West End Business Improvement Association ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING MINUTES Listel Hotel Vancouver 1300 Robson St
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West End Business Improvement Association ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING MINUTES Listel Hotel Vancouver 1300 Robson St. (Sculpture Gallery) September 23, 2015 5pm - 7:00 pm Meeting Called to Order – 5:12pm The Chair, Lisa Arthurs, called the meeting to order and thanked everyone for taking the time to attend the AGM. Chair confirmed quorum was achieved. 24 voting members in attendance (quorum is 15). Chair also stated that 10 proxies were received. Given the importance of the meeting in terms of voting on a five year renewal and budget cap, the Board wanted to ensure that all vote counting was conducted by third parties. The Chair introduced scrutineers James Bushell accountant/auditor from Heddon Chong and Carla Wilson, WEBIA bookkeeper. They agreed to assist with checking that membership forms and proxies are properly completed and correctly tallied and to help count votes. Approval of Scrutineers Motion: To approve James Bushell and Carla Wilson as Scrutineers. Carried Unanimously Approval of Agenda Chair reviewed agenda items and asked if there were any additions or changes. No changes. Motion: To approve the Agenda as presented. Carried Unanimously Approval of 2014 AGM Minutes Chair noted that Minutes were reported on our website with copies available upon arrival at the meeting. Chair asked it there were any changes or corrections required. No changes. Motion: To approve the 2014 AGM Minutes as presented. Carried Unanimously Chair & Committee Reports – these reports highlight activities and accomplishments over the past year. All speakers read from written notes. PowerPoint slides helped members follow each presentation and see examples of completed projects. The following are highlights from each report. Chair’s Report – Lisa Arthurs Chair spoke of the commitment to long term thinking and laying the foundations for effective governance, strategic planning and branding. The organization is showing positive results building off those foundations. Reported on the Board’s engagement with the Strategic Planning process. Board worked with a professional facilitator this past year to ensure a quality process was followed. The strategic framework for WEBIA remains a focus on revitalization of the commercial streets, promoting the area and ensuring effective governance. The Chair noted that our ongoing commitment to long term thinking and strategic planning made it relatively easy to develop a 5 Year Strategic Plan as part of the BIA renewal process. In fact, the Chair noted there was redundancy in our requirement to create and have members approve a five year plan and budget forecast in addition to creating and asking members approve annual plans and budgets. Chair stated we were working with the City of Vancouver and other BIAs in Vancouver to eliminate the Page 1 of 7 West End BIA AGM September 23, 2015 requirement to renew every five years and instead remain focused on the annual renewal process. Chair thanked all directors and staff for their time and contributions and acknowledged the strong working relationship with the City of Vancouver’s BIA Coordinator, Peter Vaisbord. Maintenance & Beautification Committee Report – Mary Phelps • Mary spoke to the strategy of leveraging our financial resources whenever possible by establishing partnerships with community organizations and businesses in the West End. • Provided an overview of those partnerships: worked with Gordon Neighbourhood House to establish a Clean Team, recognition from the City for helping coordinate the 20th anniversary of the Keep Vancouver Spectacular program, collaboration with the City and local artists to wrap five utility boxes, joint effort with Denman Place Mall and the City to revitalize seven planter boxes on Nelson Street. WEBIA also provides ongoing landscaping services including trimming grass in the spring, leaf removal in the fall and curb cleaning year round. • The goal going forward is to engage more businesses as ‘partners’ in our efforts to keep our sidewalks, streets, buildings and awnings cleaner and more inviting. Safety & Security Committee Report – Joe Skokan (Laurie McGrath presented on behalf of Joe Skokan) • Reported on the Community Safety Committee and its goal to reduce crime and enhance neighbourhood safety. • Reviewed the Vancouver Police Department crime stats for the West End noting the slight increase over the last few years with respect to theft. Compared our investment level to other BIA’s in the area. WEBIA is investing much less than other downtown BIAs in the area of community safety. • Spoke about the partnership with West End Coal Harbour Community Centre to provide trained eyes and ears on the street to reduce crime, street disorder and increase personal safety. Program is working well. • Cited the launch of the Security Bulletin for businesses to share information and alert each other to potential threats in the area. Encouraged more businesses to become active participants and sign up for the security bulletin. • Hit by a series of graffiti tags in