Old Town Kemptville BIA Board of Management Meeting Status: In Person
Location: North Grenville Public Library
Date and Time of Meeting: January 30, 2023 at 7:00pm.
Present: Meagan, Courtney, Dave, Sierra, Shelley, John B and Deron (staff). Absent:
Regrets:
Guests: Matt G and Wendy E.
Call to Order at: 7:03pm.
Reading of Land Acknowledgement: “We begin this meeting by acknowledging that we are meeting on the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee First Peoples. We do so respecting both the land and the Indigenous people who continue to walk with us through this world. We are grateful for the opportunity to gather here.
In recognition of the contributions and importance of all Indigenous Peoples, we strongly support Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action in our nation and commit to support local endeavors where possible.”
Assignment of Recording Secretary: Deron
Review of agenda for meeting of January 30, 2023.
Motion to approve agenda for January 30, 2023: Moved by Sierra, seconded by Courtney. Carried.
Disclosure of interest: None.
Review of Executive Committee Notes: None.
Review of the Board of Management Meeting minutes of: September 19, 2022 and January 16, 2023.
Motion to approve minutes of September 19, 2022 and January 16, 2023: Moved by John, seconded by Dave. Carried.
Note: unless otherwise stated in these minutes, all motions to accept or approve were unanimously supported.
Opening Statements
Deputations
Discussion
• Election for executive positions.
o Election conducted by Matt Gilmer. o Nominations opened at 7:10pm.
▪ Dave has been nominated for the position of Chair by Dave and seconded by Courtney.
▪ Meagan has been nominated for the position of Vice Chair by Meagan and seconded by Sierra.
▪ Sierra has been nominated for the position of Treasurer by Sierra and seconded by Meagan.
▪ Shelley has been nominated for the position of Secretary by John B and seconded by Courtney.
▪ All positions only had one nomination. Therefore all executive positions were acclaimed.
o Motion: To approve the results of the election for Executive positions of the Old Town Kemptville BIA Board of Management which are as follows: Chair – Dave Leger, Vice Chair – Meagan Cumming, Treasurer – Sierra Jones- Martel, and Secretary – Shelley Mitchell. Moved by Sierra, seconded by Dave. Carried.
Changing signing authority to new executive positions.
o Deron advised that Shelley and Dave need to be added to the signing authoritylist and Will and Melanie need to be removed.
Regular meeting dates.
o Based on discussion, meetings will continue to be held on the third Monday of the month at 7pm with the primary location being the library.
o The back-up location for meetings will be NG Historical Society.
o Shelley suggested the NG Municipal Centre can be another option as well.
• Municipal Budget Request.
o This item was on the previous meeting’s agenda but out of respect for the new Board members, it was brought back to allow for additional discussion.
o John suggested that he felt that Council might not be willing to approve the full budget request as submitted.
o Matt advised that the previous year’s equivalent to the municipal request was approximately $98,000.
o Shelley asked why the numbers in the submitted request did not seem to match the ones that had been agreed to by the Marketing and Programming Committee.
o It was decided to remove the Admin from the submitted request in hopes that the new Board Secretary will provide support for the Executive Director by fulfilling the responsibilities of the Secretary role.
o Deron advised that he was encouraged to increase some of the submitted numbers and to add the admin and strategic planning numbers to try and maximize the amount that would be approved by Council.
o Deron also added that this was the first time going through this process with the municipality and the process for future asks should be easier.
o The Marketing and Programming Committee will review their figure of $35,000 and make a recommendation to the Board.
• BIA Budget 2023.
o This item was on the previous meeting’s agenda but out of respect for the new Board members, it was brought back to allow for additional discussion.
o Deron advised that typically the Executive Committee would do the work of budget planning and come up with a draft budget and then bring that draft to the next Board meeting for further discussion and adoption by the full Board.
o Deron advised that the current draft of the BIA budget contained a 2% levy increase to bring the total levy to $26,000. The Board could choose a higher levy, but the levy works out to about $500 representing a 2% increase. If the % increase is too high, it may upset members.
o Executive Committee will review the budget and make a recommendation to the Board.
