Committee Members Present:
Myles Egli – President Lina Tripudio-Comba – Executive Member
Mark Beauchamp – Treasurer Suzanne Abbott-Building Manager
Carol Miller- Senior Group Representative
1. Call to Order – Myles Egli called the meeting to order at 2:06PM
The agenda was modified to include the Counsellor’s report.
2. Welcome – Guests and Current Executive – Myles Egli welcomed Alana Saikaly (Counsellor’s office) and Amy Wellings
3.1 Financial Report– Presented by Mark Beauchamp-Treasurer
Mark provided a statement of income and expenses to everyone in attendance.
This 2017/2018 audit was completed by committee members, Myles Egli and Lina Tripudio-Comba since attempts to acquire a volunteer auditor was unsuccessful. Our hope is to attain a volunteer to complete next year’s audit.
Overall this year MWCA finances remained strong. Some events made profits while other had losses. Most of these losses were due to uncooperative weather on the day of the event.
Most events broke even or had small losses. Our cash position is stable, there are funds available in the event we need to replace anything.
Mark opened the floor for questions:
No questions from the floor.
3.2 Counsellor’s Report- presented by Alana Saikaly
The counsellor is starting a new environmental advisory group committee and is looking for volunteers. Those interested please email ward9@ottawa.ca
Red cross is releasing more funds to those affected by the tornado.
Cannabis information session held by the counsellor on November 22nd, 2018 at the Nepean Sportsplex – 6:30pm – 8:30 pm -halls C & D. Members from the Public Health and Police will be on hand to answer questions.
For details of these and other events, refer to the counsellor’s website.
4. President’s Report – Myles Egli
Good afternoon and welcome once again to the MWCA AGM for 2018.
Once a year for the past 4 years I have had the privilege of coming before you, my friends and neighbours, and discuss the status of the Manordale-Woodvale Community Association. It is a humbling experience for me. Unlike in previous years we do not have our normal distinguished guests. The Councillor and the representative from Parks and recreation were both unavailable to attend. Alana Saikaly is here as the representative from the councillor’s office. Alana is a true friend to this association and has helped us on many occasions. So, the true distinguished guests here today are you our friends and neighbours and thus the reason for our Guest Speaker’s topic — “Community”.
Some may be asking why the 2 empty chairs at the head table so let me explain. One is to represent any newcomers that wish to join the executive this year. The second is to recognize those that are no longer with us. Jane Benco, a dear friend to many on the executive and past secretary of the association, lost her battle to cancer late last year and we wish to remember her. As well, 2 other members have moved on to new challenges in their lives. We wish both Laurie and Larry every success in their future endeavours!
Each year, the executive of the MWCA gets together and plans out the activities for the year ahead for the community that we all love. We try to have activities and events that encourage all of you to come out and spend time with your neighbours. We try to keep you informed of what is going on in the area and of any important announcements from City Hall. We work with the City Councillor and his amazing staff and members of the Parks and Recreation Department to improve this building and park and rink that surrounds it. We are working with the city currently to have new boards installed for the rink before the skating season starts. I am happy to report that this is now completed! We worked with the councillor’s office to have acoustic tiles installed in this room and a defibrillator put in the building in case of emergency.
When the tornado hit earlier this fall, we worked with the Salvation Army and many other neighbours and friends to reach out to those in need and serve them a hot meal and give them a place where they could meet and forget about their troubles for a short period of time. During the city elections, that we just had, I had the opportunity to go door to door on behalf of 2 candidates in the election, one for city council and one for school board trustee. And although only one of them won Manordale-Woodvale is a better place today because they took time out of their lives to run for public office and get to know our community better.
I have gotten to know many of you over the last few years and one of my goals as I learned more about you and this community was to make the MWCA the focal point of this community and this building to be the hub with the spokes going out in many directions but always coming back to here. Over the next year, we are going to reach out to various schools in the area so that they’re is a more direct line of communication with them. Our goal is to let all high school students know that they can get their volunteer hours through us. As well, if they like to skate and are looking for a part time job, they can become a rink rat at our rink.
