St. Ann's Bay Development Association

Meeting of 24 June 2014

Present: Loreto Doyle, Anne-Claude Pépin, Rosie Smith, Angelo Spinazzola, Paul Weinberg, Jitka Zgola

Absent: Ian Green, James Murphy

Note that several reports are appended to these minutes as downloadable PDF files.

1. Approve Agenda
2. Motion: to approve (moved: Loreto; seconded: Paul; carried.)
3. Approve Minutes of Meeting of 26 May 2014
4. Motion: to approve the minutes of 26 May 2014 (moved: Loreto; seconded: Jitka; carried.)
5. Financial Report
6. SABDA has $15,000 in the Credit Union account, since receiving money from the Department of Labour and Advanced Education for our upcoming QuickBooks course.
7. Motion: to approve the financial report (moved: Paul; seconded: Angelo; carried.)
8. Motion: to authorise Jitka for online access to the SABDA Credit Union account (moved: Paul; seconded: Rosie; carried.)
9. After reading the bylaws, Jitka says that we have not been keeping proper records. She suggests setting up a proper ledger.
10. Action: Angelo will help Jitka set up an Excel spreadsheet for bookkeeping.
11. Old Business
    • Community Web Site Contractors
    • The deadline for replies to our RFP is tomorrow (25 June). SABDA has said we will respond to applicants by 30 June, with a 4 July start date.
    • Action: When the proposals are received, Loreto will pass the information along.
    • Action: Anne-Claude will come up with a process and instructions for voting on proposals.
    • Moving the Needle on Tough Community Issues
    • Loreto attended this workshop on behalf of SABDA. She submitted her report via e-mail before this meeting; it is appended to these minutes as a downloadable PDF file.
    • Cabot Trail Steering Committee
    • Paul (that committee's chair, and SABDA's representative) said the group is doing things that are consistent with Destination Cape Breton, such as looking at things that locals recommend and what things there are to do here. Paul attended a conference in March, where priorities were set—basic things, like whether we would have updated signs, etc. Everything was left in limbo, with no definite plans.
    • Someone will be hired to travel around and make an inventory of viewing areas to continue the Viewscapes program. The hope is to acquire further funding from Nova Scotia Tourism for the Cabot Trail, and hire someone (likely James Eldridge) to manage the project.
    • Action: Paul and Anne-Claude will draft a letter declaring SABDA's support for the Viewscapes project.
    • Loreto suggests asking the County for funding to hire someone to spend a couple of days to go around and take coordinates and update local features on Google Maps.
    • Action: Loreto will talk to Tom Wilson about possibilities for funding.
    • Innovation Cape Breton Summit
    • Ian attended this conference on our behalf, and submitted his report via e-mail. That report is appended to these minutes as a downloadable PDF file.
    • Culture Sector Strategy
    • People are trying to take up the idea of culture as the basis of our economy, per the Innovation Cape Breton Summit. A number of groups are already working on this idea. A meeting on 23 June at the Gaelic College was about creating a group of people to start work toward developing an Island-wide culture strategy. Loreto has volunteered to join this committee, and submitted a report via e-mail before this meeting; it is appended to these minutes as a downloadable PDF file.
    • Plaster Park Letter
    • Jitka received a letter from the Minister of Natural Resources, to say that Plaster Park has been designated as an area to be preserved due to its unique geology. However, they have decided that it will never be safe for public traffic, and so it will be permanently closed.
    • SABDA Bylaws
    • We have the option of paying a fee to obtain the original bylaws from the Registry of Joint Stocks (we can't locate them). However, we have not been using these bylaws, so it was decided to create a new set of bylaws, to be voted on at a future public members meeting. The template provided by the Registry of Joint Stocks was used, with the following options selected:
    • In item 2.e, "Membership in the Society shall consist of those who reside in the geographic area of St Ann's Bay."
    • In item 12.c, "A general or special meeting of the members may be held at any time, and shall be called if requested in writing by 10 of the members."
    • In item 16, "Quorum shall consist of 5 members (same as the minimum number of directors required by the Registry)."
    • In item 23, "The number of directors shall be 5."
    • In item 31, "The board of directors shall meet no less than 4 times each year."
    • In item 33, "Quorum shall consist of 3 or 1/3 of the directors, whichever is greater."
    • In item 36, "Offices may be combined, other than President and Treasurer."
    • In item 43, "The fiscal year end of the Society shall be the last day of December."
12. New Business
13. No new business to discuss.
14. Next Meeting
15. The next meeting will be Tuesday 29 July at 7:00 pm, at Cabot Shores.
16. The special members' meeting to vote on new bylaws will also take place on that date.
17. Action: Anne-Claude will write the notice for the public meeting for the Events Sheet.
18. Meeting Adjourned (moved: Rosie; seconded: Angelo)

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