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Minutes From The DCF AGM - June 25, 2019
MINUTES OF THE DCF 2019 AGM
Held on June 25, 2019 at 7:00 PM ET
DCF Board Meeting May 27, 2010
Thursday November 27, 2008
11:00 am ET Board Meeting
Boardroom
300-279 Laurier Ave W
Ottawa, ON
Present:
David Mackenzie
Pat Kerwin
David Illman-White
Phyllis Dietrich
Jesse Brady
Anne Scotton
Erin Armstrong
On the Phone:
Dick Proctor
1. Adoption of Agenda
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2. Minutes of Dec 1 2009 Board Meeting
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3. Correspondence
Letter from Bilbo Poynter thanking us once again for the grant
Dr. Vincent Lam who is going to the be the author of the next Tommy Douglas biography - this project is supported by Shirley Douglas and is part of the Extraordinary Canadians series being completed by Penguin Books
4. President's Report
David wanted to thank all the Board Members who took part in the phoning of members to renew memberships.
Jesse has offered to take on the communications lead for the Foundation..
Jess has also shown interest in taking on the role of Vice President.
Motion to nominate and accept Jesse Brady as one of the Vice President's of the Foundation.
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Motion to distribute the membership list of un-renewed members to members of the Board for individual phonings.
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5. Secretary's Report
Anne reviewed her interview with Dr. Vincent Lam including the social democracy movement of the last 80 years in Canada.
Expects launch of the book late 2010 or early 2011
There was talk about investigating the assistance of one of the book launches as 2011 will be the DCF's 40th Anniversary.
Membership #'s - 281
125 of those had to be renewed -- the recent phone drive renewed several members but in the mean time we have lost a few more members as they have had to rethink their donation $'s due to the economic situation we find ourselves in.
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6. Treasurer's Report
Pat reviewed the current YTD Financial Statements and the 2009 Financial Statements which are still in draft format - the final statements will be presented to the AGM in the fall.
Tessa and Pat had met with Frank Charette at ScoitaMcleod and adjusted our investment directions to hopefully help with the tough times were are facing.
Pat reviewed the current ScotiaMcleod statement as of April 30, 2010.
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7. Scholarship Report
Need to research the history of all the scholarships (Pat)
All have been handed out for the year.
Erin brought up that next week was going to the be the 9th Anniversary of Beverlee Bell's passing.
Doug mentioned that Erin’s family has been working very hard to raise additional funds for the DCF to continue to support the Beverlee Bell scholarship which is well received at Carleton University.
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8. 2010 Grant Discussion
Discussion about disbursement quotas and the upcoming changes to the legislation.
Pat’s recommendation is to hold until later in the year before dispensing any more grants in order to allow the investments to recover.
David Mackenzie supported Pat’s directions.
Pat discussed the 3rd DVD project – overall project costs anticipated at $25,000.
It was suggested to go to Historica for a grant since this project is about the War Measures Act enacted in 1970.
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9. Investment Statement Discussion
It was brought up at the August 2009 AGM in Halifax that we should review our investment portfolio as it pertains to what it is invested in.
Tessa, Pat, Phyllis, Kevin and David I-W met to discuss a policy proposal put together by Tessa. We contacted SHARE for advice on the policy and they indicated that having Tessa on this committee was a huge plus.
The proposed policy from the committee was discussed.
Motion to accept policy as presented
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10. Other Business
Next Meeting – Thursday November 18th, 2010 – 11 am ET followed by AGM at 2 pm ET
Conventions – 2011 will have CLC Convention in May and Federal NDP in June – to be followed up on
Jesse spoke about Communications and our need to have a better strategy for communicating with our members promoting education and research in social democracy. We need to build up our profile through email newsletters, our web site, op-eds, etc.
Jesse is going to prepare a Communications plan to be implemented in the near future.
Anne suggested turning the yearly President’s report into an “Annual Report” which would be more extensive covering off everything we have been doing, including the scholarship recipients, etc
Doug mentioned that we do have an e-newsletter database that is just waiting to be used.
Anne brought up not to forget about the Tommy Douglas biography launch with Vincent Lam and suggested that she could contact the publisher to get more information.
David Illman-White also brought up doing a Faith and Social Justice event, potentially inviting Bill Blaikie to come speak at the event. David Mackenzie said he would follow up with Bill about this suggestion.
Doug also mentioned that Shirley Douglas has been working with the Museum of Civilization giving them items to add to their Tommy Douglas collection. We’re going to send them our two DVD’s and one of the two original DCF banners.
Motion to adjourn at 12:30 pm ET
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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
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2. Adoption of minutes
Minutes of the July 23rd, 2019 meeting
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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.
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5 c). Adoption of Treasurer’s report.
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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
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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
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2. Adoption of minutes
Minutes of the previous meeting are read and adopted.
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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.
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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.
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7. Correspondence
