Board Minutes May 2013

Approved at the June 2013 Board meeting.

EBC Board Meeting Minutes for May 22nd, 2013

Board meetings are open to the EBC members and the public.

• Location: BikeWorks South, 2nd floor lounge
• Start Time: 6:30pm

Please RSVP to board@edmontonbikes.ca if you plan on attending. Please include a brief summary of any agenda item you would like to table. Thank you!

Attendance

• Meeting Chair: Lee
• Minute-taker: Adam
• Food by: Chris Corrigan
• Board attendance: Lee, Adam, Sarah, Chris Co., Leila, Justin, (7pm) Anna
• Staff attendance: Chris Ch., Coreen
• Regrets: Bernadette, Paul
• Absent: Neil
• Guests:

Call to Order

• Meeting called to order by Lee at 6:43 pm.

Approval of Agenda

• Motion: To approve agenda. Motioned by Sarah. Seconded by Justin. Motion Carried.

Approval of Last Month's Minutes

• Motion: To approve (April)(2013) minutes. Motioned by Leila. Seconded by Sarah. Motion Carried.

Logistics for Next Meeting

• Date: Wednesday June 19
• Location: BikeWorks North, 2nd floor office
• Chair: Sarah
• Minute-taker: Adam
• Food by: Lee

ALSO:

• Saturday July 7 @ 10am-3pm Board Retreat
• Wednesday July 24 regular board meeting at BikeWorks South

Reports

President's Report (5 min)

• President's Report
• Discussion notes:
  • Has been working on HR committee, spending time at shop working with bike-powered apple-crusher. No connection to the other bike-powered apple-crusher.
  • No further discussion.

Motion: To approve the May 2013 President's report as presented. Motioned by Justin. Seconded by Sarah. Motion Carried.

Treasurer's Report (15 min)

• Revised April 2013 Report with follow up comments
• Treasurer's May 2013 Report
• Discussion notes:
  • Paul is not here. We don't recall seeing a report.
  • Sarah recalls seeing some big differences between expected and actual income in some places, but doesn't recall where. She recalls that we were close to a break-even as budgetted, does this mean we're doing quite well? Chris, yes, we're better than expected for April, but you can't really look at it at the monthly level. Grants are hard to look at unless you know how they reflect additional program costs, etc. Shop revenue should be fairly steady and predictable, and we are $4k up from projected for April, but we're also over by $8k on shop expenses (but that also reflects a lot of one-time orders).
  • Leila: might be worth looking into Chris having access to an EBC account so as not to spend $10k of personal money and then be reimbursed. Chris: being reimbursed in a timely fashion is an issue, but it's getting better. To address the problem more directly, we did alter our bylaws to allow for an EBC credit card.
  • So, we should ask Paul about timely reimbursements and getting a credit card.
  • More support for Paul? Chris: find a volunteer or get a book-keeper.
  • Justin -- offers to talk to APIRG's book-keeper. We should talk to Paul about this.
• Action Items: Leila will contact Paul by (next meeting)
• Coreen -- volunteer food budget has been being spent, I've submitted some receipts.
• Leila -- are paycheques on time? Chris - yes, it's direct deposit, Paul just has to submit hours and click to approve.

Motion: To approve the revised April report as presented. Motioned by Anna. Seconded by Leila. Motion Carried.

Executive Director's Report (10 min)

• Completed April 2013 ED Report
• Executive Director's May 2013 Report
• Discussion notes:
  • Cyclists getting killed is tough on our ED's time mgmt.
  • We have a SCiP-supported bike rack rental coordinator.
  • Will we track whether drivers are charged in cyclist deaths? Chris-- I'll find out how much work that would be. Anna -- would any supports in the U of A Public Health program be interested? Chris - probably not in the police angle. Chris - maybe we can convince police PR people to focus on traffic safety instead of styrofoam hats when there are collisions. Chris is preparing a bike helmet info page for the website.
  • Is anyone interested in helping with membership mailouts? Chris Co. says yes.
  • Sarah: it says you don't have as much time as you'd like for grant-writing. Chris - yes. I am pursuing not-grant-based revenue streams, which are good, but grants are like $10k falling out of the sky. Is Sarah volunteering to help? Sarah - well, I've already promised some help to bike month ... maybe a little. Chris - step 1 is identifying grants that seem like easy candidates, and figuring out what kind of new project could fit with them.
  • Leila - I guess one thing is there's a balance between revenue and expanding beyond what we can handle. There should be a lot of priority on doing what we do well, not spreading ourselves too thin over new projects that Chris would be primarily responsible for. Chris - yeah, a priority right now is getting Tara some compensation for running the Spoke. You might notice that the programs I've been taking on are all happy/feel-good, because then there are benefits beyond helping those people directly, it gives us more credibility as an organization with a broad appeal. Adam - maybe we should just appeal for an angel investor?
  • Sarah -- is a third staff member in the long-term planning? There seems to be a lot of pressure on Chris and Coreen. Anna - a lot of cities go down the route of having separate advocacy/bike shop services. That's a huge discussion that might be warranted.
  • Coreen has been thinking about: if we had someone who was just fixing up bikes for sale, maybe working on the rental program, could that program pay for itself? That might be an opportunity to serve more people. Chris Ch-- I know lots of pro bike mechanics that we could hire quickly. How long into the season could that pay for itself? Leila -- in terms of building community/capacity, would support using EBC-connected people. Chris Ch -- could become a question of financial sustainability, a crack mechanic could build something faster than a caring, loving EBC volunteer. There's conflict there. Justin -- we should give this some longterm thought. Lee -- let's table it for the retreat. (Consensus on that.)

