Thursday, October 22nd, 2009 at 7 PM
In the Green Room, Community Hall
Present: Michael McNamara, President; Kevin McMahon, Vice-President; Micheal Berman, Treasurer; Jenny Brown, Secretary, Masoud Zadeh, Sharon Rogalsky, Cindy Anderson, Members
Regrets: Ian Thompson, Janet LeBlanc, Administrator
1. Minutes of last meeting: Approved by general consensus
2. Notes of September site planning workshop for approval: (Part of minutes): Read and discussion.
a) Bernhard has drafted a covenant for the Trust. “No more than one third of the houses at one time will be rental housing.”. Michael Berman says everyone should read the draft, to be passed around via email. Next steps: There are things in the document that ISLA Board members must have an understanding of; next steps are ISLA to accept and sign off on the covenant and then it goes to the Trust for same.
b) After covenant settlement comes a housing agreement. Until HA is established, the covenant is held by the Trust, to be replaced by the completed HA, which will contain all of the elements of the existing “Interim Restrictive Covenant”, plus much more.
3. Sept 25 Fund raiser wrap up: Netted $117 (approx.) and one new membership. Great for PR exposure, not very viable as a money maker.
4. To do list updates: Site planning summary -- Michael M. talked with Roger Vinnitch. He’ll come over soon to do mapping on the hillside and the stream. Kevin to talk with Ron McMurtie re: role with septic. Ron is unavailable at this time. JB liaised with Anne Ngan re: Roof Over Our Heads. She’s spearheading that campaign and JB will stay involved. Anne wants to hold the event in June. Discussion around the abundance of fund raising events planned for next summer. June, July, August events scheduled. How does the art show create funding? Masoud says the artists could donate work or receive a % of the proceeds. Could be a silent art auction. Three days booked for the hall, maybe some type of show for one of those nights.
5. Follow up for BC housing meetings: Michael M. says Genevieve is receptive to keeping in touch and wants to know ISLA’s needs and next steps. Ryan Preston (her fiance’) is a biologist who works for a consulting firm that does site analysis for developments. Genevieve is encouraging Ryan to do work for ISLA pro bono. Cindy questioned BC Housing’s ability to finance housing on leased land. MM agreed that it is a question that we need an answer for and said that BC Housing has good resources to do creative financing. Micheal Beman encouraged positivity on this issue.
6. Outreach program: Cindy to sit with JB on Thurs 29th on porch from 11-1pm.
7. Scott Sweeney resignation: He wants to focus on the Radio Society and leave ISLA in good hands. We need a formal resignation from him. Masoud to call him and request this in writing. Discussion followed re: Board vacancy: Do we need someone now? Yes. Joanne maybe available after next AGM but not now. Who? Must have energy and enthusiasm for fund raising, etc. Grapevine ad? Must have resignation from Scott first. Ads for Board members not really “done” in this community, let’s try to find someone on our own. What are we looking for? Bright, outgoing, fund raising get go. Action plan: each come up with three names to contribute to the pool. Email the others.
8. Correspondence: A membership renewal was received from Betty Fairbank. Emails with Ryan and Drew, passed along to Board already. Cindy had a talk with Drew Stotesbury (exp. with Development, Finance and affordable housing in Whistler.) He doesn’t want to be on the Board at this time but will offer consulting help as/when needed.
9. Climate change initiative from Trust: Green housing is favored by BC Housing. Multi family favored over single family dwellings for greater energy efficiency. Heat pumps more efficient than base board or fossil fuels. Should revisit the issue of multi vs. single family. Will it affect potential financing? Needs further investigation. Kevin suggested cob as a viable construction with many green advantages. Very time consuming but durable, quiet, from the earth, etc. CC issues will be an increased issue over the coming years. Where does the lumber for the pre-fabs come from? Sharon to look into it.
10. Treasurer’s report: Some category changes were made to the budget by M.Berman. Core yearly operating budget for ISLA is $10,000. Historically we’ve raised about $1,000 a year. Janet is doing a great job so far at raising money, but we’ll need more dependable core funding once we take possession of the land. Tax budget is a guess at $2,000. Bernhard told Berman not to fret, once we get the land, large donators will step forward to help with the big expense of land development. Michael emphasized this was his first attempt at a multi-year budget. See budget for details. MB will do an update every two or three months. Back to concept of why don’t we let people buy the land? The whole point of ISLA is to take the land out of the market and hold it in perpetuity.
The question was brought up by Drew re: can a person get a mortgage for a home on leased land? Discussion: Can BC Housing help with this? Feeling that BC Housing can help folks with this. MM says this issue could be a deal breaker, we must have a finance sub-committee to research and answer this question. Start with UBCU and see what they say first. Before we approach, should we have more of a concrete plan for the land; or approach now, and possibly tailor building to mortgage requirements? Berman says, mellow out, maybe we have to finance the first one ourselves, maybe we do a deal with the CU, if a foreclosure, ISLA takes over mortgage until re-sold. Original model: Build one, sell it. ISLA could finance and arrange financing with new owners. Berman votes that we wait a little bit, to have a model and approval from the Trust, then go to the CU.
Janet printed a HIRRA terms of reference output. We need to draw up one of our own. Committees will be comprised of three people, with a chairperson, who will report to the board, try to meet once a month, and expand our membership through recruitment on committees. Berman doesn’t think we can meet our goals without forming subcommittees.
Maybe time to have a fund raising committee meeting. May be two prongs: Shows (outreach) and major donor campaign (Courting for the big bucks)
Possible folks with major fund raising exp: Joanne Harrison, Florette, Peter Elkin
Forming FR sub? We need design and FR NOW. Finance Committee? Discussion that perhaps we should form two subcommittees now, FR and Design, get to work, and pick up with subcommittees for Finance and Selection Criteria when we have some more help on board.
JB to chair fund raising committee, with Masoud, Cindy, Sharon and Kevin as back-up.
Auction in August? Do we do it? Table to next meeting
Next meeting: Nov 18th. Kevin will likely not be here for a couple of months, going to Thailand.
Meeting adjourned at 9pm.
jb