As a result of the tornado we will looking at ways to improve this building so in case of a natural disaster this facility can be set up fairly quickly as one of the locations that those in need can go to. We will be looking at ways that we can communicate to you in times of need and in turn we hope to be able to communicate your needs to those in authority that can help.
We will continue to be event driven but we will do our best to expand what we do so that we can become the Voice of Manordale. We hope to be the place where people go to find out what is happening in their community – whether it be a church bazaar, a play or concert at a local school, an information session being held by the city councillor, the Ottawa police, public health or another community-oriented organization. We will continue to update our Facebook Page, our website and our bulletin board. We will post notices when possible in the community building and shops and businesses in the area. We will, when possible, reach out to our adjoining community associations in Trend Arlington and Tanglewood so that our neighbours know what we are doing and in turn will encourage them to do the same. However, for any of this to be successful we need your help and support. We need you to join our Facebook page and share our notifications so that more people will become aware of who we are and what we do. We need you to visit our web page and send us your comments and concerns. Most importantly we need more of you to join us around the executive table and let us know what you are thinking.
We live in a very active and vibrant community; we hold more events than most other community associations. This building is rented out more often than any other community building in the area. We are here to serve you, what we do we do for you and thank you for all the support that you give us! Please feel free to reach to either myself or the rest of the executive if you have a question or concern that you think we can help you with.
In closing, I wish to thank my fellow members of the executive for their hard work and dedication to this community. Their help and support make my job that much easier to do. I wish to thank the members of this community that came out and supported their friends, neighbours and total strangers in the aftermath of the tornado. Finally, I wish to announce that the MWCA is taking up a collection to support those that have been affected by the tornado. We are giving an initial donation of $200.00 and will, also, match any donations from the community up to $200.00. Thank you in advance for your donations.
5. Address from Guest Speaker- Amy Wellings – “What is Community?”
Ms. Wellings provided the community with her perspective on what is a community. Community is not necessarily where we just live but the people that we connect with. Ms. Wellings recognized how welcoming the MWCA community has been and would like to continue to be a member of our community.
Her presentation was well received and sparked a conversation on the diversity of our community and how we can generate interest from community members (i., e students, newcomers, school board members).
Suggestions included:
* welcome package for newcomers (includes major community initiatives)-Carol Miller will forward to a committee a package created several ago
*offer material in Arabic, Lamah El-Rayes-Remax Sales Representation/community member- offered his support with translating material)
*provide food at MWCA events that can be enjoyed by all community members such as providing halal meat. Alana Saiklay suggested we contact Enbridge who could help with BBQ for events. She also suggested we use only halal meat. She will also forward contact information of a member of our community -Ahmed-who provided halal meals and would like to assist with future events.
6. Approval of the 2017 Minutes
The 2017 AGM minutes (October 29, 2017) were approved by a motion by Carol Miller and seconded by Melanie Depuis.
Ms. Miller suggested we post the minutes on the website for the community to review prior to the AGM.
7. Building Manager Report- Prepared by Laurie Bown and Suzanne Abbotts
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS:
The total number of bookings for the period November 1, 2017 to October 31, 2018 was 624 (This is up from last year)
MWCA usage of the building was 67% of all bookings.
Over the past twelve months, there has been average of 1.7 bookings of the building each day of the year.
We continue to support the youth of the community by making the facilities available either at a very low cost or no cost basis based on the event. Such programs include a youth drop in on Monday evenings, Brownies and Sparks and Manordale Public School skating sessions, and public skating during the winter months
We’ve had a couple of city programs aside from the regular Dufferdoo in the building this year such as babysitting courses and a Youth Leadership program. Though the results weren’t successful for the youth leadership program this year we hope to better promote it and have better results with in the coming year.
As well the facility is made available at minimal cost to the Nepean Minor Hockey Association, Nepean Girls Hockey Association, Nepean Ringette and Myers Riders Football, a local Choral Group, Cultural Associations, and Seniors groups.
