Douglas-Coldwell Foundation Annual General Meeting
Minutes From The DCF AGM - June 25, 2019
MINUTES OF THE DCF 2019 AGM
Held on June 25, 2019 at 7:00 PM ET
Minutes from the Annual General Meeting 2015
Tuesday June 9th, 2015
6:00 pm ET
Location:
25One Community
251 Bank St.
Ottawa, ON K2P 1X3
Attendance:
Present: Oliver Kent, Doug Massey, David White, Anne Scotton, Erin Kelly
By telephone: Diane O’Reggio
11 proxies
1. Approval of Agenda
Amended to start at 5:30pm, m/s/c
2. Approval of Minutes
m/s/c
3. President’s Report
Reading from Tommy Douglas’ biography by Doris French Shackleton. Quotes Cliff Scotton, A Scotton’s father. p. 318 Change in governance documents, AGMs have followed one another closely. President has talked to Rabble, Inter Pares, Canadian Healthcare Coalition, Upstream and other past grant recipients. Wrote a note, a Legacy of Hope, for Upstream, now posted on the site. Has connected with some but not all board members. Note, need to set deadline for this year’s grants. What does it mean to be a member? How do we increase our membership? How should we innovate our communication strategy? Have a general discussion around the future of the DCF. There have been opinions that the DCF is winding up, others see the possibility for growth. Clarify our relationship with the Broadbent Institute. Asks board to consider possible next steps: need ad hoc groups to have conversations to bring back to the board – on membership, DCF future, communication strategy (dependent on first two groups).
4. Executive Secretary’s Report
Reports membership numbers at a total of 107.
5. Treasurer’s Report
2014 audited statements.
Highlights: B/S comparison, worth same amount of money – no gain/loss; I/S – membership down by $3,000 (25%) from 2013, which is also a drop from previous years. Affiliation w/ SHARE – need to send our ScotiaMcLeod our statements in order to invest in more socially responsible manner, become more active by staying and working with other shareholders. Gives a detail of monies awarded for grants and scholarships. Postage increase due to sending out by-laws. Website expense was due to putting material online for the AGM. Membership, max was 450, 300 members, a small committed group of people, donations should take care of operations. Auditors talked about concern for internal controls to protect staff and officers. Diane and Anne will come up with some best practices recommendations for the next board meetings. Issues: a few cheques have gone through with one signature – have the bank statements be reviewed and initialed by the Treasurer. O Kent – Questions qualified opinion about inventory. Relates to large number of DVDs and bobble heads on inventory. Recommending to board to reduce DVD price to $11.99 + tax in order to move inventory. A Scotton – suggests further reduction (ie. 3 for $20). D White – comments on price aversion at conventions. O Kent – comments on difficulty making money on inventory, high cost, niche market. A Scotton – get it into a resource centre, your kid’s school, etc. Auditors concern is in regards to the realizable value. Get them into Octopus Books. D Massey - $24.99 for 3. Motion $10 per DVD or $20 for 3. m/s/c Auditor’s Report m/s/c/
2015 YTD
No more slippage on receiptable donations, investments down year on year. Anne comments on the fact that changes have been made, which incur costs. Investment advisor may not have been as conservative as we would have liked. Advises to cancel Google Adwords and move to Facebook. Treasurer recommends that we approve a budget. Anne approves financial forecasting. Doug and Diane commit to proposing a draft budget to be approved by the board. In the fall, there will be a budget for 2016 proposed as well. Previously, $15,000 was approved to revamp the website. A proposal was received from Union Communications. Recommends consideration of two additional proposals, NOW Communications and Campaign Gears. Campaign Gears proposal was more thorough, more self-sustaining (vs. NOW Communications which requires more upkeep with Wordpress). Diane’s concern was about accessibility. D O’Reggio, asks we consider an accessibility policy. Campaign Gears responded to our specific RFP, would be tailor made. A Scotton proposes a resolution to authorize Doug Massey to sign contract on DCF’s behalf, and to continue work of committee and determine provider to be used. m/s/c
6. Membership Discussion
Referred to membership discussion group for report at fall board meeting
7. Board Members
A Scotton nominates P Dietrich for 3-year term, agreement previously obtained m/s/c
8. Other Business
9. Adjournment
m/s/c
Latest posts
DCF Board Meeting - February 27, 2020
DCF Board Meeting
Thursday, February 27th, 2020
19:00 ET
Location:
By Telephone
Attendance:
Karl Bélanger, Melissa Hunter, Mohammad Akbar, Rebecca Blaikie, Jon Weier, Derek De Vlieger, Diana Idibe, Chirs Markevich.
- Adoption of Agenda
m/s/c
2. Adoption of minutes
Minutes of the July 23rd, 2019 meeting
m/s/c
3. President’s report:
Hope everyone is well. Mayor of Ottawa has asked people to stay home because of the coronavirus, thankfully we can hold our meeting by phone.
Transition has been happening. Our new treasurer will give us an update.
The group “Nos Communes, Our Commons” appears to have gone dormant. We were wise to set conditions to go along with the grant approval.