June. Initiated process to retain the services of a professional graffiti removal contractor. We will be working on getting property owner permissions to paint out graffiti. Urban Planning Committee Report – David Buddle • David reviewed three main areas of focus for this committee: Implementation of the West End Community Plan, the development of a retail strategy and advocacy. • West End Plan Implementation Phase - The Heart of Davie Village / Jim Deva Plaza is a proposed permanent closure of Bute Street south of Davie plus additional public realm improvements in Davie Village. To complement the City’s efforts, WEBIA is lobbying for a commercial patio zone in Davie Village. • WEBIA continues to explore options for delivering on our Decorative Lighting Vision which was developed in 2013 and incorporated into the West End Community Plan. We continue to work with the city to complete the Davie Village Linear Lighting program which will be tied into the proposed Jim Deva Plaza lighting elements. • WEBIA embarked on a retail strategy to provide relevant and timely information on the current retail mix of each street, vacancy rates, new developments, zoning, and statistics. This resulted in the development of market profiles for each area. In addition, we launched a new tool called SpaceList which helps promote leases in our catchment area. Page 2 of 7 West End BIA AGM September 23, 2015 • Ongoing Advocacy includes: Property Taxation, Transportation (including the Downtown Bus Service Review), City Permitting and Licensing. • WEBIA also meets with City staff and Councilors regularly to advise them of our issues and concerns. Promotion’s Committee Report – Jacqui McMullen • Jacqui focused on the four main areas of our promotion strategy: branding, events, tourism development and online marketing. • Branding is communicated through bus shelter ads, banners, print advertising, the #WeAmaze photo contest to name a few. • Large event sponsorships are mainly focused in the summer and include Honda Celebration of Light, Pride Festival, Car Free Day and the Evo Summer Cinema Series at Second Beach. WEBIA also partnered to create the Lumiere Festival in December; this event builds off our lighting strategy. WEBIA also supports small scale activations on the commercial streets like Pianos on the Street, VanCupid, and Yellow Pages’ ‘Shop the Hood’. • Website and social media is an area of huge potential. WEBIA has worked hard to expand our reach in this space, more than doubling our reach in the past year. In terms of social media reach we remain 5th relative to other Vancouver BIAs behind Downtown, Gastown, Yaletown and Robson Street. Chair – Lisa Arthurs The Chair called for questions on the reports presented. No questions. Motion: To Accept the Chair’s, Maintenance & Beautification, Safety and Security, Urban Planning, and Promotions Committee Reports as presented. Carried Unanimously Finance & Audit Committee – Michel Duprat (Stephen Regan presented on behalf of Michel Duprat) The auditor James Bushell was introduced and spoke to WEBIA’s annual ‘management letter’. James listed the qualities of an effective accounting function, and stated that WEBIA met those standards. Stephen Regan noted the year end statements were circulated many weeks in advance for member review. Touched on several of the year’s highlights: o Revenue – in addition to the levy funding from the city WEBIA acquired almost $44,000 in event sponsorship and donated services for promotional initiatives. o Expenses - three main items were discussed. Advertising and promotions increased by $52,000 over last year, this was part of a strategy to shift more investment to marketing from administration and revitalization over time. Leveraged services represents fee for service investments in community partnerships such as the Clean Team with Gordon Neighbourhood House and the Commercial Liaison Patrol with the Community Police Centre. Leveraged Services increased by $31,000. This increase aligned with our budget. Street Lighting expenses were down over the previous year by almost $48,000 due to limitations in City infrastructure. These retained earnings have been shifted into the current years lighting projects. Page 3 of 7 West End BIA AGM September 23, 2015 o Balance Sheet – WEBIA continues to show a healthy balance sheet mainly driven by the retained earnings from the lighting program. WEBIA anticipates these funds to be invested in the current and the next fiscal years. There was a call for questions on the report presented. There were no questions. Motion: To Approve the 2014-2015 Audited Year End Financial Statements for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2015 as circulated and presented. Carried Unanimously Motion: To Appoint Hedden Chong LLP as the association’s auditors for the 2015-16 fiscal year. Carried Unanimously 2015-16 Mandate Renewal & Budget Presentation – Stephen Regan Stephen spoke about the mandate renewal process and activities including surveys conducted, outreach activities, and the strategic planning that the board undertook to develop a framework for a five year renewal mandate. A Five Year Strategic Plan & Budget Forecast document was circulated to the members as part of the AGM package.