DCF Annual General Meeting May 5, 2005

Douglas-Coldwell Foundation Annual General Meeting
May 5, 2005
Ottawa, ON

Present:
Tessa Hebb, Pat Kerwin, Kealey Cummings, Marion Dewar, Fraser Green, Doug Massey, Vickie Smallman, Diane Alexopoulos

By Phone:
Anne Scotton

Regrets:
Robert Needham, David Mackenzie, David Woodbury, Ted Jackson, Lynn Williams, Joy Langan, Howard Pawley, Jill Marzetti, Allan Blakeney

Meeting called to order 12:10 pm

M/S/C Agenda approved

M/S/C Minutes of April 2004 Annual General Meeting approved.

1. President's Report
Tessa Hebb reported on a busy year for the Foundation. In 2004-2005 all our scholarships have been awarded. In addition we continued to award a number of grants for worthwhile new projects in 2004 including the Centre for Social Justice: External Affairs Defense Roundtable Conference ($5,000) and the Maquila Solidarity Network anti sweatshop campaign ($7,500). At the end of 2004 we approved grants for 2005: the Allan Blakeney DVD project ($5,000), CKUT FM Homelessness Marathon in Feb 05 ($2,000), Community Ownership Solutions in Manitoba ($7,500), and a book on Women and Homelessness by Susan Scott ($1,000). A new project Ottawa: Our Diverse City ($5,000) was approved at this morning's board meeting.

A review of our grant making from 2000 to 2005 shows we distributed $114,500 in grants and scholarships. While our past record of grant making is good, we want to give more not less and to do so we need to raise our membership and endowment to enable us to fund more of the excellent project proposals that come to us. We have unfortunately turned down four great projects due to funding limitations, including the Maquila Solidarity Network. We now have many more requests coming in than we can support. As a result we must raise our membership and the endowment fund to support more grant giving.

While our web presence provides a great opportunity for those interested to follow the work of the Foundation, our web site presence is not enough. We need to get in newsletters, NDP magazines, etc. to make the Foundation better known. We have a great opportunity with Tommy Douglas named the Greatest Canadian. People need to know that the DCF embodies Tommy's vision for Canada. Many are unaware that Tommy Douglas was the founding President of the Foundation and remained in that position until he passed away.

Our goal is to take membership to $10,000 in revenue annually which will cover off the administration office. Our other goal is to bring the endowment to $1,000,000 which would enable us to fulfill our grant request. To reach that goal of $1,000,000 we have to do something, we can't just ask for money we are going to have to find a “gift” for large donations . One possibly is a DVD of Tommy's speeches. Also, we need strong activist work on the ground. With David Mackenzie and Pat Kerwin now serving as Officers of the Foundation, they bring a strong labour connection, along with Board members Kealey Cummings, Lynn Williams, and Frank Saptel, that are necessary to assist with this goal. While board members such as Fraser Green can help us develop a legacy giving campaign. This promises to be a very active year for the Foundation, and one I am looking forward to.

M/S/C adoption of the President's Report

2. Executive's Secretary Report

Doug Massey reported for Anne Scotton on membership. At the end of 2004 there was 35 members. In this year the Board has been out recruiting members and we are now up to 60 plus members. That is almost 75% increase in membership numbers and over 100% increase in revenues versus 2004.

M/S/C adoption of the Secretary's Report

3. Treasurer's Report
Welcome to Pat Kerwin, our new Treasurer and Doug Massey our new Administrative Assistant. In the fall Nanci Morrison (previous Treasurer) and Audrey Moey (previous Administrative Assistant) stepped down from their positions and we would once again like to thank them for their involvement. It was also previously agreed to change to a new auditor. The new auditor is OHCD - Ouseley Hanvey Clipsham Deep.

Pat Kerwin reviewed the audited statements for 2004.

M/S/C - Motion to reappoint OHCD as the auditor until further notice.
The Board requested that the signature from the auditor was on the final document - Doug is to contact the Auditor and have this completed.

M/S/C - Motion to approve the audited statements for 2004
(If you are a member of the Douglas-Coldwell Foundation and would like a copy of the Audited statements please inform us in writing and we will send you a copy)

4. Nomination of new board members

By-laws allow us to have 15 board members and 2 honorary patrons. There is a great deal of activity with the DCF right now and the Board Members are and need to be engaged in the Foundations' activities to continue to move it forward. We have shifted our meeting times to the 11 a.m. time slot to allow those in BC to participate.

Board as a whole acts as a committee for nominations. The board recommends Alexa McDonough and Frank Saptel to the Board of the Foundation. This take sus to our full Board allocation.

M/S/C Alexa McDonough and Frank Saptel be approached to serve on the Board of the Douglas-Coldwell Foundation.

Other Business

Fraser Green suggested a 15 minute powerpoint presentation be developed for Alexa to bring to Caucus to inform the members about the Douglas-Coldwell Foundation.

Tessa Hebb was enthusiastic about developing a stronger presence for the DCF through the DVD project and at conventions.

Marion Dewar raised an important issue in Canada right now, that of electoral reform, not necessarily on proportional representation, but about the time of reforms that are being reviewed around the world. We need to look at what is happening out there - there are some good resources out there - BC is voting on a proposal next week, PEI is also looking at this. People are very worried about what minority governments are all about and now is a time to discuss this. Tessa Hebb suggested we think of a possible project for 2006 and discuss it at the November 2005 Board meeting.

M/S/C Meeting adjourned 1:10 pm.