St. Ann's Bay Development Association

D R A F T
Annual General Meeting of Members, 28 March 2017

Present: Earlene Bush, Loreto Doyle, Brenda Duschene, Lisa Finney, Ray Fraser (guest presenter), Gordon Kennedy, Merrill MacInnis, Yvonne Megens, Anne-Claude Pépin, Jay Rawding, Aaron Schneider, Ruth Schneider, Julie Tirol (guest), Mary Ann Wilson, Jitka Zgola

Regrets: Ian Green, Rosie Smith, Angelo Spinazzola, Paul Weinberg

1. Call to order
2. Call to order by Chair Jitka Zgola, 7:15 pm.
3. Approve minutes of the Annual General Meeting of 31 March 2016
4. Minutes were read; the meeting noted a correction in the financial report, such that $166.45 replaces $66.45 in Expenses. It was determined that, next year, the minutes will be posted on the SABDA web site in advance of the AGM, and a reminder to review the minutes will be included with the meeting announcement.
5. Motion: to approve the minutes of 31 March 2016 AGM as amended (moved: Ray Fraser; seconded: Gordon Kennedy; carried.)
6. Chair's Report (Jitka Zgola)
7. Chair's report presented by Jitka; full text is appended to these minutes as Appendix I.
8. Motion: to accept the report as read (moved: Jitka; seconded: Lisa Finney; carried.)
9. Questions regarding the Time Bank project announced in the Chair's report ensued. More community discussion about the rules and operation of the time bank will be needed. Ruth Schneider suggested that Ian McNeil be approached to lead the discussion. More information about the ideas behind the Time Bank can be found at hOurWorld.org. The new St Ann's Bay Time Bank is up and active.
10. Financial Report (Anne-Claude Pépin)
11. Financial report presented by Anne-Claude; full text is appended to these minutes as Appendix II.
12. Motion: to approve the financial report (moved: Anne-Claude; seconded: Lisa Finney; carried.)
13. Business arising from the minutes of AGM 2016
14. Restructuring of SABDA and a renewal of objectives was discussed in Chair's report.
15. New Business
16. During this past year, we have received resignations from three of our directors, Ian Greene, Rosie Smith, and Angelo Spinazzola. Their work over the years has been much appreciated, and they will be sorely missed. Considering the lateness of the announcements (the lack of time to consider and recruit replacements), we would opt to move ahead with 5 board members. We extend an invitation to members at large to join any of our standing committees, or to bring forth ideas for the formation of new projects.
17. Break for Special Presentation
18. Ray Fraser, Northern Cape Breton Development Society and member of the Seawall Trail Society, presented the Seawall Trail project. This will be a three- to five-day wilderness hike. The main north-south branch will expand upon existing trails, and will complete the route from Meat Cove to Pleasant Bay. An east-west spur trail will begin near Cape North. These access points connect the trail to communities in both Victoria and Inverness counties. Ray spoke of the foreseen economic, social, and environmental impacts of the project, and the process they undertook to come to the current stage of development.
19. Ray pointed out the lessons that he has learned that might be applied to our local endeavours, particularly the Time Bank project. Among these were the value of community consultation, the need to maintain a flexible outlook, a willingness to accept change, and the value of reaching beyond our own community for support.
20. We thank Ray for his presentation and inspiration.
21. Next Meeting
22. Tuesday 27 March 2018; location TBD.
23. Meeting Adjourned (moved: Jitka; seconded: Loreto)

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Appendix I:  Chair's Report

As this has been a year of renewal and refocus, the main body of this year's report is structured under the four principle objectives that have spurred our efforts since our last AGM. These are:

• Revitalization of SABDA
• Supporting enterprise
• Infrastructure
• Needs of seniors, community networking systems; e.g., transportation and services

These objectives were derived through a two-stage process that started with the community dialogue facilitated by Ian MacNeil, here in this room last March. A detailed report of that process is appended to the minutes of our 2016 AGM.

The principle aims were divided between economic development and social development.

In order to choose from among the suggested aims, we entered the second stage, which was a survey, a detailed report of which is available on the SABDA web site.

We thank all those who participated. We also thank those who contributed to the lucky winner's grand prize, a kayaking outing for two from North River Kayak Tours, a night for two at the Sleeping Moose, two pairs of hand-knit socks by Rosie Smith, and a pair of hand-thrown mugs from Singing Pebbles.

In the survey, the most frequently sited items for intervention were:

• Revitalization of SABDA by increasing community engagement
• Supporting entrepreneurship
• Improved infrastructure
• Support to seniors and networking systems with regard to transportation and services
• Retention of youth

SABDA's efforts, this year, have been directed to the first four of these:

• Revitalization of SABDA
• Supporting enterprise
• Supporting improvements in infrastructure
• Addressing needs of seniors, community networking systems; e.g., transportation and services

Revitalization of SABDA

We now announce all SABDA board meetings and invite members to attend. We've restructured the meeting schedule, reducing board meetings to 4 per year, including the AGM. So that members can put their full energy into projects of their interest, we've established a flexible committee system. Each committee works on its own, seeking board support or community support as needed, and reports to the board at scheduled board meetings. If any particular aspect of a project takes on more weight and requires more attention, another committee can form and draw support from the community at large.