Work has been done to update our registration with Industry Canada. No progress has been made on the Stokoe bequest. 4Executive
4. Secretary’s Report:
Anne Scotton is unable to join us and send her regrets.
5. Treasurer’s Report:
Transition has been happening. Priority now is on issuing tax receipts. We have to handle a few manually. We have a lot of different systems which are more or less
compatible with each other, but things seem under control. We are issuing cheques to catch up on some accounts due.
5. b) Fee structure at Scotia McLeod
Good discussions with Scotia McLeod about our assets. They remain healthy.
Their proposed new fee structure, SM would be much more nimble in the markets as there are no commission minimums on trades. Currently, the commission minimum is $175. That does limit profit taking opportunities and specific positions when considering weighting in the portfolio, which we must do as our assets are now stock-heavy.
Motion: BIRT the Board authorizes ScotiaMcLeod to move the Douglas-Coldwell Foundation wealth management account into a Partnership Plus account, which modifies the fee structure from a Per Transaction formula to an annual fee based on the DCF assets.
m/s/c
5 c). Adoption of Treasurer’s report.
m/s/c
6. Progress Summit
The Progress Summit will be held in Vancouver. We will have a booth. Looking for volunteers, so if anyone is attending, please let us know.
The next TDI Institute will be held in May. Theme is Our City & the Green New Deal. We have been invited to take part once again.
7. Office Space
Mohammad Akbar has raised the issue of the DCF securing a new permanent space by buying a building. The CFS building is no longer on the market. Board members express general interest in doing so sometime down the road.
8. DCF 50th Anniversary
Next year is the 50th anniversary of the DCF. It is a good opportunity to complete the reboot of the DCF and move forward with the plan adopted by AGM two years ago. We should have a year of activity of events, maybe a gala? Jon Weier volunteers to coordinate the DCF planning.
The Institute for Change Leaders (ICL)’s proposal to create a multimedia project that tells the story of progressive campaigns, driven by Olivia Chow, is moving forward, with Tim Harper on board. Another application will be forthcoming at the next board meeting. Board members expressed once again their support in principle for this proposal.
9. Next Meeting
Board members agreed to look for a suitable date in late April/early May.
10. Other business
The Institute for Change Leaders (ICL)’s proposal to create a multimedia project that tells the story of progressive campaigns, driven by Olivia Chow, is moving forward, with Tim Harper on board. We are still awaiting their next application.
We have received news from Beryl Young that Tommy's Dream, a children’s book that tells the story of how Tommy Douglas's childhood experience with his own health inspired him to work toward establishing universal health care, is now going to be published by Louis Anctil, the publisher of Midtown Press in Vancouver. Target is the spring of 2021. An update application will be forthcoming before the next meeting.
11. Adjournment
m/s/c
DCF Board Meeting - July 23rd, 2019
DCF Board Meeting
Wednesday, July 23rd, 2019
6:00 ET
Location:
By Telephone
Attendance:
Karl Bélanger, Melissa Hunter, Mohammad Akbar, Rebecca Blaikie, Diane Idibe,
Jon Weier, Amy Boughner, Jay Ramasubramanyam, Debbie Owusu-Akyeeah.
Non-board member: Josh Bizjak
Adoption of Agenda
m/s/c
2. Adoption of minutes
Minutes of the previous meeting are read and adopted.
m/s/c
3. President’s report:
Karl mentions that there was a significant turnover of Board Members at the AGM, which is interesting and challenging.
The two committees charged by the previous AGM to review governance issues and the DCF by-laws made limited progress.
The DCF received a nice letter from a scholarship recipient and was read. The DCF needs to revisit its links with the different universities to strengthen the relationship and increase awareness.
4. Financial Report: No official report as the position is vacant, following the resignation of Emilie Taman. Karl gives a general overview of the financial situation. Our assets remain healthy. The DCF raised more money in the past year, thanks notably to a generous donation from the Flanagan Institute.
Minimal progress has been made on the transition. A full audit needs to be conducted before the end of the year.
Karl had a meeting with Scotia McLeod about our assets. They are proposing a new fee
structure, in essence moving to a fee-based structure from a per transaction cost. With the fee-based structure, our investors pledge to make himself available for board meetings and consult on the construction of a new investment policy statement. With a fee-based structure, we would be much more nimble in the markets as there are no commission minimums on trades.
Motion moved to ask the new treasurer to review, met with Scotia McLeod and report to the Board on a recommendation for the proposal.
m/s/c
5. Election of officers
President: Karl Bélanger
Vice-President: Rebecca Blaikie, Derek DeVlieger
Executive Secretary: Anne Scotton in abstentia, pending her acceptance;
Mohammad Akbar as alternate.
Treasurer: Melissa Hunter
6. Staffing
Chris Markevich has moved on from his position but has been elected to the Board, which will be helpful for institutional memory. Josh Bizjak has been helping out on a volunteer basis.
Motion moved to regularize Josh Bizjak’s situation by compensating his work on a similar contract as previous assistant, to be negotiated with the President.
m/s/c
7. Correspondence
