May 2010

HSCA Board of Directors Meeting
Monday May 17, 2010 – 6:15 PM

Attendees: Maria Lee, David Wilson, Kerri Treherne, Tim Kitchen, Robert Perry, Thibault Dambrine, Lorna Cordeiro

Regrets: David White, Anthony Sayers

1. Approval of Agenda and Minutes
• Declaration of Conflicts of Interest
• Approval/changes to Agenda
• Approval of Minutes from Board Meeting of April 26, 2010
• Minutes were lost – draft to be put up for people to provide comments

2. Board Meet and Greet
• Tell us a bit about yourself: where are you from? When/how/why did you move to HS? Why did you join the board, and what do you want to accomplish?

3. Old Business
Key points of discussion on governance of Committees of the Board
• Three key committees – Finance, Community Planning & Vitalization Committee. All other committees will be subs of one of the primaries ie Community Garden is a sub of Vitality Committee.
• The Board may also form Task Forces that are to be created temporarily to address specific issues that need to be addressed, such as Communications. They are formed to for a purpose and then dissolved after the purpose has been dealt with satisfactorily.
• A primary goal of the board is to get the committees functioning as best as possible. A concern tabled is how to structure board to be most effective. Possible approaches are to have board members leading each committee – make decisions at the board vs discussing and rehashing ideas that are not formulated – do some leg work in advance
• A lot of financial information coming at the finance committee – not sure how to get information out effectively
• Committees to post minutes and decisions – get committee mandates posted and arrange for variances from mandates brought to the board for decision making
• Finance committee to provide updates at minimum of quarterly
• Monthly meeting with Finance committee before each Board mtg – given opportunity to discuss any significant issues at the board mtg.
• Measure the committees against their mandate – stay focused
• Seems there is confusion about mandate of the staff, Are they strictly for facility operations and funded programs? Are they available to support volunteer programs? What amount of time are they available to programs?
• How to ensure staff is not over taxed with greater community issues and stay focused on primary responsibilities

3.2) Next Meeting
• Each committee of the 3 defined committees (Finance, Planning & Vitality) are to prepare their mandates and present at the next meeting. They are to clearly outline in some level of detail the breadth and depth of their scope. The purpose is two fold 1) empower the committees to work freely within their mandates 2) enable to the board to achieve the goals and objectives of its strategic plan with the confidence they have provided clear direction
• Strategic Planning session tentatively planned for September. (Jay to confirm date & time as well as scope of the meeting)

4) New Business – (It is understood that most of the items listed below belong with the respective committee’s meeting minutes or in the summaries to the board.)
• HSCA’s Banking Options – Action is to take it back to committee for decision.
• HSCA’s miniature music festival in July and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts Grant – Jay is asking the board to support our advanced funding of this project to the tune of $2500 – $3000 (65% retro-active funding to come from AFA – will need to be make up the rest in donations and concession sales) – It would be a free event – again, retroactive grant. Take back to finance committee and check for funding. Jay to draft a budget for this event as it is an unbudgeted project.
• Hillhurst Hardware mural support. Send back to Vitality committee for action.
• Board to a second (small) community garden on-site here at the HSCA complex. Send back to Community Vitalization committee for action. Prepare projection for amount of HSCA support for coming years. ie resources and time spent. There is a small but committed group organizing around this.
• Boutique Hotel support. Moved to separate meeting on Tuesday May 18, 2010
• Calgary Housing warehouse should be turned into non-market housing. Support? Investigate the possibility for affordable housing. We need to change the wording in the letter a bit..
• Block parties – take it back to Vitality Committee
• Garage Sales – Create a small fund for garage sales – post on website
• Hilhurst School Society – They were turned down for CFEP grant – looking at alternatives. No action required
• CPC meeting May 31 – Heritage planning meeting for dual signage
• Farmers market opens June 2 time 3:30 – 7:30 – lots of momentum!
• Jorden Brown is to start tomorrow – Will be serving as Executive Assistant and Development Coordinator with a special focus on the Farmers’ Market initially and then will branch off to provide support in other areas.

5) AGM notes
o Get on the Website for people to review before finalizing

6) Announcements: /Adjournment – Next meeting June 21st