Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the CSAE Trillium Chapter held on Thursday, October 6, 2016 At the Courtyard by Marriott Downtown Toronto, Toronto, ON 1. Call to Order President Steve Carroll, CAE, welcomed everyone, calling the 48 th Annual General Meeting of the CSAE Trillium Chapter to order at 4:30 pm EDT. The President reported that the Notice of the AGM was sent to all members electronically on September 6, 2016. A copy of the Notice was also posted on the Chapter s webpage. Copies were also available at the back of the room. Elizabeth Fisk, CAE will assume the responsibilities of Secretary for this meeting. The Secretary confirmed that a quorum was present. M/S/C that the agenda be approved as distributed. 2. Approval of the Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held September 17, 2015 M/S/C that the Minutes of the last Annual General Meeting of members, held on Thursday, September 17, 2015, be approved as circulated. The minutes will be signed and placed in the minute book of the CSAE Trillium Chapter. 3. President s Report CSAE Trillium Chapter members share a passion for association management and we all know and recognize the signs and features of a healthy, vibrant and successful association when we see it. Volunteer leaders are clear on their roles and responsibilities and work collaboratively and collectively for the benefit of the organization. The staff leader helps keep the Board focused on its strategic level considerations and as the Board performs its oversight duty, it confidently supports and places its trust in the staff leader to ensure the association s operations are well managed. The members see and feel real tangible value for their membership dollar investment and the association s stakeholders and partners want to align themselves with the association s brand. All of these qualities and more describe today s CSAE Trillium Chapter and the CSAE Trillium Chapter family experience! Member engagement is what CSAE Trillium Chapter does so well, thanks to a visionary and strategic-thinking Board of Directors, an incredibly motivated and hard-working volunteer workforce and above and beyond inspirational leadership provided by our awesome Executive Director Tracy Blyth, CAE.
When we take a moment to stop and reflect on the entire impressive CSAE Trillium Chapter record of accomplishment and its ability to deliver significant value in many forms to all of its members and consider why the chapter enjoys so much success, a number of reasons come to mind. The Trillium Chapter membership is active, engaged and collaborative, members are quick to contribute and help with Chapter programs and activities and provide helpful feedback to make the Chapter better. The Trillium Chapter is committed to setting a high standard for member engagement. Board and committee planning revolves around providing the best value to our members, and our members have responded. Attendance at our events continues to be robust, but not only are people present in the room, there is also an electricity in the air when we gather at the Summits, the Holiday and Awards dinners, even the professional development workshops. People are happy to come together, to network with new and seasoned colleagues, and learn something new too. But more importantly, people feel welcome and that they belong. The Trillium Chapter volunteer workforce is truly special, putting together new and attractive content, events and programs for the entire membership and working synergistically with the Chapter staff to create a high quality member experience. Tracy Blyth, CAE puts our Trillium Chapter best foot forward representing us with such professionalism and sincerity and along with her team including Christina Buttler and Rebecca Harris, CAE Trillium Chapter is blessed to have such outstanding staff members working on our behalf. Finally, the Trillium Chapter Board of Directors works closely together as friends and colleagues with so much mutual respect and caring for one another. I m proud to say we spend almost all of our time in Board meetings in strategy discussions, leaving the operational detail to committee reports and our Executive Director s update. Thank you to all CSAE Trillium Chapter members for your faith, confidence and support of me during my year as President, it has been truly and honour and privilege to serve and represent you. Thank you to the Board for your trust and confidence in me as your President, I owe Tracy Blyth, CAE a huge debt of gratitude for everything she has done for me and the Chapter and my sincere thanks to all Trillium Chapter volunteers for their vital contribution to the Chapter s offerings. Thank you to the Business and Executive members and the Trillium Chapter s Executive (Board of Directors) for their continued support of the CSAE Trillium Chapter. A special thank you to outgoing Directors Rozalyn Werner-Arce, CAE, and Kathy Steffan for their commitment to the Trillium Chapter throughout their terms on the Board. Thank you to Trillium Chapter Executive Director, Tracy Blyth, CAE and I wish the very best to incoming President Valerie Browne. 4. Treasurer s Report & Financial Statements for the 2015-16 Fiscal Year Constance Wrigley-Thomas, CAE, Trillium Chapter Treasurer presented the Audited Financial Statements for the fiscal year ending April 30, 2016 a copy of which was posted on the Chapter s webpage.
