Toronto-Humber, Executive Guest: Changiz Sadr Chair, Regional Councillors Committee. 2.2 Approval of Minutes to previous meeting (June 15, 2016)

Transcription

1 Minutes Approved West Central Regional Congress Wednesday, September 14, 2016 Travelodge Hotel Toronto Airport 925 Dixon Road, Toronto, ON M9W 1J Chair: Warren Turnbull Senior Regional Councillor Vice-Chair: Danny Chui Junior Regional Councillor Present: Nilima Gandhi Brampton, Chair Satyendra Bhavsar Brampton, Past-Chair Andrew Demeter Etobicoke, Chair George Dimitrov Etobicoke, Vice-Chair Steve Favell Kingsway, Chair Brett Chmiel Mississauga, Chair Galal Abdelmessih Mississauga, Vice-Chair Sohail Naseer Oakville, Chair Len D Elia Oakville, Vice-Chair Shiva Bissoon Toronto-Humber, Chair Otto Zander Toronto-Humber, Executive Guest: Changiz Sadr Chair, Regional Councillors Committee Marilyn Spink LGA Councillor Staff: Matthew Ng Manager, Chapters Regrets: Vasilj Patrovic Kingsway, Vice-Chair Time: 6:00 p.m. 7:00 p.m. Dinner (Casey s) 7:00 p.m. 10:00 p.m. Meeting (Alderwood Room) 1.0 Call to order and welcome Warren Turnbull called the meeting to order at 7:20 p.m. 2.0 Routine Business 2.1 Approval of the meeting Agenda Motion 1: To approve the Agenda as presented. Moved by: G. Abdelmessih. Seconded by: O. Zander. Motion Carried. 2.2 Approval of Minutes to previous meeting (June 15, 2016) Motion 2: To approve the Minutes to previous meeting (June 15, 2016) as presented.

2 Moved by: S. Naseer. Seconded by: S. Favell. Motion Carried. 2.3 Business arising from previous Minutes Action 1: To revisit Action 2 from the Feb. 3, 2016 meeting: M. Ng to provide Curling League contact information to all West Central Chapters. L. MacCumber to provide a copy of a Curling League E-Blast Template to Chapter Office for use to all chapters. Update: Ongoing. The chapter office is putting together a Curling Bonspiel Best Practices that will be posted up on the chapter website soon. The work stemmed from Peterborough chapter s request. Action 1: Outstanding Action 2 from February 3, 2016 meeting: M. Ng to provide Curling League contact information to all West Central Chapters. L. MacCumber to provide a copy of a Curling League E-Blast Template to Chapter Office for use to all chapters. Action 2: M. Ng to investigate whether information such as gender, designation and engineering discipline can be provided through Campaigner. Update: Completed. Currently, this is not possible. Once the CPD program is set up, PEO will know each member s status regarding their practicing discipline. Action 2: This is to stay on as a reminder that the WCRC is waiting on the implementation of the CPD program to be complete in order for PEO to know each member s status regarding their practicing discipline. Outstanding Action 2 from June 15, 2016 meeting: M. Ng to investigate whether information such as gender, designation and engineering discipline can be provided through Campaigner. Action 3: M. Ng to provide Councillors addresses on the chapter office website for the purpose of extending invitations to chapter events. Update: Ongoing. In the meantime, those wishing to contact the RCC may do so using rcc@peo.on.ca. Action 3: Outstanding Action 3 from June 15, 2016: M. Ng to provide Councillors addresses on the chapter office website for the purpose of extending invitations to chapter events. Action 4: The WCRC chapter allotment working group to report their findings back to the region chapter chairs in August and then again at the September 2016 WCRC. Update: Ongoing. Action 4: W. Turnbull to convene the West Central Chapter Allotment Working Group meetings with G. Abdelmessih, S. Bhavsar and S. Naseer. Action 5: Chapter volunteers interested in applying for a position on the 2016 CLC Organizing Committee to Matthew Ng with responses to the following questions: Why do you want to be on the organizing committee? What are your skills? Update: Completed. Refer to item 5.1 for details.

3 Action 6: Clarification on what expenses can be reimbursed (including travel within home chapter) to be added to agenda for next meeting. Update: Completed. 3.0 Chapter Forum 3.1 Chapter reports (refer to the Congress Package for detailed reports. Highlights are presented below): Brampton presented by N. Gandhi The majority of Brampton s events get sold out: other West Central chapters would like to consider hosting joint-events with Brampton. Etobicoke presented by A. Demeter and G. Dimitrov Licensure Assistance Program (LAP): EIT expect the program to lead to employment opportunities, which is not the intent of the program. Kingsway presented by S. Favell The chapter needs more volunteers to take up officer positions. Etobicoke chapter has volunteers that may be willing to participate on the Kingsway chapter s board. Mississauga presented by B. Chmiel Family picnic: $5 fee was charged to decrease no-shows. This has been an effective strategy with other chapters: Brampton also charges $5 for its events and participation has improved from 40% to 90%. Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) concerns should be taken into account. Upcoming event will include a presentation by a Canadian astronaut. Action 5: Mississauga chapter to distribute its Canadian Space Agency (CSA) event flyer to the West Central Chapter Chairs for further distribution to their chapter members. Oakville presented by S. Naseer Family picnic: was a free event and attendance numbers were good. Upcoming event will be the chapter s flagship Symposium on infrastructure. Toronto-Humber presented by S. Bissoon LAP: the quality of the interns is improving as the chapter has been participating few more rounds; interns have a clear understanding that this program will not result in receiving employment opportunities. West Toronto A report was not submitted. 3.2 Councillor Spink s presentation Councillor Spink introduced her talk and gave a sample presentation to the delegates of the WCRC. Refer to the Congress Package for the sample presentation, and Appendix A for Councillor Spink s contact information. 3.3 Regional Open Issues / Concerns

