Draft Minutes

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

In Attendance: Mohammad al-Asad, John Calvert, Michael Dobbin, Michael Jenkin, Brendan McCoy, Steve Mennill, Greg Strahl, Anna Sundin, Deirdre McQuillan, Mary Anne Thompson, Marianne Keyes, David Law, Peter Reinecke

Absent: Jenny Haysom, Brenda Lee, Lai-Ling Lee, Michael Loewen, Donna Lordon, Geoff Murphy, Nerys Parry, Jim Steel, Clive Doucet

Guests: Geoff Hall, Hopewell School Council

Agenda

Preliminary Items

1. Approval of Agenda, Minutes of January 19, 2010 board meeting

2. President’s Report

3. Councillor’s Report

Decision Items

4. OSCA Webmaster Compensation

5. 2009 year end financial statements

Information Items

6. New OSCA Letterhead

7. OSCA Nominating committee - update

8. Equipment for new Firehall

9. Committtee Reports

10. Other Business and Adjournment

Preliminary Items

1. Approval of Agenda and Minutes - see Omnibus Motion at end of Minutes.

Motion:

• Motion carried

Motion:

• Motion carried

2. President’s Report

• Michael Jenkin gave the report:
• OSCA received a copy of a letter from the College of Physicians and Surgeons to Kent Kirkpatrick requesting the City to consider selling the Library property to them. The College would then build a new library with office space for themselves above it. David Law to contact the College.
• Firehall Construction – according to the project manager the building is still on schedule. There is a site visit planned for this week and we should have a proper update on the status after that.
• City Auditor General - Michael Jenkin and Steve Mennill met with the City Auditor who told them that the City will, in the near future, formalize its partnerships with community associations. Michael suggested that a working group be formed at OSCA to do an in principal agreement which we can then bring to the City. Anna Sundin, David Law, Steve Mennill and Michael Jenkin will form the group. Steve suggested that now would be a good time to do a full financial and procedural audit for OSCA. Dan Chenier is now General Manager of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services at the City. Michael will send him a letter of congratulations.

3. Councillor’s Report

• Clive Doucet was out of town.

Decision Items

4. OSCA Webmaster Compensation

- John Calvert presented a motion to the board – see Omnibus Motion at end of Minutes.

• Motion:
• Motion carried

5. 2009 Year End Financial Statements

• Motion:

Steve Mennill presented the 2009 year end financial statements for OSCA, Firehall Fund and OSCAR - see Omnibus Motion at end of Minutes.

Information Items

6. New OSCA Letterhead

• Deirdre presented 2 logos for the board’s consideration. The board asked Deirdre to ask the graphic artist to change some things about the logo, to bring back 2 or 3 sketches of a new logo to a group that includes Anna Sundin, Michael Dobbin and Mary Anne Thompson who will assess before bringing to the board.

7. OSCA Board Nominating Committee

• Gwen Gall has applied to be the library representative on the board. ECOS representatives are needed as neither of the co-chairs is returning. There is no business representative either. Board members will try to recruit people.

8. Equipment for new Firehall

There is money in the budget to buy furniture and equipment. Office furniture has been chosen, as has lobby furniture and new tables and chairs for the main hall. Appliances for the kitchen have to be chosen and a wish list is being prepared to spend any money left in the budget.

9. Committee Reports

• Website:
• Firehall Redevelopment:
• Special Events: Winter Carnival February 7 – a great success, more chili than ever.
• Library:
• Program: there was a brainstorming session on January 26 and many good programming ideas were noted.
• OSWatch:
  • There is a planned development of 6 condominiums on Sunnyside which the committee will keep an eye on.
  • Lansdowne – will continue to monitor traffic issues
• OSCAR
• FCA/CCC
• Finance
• ECOS
• CUSA

Guest Geoff Hall of Hopewell School Council – he is chair of a sub-committee dealing with issues that affect the community. The school will be celebrating its 100^th anniversary the week of May 17.

Omnibus Motion

• Motion: proposed by Steve Mennill and seconded by David Law that the following Omnibus Motion be carried:

•  
  1. Approve the Minutes of January 19, 2010 OSCA Board meeting

•  
  2. Approve the Agenda of February 16 OSCA Board meeting

•  
  3. Webmaster Compensation : OSCA has a dynamic and powerful new website with lots of capabilities. This presents OSCA with lots of new opportunities. It is also a challenge to keep running smoothly and effectively. The most demanding role is that of webmaster. This requires someone with considerable technical knowledge and skills, someone trustworthy, precise and dependable. To obtain commercial services to support our website could be expensive because of the combination of specialized skills (Joomla!, Primus, HTML, email, etc) and OSCA-specific knowledge, on the other hand if ignored it could lead to a progressive decline in the functioning of the website.

Therefore the web/IT committee proposes to OSCA board that we establish a more formal engagement with our webmaster and provide an annual honorarium. We estimate in the order to 20 hrs per month average (240 hrs or annum) to handling the following:

- security

- backups

- user accounts

- resolve systems errors (Joomla! engine and extensions)

- resolve data errors (issues beyond web editor competencies)

- general website support and training to web editor, web/IT cmt volunteers, and OSCA ED

- site design maintenance and enhancements

- upgrades

Some months may require less "keep the lights on" effort; during those times residual hrs will be spent on planning for future improvements and capabilities.

In exchange for the above services OSCA agrees to pay its webmaster an annual honorarium of $1000. This would be payable annually at the end of each 12 month fiscal year for OSCA, starting with the 2010 year.

Furthermore, web/IT cmt recommends that OSCA pay a one-time retroactive for 2009 honorarium payment of $1000 in recognition for the outstanding work done by webmaster Chris Solar in designing, developing, testing and implementing the new OOS website.

Post script: Chris has shown a strong leadership role in the development of the new OOS website. The other members of the web/IT cmt are aware of the gist of this proposal and I expect will support the full details. Basically we would not have the lovely new site if it wasn't for Chris.

•  
  4. Form a sub-committee to prepare an in-principle agreement on the relationship between the City and OSCA.

•  
  5. Form a committee to oversee the procurement of a new OSCA logo.

•  
  6. Approve in principle that OSCA do a financial and procedural audit

•  
  7. Approve the 2009 year end financial statement

Motion carried

9. Other Business and Adjournment

Motion: proposed by Michael Dobbin and seconded by Greg Strahl that the meeting be adjourned.

Motion carried

The meeting ended at 9:55 pm.