Board Minutes October 2009
EBC Board of Directors – Meeting Minutes
Date: Thursday, October 1st, 2009
Time: 7:00 PM Place: BikeWorks
Attendees:
CHRIS CHAN, President MICHAEL JANZ, Vice-President BILL SELLERS, Secretary NEIL CAREY, Treasurer ERICH WELZ, BikeWorks Director KEEGAN McEVOY, Communications Director LAUREN PRICE, Volunteer Director DEREK PLUIM, Office/Sponsorship and Fundraising Director KEITH HALLGREN, Membership/Registration Director JASON PONTO, Policy Director DAVID FELDMAN, Meeting Chair (non-voting) JIM STORRIE, Project Coordinator (non-voting) ALEX HINDLE, Staff Mechanic (non-voting) COREEN F, EBC Volunteer (non-voting)
Absent:
SHARON BARKER, Community Events Director
1. Approval of agenda
Davidcalls meeting to order.
Derekmoves to approve the agenda;Keeganseconds.
2. Introductions
(Information only: board members and attendees introduce themselves.)
3. Approval of last meeting's minutes
As the minutes from the last board meeting were not available, board decides to postpone this until the next board meeting. Passed by consensus.
4. Concerns regarding neighbours / children-in-shop policies
Alexraises concerns about a child in the neighbourhood who has been frequently wandering into the shop of late. The child has a developmental disability and is difficult to handle. He also suggests that this may be a liability problem, as the shop is full of potentially dangerous tools and objects.
Chrissuggests forwarding this issue to the policy committee, as we do not have standing policies about children in the shop.
Billsuggests we keep contact information for this child's guardians on file.
Davidsuggests documenting her visits for liability reasons. Further, he suggests that these sorts of incidents are why BikeWorks should have an incident log, and suggests its creation.
Erichrequests that Alex inform the EBC BikeWorks mailing list about this issue.
5. New board discussion: skills, interests, etc.
Davidsuggests moving this discussion to the end of the meeting. Also asks if the board is interested in the possibility of a board retreat, to explore this topic in greater depth.
Michaelspeaks in favour of the retreat, and suggests postponing this discussion until that time.
Erichadvises that the board attempt to become more proactive and less reactive, through the development of better policy, citing the concerns raised in item four.
Erichmoves that planning begin for a board retreat.Michaelseconds.
Michaelwill send out invites and inquiries to determine a potential date for this event.
Laurenasks if returning board members are happy with the status quo, and if not, where they would like to see changes.
Chrisexplains that prior board did not prioritize the development of organizational policies.
Keegansuggests that the policy committee should be very active as soon as possible.
Davidsuggests the possibility of board development workshops through the government organization he works with, though he explains that a full workshop would require about three months of preparation time, as the 'mentors' would need to properly examine the organization.
Michaelsuggests an in-house 'halfday' workshop might be prudent before locking in to that amount of prep-work.
6. Report from Jim (I was not able to take minutes for this)
Davidrequests that in the future, Jim's reports be delivered in writing before the board meetings, not orally during them. Jim agrees and will do.
7. Old business
a) Paid mechanics Chrisexplains that Alex Hindle and Esjay LaFayette will be working through the winter. BikeWorks will run on reduced hours, and Alex and Esjay will use the extra time to focus on shop development, maintenance, and if possible the construction of bicycles for a spring bike-rental project.
Alexasks about signing authority for cheques–is the board currently able to sign paycheques?
Chrisexplains that the minutes from the post-AGM board meeting need to be approved, and signatures need to be collected from the old board, before the new board will have signing authority for payroll.
Davidsuggests contacting the bank in order to speed this along, for Alex and Esjay's convenience.Chrisagrees and will do so.
b) Insurance
Chrisexplains that in order to update EBC's insurance paperwork, he requires the approved post-AGM board meeting minutes, and financial information from the last fiscal year.
c) Safe
Chrisexplains that the 'safe' in BikeWorks is actually meant for fireproof/waterproof storage of documents, and is not at all secure.
Chrisrequests a $500 budget for the purchase of a secure safe.Derekseconds.
Board votes: all in favour.
Davidrequests that financial reports be brought to each board meeting from now on.Neilagrees and will do.
Alexrequests that the board consider issuing a budget to BikeWorks staff as well, for maintenance, the purchase of cleaning goods, replacement of broken furniture and fixtures, etc.
Erichrequests a $400 monthly budget for Alex and Esjay, to be used for these purposes.
Davidsuggests granting signing authority to Neil as an alternative to issuing a budget.
Erichdisagrees, suggesting this would create too much process.
Keeganexpresses concern about potential overspending and moves for the creation of a $250 monthly budget.Michaelseconds.
Board votes: all in favour.
8. New business
a) In-camera item
b) Committee discussion: who will chair which?
Davidadvises finding opinionated posters on the EBC mailing list and asking them to join committees, explaining that the purpose of the committees is to delegate as much work as possibleawayfrom the board.
Chrisexplains that we have four mailing lists:ebc-board@edmontonbikes.ca(just board members and chair);ebc-bikeworks@edmontonbikes.ca(mechanics); ebc-core@edmontonbikes.ca (board members, chair, employees, committee members, and other interested parties), andebc-members@edmontonbikes.ca(all members).
Jimadvises recruiting as many female members as reasonably possible to the BikeWorks and policy committees, as inclusivity/non-sexism has become a frequently mentioned issue.
Michaelsuggests that responsibility for nominating spokespeople (to present at public events, hearings, etc.) become the purview of the advocacy committee.
Jimrequests permission to post contact information for board members in his office (behind the lounge). Granted by all present.
Chrismoves to insert an agenda issue regarding responses to inquiries on the mailing list.Michaelseconds.
c) Mailing list responsibilities
Chrisexplains that recently we have had issues with multiple organization members responding to the same inquiries to the mailing list–and conversely, inquiries going without response.
Erichwill take on inquiries directly related to BikeWorks.
Laurenwill take on inquiries directly related to volunteering with the EBC.
Keeganwill take on all inquiries which do not fit into either of the above categories.
Laurensuggests it would be helpful to have a set of 'canned responses' to the most common inquiries.
Chrisexplains that some of these already exist on the ebcboard@gmail.com account. Erich will copy them over.
d) Sustainability Week
Michaelexplains that this event is taking place on the University of Alberta campus from October 19 to 23, and is a useful outreach opportunity.
Chrisrecommends that we take a repair stand and bicycle as an interesting prop, to enhance our presence there.
Jimhas been in contact with the event organizers and will handle the details.
e) Heritage Festival
Chrisexplains the situation regarding the past Heritage Festival this summer: Enmax, one of the sponsors for the event, had arranged for their name to be on the bicycle parking. The old board was not favourable to this arrangement and pulled out of the event, then offered to rent EBC racks to the Heritage Festival at a deliberately exorbitant fee ($2000). Heritage Festival declined and purchased their own racks. Chris attended independently and was able to still take in a large amount of donations for the EBC; he explains that the Heritage Festival is typically very lucrative for the EBC, as well as something offering great exposure. Heritage Festival's operators are currently hostile to us and uninterested in our participation thanks to this year's events.
Chrissuggests we make normalizing relations with the Heritage Festival a priority, and moves that he be given permission to send as many conciliatory letters as necessary to do so.
Keeganseconds.
9. Closing
Davidwill not be present for the next board meeting.
Keeganvolunteers to chair the next meeting. Chris approves.
Michaelrequests that Jim apply for the University of Alberta's ESL intern grant. Jim agrees and will do; Michael will forward related information to the board mailing list.
Chrismoves to adjourn.Michaelseconds.