Motion: To approve the May 2013 ED report as presented. Motioned by Anna. Seconded by Justin. Motion Carried.

BikeWorks Report (10 min)

• BikeWorks May 2013 Report
• Discussion notes:
  • It's been busy. Coreen's been working a lot, but now her other job is finally over.
  • Clarification on the everything-is-for-sale policy: Does Coreen have the authority to make exceptions? She's been allowing volunteers to set aside (not for personal use) bikes that seem valuable. She made an exception for an adult trike because she's had many special requests. Leila: to me this is a legitimate, thoughtful approach. People come here because bikes are underpriced, and we want to mitigate that. Chris Ch - that sign got my back up too because there's no name, date, or reason given. With respect to stashing bikes of high value, we should at least price it at something near finished price and let it go for that price. Leila - for me, there's a problem if someone knows that that bike is overpriced for as-is and tries to bargain. We should price it as-is and up the price every time. Chris Ch -- sometimes we look at a bike and it doesn't matter what the labour value is, it has a collector value... Anna -- it sounds like there's no disagreement in this case, so we can leave it with Coreen to operationalise this. Adam -- would Coreen like to send a directive to volunteers about legitimate reasons to put a bike on hold. Leila -- Coreen should always be able to finally put a bike on hold. Chris Ch -- let's talk about because we should be empowering volunteers to make decisions.
  • Intro classes have been very popular. More dates filled up. Chris Ch -- any other teachers? Coreen -- I'd like to put that out to the volunteers, I'd be happy to have someone shadow me. There's also demand for more comprehensive mechanics training, and that's valuable for developing volunteers.
  • Party was good. Volunteer burnout a concern (some ppl do a lot).
  • Rental program has been very popular, but things need to be tweaked. Hourly rate will be eliminate, daily increased to $20. Also, rental customers are different, and they're expected full-time hours and better service. We could improve that just by improving our marketing material, because it's not doing us any favours, especially when ppl are from out of town and we're basically subsidizing them. Adam -- what if we only rented bikes, say, Saturdays between 10 and noon. Coreen -- maybe, that's how it is at Sustain SU. Anna -- I see that this is a good service, but with all our burnout, since this doesn't add any education/empowerment, does this serve our goals, when we've got so much burnout? It sounds like the labour cost for rental is excessive, and we don't account for that. I feel like we should maybe axe this, maybe we can get a store to take it over. (Other board members are very much open to this, to be assessed at the end of this summer. Coreen will need to decide if it's worth going forward.) Anna -- we need to value our volunteers. Chris Ch - I think there are ways to address this issue, but we'll talk about that.

Motion: To approve the May 2013 BW report as presented. Motioned by Lee. Seconded by Sarah. Motion Carried.

Advocacy Committee Report (5 min)

• Advocacy Committee Report
• Discussion notes: Nothing to report. Chris Co is unclear what this job consists of. Went to a Molson's redevelopment consultation (everyone there aside from the developer said this is an inappropriate, car-oriented development), and there's a public consultation tomorrow. Chris Ch-- what's your assessment of the urgency, should EBC be rallying ppl to go to this public consultation tomorrow? Will it happen regardless? Will be EBC look good by joining in? Chris Co -- I think it will look great. Chris Ch -- as advocacy chair, you should be emailling me right away. If there's anything else on your radar in future, send those emails.

Motion: To approve the May 2013 Advocacy Committee report as presented (orally). Motioned by Anna. Seconded by Leila. Motion Carried.

H.R. Policy Committee Report (10 min)

• HR Policy Committee Report
• Discussion notes:
  • We've been working on finalizing a policy for staff performance reviews. Our goal would have been to have it approved today, but we need to add a few things. We also talked about the role of a staff liaison, what has worked for apirg, etc.

Motion: To approve the May 2013 HR Policy Committee report as presented (orally). Motioned by Sarah. Seconded by Adam. Motion Carried.

