  • Alex: could there be recommendations as to topics of discussion? Anna: we are open to anything.
• Potluck: dietary restrictions?
  • Micah: eggplant
• Staff and guests will be invited to join potluck and afternoon visioning. This will be paid staff time 1pm-4:30pm (they have option to attend morning, unpaid).
  • Actually Chris not paid by the hour
• Board Inventory Kickass Evaluation (BIKE) (aka homework):
  • Lee: survey: to get anon. responses from each board member on board issues; almost done, will send link. Please complete by 28 December. (see action item below)
• Group presentation topics – vote on and assign topics
  • Sarah explain and 3 SMARTER goals (15 min)
  • *Flashy handout!
  • Lee explain personal skills inventory & process/group work evaluation survey (10 min)
• 90-minute visioning
  • Duncan: please clarify before we devote 90 minutes to it.
  • refer to email for info on who's doing what
• re: 150$ budget
  • Anna: can we give honoraria to presenters? Adam: our budget is already not awesome; can we approve it with the caveat that it doesn't all HAVE to get spent? Discussion re: this budget vs. overall budget. Anna: goal is really zero; it's just that if we have a facilitator it would be nice to have something for them. Duncan: if it comes up, run it by us and we can have an email vote. Anna: should get approval from board in advance; point of subcommittee. We are really hoping to spend no money but someone really awesome might come up.
• Discussion notes:
• Motion: Anna moves to approve the $150 budget for the retreat, to come out of Board & Staff Development. Seconded: Leila. Opposed: Adam. Carried.
• Action Items:
  • All Board members will complete the 3 parts (survey, 3 personal goals, group presentation) of the Board Inventory Kickass Evaluation (homework) by Friday Dec 28 and submit to Retreat Committee (Sarah, Lee, Anna).
  • Anna will send email to find out dietary restrictions
  • Lee will send email to all about who's doing what topics.
  • Anna will send doodle poll for having second day on 5th.

Advocacy Committee Report (__ min)

Committee 2 Report

• Discussion notes:
  • One person came to last meeting
  • Met with Karen Parker, sec of Garneau Comm League- broke down open house, broke down report
  • Complete Streets STR meeting with various city staff coming up?
  • identified deliverables
  • Chris Corrigan: what kind of progress has been made in terms of awareness amongst other groups in city, business assoc'n etc. Duncan: haven't had a chance to really connect with larger group. A few business owners on board at this point.
• Motion:
• Action Items: Name will... by (deadline)

Current & Completed Business

Updates on Action Items From Previous Meeting (5 min)

• Duncan will write note to Coreen to let her know she wrote a great report for Nov and ask if the level of detail she provided was sustainable for her. DONE.
• Chris Chan to let board know info that he cannot put in his reports (i.e. post publicly to wiki). Report content will be posted on wiki without restriction.
• Unassigned to review Bylaws and draft edits re: board election of members in good standing by (deadline).
• Micah to book a room for Board Retreat ASAP. DONE.
• Board Members to review EBC Organization Contacts doc re: updating your personal contact info.
• Action items:
  • Duncan will send Coreen another note.

Election of Board Executive - Update on VP (2 min)

• Update from Lee and Leila regarding VP position. LEILA WINS.
• Discussion notes:
• Motion::
• Action Items: Name will... by (deadline)

Board Job Descriptions(10 min)

• Anna and Duncan submitted final drafts for board job description, Prez + VP + Tresurer + Secretary, code of conduct and chairperson job description.
• Discussion notes:
  • We will approve at nect meeting since it is 8.45 already.
  • re: chair, though: description unclear so we should go over it. Should we vote on a new chair each meeting or president de facto chair each time? Perhaps resolve at next meeting; so this & pres job descript very imp as pres job descript currently says is chair. Justin: at APIRG: a lot of sharing; if we were to do that it would be valuable to have some sort of workshop. Leila: that's a skill I'd like to develop. Duncan: also imp for committees. Laila: would really value formal facilitation training. Also difference b/w how we operate and what is in our descriptions. Robert's clear that pres is chair. What we choose to do could be different. Micah: Rusty's Rules. Duncan: anyway, go read 7 comment on all of these, esp chair & pres. Sarah: something discussed for board retreat was process. Collective responsibility, not nec chair.
• Motion: Anna moves to approve the 7 documents (board member job description, Prez + VP + Tresurer + Secretary, code of conduct, chairperson job description).
• Action Items: Name will... by (deadline)

Board Chair (10 min)

• Discussion from Nov meeting on having an outside Chair + 12 board members (vs. 11 + 1 chair). Hindle has offered his time and services to Chair.
• Discussion notes: for next meeting
• Motion::
• Action Items: Name will... by (deadline)

New Business

Ethical Funding Policy (5 min)