Members at large are invited to present prospective projects at any board meeting. We currently have committees for the web site, political action, training, transportation, and the Time Bank. We have found this structure is more respectful of members' time and energy, and imparts a new vitality to the work.

Supporting Enterprise

There are several ways in which SABDA has contributed to the support of local enterprise this year.

The Web Site Committee has continued work on the Shores of St Ann's web site. Jay Rawding has been contracted to coordinate completion and maintenance of the web site. There are currently 20 listings on the site, and another 25 businesses and non-profit organizations have been approached and are in the process of subscribing. In the coming year, all interested businesses and not-for-profit organizations in the area will be represented on the site. Jay and Lisa Finney, startup listings coordinator, will be in touch and will be looking for bios, photos, social links, web sites, and any other media that would be feature-worthy. By participating, contributors will be actively collaborating to spread information about this community to broader audiences. Lisa and Jay are available to help and advise as to what makes a high-quality profile.

SABDA applied for and received a grant of $3,000 from Victoria County's Tourism Department for web site and social media marketing of the community. Of that, $1,000 went to support the development of the St Ann's Community Facebook page.

In June, SABDA sponsored Tips For Productive Meetings, a seminar with Alastair MacLeod. 22 businesspersons and representatives of local non-profit organizations attended.

That same evening, SABDA also hosted a talk by Bernadette MacNeil, Manager, Marketing and Development at Port of Sydney, regarding the experiences that our community might offer to cruise ship passengers. As a result of this discussion, local tourism-oriented businesses were surveyed, and 30 responded, offering details of the services they might offer and the conditions they could accommodate. This information was compiled into a booklet that the Port made available to tour operators. This resulted in one new tour operator requesting a familiarisation tour that Loreto Doyle conducted in the community.

The Training Committee once again designed a 40-hour training programme funded by the Nova Scotia Department of Labour and Advanced Education, focusing this time on customer service. As registration numbers were not adaquate to run the program, it was cancelled. Should there be renewed interest, the committee will reapply.

SABDA sent a letter to council in support of the new Cabot Trail Façade, Streetscape, and Viewscapes, Phase II programme. A letter also went to The Honourable Mark Furey, Minister of Business, thanking him for reversing the closure of the Port Hastings and other provincial visitor information centres.

As part of our commitment to back development and maintenance of infrastructure this year, SABDA sent letters to Counsellor MacInnis supporting Robert Dauphinee's proposal to establish a re-use shed at the Baddeck Solid Waste Management Facility, and to Pam Eyking, MLA Victoria-The Lakes, asking for her efforts to resolve the issue of inordinate hikes in the fare rates at the Englishtown ferry.

In keeping with our objective to address the needs of seniors in the community, SABDA wrote a letter in support of the Health Centre's Arts Builds Community application for Canada's History Award for Excellence in Community Programming.

SABDA introduced, and sponsors, A Minute for Fitness, a short exercise program conducted at the Health Centre's Seniors' Lunches that has been a great success. We received a grant of $400 for equipment from Victoria County's Facility Access Fund for Senior's Fitness.

Transportation, especially for seniors, was cited as a major want in this area. In January, each member of Victoria Council received a letter from SABDA outlining the importance of transportation and urging the institution of a ride-sharing programme in the county as recommended in the Mobility Strategy Business Plan that the County Council commissioned in 2014. Several councillors responded expressing interest in the issue. The letter was tabled in Council. Council offered to review any local efforts. Our Transportation Committee was formed and joined by Councillor MacInnis to take this on.

In December, SABDA submitted an application to the Department of Seniors' Age-Friendly Communities Grant for the purpose of establishing a Time Bank in St Ann's Bay. A time bank is a system whereby members share their talents and services, record their contributed 'earned' hours, then 'spend' them later on services they want from other members. Everyone's hours are equal. There is no barter. These are friendly, neighbourly favours. It is a matter or reinforcing and restoring local community currency based on relationships.

We received a grant of $10,250 to set up and run the Time Bank. The program is based on free web-based software that we have already subscribed to. Next steps are to establish an advisory board, contract the services of a part-time coordinator, publicise the program, and recruit membership. As ride-sharing is a part of the offers/requests system of the time bank, our Transportation Committee will use figures generated from this program to promote the cause of a county-wide ride-sharing program in the future.

Members of the SABDA board have been attending meetings and representing the community at various agencies. Several of us attended the Engage Inverness conference at We'koqma'q in May. Last week, we had representatives at the Business Now conference, introducing its new Economic Development Officer, Patrick Austin, and presented by CBREN (the Cape Breton Regional Enterprise Network) in Baddeck.

Paul Weinberg represents SABDA on the Cabot Trail Steering Committee, a group focussed on tourism interests around the Trail. Loreto Doyle is a member of the Cabot Trail Facades, Streetscapes, and Viewscapes project management team, the Cape Breton Partnership's Culture Sector Leadership Team, which is developing a Cape Breton-wide sector economic strategy, and Victoria County's Tourism Strategy Steering Committee.

This year has, unfortunately, also seen the resignations of three of our board members, Ian Greene, Rosie Smith, and Angelo Spinazzola. We thank them all for their contribution.

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Appendix II:  Financial Report

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