General Meeting Agenda for Meeting August 27 2012

Posted by on 13. Aug, 2012 in News

Jasper Place High School, Global Café: 8950-163 street

Potluck:  5:30 – 6:30 p.m.

Meeting: 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Purpose of Meeting:

  • Decision on allocation of Terra Madre Funds,
  • determine Terra Madre Day activity,
  • nominate members for Board vacancies. (Simple majority needed for decisions.)

Chair: Cynthia Strawson, Convivium Leader

  1. Welcome
  2. Approve Minutes of April 27 meeting
  3. Progress on Action Items
  4. Terra Madre 2012 Report
  5. Membership  Report
  6. Treasurer’s Report
  7. DECISION: Terra Madre Funds
  8. Event Report
    • Terra Madre Day activity
    • AGM November 26, 2012
  9. Slow Food Canada Report
  10. International Philanthropy Report: 1000 Gardens in Africa
  11. Ark of Taste Report
  12. Nominations for Board Vacancies
    • Volunteer Coordinator
    • Newsletter Coordinator
    • Web Master
    • Social Media Coordinator
    • AGM Coordinator (short term project)
  13. Upcoming Events
    • 1,000 Gardens Fundraiser Pig Roast
    • AGM
    • Terra Madre Day
  14. New Business

Next Meeting: Annual General Meeting November 26, 2012

The following minutes from the last general meeting have not yet been approved.

Slow Food Edmonton

Minutes of General Meeting

Room 1, 182 Edmonton Clinic Health Academy

Thursday April 26, 2012

In attendance:

Kevin Kossowan, Anita Jenzena, Tracy Zizek, Eric Frey, Genevive Olivier, Cynthia Stawson, Ming

Franks, Nora Ross, Aditya Raghavan.

Regrets: Valerie Lugonja

1. Meeting called to order at 6:30 p.m. by Cynthia Strawson

2, Approvals

Approval of Minutes from previous general meeting, April 17, 2012.

3, Terra Madre

Aditya Raghavan announced the delegates that were chosen by the sub-committee comprising of Cynthia Strawson, Aditya     Raghavan, Kevin Kossowan and Debra Krause.

4. Delegate List:

  • Slav Heller (member at large)
  • John Schneider (not currently a member)
  • Cynthia Strawson (president of SFE)
  • Jeffery Senger (not currently a member)
  • Mike Kozlowski (not currently a member)

5. Convivium Priorities:

Cynthia Strawson raised the question whether Slow Food Edmonton could ‘approve’ certain farms or organizations and if this would be a possibility in the near future.

6. Membership

  • Cynthia Strawson raised awareness on the issue of membership lapses
  • Kevin Kossowan and Ming Franks said that there was no easy renewal reminders set up for when a membership lapses.
  • The need for a new board member with the responsibility of handling memberships was discussed.
  • Cynthia Strawson raised the question of what Slow Food Canada’s role/involvement was in the running of Slow Food Edmonton (what value does Slow Food Edmonton receive from Slow Food Canada, given that a portion of our membership dues collected gets allocated to Slow Food Canada)
  • This issue was raised since Slow Food Edmonton is spending a substantial amount of effort towards planning and organizing the National Conference and Gala, with the resulting fund-raised money from the Gala being paid out to Slow Food Canada.

7. Volunteers for tear-down

Cynthia Strawson asked whether any members could volunteer for the tear-down efforts at the end of the gala

8. Volunteers for airport pick-up

  • Nora Ross confirmed that she would be able to volunteer for airport pick-up on Thursday, May 3rd 2012.
  • Cynthia Strawson and Kevin Kossowan volunteer for airport pick-up on Wednesday, May 2nd 2012.

9, Approval of Annual Convivium Report

  • The report was handed out to all present at the general meeting
  • The report was approved with minor changes.

10. Other Business:

  • GEA Home Meeting: Kevin Kossowan talks about the GEA meetings

Greater Edmonton Alliance has a series of house meetings in which someone from the farming/food industry will speak at a person’s house with about 10-12 people in attendance. Kevin Kossowan suggests such an event with Slow Food Edmonton at his place.

  • Food in the City

The City of Edmonton event about the local food scene has few details available at the moment.  A series of talks/lectures is expected. Kevin Kossowan informs that the price of the ticket for this event has come down drastically.  Kevin has also registered as an individual participant at the conference and will be representing the interests of a number of different organizations, including Slow Food Edmonton.

  • Apple Fest

Kevin Kossowan talks about plans for the Apple Fest. The festival organizers are Slow Food Edmonton members: Kevin Kossowan, Kathryn Joel, Johwanna Alleyne and Amy Beaith. The festival will last for 4-6 weeks in late summer or fall and will try to bring awareness to apple producers, processors, horticulturalists etc. in the city.  The festival will act as a “calendar of events” and would not require Slow Food Edmonton to organize any individual event.  We would use Apple Fest as a conduit to connect consumers with those that work with apples. Members will be able to attend each of the events during this festival.  The prices are yet to be determined but will depend on how much each event involved will charge.

An event plan was submitted by Kevin Kossowan. Cynthia Strawson will forward it to Maria Iocobelli for action.

  • Indulgence

Event planning form for Indulgence 2012 was submitted by Tracy Zizek.  Cynthia Strawson will forward it to Maria Iocobelli for action.

Request for an SFE booth with two to three SFE member volunteers to man it. The member volunteers will be able to participate in the Indulgence event, as well. Tracy Zizek will inform SFE on the exact number of volunteers

  • Slow Food Edmonton Banner/Poster

Request to print the banner for the National Conference. A simple design was proposed consisting of the SFE logo and the word “welcome” vertically on the page Discussions related to the price and longevity of the banner related to how affordable it would be for SFE. AICT at the University of Alberta was suggested to be one possible source of inexpensive banner printing

11. New Business

  • Annual Meeting Schedule was proposed by Cynthia Strawson.  Proposal involved Quarterly meetings with the General Membership, bi-monthly Board meetings with the full 13-person board, and monthly meetings with the Executive (President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer). The required quorum to pass a motion on the schedule was not there. Members in attendance were pleased with an annual schedule. Suggestion made that some kind of event/activity should accompany the quarterly General meetings to encourage more members to come out to participate. Possibility of a fixed location was discussed.  Kevin Kossowan suggested the meeting room on the upper storey of the Strathcona branch of EPL.
  • Vacancies in Board

Debra Krause has volunteered to join the board and work on the Membership

Nora Ross also expressed interest in a position on the Board, but wanted more information on what the position requires.

Taste Education is a position that is yet to be filled on the Board

Commitment to circulate board positions to membership was made

12. Motion to add

Ming moves that SFE add Cynthia Strawson, President, and Aditya Raghavan, Secretary, as signing officers on the SFE bank account and remove Kathryn Joel, past President, and Johwanna Alleyne, past Secretary, as signing officers on the SFE bank account.

Kevin Kossowan seconds  

A date will need to be set for all 4 signing officers (Cynthia, Aditya, Valerie, and Ming) to meet at the bank to enact the change.

13. Cynthia Strawson moves to adjourn the meeting at 7:50 p.m.

Next General meeting scheduled for Thursday, June 21st 2012.