• Ethical Funding Policy is needed. Nov meeting had a lengthy discussion on what corporate sponsorships or partnerships we were comfortable with, what funding bodies were would or would not get monies from, implications of becoming a charity, etc.
• Board Committee (possibly Finance or Fundraising Committee) could be created to draft this policy. Who is interested?
• Discussion notes: Chris Chan: call it Funding Policy Committee.
• Motion:: Lee: I move to start an Ethical Funding Committee; seconded: Sarah. carried.
• Action Items: Name will... by (deadline)

Conflict Style Inventory (30 min)

• Sarah will lead an activity on conflict style assessments.
• Discussion notes: Sarah: I put this here when the agenda was empty. Let's push it to the retreat.
• Motion::
• Action Items: Name will... by (deadline)

Signing of Greater Victoria Cycling Commission letter to the Federal Transportation Minister

• Discussion notes: Duncan sent the email around this morning; Micah and Adam noticed some mistakes.
• Motion:: Leila: I move to put our name on the letter. Adam: seconded. carried.
• Action Items: Micah will send corrections by tomorrow.

Here are the contents of the letter - Mr. Denis Lebel Hon. Minister of Transportation, Infrastructure and Communities Government of Canada Dear Minister, We are writing you as representatives (of some) of the largest and most active urban cycling organizations in Canada. Each of our organizations has worked for years promote the benefits of safe and functional cycling infrastructure in Canada’s cities. Over the last decade or so, all three levels of government have made significant contributions to the renewal of urban infrastructure. Federal infrastructure programs have been critical to the vitality of Canada’s towns and cities, and renewed funding for public transit has been especially welcome. We support the efforts and leadership of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities in this regard, and are engaged in ongoing dialogue with them.1 We are aware that existing federal infrastructure programs will end in 2014, and of the current effort to refocus those programs. Canada Bikes - our ‘national voice’ – made a submission to the Federal Long Term Infrastructure Plan Roundtable in October 2012. In the present letter, we would like to underline our concerns directly to Minister Lebel and his staff. In sum, we strongly believe that cycling projects needs much higher recognition and commitment with regards to future infrastructure investments in Canadian cities. We recommend that two per cent of all federal infrastructure dollars being directed to cycling projects in Canadian cities and towns. The Federal Gas Tax program (made permanent by your government) and Building Canada, for instance, have supported multiple investments to municipal roads, utilities and transit improvements and the like. In some cases, those investments are channeled into cycling improvements. At their discretion, some municipalities have chosen to improve or introduce bike lanes or other cycling improvements as part of a utility upgrade, road reconstruction or resurfacing. But our research and observation indicate that – with some exceptions – such cycling improvements are too often incidental to a larger road or highway project, or clear opportunities to improve or introduce cycling-friendly design are often missed or ignored. We believe that the federal government should create explicit ‘active transportation’ and ‘complete streets’ criteria for a large portion of infrastructure dollars spent on urban transportation projects. 1 Canada Bikes has recently responded in detail to the FCM submission to the Federal Long-Term Plan Roundtable. Dec. 10, 2012

It is critical that any renewed federal infrastructure program reflect the changing shape of Canadian cities and the habits of their residents. Urban residents are driving less and own fewer cars. Current trends show a decline in total vehicle miles driven in North America. The percentage of young people with driver’s licenses is dropping. Meanwhile, walking, cycling and transit use in Canadian cities is increasing. Canadian cities and towns are striving to introduce more mixed-use and compact developments, comprehensive cycling networks, safer and more walkable neighbourhoods. Many cities are implementing ‘complete streets,’ policies and projects, where local roads accommodate bikes lanes, new or wider sidewalks and space for transit service. The benefits are many: higher real estate values, job creation, more robust local economies, reduced congestion, fitter and healthier residents, lower health care costs, reduced air pollution and fewer carbon emissions. It is imperative that a renewed Federal Infrastructure Plan reflect and encourage the emergence of a ‘new urbanism’ in our cities, with its strong emphasis on an active transportation, alternatives to the single-occupancy vehicle and the growing demand and interest in cycling in Canada. Thank you for your consideration, Regards, Ed Pullman (on behalf of) Greater Victoria Cycling Coalition HUB (Vancouver) British Columbia Cycling Coalition Kelowna Cycling Coalition GEdmonton Winnipeg Toronto Cycle Union Toronto Coalition for Complete Streets Etc. etc. cc: Olivia Chow, NDP Critic for Transportation, Infrastructure and Communities Denis Coderre, Liberal Critic for Transportation, Infrastructure and Communities. .....Federation of Canadian Municipalities

In Camera Session (__ min)

Adam: I move we go in camera; Micah seconds; carried.

Adjournment

• Motion: Micah: I move to adjourn; Sarah seconds. carried.