4 West Central Open Issue 32 - WCRC wants RCC to implement means of improving the knowledge new licensee have with regard to the role and mandate of PEO in society, its chapter system and volunteerism in general for the Association. Update: M Ng presented the progress of the welcome package to the RCC. Once approved, the package will be sent to PEO Licensing for their approval before implementation. No further action from the congress, M. Ng will report the progress at the next congress. 3.4 Open issues from the other regions 3.5 Mathletics Clickers At present, the Regional Councillors Committee (RCC) is evaluating the feasibility of offering more clickers (i.e. electronic scoring devices) to chapters in order to improve availability especially during peak demand times (such as during March for National Engineering Month events). This could include: rental agreements with third party suppliers, purchasing, or apps for smartphones. Currently one set of 32 clickers is available for the West Central region to share. It s available from the Chapter Office on first-come first-serve basis. Action 6: M. Ng to poll chapters to determine if they are interested in possibly: renting clickers; owning clickers; renting and owning clickers. 4.0 Chapter Finances Regional Allotment and Chapter Requests The 2016 approved chapter allotment is $561,000. The RCC, at its July meeting, determined that they will request a 2% increase over last year s approved allotment to account for inflation and a 4.7% increase to account for increase in membership, thus bringing the total amount requested to $599,000. Council won t vote on the full 2017 budget until its November meeting. 4.2 Special Projects Funding RCC Special project fund EDU funding GLP funding

5 4.2.4 National Engineering Month (NEM) funding NEM 2017 funding will consist of two types of funds: regular and innovation funding. Regular funding will follow the same as in 2016: i.e. up to $700/chapter with the same stipulations as last year. Innovation funding will be divided into 2 categories: 1. New innovative projects: The intent is the same as last year: it enables organizations to tap into additional funding to design and implement brand new events and activities to engage the public in meaningful and creative ways. Refer to the Congress Package for further details. 2. Recreating someone else s innovative project New this year: there will be around five projects that received innovation funding in the past and were successful events that can be successfully recreated for maximum impact. Chapters will have a How-to-Guide to implement the project. Details are still being worked out on this form of funding. The application forms are being updated and will be accessible when the update website launches NEM funding forms will be due on November 18 th RCC entrance scholarship application 4.3 Volunteer expense reimbursement PEO reimburses its committee volunteers for mileage expenses to attend its meetings as per the existing expense reimbursement policy (refer to the Congress Package for the policy link). The validity of the chapter rule (chapter volunteers are not reimbursed for mileage to attend a home chapter event for less than or equal to 60 km round trip) was challenged. G. Abdelmessih feels it is a hardship for volunteers to pay for mileage for volunteering and suggests the limit be removed. Motion 3: The WCRC would like to motion the RCC to examine the motion trail that lead to today s restrictions on chapter volunteers and regional councillors travel within their home chapter clarify and if needed or re-cast the policy for reimbursing our chapter volunteers on their mileage expenses. Moved by: G. Abdelmessih. Seconded by: S. Bhavsar. Motion Carried with one abstention. 5.0 Events / Activities / Programs 5.1 Chapter Leaders Conference 2016 update

6 The committee has had four meetings to-date & the theme will be Revitalizing the Brand Making Connections The group wants to have an action plan for chapters to carry-out once the conference is over. The story telling session will be shorter and more focused to the theme National Engineering Month update The new website will be launched soon (EWB is straightening out a server glitch). It ll be a noticeable improvement over the current version: information will be divided based on whether you are students and the general public; event planners; and for NEMOSC info. EWB will be hosting a webinar for new event planners, it has been postponed until September 28 th, details will follow. All chapters present communicated that they will hosting a NEM 2017 event. 6.0 Reports Council / RCC /Subcommittees/ Congress 6.1 Regional Election and Search Committee (RESC) D. Chui would like the West Central RESC to meet during the week of September 26 th. M. Ng will send out a Doodle Poll to confirm with all the chapter chairs of the region. 6.2 Continuing Professional Competence Program (CP 2 ) Task Force 6.3 Membership Survey Report Delegates are encouraged to read the report. M. Ng stressed that it s a valuable tool in learning what PEO needs to do better, and is critical to understand what members expect from and want from PEO to better serve them. 6.4 RCC Update Update: Scholarship and allotment. 7.0 Other Congress Business There was no other business to discuss. 8.0 Consent Agenda Motion 4: To receive the Consent Agenda. Moved by: S. Naseer. Seconded by: G. Abdelmessih. Motion Carried with one abstention.

7 8.1 Government Liaison Program (GLP) update 8.2 Education Committee update 8.3 Student Membership Program (SMP) update 8.4 Licensure Assistance Program (LAP) update 8.5 Volunteer Service Recognition Program & Awards updates 8.6 PEO IT Updates 8.7 RCC Minutes (March 12, 2016; April 30, 2016; May 19, 2016), 507th Council Disposition of Motions 8.8 Staff Report and Staff Changes Notifications 8.9 Upcoming Key Dates 9.0 Announcements / Next meeting / adjournment Congress Schedule Date ***February 15, 2017 (6:30 pm 9:30 pm) June TBD Location Teleconference TBD With the agenda completed, the meeting adjourned at 10:00 p.m.