• BIA Workplan 2023.
o This item was on the previous meeting’s agenda but out of respect for the new Board members, it was brought back to allow for additional discussion.
o Executive Committee will review the workplan at next Executive Committee meeting.
• Signatures for Code of Conduct.
o Sierra, Dave and Courtney have already submitted their signed copy.
o Meagan, Shelley and John have now submitted their signatures.
• Approving Kemptville Buskerfest Committee Terms of Reference.
o The Board was asked to approve the updated Terms of Reference for the KBFOrganizing Committee.
o Deron advised that the only difference contained in the new version is that the KBF will now be able to approve all of its own expenses without coming to the BIA Board for approval of expenses.
o Meagan added that the previous method of requiring BIA Board approval of all Buskerfest expenses was cumbersome and very time consuming which often led to payments being late.
o Shelley added that the previous approval method also led to a number of emergency Board meetings simply to just approve Buskerfest expenses.
o Motion: To approve the 2023 Kemptvlle Buskerfest Terms of Reference as presented. Moved by John, seconded by Sierra. Carried.
• Approving composition of Kemptville Buskerfest Committee.
o The Board was asked to approve the updated roster for the KBF Organizing Committee for 2023.
o Motion: To approve the roster of the 2023 Kemptville Buskerfest Organizing Committee: Sierra Jones-Martel, Meagan Cumming, Mary-Anne Leang, Amanda Leang, Ashley Sloan, Herb Cloutier, Megan McDonald, Paulina Hrebacka and Deron Johnston. Moved by Sierra, seconded by Shelley. Carried.
• OBIAA RM app and OBIAA membership.
o Deron advised that it’s time to renew the membership for OBIAA and for those Board members who were unfamiliar with it, that OBIAA is a great resource and source of information for BIAs across Ontario.
o Motion: To approve payment in the amount of $275.51 to the Ontario Business Improvement Area Association for cost of membership for 2023. Moved by John, seconded by Dave. Carried.
o Deron suggested that the OBIAA RM should be investigated further and has provided everyone with a recent email explaining what the RM is.
o Deron also added that it was costly to use the program and had a number of onboarding costs as well. He did not feel it was worth the money at this time.
o John questioned whether the compatibility with other programs.
o Board deferred the RM discussion so that the Executive Meeting could review it
and it could be discussed at the next Board meeting once everyone had a chance to do some more reading about it.
4
Reports
Municipal Report – Matt Gilmer and Deputy Mayor Barclay.o Economic Development news relevant to the BIA and downtown.
▪ Need to hire a new DSS member to replace Ronnie.
▪ Streetlights replacement begins this week.
▪ New municipal website now includes all NG websites in one.
▪ Economic Development strategy is still in process. The BIA will invited to afuture meeting to review the draft.
Financial Report & External Funding Applications Report – TBD.
o Deron advised the Board of the bank account balance as of January 25th was $41,932.89.
Programming & Marketing Committee Report – TBD.
o Nothing new to report. Committee had not met since last Board meeting.
Executive Director’s Report – Deron Johnston.
o Deron advised that he had met with Darren Gallacher from Grenville Community Futures Development Corporation and they are hoping to generate more interest in their micro loans program.
o Deron added that the Buskerfest Committee met with Brian from Orbital Talent about making changes to the lineup of professional buskers for this year’s event. o Deron also added that he had talked to Sam from CIBC about making changes to the BIA bank account including being able to make e-transfers and wire transfers instead of having to write paper cheques for everything which require physical signatures from two separate people.
o The Board would still like to know about the possibility of having a credit card, so the Board asked Deron to ask Sam how that can be done.
Other Business Arising From Discussion
Period For Questions From Members, Public and Media
• Wendy Embleton commented that the KDCA was going to be meeting and having their AGM very soon.
Summary of Actionable Items New Business
Closed Session
Close of Meeting
Meeting closed at: 8:35pm
Motion to close: Moved by Sierra, seconded by Shelley. Carried.
Next Meeting: February 27, 2023 at 7pm.