Volunteer Appreciation Event Committee Report (5 min)

• Hosted at Chansion. Ride led by Coreen and Chris. BBQ bike present but unused. Vegan glory meal by Kevin S. Awards presented by Lee. Budget was $200; we spent $204.79 on food/supplies and $87.91 on beverages (got $21 back in donations for alcoholic bevs). Oops.
• Discussion notes:
  • Attendance ~20.
  • Some liquor is left over, stored at BW North. Chris Ch does not want alcohol ever stored at BW North. It is not appropriate given The Spoke, etc. Will take it home and store it for the next event.
  • We didn't get a lot of feedback afterwards -- 20 is pretty good turnout. Chris Ch -- I think ppl enjoyed the bike ride. The north shop seemed well-rep'd.
  • Coreen felt a lift in morale the week after the event. That's great.
  • Should we do one sooner than the fall? Maybe, but there's the budget issue. Sarah -- there was a lot of food left over, so we can do less.
  • What about social committee-style things (picnic, art gallery)? Get volunteers learning each others' names. (Lots of agreement with this.) We can think of some volunteers that might like this.
• Motion: Anna will be reimbursed for the beverage expense. Motioned by Leila. Seconded by Justin. Motion Carried.

Motion: To approve the May 2013 Vol App Event report as presented. Motioned by Adam. Seconded by Chris Co. Motion Carried.

Current & Completed Business

Updates on Action Items From Previous Meeting (5 min)

• Everyone log your board volunteer hours for the past month.
• Anna will send Coreen listing of community calendars that courses could be posted on for free. DONE.
• Leila will email Coreen to ask if she needs any more board support in regards to participation for Bike Building nights. - done a few hours ago.
• ?? will email Cam W to arrange a day to receive the cement blocks he would like to donate for BWS yard. - Coreen likes the idea. We should email him soon cause that was a while ago. He knows what we need in terms of equipment. Leila will send Cam's info to Coreen, who will contact him.
• Chris Co will send Cam W the google group invitation for Complete Streets lists and info for upcoming Advocacy Meetings. -Chris will do that now.
• Chris Ch will contact Kornelsen family to discuss Memorial Ride in August. -not done yet.
• Paul (voluntold?) will review Bylaws and draft edits re: board election of members in good standing by July 30. NOT COMPLETED.
• Anna will incorporate the action item that Micah had re: links/resources on how to use wiki and Google Drive into the next board retreat (prob Oct).
  • One session could be in a computer lab so that each person can actually set up their accounts and figure everything out early on. Thoughts? (Agreement)

New Business

Board changes and appointments (15 min)

• Micah has resigned leaving the Secretary position vacant. Need new Secretary.
  • Justin volunteers for interim secretary.
  • Motion: To make Justin the Secretary. Moved Leila, Seconded Chris Co, Carried.
  • Motion: To switch signing authority from Micah to Justin. Moved by Leila, Seconded by Anna, Carried.
• Adam update- resigning or participating remotely from Calgary during school?
  • Not resigning immediately, but will resign by AGM.
• Need to update website with changes.
• Should we recruit interim board members? Do they get appointed until the AGM? By election?
  • Adam -- we should ask the guy who tied with Sarah at the AGM. He has legitimacy and we need help. Chris Ch -- I don't know why you wouldn't fill that vacancy as soon as possible. As far as recruiting generally goes, you should always be recruiting, all year long, but especially now. "You have some really great ideas." "This is what I do as a board member." Sarah -- what are the bylaws surrounding this? Leila -- there aren't any. We could hold a special meeting (quorum = 20) as we did to split the tie with Sarah. There is a bylaw that explicitly allows us to add someone as an interim.
  • Action item: Adam will contact Matt McCrank.

• It may help to set the AGM date so we can begin to plan for board recruitment.
  • Sunday Sept 22 (the day before is Community League Day which is a busy event for many community volunteers)?
  • Sunday Sept 29 (W+T day)? = Final day of Alberta Culture Days (no events currently scheduled in Edm that day). Also during EIFF (sept 27-oct 5).
  • Sunday Oct 6 (W+T day)?
• Discussion notes:
  • Suggestion: we plan this at the retreat in July. (When is Bern's conference going to be). Tabled for the next retreat.

Retreat Committee for July to form (5 min)

• An ad hoc committee for planning and organizing the Board mid-year retreat is needed. At least 3 people are needed.
• Discussion notes:
  • Lee will do it. Sarah. Will. Do. It. Again. All right, Leila'll be on the committee.
• Motion: The committee will consist of at least Leila, Sarah, and Lee. Motioned by Leila. Seconded by Anna. Motion Carried.

In Camera Session (20 min)

• Motion: To go in camera. Motioned by Leila. Seconded by Adam. Motion Carried.
• In Camera minutes will be distributed internally to Board members for records of discussions and decisions. This is important esp in regards to any formal verbal feedback given as a result of in camera decisions.

Adjournment

• Motion: To adjourn the meeting. Motioned by Adam. Seconded by Anna. Motion Carried.