Minutes of Sooke Transition Town Society AGM 2019

Harbourside Cohousing, Sooke

Opened at 7 pm – with 16 members attending (see list on last page).

Meeting called to order by Michael Tacon (acting President) who welcomed everyone to our Annual General Meeting for 2018/2019.

President’s Report – see Appendix 1

Michael read to the assembled the message from previous President Jeff Bateman, detailing the successes of STTS in 2018 and a formal “thank you” was voted for Jeff Bateman for all his hard work over the last several years and for his continuing support. Michael went on to read his report covering the period when he and Bernie worked together to keep things going and looking ahead into 2019.

President’s acknowledgement of who is doing what:

• Publicity: Lily, Jo, Jeff
• Social Media: Jeff (behind the scenes)
• Website Re-org/Communications: Alan, Sue L, Hester and Paivi
• Volunteers: Kara, Paula and Val
• Newsletter/Communications: Alan

Action Groups and other functions:

• Speaker’s Series: Carol with David and Michael
• Awareness Film Night (AFN): Jo, George
• Climate Cafés: Susan and Jo
• Pesticide Education Group: Paivi, Alan, Yvonne and Dave Court, Mary Alice Johnson, Kara, Jeff, Paula and Bernie
• Zero Waste Sooke: Bernie, Paula, Jo, Wendy, Carol and David
• Sooke Region Multi-Belief Initiative: Mark Ziegler, Don Brown, Rick Eby, Jeff, Koshin-Moonfist, Humeric Anderson, Bruce Hegerat, and Troi Leonard
• Wild Wise Sooke (WWS): Samantha Webb with thanks to founder Debb Read
• Transportation Group: David Hannis
• Transition Town Book Club: Paula

Treasurer’s Report delivered by current treasurer David Mallett – Appendix 2

Thanks were expressed for Martin Bissig’s service as our Treasurer for several years.

David Mallett moved for the acceptance of his report – seconded by Sinclair Philip.

Unanimously approved.

Election of the Board Officers and Directors for the Society

After instruction on the role, Sinclair was appointed as the elections officer for this meeting.

After announcing the requirement that the members of the previous board must step down, the elections officer called for any further nominations for 3 times. Seeing no further nominations, he read the list of those members standing for election.

The slate of nine directors was voted in by acclamation.

The new board consists of Michael Tacon (President) and David Mallett (Treasurer) with Directors Bernie Klassen, Jo Ann Phillips, Stephen Hindrichs, Wendy O’Connor, Alan Nolan, Paivi Abernethy, and Samantha Webb.

Proposal for how we can formalize our meeting processes.

Bernie Klassen put forward the suggestion that when a motion is recommended to the board by a floor vote at a meeting, as long as a quorum of directors is attending said meeting, the directors can then vote to approve said motion, or not. The full motion would then be minuted and distributed to both the board and the membership at large within a week of the meeting. With the proviso that all such decisions be reviewed by a full director’s meeting to be held thrice yearly.

The process:

• Proposal from the floor at a monthly meeting.
• up/down vote.
• If approved on the floor and a quorum of three directors is present:
• Director’s vote called.
• up/down vote.
• Motion and votes minuted and distributed.
• List of votes considered at a full director’s meeting (one of three in a year).

Suggestion to be forwarded to all directors with the AGM minutes for consideration and discussion. This matter was tabled until the next steering group meeting on March 6.

Meeting adjourned.

APPENDIX 1 – President’s Report including Jeff Bateman’s message to the AGM

Hello everyone!

Let’s start by acknowledging that we are meeting on the traditional lands of the T’Sou-ke First Nation……and we honour the fact that our indigenous sisters and brothers and their ancestors have lived and thrived on these lands for centuries.

Let’s also start by acknowledging our previous President, Jeff Bateman, for his years of faithful service to the Sooke Transition Town Society. We are gathered here today owing to the legacy he passed onto us. Thank you, Jeff!

And what is great, is the fact that he and Tony St Pierre who were active in TS, are now District of Sooke councillors championing the same issues that TS supports. You have our gratitude and support as you undertake the important work of governing this community.

I invited Jeff to write a few words =

When I arrived back from my summer time trip on October 1 last fall, Jeff had already stepped down so he could run for Council. We all know that he left a very big hole for us to fill.

I have to thank Bernie Klassen for being willing to step in as a Co-President until we got our ducks in a row. I knew immediately that all I could do was guide things along and delegate like crazy. Fortunately, many of you took on specific tasks and roles and others just showed up to see how and why we do what we do. We have had as many as 25 people attending our monthly steering group meetings which has been a real morale booster.

We were involved with the fever of the municipal election which included: the Mayoral Candidates Debate at E.M.C.S.; a booster evening for Jeff’s campaign; the All-Candidates Debates; culminating in the Election on October 20. We were rewarded with the election of an excellent group of people including Jeff and Tony as well as our illustrious Mayor Maja Tait.

Meanwhile, we had a successful Ecohome Tour with some amazing places to show off for their originality and innovative projects. The star of the show, from my point of view, was the so-called Harmless House perched high on a rocky ledge that involved some ground-breaking sustainable construction and unique materials including “biofibre building blocks.”

The owners, Arno Keinonen and Linda Simrose were keen to have people see what is possible.

We were involved in several events through to the end of the year: Site C Dam Protest Group;

Sooke Region Multi-Belief Initiative Open Space meeting with community focus on possible compassionate action plans to address local issues (homelessness, affordable housing, affordable child care, affordable food, social isolation, inadequate health services, and improving communication, awareness and collaboration); 2018 Inaugural Council Meeting to witness the swearing in ceremonies; and a Solstice celebration at Inishoge Farm with Mary and Stephen.

It seems to me that we are entering a whole new chapter in the evolution of Transition Sooke.

Climate change has always been a part of the Transition Town package of initiatives, but now as Climate Change morphs into becoming a matter of planetary survival, and, as people are really beginning to take it seriously, we see ourselves beginning to focus on Global Warming and its consequences that are really beginning to show up. As we ramp up our efforts to engage the challenges that climate change is bringing, the other initiatives within the Transition Town model continue to be very important and relevant. As Paul Hawken has said, we need action in a large number of ways on a scale that builds up to be equal and more to the power and scope of the phenomenon of Global Warming as expressed through abrupt climate change.

We have got much work to do. And we must continue to commit ourselves to do whatever we can to be serious about tackling climate change in small ways and large.

When our children and grandchildren ask us about what did we do when we knew what was coming, we will be able to tell them the story of how we did our part. We will be able to look in their eyes and they will know that we all did our best.

Thank you everyone here for being with us. Thank you to our members and supporters wherever you are. May we go forward with determination and enthusiasm to build a resilient and sustainable response to what we must do to care for this Earth, its people and its creatures, and the ecosystems that we belong to.

Michael Tacon

APPENDIX 2 – David Mallett’s Treasurer’s Report