Our audit was completed to comply with CSAE National s Chapter Standards. The audited financial statements for fiscal year ending April 30, 2016 as reported by our auditors Grant Thornton, LLP, Chartered Accountants, were reviewed by the Audit Review Committee on August 17 th, 2016. The Audit Review Committee was comprised of: Myself as Chair Valerie Browne, CAE Steve Carroll, CAE Gilles Latour The statements were approved by the CSAE Trillium Chapter Board of Directors on August 31, 2016 and are available to all CSAE Trillium Chapter members on our website. The Trillium Chapter recorded a net excess of revenues over expenditures of $13,845 for the 2015-16 fiscal year ending April 30, 2016. Our investments are in redeemable GICs with RBC and a Tangerine Savings Account ensuring we attain the best interest rates possible. The Chapter Board exercises its due diligence in a number of ways including the review of regular financial statements and ensuring the financial policies of the Chapter are implemented by staff. I wanted to share a few observations regarding the Trillium Chapter s current financial status: Programming provided by CSAE Trillium Chapter continues to be strong and attendance for events such as our PDX series and Winter and Summer Summit contributes to higher event revenues. Thank you to our volunteers for helping us to retain existing attendees and attract new ones through programming excellence and unparalleled networking opportunities. We value our sponsor partnerships. Revenue from sponsorships enables us to deliver quality professional development and meaningful networking opportunities. I am pleased to report that sponsorship support of your chapter is very strong. Our annual surpluses have enabled Trillium Chapter to reinvest in our membership through the Trillium Gives Back Scholarship as well as programming for our young membership cohort through our Young Professionals Fund. Finally, thank you for giving me the opportunity to be your Treasurer over the past 18 months. I have enjoyed viewing the chapter s successes through the lens of a P&L and balance sheet. M/S/C that the Audited Financial Statements for the fiscal year May 1, 2015 through April 30, 2016 be accepted as presented.
Confirmation of Auditors for the 2016-17 Fiscal Year For the past three years Grant Thornton LLP has been appointed as the Trillium chapter auditor. We would like to thank Grant Thornton for all of their work on behalf of the Chapter. It truly has been a pleasure working with them. As many of you are aware, CSAE is undergoing a business model review and at this time it is not clear whether we will require an audit at the end of this fiscal year. We will of course continue to comply with the financial requirements of CSAE, we are just not sure we will require an auditor and if so for how many years. Due to that circumstance we are asking the membership to approve a motion to allow the CSAE Trillium Chapter Board of Directors to appoint the auditor for 2016-17. M/S/C That the task of appointing the auditor for the fiscal year ending April 30, 2017 be given to the CSAE Trillium Chapter Board of Directors. 5. Nominating Committee Report Rozalyn Werner-Arce, CAE, Chair of the Nominating Committee presented the Nominating Committee Report. As Chair of the Nominating Committee I would first of all like to thank four of our dedicated volunteers who worked with me on the Nominating Committee: Dinaz Garda, CAE Carol Hochu, CAE Joan Lee, CAE Serge Micheli, CAE, CEM In accordance with the Governance Policies of the CSAE Trillium Chapter, on June 8, 2016, a call for nominations to the Board of Directors of the Trillium Chapter was sent to the membership. Reminders were sent to the membership weekly until the deadline of July 8, 2016. The Nominating Committee received a number of submissions from both association executives and business members. The Nominating Committee carefully considered the requirements of the Chapter Board and reviewed each submission. The proposed slate was then circulated to the membership on August 8 th asking for additional nominations including those for Officer positions with a deadline date of August 22 nd. There were no additional nominations received. In light of no additional nominations I am pleased to present your new Trillium Chapter Executive for 2016-17 as elected by acclamation. The following Directors have been elected for a two-year term. Valerie Browne, CAE, Oksana Buhel, CAE, Marc Cousineau,
Cindy Gonsalves, Don Leddy, CEM, Diane Lee, CAE, Heather Tyrrell, CAE, Constance Wrigley-Thomas, CAE, The following Directors are completing the second year of their two-year term: Elizabeth Fisk, CAE, Sandra De Medeiros, CAE Randi Glass, CAE, CMP, Cheryl Gateman, And by virtue of his position as Immediate Past President: Steve Carroll, CAE And by virtue of her position as Executive Director: Tracy Blyth, CAE In accordance with the Trillium Chapter Governance Policies, the President-Elect of the Chapter Board by virtue of his/her position automatically assumes the role and responsibility of the President in the following year, and there are no requirements for an election unless circumstances prevent the President-Elect from taking the position of President. Accordingly, Valerie Browne, CAE, becomes the 2016-17 President immediately following the 2016 AGM. For the 2016-17 year, the Officers of the Trillium Chapter will be comprised of the following individuals: Valerie Browne, CAE, President Constance Wrigley-Thomas, CAE, President-Elect Oksana Buhel, CAE, Secretary Elizabeth Fisk, CAE, Treasurer Stephen Carroll CAE, Past-President Tracy Blyth, CAE, Executive Director 6. CSAE National Report Michael Anderson, CAE, President and CEO of CSAE addressed the audience and updated them briefly on the work of the national office. Mr. Anderson thanked the CSAE Trillium Chapter Executive and staff for their leadership over the past year and expressed his appreciation for the efforts of the Trillium Chapter members, volunteers, sponsors and staff. Mr. Anderson also encouraged everyone to attend the CSAE conference in Toronto later this month. 7. Member Questions
There was a concern raised by a member that we not lose the excellent work of the Trillium Chapter in the development of the new CSAE business model. Membership engagement is important and the Trillium Chapter is doing an excellent job of that. The member expressed concern that particular attention be paid to this while developing the new model. 8. Termination There being no further business, it was M/S/C to terminate the meeting at 5:15 pm. CSAE Trillium Chapter, AGM 2016 Minutes