BUILDING IMPROVEMENTS
During the past year at various times, the main room, halls, kitchen and skate room have been patched and repainted on an as needed basis by the city. The monitoring of burnt out lights both inside and outside continues as part of the Building Manager’s responsibilities.
Management has since changed over, beginning August 2018 and is now being taken care of by Suzanne.
Several tables and chairs have been requested from the city but even after using our own tables for the corn roast, most are in great shape and only a few additional were required to be
purchased. We have been able to lend tables and chairs to community groups and schools in the area for their events and in turn they have advertised our events.
The city has added a new push button for the rink lights and this is on an Automatic timer, so that rink lights are never accidentally left on anymore.
We now have a garbage bin as well as all bins associated with recycling.
We’ve had the installation of new acoustic tiles done in the main room, paper towel dispensers for the bathrooms as well as a soap dispenser in the women’s washroom and boards for the hockey rink for the upcoming season.
An AED device has also been installed and free training provided courtesy of the councillor’s office; this training was given to the new building manger and rink supervisor.
We have had several issues with vandalism of our downspouts around the building, and the city is always quick to fix these issues, but we are asking community members to report vandalism if they see it.
Future Plans:
Looking for new carpets for winter for in the washrooms. We want to thank our city team, Mike Connerty, Ashley Bertrand and Ron Albert for quick response times to any call that is put in to them for fixes around the building.
8. MWCA 2018 Events Reports
Community Day / Canada Day: This year’s Canada Day was very successful. As usual it started with singing O ’Canada and a pancake breakfast. There were bouncy castles and slide, pony rides, magic show, interactive display and petting of exotic animal, face painting and a BBQ lunch. Cost was off-set by a successful sponsorship campaign. A great time was had by all and was well attended.
Corn Roast:In the last few years corn roast had dwindling attendance so we decided to change the format and start it just after noon and run it into the night. To make it more family friendly bouncy castles and obstacle courses were added. This gave us both a lunch and dinner crowd. The event ended in the early evening. For the first time in years attendance was up, old friends had returned and many showed up for the first time. This new format will be the norm for the coming years. Many thanks to our hard-working volunteers!
Euchre Night: although it has enjoyed an increase in income this year over last, euchre has its own set of challenges. Held the third Friday of every month although last September we lost one night due to the tornado This coupled with a 100% increase in cost of the SOP has made euchre less of an income generation as it once had. We often use euchre nights as an opportunity to collect food items for FAMSAC.
Rink: It was another successful rink season. We had 42 days of good ice surface and several more where the building wasn’t open but the ice surface was useable. Weather always is a constant struggle but with a great group of volunteer’s repairs to the ice surface was swift. The city installed a push button on the outside of the building that allows skaters to turn out the lights if the building is not open.
Community Yard Sale: Due to the demand MWCA is now holding two garage sales yearly. The first one is in May and held in conjunction with clean-up day followed in the day with a picnic in the park. In the fall it is held on the day we hold our corn roast. Most income derived from garage sale comes from the rental of table and not the sale of individual items. However, we do accept donations from the public if they have treasures, they wish to offer to their neighbours but do not want to rent a table.
Winter Carnival: This year’s event was held on a perfect winter’s day. Cold enough that the ice surface was a focal point of the day but not too cold that everyone so everyone could enjoy the outdoors. For those who were cold a bonfire was burning and for those who needed to warm up inside free Hot Chocolate was available inside the building. There was skating, games, and sleigh rides. It was a great winter festival!
Boat Cruise: was changed form a Friday in June to a Saturday in August coinciding with fireworks at Lac Lemay. This created a winning combination as attendance was greatly increase over previous years. We included a bus from one of the local trailer parks that allowed many friends to have an enjoyable evening and to get home safely. We have already booked the date for next year and we are tweaking the event based upon the feedback we received from those that attended.
