PROBUS CLUB VANCOUVER
Minutes of the Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Probus Club of Vancouver held at the Vancouver Lawn Tennis and Badminton Club, 1630 West 16th Avenue, Vancouver, B.C. on April 3, 2012 at the hour of 9:30am.
PRESENT:
Bill Sexsmith – Past President
Don Newman – President
Wayne Audette – Vice President
Doug Lambert – House Committee Chairman
Norm Leach – Membership Committee Member
Brian Maunder – Speakers Committee Chairman
Bill Robertson – Activities Committee Chairman
Jon Collins – Member Services Committee Chairman
Brian Wasson –Secretary
Gordon Thom – Historian and Archivist
Roy Williams – Newsletter
Ken Yule – Assistant Secretary – by invitation
Calling Meeting to Order
President Don Newman called the meeting to order at 9:30 am.
Brian Wasson acted as Secretary.
A quorum of members being present, the Chairman declared the meeting properly constituted for the transaction of business.
1. Minutes of Meeting of February 7, 2012
ON MOTION DULY MADE AND SECONDED AND CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY
the Minutes of the Board of Directors Meeting of February 7, 2012 were approved
as circulated.
2. Business arising from the Minutes of February 7, 2012
.1 2013 Presidents’ Luncheon – Committee Report
Wayne Audette, on behalf of the committee tabled its report of the findings offrom the member’s survey and its recommendations (attached).
The Chairman conducted a vote on the major issues:
(a) Are spouses to be invited? Majority in favour
(b) Move the date? Majority in favour of October.
It is a traditionally a well attended meeting.
(c) Venue? It has to have a 180 seat capacity. Shaughnessy Golf Club was endorsed for October 9, 2012.
The date has been confirmed with Shaughnessy.
.2 Valentine’s Day Luncheon
It was the consensus that with a number of activities open to spouses including the Presidents’ Luncheon, the former Valentine’s Day Luncheon was deemed to be unnecessary.
.3 Succession Planning
Past President Bill Sexsmith advised that the Nominating Committee was open to further recommendations for its slate of officers which will be tabled at the next meeting. In the context of succession he asked the members to consider any candidate put forward as a potential President in the future.
.4 Promoting Probus Committees
The President would like to see the activities of the various committees featured or a rotating basis in the Newsletter. He proposed the Chairmen each draft up a brief summary; Speakers in May, Membership in June Members Services in July.
3. Treasurer’s Report
Treasurer Richard Carson distributed a financial report for the eight month period ending March 31, 2012 (attached). He commented that actual expenditures were lagging budget by some $7,500 and pointed out the areas of variance.
He pointed out that there is a discrepancy in the number of active members and the
membership fees recorded, up to 14 unpaid members, In the ensuing discussion
among Membership, Treasurer and House it appeared that there is no single control point
in recording membership renewals. As Member annual dues are a Membership issue, the
President asked Conrad Rademaker to meet with Rich Carson and Doug Lambert
to recommend a system so that dues paid reconcile with active members to the June
meeting.
4, Programs
.1 Speakers
Speakers Committee Chairman Brian Maunder reported that his committee has had a very successful meeting including the taking into account the findings of Conrad Rademaker’s membership survey resulting in 21/2 pages of recommendations.
Brian is looking for introducers and thankers for particular speakers. As an example, he would like to have engineers for Don Malvinic from UBC in June.
In keeping with the objective of finding an exceptional speaker for the Presidents’ Lunch Brian Maunder floated the name of Carol Taylor. The meeting was in favour.
Website Chair Jon Collins asked to have bios of speakers available for posting in future events on the website.
.2 Membership
Membership Committee Member Norm Leach distributed a report(copy attached), commenting that there are 13 potential members on the waiting list with the revised program to introduce 3 at each of the following monthly meetings. Membership now stands at 389 active and 14 inactive. Membership close to 400 is considered to be the ideal. The meeting endorsed the recommendation of having more “junior” members be
canvassed to recommend more junior candidates rather than have a general appeal for new member which will increase the average age.
The Membership Committee members are contacting proposers and seconders to ask them to attend and introduce their member around in the social time prior to the monthly meetings.
In reply to a query, it appears that only two members resigned over the increase of annual dues to $85.
.3 House
House Chairman Doug Lambert reported that in the ongoing search for an alternate venue, the new facilities at Van Dusen were researched and rejected on the basis of cost. over.
.4 Activities
Bill Robertson was congratulated on the success of the Beaty Biodiversity Museum tour on March 20. He pointed out that he had experimented with overbooking the event as discussed in the last meeting. The result was 68 booked and 63 in attendance. This result again supports the policy of enforcing prepayment for events.
The Van Dusen visit is 90% booked at 90 members and guests with booking to close at next week’s general meeting. It is a rain or shine event.
The June 19 event, the UBC Wine Research Centre is set for 50 participants and will be hosted by the extremely knowledgeable director.
Bill distributed a list of our Probus Club activities since 1977 (attached).
.5 Member Services/Website
Jon Collins reported that having Past President greeters at the monthly meetings has been in place for 4-5 months and appears to be successful.
Doug Lambert is researching finding name tags for them.
On the Webpage side, there has been positive feedback on the introduction of a current events section. The Committee’s plan to revamp the opening page will be complete by month end with implementation starting in May.
.6 Newsletter
The cutoff for the April newsletter is March 20, 2012.
There is a change in the email distribution of the Newsletter now through Jack Zaleski.
Orrin Webber will provide audiovisual services at our monthly meetings when Roy Williams is unavailable.
Roy Williams pointed out that he has all the supporting material for the projector.
.7 Archivist
Nothing to report.
5. New Business
.1 Proposed Amendments to the Bylaws
The Secretary distributed a set of proposed changes to the club’s bylaws which in summary list the members of the Nominating Committee as set up by the club, remove the concept of a member not in good standing and provide for approval of the annual financial statement by the Board of Directors rather than a non-officer.
UPON MOTION DULY MADE AND SECONDED the Board of Directors approved the amendments to the bylaws for submission and approval by the membership at the September annual general meeting.
.2 Guidelines for Speaker gift certificates
The concept is that the club will accept any legal request by Speakers for their choice of an honorarium.
.3 Probus Centre Insurance Update and Supplementary Coverage
Probus Canada has moved its blanket General Liability Policy to a new agent with a new policy which provides cross indemnity coverage among members and is thus deemed more beneficial. What is not clear is whether our own contractual liability obligation to the City of Vancouver is insured.
The new agent is also actively soliciting Director and Officer liability coverage. The President appointed a committee of the Secretary, Assistant Secretary and former Secretary, Ted Horsey, to consider these issues and report back.
.4 Goals for 2011-2012
The Chairman distributed a summary of goals for review and action by specified committee members. Some are completed and others are in progress.
5. Other Business
6. Adjournment
The next meeting of the Board of Directors is scheduled for Tuesday, June 5, 2012 at the VANCOUVER LAWN TENNIS AND BADMINTON Club at 9:30 am.
There being no further business, upon motion the meeting terminated.
_______________________________
Don Newman, President
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Brian Wasson, Secretary