Attendance:
Board Members: Jen Lusk, Emilia Kennedy, Curtis Penner, Kalin
Jensen, M. Mustafa Hirji, Leila Darwish
Proxy: Bequie Lake for Eric Kershaw
Non-Voting Members: Tim Singh
Staff: Rose Yewchuk, Vivek Sharma (Solidarity WORKS! Intern)
Guests: Kirsten McCrea, Lisa Moore,
Sunday, August 24, 6:00 pm, APIRG office
September Board Retreat Ð Tentatively set for September 19/20
June
13th, 2003 - Approved
July
15th, 2003 - Approved
3. APIRG Decision-Making Process in the absence of
quorum
Objective: Decide what policy should APIRG adopt to govern
meetings without quorum.
Decision:
The process established at the July
15th meeting was approved as a temporary operating policy. This
question will be put on the agenda of the Board retreat for discussion by the
Board as a whole.
4. Requests for Funding
Objective: Decide how much funding to provide and how to direct
it.
á
$5000 is too much,
considering our total speaker fund budget is $8400. We do not want to deplete
it before September and deprive student groups of funding.
á
Additional money may or
may not be available in our budget, depending on whether enrollment is up or
down, or how much working group money is turned back to us.
á
We © Parkland!!!!!! It would be great to support them in
return for all of the support they have given APIRG.
á
Naomi Klein is a pretty
high-profile speaker and APIRG would get good publicity from sponsoring her.
Decision: Provide
$2000 from the Speaker Fund to sponsor Naomi Klein.
If it looks like more funds are available later in the year, the Board may consider providing an additional $500 to this conference or other Parkland events. As well: make sure Parkland knows that We © Them!
Decision: Approved.
Objective:
Decide how much funding to provide from the SpeakersÕ Fund
á
Kirsten McCrea and Lisa
Moore spoke to this request. Nawrocki is a performance artist who does an
anti-sexist sex comedy. It is funny, provocative, and inclusive. The show has
received critical acclaim for making womenÕs issues accessible to a broader
audience.
á
Costs of organizing the
event will be up to $2500. They require a certain amount of core funding in
order to apply to the Dean of Students and others for funds.
Decision:
Provide $800 from the Speaker Fund as core funding.
The organizers will find out whether a larger amount is needed to get matching funds from the Dean of Students and may request more funding from APIRG if necessary.
Depending on the amount, APIRG may request that any additional funding be in the form of a loan or be recouped by ticket sales.
Decision: We do not want to violate the StudentsÕ UnionÕs
exclusivity agreement with their web provider. Staff will ask ECOS to provide
APIRG with a letter from the SU Executive stating that they are aware of this
request. Staff will also make sure that we have the bandwidth and capacity to
host this site.
A
final decision will be made at the next Board meeting.
Objective: Final approval of the content and structure of the
APIRG Bylaws.
Mustafa, Jen, and Bequie have reached a consensus on
the bylaws. Mustafa will send them out soon over the listserv for discussion.
The Societies Act requires us to have a list of our
membersÕ names and addresses. Membership remains a contentious issue,
particularly with regard to who is able to vote in elections.
The bylaws will be discussed at the next Board meeting
and hopefully will be approved at the Board retreat so they can be submitted
under the Societies Act.
Objective: Decide whether we want to participate in campaigns,
and in what capacity
á Request from Common Frontiers to sign on to health campaign
Decision: APIRG
is willing to provide a web link to the campaign and have petitions in the
office. Individual working groups are free to promote and/or participate
further. However, APIRG as an organization will not endorse the campaign Ð the
reason being that it would compromise our neutrality if APIRG as an
organization began taking positions on specific issues.
The Board may wish to draft a policy regarding the criteria for placement of links on our website.
á Joint local campaigns with Change for Children, AFL, Parkland
Decision: Staff
will remain in contact with these groups and keep the Board apprised of their
plans. Again, individuals or working groups are free to participate as they see
fit.
Objective:
Final approval
Decision: Approved with amendments.
Objective:
Discussion; final approval
á
The irony is that this
policy is meaningless if we donÕt have quorum, because technically then itÕs
not a meeting, and the absences are not official and therefore donÕt count.
á
It is essential that
Board members understand the importance of attendance. Meetings without quorum
waste the time of the people who do show up and can cripple the organization.
á
Should the Board really
have the authority to remove someone who was elected by students?
Decision:
Scrap the policy and replace it with the following tactics:
á
The importance of
attendance at ALL meetings will be triple-underlined and otherwise emphasized
to the max in the Board member elections packages
á
Staff will keep a proxy
list in the office so that members who canÕt make a meeting will find it easier
to get a replacement on short notice
á
Unsuccessful Board
candidates and anyone who shows interest in APIRG will be encouraged to be on
the proxy list
á
Anyone who misses 3
consecutive meetings will have to bring snacks and wear a silly hat at the next
meeting; this is thought to be incentive enough to keep people coming regularly
á Key sign-out and deposits: Staff will research the cost of key replacement. A policy on keys will be drafted at a future meeting. Anyone who does not want to pay the deposit is under no obligation to have a key.
A. Hiring of New Administrator
An ad has been placed for the administrator position. Applications are flying in. Deadline is August 11. Rose, Jen, and Bequie will serve on the committee and set up a schedule for shortlisting and interviews. Final approval of the candidate will take place at the August 24 Board Meeting.
The letter has been submitted to the SU after
consultation with Board members.
Our
bylaws are unlikely to be reviewed before October. The SU will contact us once
they are ready to discuss them.
The
SU will most likely run the audit committee on an ad hoc basis until January.
There is no guarantee that it will even apply to dedicated fees. Currently our
SU Bylaw 6550 makes it unnecessary for them to inspect our books anyway. The
Board will be kept informed as this situation develops.
D. Publicity Planning must commence shortly for the fall term.
Emilia
is making stickers and T-Shirts.
Tim
will contact the Orientation leader to make sure the tours stop by our office
on Sept. 1 and 2. Staff will make sure we have cookies and other enticements to
lure them in.
Staff
will book a table in Quad for September 3-5.
E. The ECOS library will share an online interface with our database so students can easily
search for resources in both locations.
F. ECOS is
interested in hosting a joint bookraiser to boost their resource library and/or a cool civic-minded event to hook up working groups, community
groups, and other activists
G. ECOS is
interested in co-hosting an alternative career fair with us and CaPS. Rose and Vivek met with Geneva, Leila, and Carey
Castillo from CaPS to talk about this possibility. We may be able to piggyback
onto existing non-profit and volunteer fairs. The Board will discuss this
further once more details are confirmed.
H. Annual Report Ð Is currently in development; should be ready for feedback by September.
I. APIRG Brochure Ð Vivek got us a great deal and the brochure will be ready by Orientation
J. Awning replacement Ð Is most likely shelved because HUB insists that we get
a $3000 sign to replace it, which exceeds our budget for this (and our rent for
3 months!). Staff will inform the Board if anything changes.
K. Saskatoon
is looking at starting up a PIRG Ð we may want to keep in touch with them and
consider giving them a loan.
L. Community Service-Learning (CSL) is up and running out of the Sociology Department.
APIRG will have 4 students volunteering with us in the fall. We will need to
come up with projects for them.
M. The APIRG website is currently under review. Vivek welcomes your suggestions for content
and organization.
N. APIRGÕs phone numbers will be changing on August 29 to 492-0614 and
492-0615 (fax).