There had been concerns that this year’s Annual General Meeting, set for the afternoon of November 11th – Remembrance Day – might conflict with family arrangements, but that turned out not to be the case: twenty eight members (including the board) and two guests were present, a much bigger turn-out than those we have seen in recent years. The venue was a meeting room in the Port Credit Memorial Arena, off the second floor balcony overlooking the busy rink, with the sound of slapshots echoing in the air.
At around 12:30 pm our pre-meeting socializing got underway, fuelled by coffee, a pizza lunch and the cheerful enthusiasm of 30 people eating and chatting in a just-big-enough room. At 1:15 pm Dr Doug Tozer, a Program Scientist with Birds Canada presented the latest results of his organization’s on-going studies of the state of bird populations on and around the Great Lakes. The news was mostly bad – many species are threatened, some to the brink of extinction, by the disruptions due to climate change, pollution, invasive new species and loss of habitat. On the good news side some adaptation is taking place – it seems some species of ducks, such as scaups, have developed a taste for zebra and quagga mussels. Sadly, this good news has a bad side too – the mussels are filter feeders and accumulate pollution and toxins, sometimes poisoning the birds. Birds Canada receives a lot of help from volunteers (they call them “Citizen Scientists”) in observing and tracking all these developments. We as kayakers are obviously well positioned to help, and if you would like to do so you can learn more at birdscanada.org
This presentation was very well received – perhaps not surprisingly, as kayakers and shorebirds share the same increasingly stressed habitats. Ralph Gardave thanked Dr Tozer, called the meeting to order, welcomed members and began the business meeting of the club. After some brief formalities our directors and officers presented their reports:
President’s Report
Ralph reported that the club had enjoyed a successful year. The declining trend in membership appears to have stopped and the number of organized trips was higher than in 2016. Our Rendezvous was once again rated very enjoyable by the attendees, although their number was down this year, for reasons we have not been able to determine. As our Rendezvous expenses are virtually all fixed this decline resulted in a loss for the event. Overall however our finances remain in very good shape.
Treasurer’s Report
Karen Granville presented the Income and Expense statement for our fiscal year (it ended Sept.30, 2017). Income for the year was slightly down from last year. Expenses for the year were up due mainly to the cost of improving the functionality of the website, increased costs for Rendezvous and a timing effect which caused two of our annual donations to The Georgian Bay Trust to be charged to this year. The resulting shortfall is modest, we are a club with very few fixed expenses and a substantial year-end bank balance so our financial situation remains sound.
Membership
Erwin Buck reported that our current membership compares to recent years as follows:
2017 2016 2015 2014
Memberships 108 107 108 128
Individual members 132 130 132 156
Erwin was encouraged to note that the declining membership trend of recent years appears to have been halted and was now effectively stable. Our entrance survey shows new members continue to give “word of mouth” as the primary answer to how they became aware of the club. Our newly-introduced web facility that allows members to join, renew, accept the waiver and pay online already seems to be emerging as the primary method for these transactions.
Rendezvous 2017
Erwin reported that the 2017 Rendezvous, held at the Wasausking marina campground at Oak Point on Parry Island was attended by 55 paying participants. Because the event was budgeted to break-even with 68 paid attendances (our 2016 figure) a deficit was incurred. No easy explanation for the fall-off in attendance comes to mind. Members seem pleased with the improved campground facilities. The workshops put on by White Squall and the performance of Katharine Wheatley our entertainer, were well appreciated. However it is possible that the timing of the Father’s Day weekend worked against us. The Rendezvous committee will continue to be chaired by Erwin and next year’s event will again take place at the Wasauksing Oak Point Campground. Date will be June 22/23, 2018.
Trips & Events
Wolfram Esser was happy to report an increase in trips/events in 2017 over 2016. Officially posted trips offered 25 paddling opportunities, most of them weekend or multi-day trips (trips of 4 days or more). Wolfram thanked the trip leaders for their efforts, which make these trips possible.
A lively discussion ensued regarding ways of improving the trip posting system. The role of email, the use of a Meetup Group, a Facebook Group or reviving the defunct online Forum (abandoned because of lack of interest) were mentioned. Keith Rodgers indicated that trips were now being posted on our website very promptly (usually within 24 hours of the emailing) so that we have two sources of trip information and this seems to be working well for most members. However, the board recognizes that social media sites, ior a revived Forum on the GLSKA site could also offer advantages and we have been looking into these to see if they can be added in a way which is compatible with our insurance company’s policy requirements and our ability to find volunteer moderators to handle them..
Georgian Bay
Keith Rodgers reported that GLSKA continues to offer its financial support to conservation and clean-up activities in the Bay by its donations to the Georgian Bay Land Trust and White Squall’s campsite clean-up program. Keith signalled the Board’s concern over the Province of Ontario’s proposed Wiikwemkoong land claim settlement, which would see the transfer to the band of the whole of Phillip Edward Island and most of the adjacent islands eastwards to the mouth of the French River. It appears that this will happen with no guarantees of access or limitations on use being put in place. Keith urged that any members concerned about this should visit our website (glska.com) to see details of the proposed settlement.
Website Developments
Keith Rodgers reported that our website has recently implemented a feature which allows new and renewing members to join on line, agree to the waiver and pay by credit card. To ensure security the processing of the credit cards is handled by PayPal – members should note that although PayPal handles the financial transaction and therefore requires your card details the process does not require PayPal membership and the waiver document and membership application do not form part of the credit card transaction.
Our website now carries full details of all official GLSKA trips (an “official trip” is a trip, details of which have been sent to Wolfram Esser, our Trip Coordinator). These details are quickly reviewed then sent by email to all members and more or less simultaneously posted on our site. Work is also continuing on scanning all back issues of Qayaq for eventual posting on the site.
Amendment of Bylaw No. 7
Recent AGMs have required fairly vigourous campaigning to ensure that our meeting quorum of twelve members was met. A proposal to amend the bylaw to reduce the requirement to eight members was put to the meeting and carried with the necessary two thirds majority.
Election of New Directors
Ralph noted that the two year terms of Erwin Buck, Karen Granville and Keith Rodgers had ended. Karen and Keith were offering themselves for re-election for another term; Erwin was not. Ralph thanked Erwin for his valuable service to the club and presented him with a gift. Wolfram Esser was nominated as a director. There were no other candidates and the 3 declared candidates were elected unanimously. Erwin has volunteered to continue in his roles of Membership Secretary and organizer of the 2018 Rendezvous.
New Business
Various members indicated that it would be useful to have access to a published list of members, with email addresses. The club presently does not do this, primarily out of a concern for privacy. It was suggested that this concern could be dealt with by asking for members to indicate their preference when joining or renewing. The Board will look into this.
The meeting wrapped up shortly after 4:15. As we left the arena the young hockey players were still zooming tirelessly around the rink.
Keith Rodgers
Secretary