St. Ann's Bay Development Association

Meeting of 7 January 2016

Present: Loreto Doyle, Ian Green, Rosie Smith, Angelo Spinazzola, Paul Weinberg, Jitka Zgola

Regrets: Anne-Claude Pépin

1. Call to order
2. Approval of agenda
   • Add discussion of Federal infrastructure funding to New Business.
   • Motion: to approve agenda as amended (moved: Paul; seconded: Angelo; carried.)
3. Approve minutes of the meeting of 7 December 2015
4. Motion: to approve the minutes of 7 December as amended (moved: Loreto; seconded: Ian; carried.)
5. Financial Report (Jitka)
   • We have $10700 in the current account.
   • We issued a cheque to the Syrian refugee group in Baddeck for $250.
   • A cheque was sent to Mike Sheppard, web site developer, for $2300. $7105 has been spent on the web site endeavour to date.
   • The bank balance is approximately $9000. $5000 of this is restricted, designated for tourism marketing from County funding, leaving approximately $4000 in unrestricted funds.
   • Motion: to accept the financial report as read (moved: Loreto; seconded: Paul; carried.)
6. Old Business
   • Community web site
   • Our developer Mike Shepherd has not been able to use his software on our existing web site hoster, and so we are looking for a new host company. Allan Jean Joyce of What A Site has been hosting Angelo's web site for 20 years and Jitka for 15 years, as well as many others in northern CB. He is reliable, from Sackville, NS, and works with a Canadian company. Mike Shepherd communicated with Allan today, and Allan uploaded a test site so that Mike could make tests to ensure it works. If it does, the cost of hosting is $125 a year. If we add a small "What A Site" link at the bottom of each page, the cost is $99.
   • Motion: to use Allan Jean Joyce/What a Site as our new hosting company, with the $99 option, if our web site works there (moved: Angelo; seconded: Paul; carried.)
   • Action: Angelo will ask Allan for his two DNS numbers and provide them to Loreto, so that we can transfer the site addressing to the new hoster if the test is successful.
   • Action: Angelo will ask Mike to create a list of deliverables regarding social media development and linking to the web site.
   • Web site Coordinator
   • To assist with uploading initial business listings, we will contract a web site coordinator. The coordinator will be responsible for contacting members of the community to let them know the web site is up, explain the history and purpose of the web site, and ask if they are interested in having a page on the site. A contact list will be provided to the coordinator.
   • Action: Loreto will update and revise the business contact list we have been developing.
   • The coordinator will visit anyone interested in having a listing, and show them how to set up and update their page. S/he will collect the $50 annual fee at that time, if not previously received (cheques made out to SABDA). $250 will be provided to the coordinator for a gas allowance.
   • If people are interested in having a listing, they will be sent a form to fill out to help them gather the information necessary for their listing, so their page material is prepared before the coordinator's visit.
   • Action: Loreto will create the form.
   • The web site is expected to be up and running and the coordinator to start work by the beginning of February. Contacts should be made and listings started to be created as early as possible. Work hours and schedule are self-managed, as long as responses to inquiries from the public are made within 2 days of receipt. The coordinator will also be available to answer listers' questions on updating and maintaining their pages until the end of July.
   • The stipend for the contract will be $2000, plus a $250 gas allowance. This funding is for 125 hours. There will be no employment agreement, no taxes collected or paid; the arrangement with the coordinator will be as a limited-term contract. The stipend will be paid as $500 and the gas allowance at the start (beginning of February), $1000 at the end of April, and the remaining $1000 at the end of July (end of contract).
   • The coordinator will provide monthly updates to the board, using the contact list with additional comments and checkboxes, and providing the number of hours used to date.
   • Action: Loreto will add columns for this report to the updated contact list.
   • Loreto will act as liaison for information regarding technical issues with the web site.
   • Syrian Refugees; Associated School Issues
   • Anne-Claude found very few local families who would be interested in sending their kids to an alternative school in the community. Most of the families with young children are satisfied with sending their children to Baddeck.
   • Jitka talked to Judy King, who had run the Waldorf school in the area. This had started as an in-home program, and then switched to shifting locations in different community halls. Three days a week for younger children and three days a week for older students. The intent was never to establish a school, but to provide some teaching for the children. She told Jitka about a school in Lunenburg that set up a Waldorf school. This endeavour took six years before considering a building. It is now attracting new families to the area. Another facility, inspired by the Lunenburg school, was built in New Brunswick, but nothing happened. This shows that interested parents are key.
   • Angelo has started an informal group called Ideas in Motion, which is a group of businesses. They will be working on a mentoring program for people who are interested in moving to Cape Breton and creating new businesses. At the next meeting, everyone will bring a list of business ideas they would like to see happen but don't have the time for. A similar list for our community could be part of a section on the community web site, to attract people to our area. Such a section could also include information packages (e.g., how to find and buy property, who to contact in the community for different things).
   • At this time, SABDA is not focussing on the school issue, but will continue to work on community development with the aim of attracting new residents to the community, and will support the creation of a school as it becomes more feasible and necessary.
   • Next steps, including refocussing the board's direction, now that the web site is nearing completion, will be discussed at the next SABDA meeting.
   • Action: Jitka will invite Ruth to our next meeting to recap SABDA's history for this refocussing discussion.
   • Loreto learned from Amanda MacDougall at the CBU immigration program that would-be refugee sponsors cannot pre-select refugee families, which means that we cannot match families to what we can offer. So, without the appropriate infrastructure to support a Syrian refugee family (e.g., schools, emergency medical and mental health facilities, and easy access to transportation and jobs), our efforts are better spent supporting other groups who are sponsoring refugees on Cape Breton.
   • Transportation Survey
   • A letter requesting an update on Council's plans regarding their study, conducted by consultants in 2013 and concluded wth recommendations in 2014, was sent to Councillors Merrill MacInnis and Fraser Patterson in October, followed up in December. No response has yet been received.
   • Action: Loreto will follow up again with Merrill.
   • Bookkeeping
   • Jitka has not been able to find a time to discuss bookkeeping with Lisa and will need to find another option.
   • Action: Jitka will discuss with Irene Carroll, who has been providing training in bookkeeping to our business workshops.
   • Immigration Summit
   • Ian attended the Immigration Summit hosted by the Province last October at Pier 21, and found it very positive. The province is working to increase or remove the Federal cap on the number of immigrants received to the province, and there is increasing support for hosting immigrants. In Cape Breton, the Rural-Urban Immigration Pilot is a joint project of partners CBU and the Nova Scotia Office of Immigration, created in response to the One Nova Scotia report's call for increased immigration. They are working on several projects, including encouraging new graduates to stay and start businesses here. They are also working on a list of land and businesses available for sale.
7. New Business
   • Federal Infrastructure Funding
   • Loreto heard that CBRM has compiled a wish list for federal government infrastructure funding. We hope that Victoria County is making a list as well, and we will discuss this at the next meeting. Some ideas are in the Ingonish area (Smokey, marina), roadwork, and Englishtown bridge; better cell service and improved Internet speed, access, and reliability.
   • Action: Loreto will invite Merrill to our next meeting, to start the meeting by giving us an update on what the County is doing.
8. Next Meeting
9. Our next meeting will be an evening in the first week of February, at 6:30 at Cabot Shores—tentatively Wednesday 3 February. An alternate date is Thursday 4 February.
10. Meeting Adjourned (moved: Paul; seconded: Loreto)

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