St. Ann's Bay Development Association

Meeting of 5 April 2016

Present: Rosie Smith, Angelo Spinazzola, Yvonne van der Zanden, Jitka Zgola

Regrets: Loreto Doyle, Ian Green, Anne-Claude Pépin, Paul Weinberg

1. Call to order
2. Approval of agenda (moved: Jitka; seconded: Angelo; carried.)
3. Election of officers
   • Officers were nominated as follows:
     • Chair: Jitka
     • Vice Chair: Angelo
     • Treasurer: Anne-Claude
     • Secretary: Rosie
4. Motion: to elect the executive as nominated by Yvonne; seconded: Jitka; carried.
5. Review of AGM discussion on SABDA's priorities
6. The community needs to be engaged more by SABDA, particularly people who are from the area.
7. It's important to look at previous success stories as a template, like the Performing Arts Centre.
   • We need to create an initiative to bring SABDA back into the minds of the community. This could be a workshop or event series which would be sponsored or partially funded by SABDA and be a manageable endeavour. Ideas include:
     • Paying half the fees for an upcoming Wilderness First Aid course
     • Cooking classes
     • Meal exchange
     • Herbalist/foraging workshop with Savayda
   • Advocacy:
     • Outhouses along Cabot Trail for public access for tourists
     • Free Store; Merrill mentioned at the AGM that a Free Store is being looked at
8. We hope these projects will help get people in the community excited about SABDA, and build support and energy for working on larger economic development issues in future years.
9. Press release
10. Text of our press release:
11. St. Ann's Bay community members came together on March 31 to look at new directions to grow and promote social and economic development. With the aid of facilitator Ian McNeil, the St Ann's Bay Development Association came up with a list of new priorities for the community, and we'd like to hear from you! Ideas so far include group activities and workshops, infrastructure improvements, tourism opportunities, welcome wagons for newcomers, and even a dating service!
12. To let us know what you think we should tackle next, please fill out a simple survey at (web link). We'd also like to help you—if you have a great idea of your own and are looking for support to put it into action, let us know!
13. Fill out the survey before April 20, and your suggestions will be entered into a draw to win a fun adventurous weekend in St Ann's Bay, valued at $400, including:
    • One night's accommodation in a Zzz-Moose camping cabin for two, based on availability
    • A guided kayak tour for two at North River Kayak
    • Two cozy pairs of homemade socks
    • Two fabulous coffee mugs from Singing Pebbles pottery
14. Action: Jitka will get the survey link from Tom Wilson and send it to Rosie.
15. Action: Rosie will send the press release to Jim Morrow at The Victoria Standard.
16. Action: Ian, Paul, Anne-Claude, and Loreto have to donate things for the next giveaway (just kidding).
17. Survey questions
18. From the survey, we hope to get information from community members about what they think is lacking in the community, and what SABDA should be working on. Ian McNeil submitted a list of questions based on our AGM roundtables as a starting point.
19. The board agreed that social development questions should come before economic development questions.
20. Loreto suggested via e-mail that the last question created by Ian be re-worded, and instead ask how community members would like to be involved in SABDA initiatives, with some options; for example: Would you consider joining a committee to work on a specific task? Would you take on a specific task that might take a few hours to complete? Would you consider participating in a focus group meeting or a new survey related to a specific issue?
21. Action: Board members will review the questions from Ian and each come up with two questions for the survey by Friday 8 April 2016.
22. Action: Rosie will compile the questions by Monday 11 April 2016.
23. Web site management and Facebook page
24. Lisa is now entering lister content into the web site. She has been given a cheque for $750 for travel expenses and the first part of the stipend. She has until the end of July to gather subscribers and web site content for this year. We will see how many people have signed up by the end of July, and will use that information to come up with a business plan for continuing the web site work in future years.
25. $1,000 is committed to Mike Shepherd, our site developer, for social media marketing development.
26. Action: Angelo will get a clear definition from Mike on what will be involved.
27. SABDA has applied for a $3,000 grant from the County for social media and tourism marketing. If this funding is received, $1,000 of this could be for encouraging and developing the St Ann's Bay community Facebook site.
28. The Facebook site would help to provide content for the web site, by providing updates and news from the community, and perhaps there could be a link to the web site from the Facebook site.
29. Next Meeting
30. The next meeting will be Monday 9 May at 7:00 at Cabot Shores.
31. Meeting Adjourned (moved: Rosie; seconded: Angelo)

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