Softball: Once again, this year we ran our softball program for those aged 6-13 in our community. We the help of many dedicated volunteers the youth of our neighborhood were given the opportunity to learn the basic skills necessary to play softball. The program runs on Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 6-8Pm during the months of May and June. We had approximately 40 youth this year that enjoyed many evenings of ball, a parent versus youth game and a year end party. Plans are already under way to do it again next year.
New Year’s Eve: in a matter of less than 2 months of planning MWCA had it first annual New Year’s party. A festive setting with food, music dancing seems to be a winning formula for some local Manordale residents. Just recently I have had inquiries from those who attended last year about this year party. So, for those who want to ring in the New Year without having to fight downtown crowds consider joining us this year.
Halloween party: This event is always big hit. Done as a joint venture between the pathfinders and MWCA. Pathfinders create a themed haunted house atmosphere in the skate room. Once through, in the main room MWCA has various Halloween crafts, treats and a loot bag to take home.
We hope to see you at some of our events and please let us know if there is an event that you would like us to host and if there is a big enough demand, we will do our best to accommodate.
Suggestions from community members regarding the increased cost of associated with the monthly Euchre events: to generate funds to cover the increased cost of the SOP included:
*sell a Euchre membership fee (ie. $15) and reduce the nightly session from $7 to $5
Note: current $7 fee – $2.50 towards a prize pool and the remainder towards the
* have a 50/50 draw
9. 55+ Social Club Report- Carol Miller, Seniors representative
We are a relatively new group here in Manordale. After a couple of years working together with our neighbouring Tanglewood Community seniors’ group and staff at the Nepean, Rideau, Ottawa-Carleton Resource Centre, our group held our inaugural Open House in June 2017 supported by our city councillor and the Mayor. Then, after gathering a couple of interested neighbours to help me to develop a program, our first get-together occurred in August 2017.
Initially, the MWCA helped us with financial support and use of space in this building to get our program up and running. Now, we have become financially sustainable on our own. We meet here every Thursday morning from 9:30 to 11:30. We charge a toonie to those who attend and use these proceeds to fund our expenses. We have a core group of approximately 10 to 15 residents who regularly attend.
We started out slowly at first, as an informal chat over coffee, tea and a snack and then evolved to undertaking a variety of other activities: games days, low-impact exercises, special guest speakers, CPR training, we sponsored a tri-community bus trip to view the Christmas Lights at Upper Canada Village; a Christmas Potluck dinner; occasional breakfast visits to a local restaurant; crafting activities; health talks, etc.
Going forward, our goal, of course, is to recruit more seniors to join us. The challenge is, how to find them in order to reach out. As you probably know, the catchment area of this association, especially Knoxdale Rd and the streets south, is heavily populated with seniors, so I know there is the potential for more folks to join us.
Acknowledge and thank those folks who have helped in organizing this group (Connie Vanier from Kirkstall, Annette Wiffin, Kimdale, Joan Stafford, Majestic and Jessie Henderson, Sherry Lane) and these folks continue to work hard week to week to keep this program going.
In closing, this is what we do and if you know of anyone who could benefit from this program, please send them our way.
10. Election of new officers-Request for additional nominations from the floor
Amy Wellings was nominated by Michelle Manor and seconded by Pete Depuis.
Luigi Mangoni -initially nominated himself but was then nominated by Domique Perron and seconded by Suzanne Abbott. MWCA Association welcomes our two newest members Amy and Luigi!
Next MWCA Association meeting is scheduled for the Nov. 19th at 7pm
11. New Business
Carol Miller suggested that the Association discuss emergency planning for our
local community. The Counsellor will be hosting an event to discuss this issue but we need to start thediscussion on how best for our community to be aware emergency plan. How can our community provide support to the community (i.e. Acquire a generator, connect with other associations to pool resources, identify at risk residents to reach out to them, individuals to prepare emergency preparedness kit).
12. Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 3:30pm and motioned by Mark Beauchamp and second by Amy Wellings
Minutes prepared by Lina Tripudio-Comba
