MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE DIRECTORS OF
THE FRASER VALLEY ESTATE PLANNING COUNCIL
JUNE 17, 2008 @ 8:45 AM
AT MANTHORPE LAW OFFICES
Present: Rosalyn Manthorpe, Charlene Taylor, Kam Lidder, Anne George, Karl Maier, Nick Cheng, Carey Vandenberg and John Blackmer
The meeting began with a quick introductions of all attendees and then the agenda was confirmed with the additional topics of website and membership to be discussed at appropriate times during meeting.
Minutes of the meeting on May 13, 2008 were changed under Membership Report to reflect that there are 56 not 62 members and then the minutes were approved with is change.
The President welcomed everyone and reviewed the duties of the Board members as follows:
- President: represents the organization, runs meetings and sets and circulates agendas;
- Vice President: arranges for gifts for speakers and door prizes, steps in for President when absent;
- Public Affairs: new role (used to be part of Program), promotes organization (beyond advertising) by encouraging new members at a grassroots level;
- Program: arranges for speakers/dates plus membership highlights, meets and greets the speakers;
- Membership: oversees nametags, continuing education credits and membership applications;
- Secretary: takes and distributes minutes of Board meetings;
- Treasurer: collects dues, makes deposits and pays bills.
The President reminded everyone that the meetings of the Board take place on Tuesday the week before the council meetings. She will be away when the next meeting takes place in September but offered her board room as the venue for that meeting just the same.
The Vice President had nothing to report other than he will chair the next meeting of the Board in September.
The Treasurer distributed the year end financial report to the Board and commented that the organization made money last year. She pointed out, however, that since the date of the report, an invoice from Eaglequest had been paid and some deposits had been made so the current total cash is different. She also mentioned that the signatories on the bank accounts are the President, the Past President (Karl Maier) and the Treasurer.
Next, there was significant discussion around the choice of venue and menu for the council meetings. Various topics such as the room assigned to the meeting, the quality of service provided, the cost of the bar ticket and the audio-visual equipment and the choice of menu with alternative options (e.g. vegetarian) were covered. There was also a discussion around the possibility of indicating meal preferences when the member RSVP’s to the meeting and Charlene Taylor will discuss the RSVP procedures with Laurie Daschuk.
It was acknowledged that the choice of venue and menu had an impact on our annual membership fee. Last year, the fees were $229 but reduced to $199 if paid before a certain time. This year, it was agreed that the fees will have to increase to $250 but reduced to $225 if paid early.
The Secretary indicated that he would prepare an updated contact information sheet for all of the Directors.
Assigned seating was not well received by the members so it was agreed that we would only use in joint meetings with other organizations. It was also agreed that at each meeting, the President would introduce any new members since the last meeting plus ask members at each table to introduce their guests. Only at the first meeting of the year, there will be a self introduction of every member attending that meeting.
There was a discussion around continuing education credits. It was agreed that the forms provided will be revised to say that the meeting provided ________ units/hours of credits.
It was decided that the new member referral incentive gift ($100 gift certificate at Pearl) would be mentioned in the membership renewal reminder. The reminder will also indicate the eligibility deadline for the gift.
A discussion also took place around the topic of nametags. It was decided that in the RSVP notice, there would be a reminder to everyone to bring their own nametags for the meeting. If someone forgets to bring their nametag, we will have blank nametags for people to fill out and stick on their jackets.
There was a discussion around the issue of where someone wants to become a member of the council but does not have a professional designation. It was decided that there should be two options to qualify for membership: a professional designation or reference by two existing members of the council and review/approval by the Board.
There was also a discussion around the possibility of revising the website to provide for an icon which would take the viewer directly to a membership application form.
A list of the programs scheduled for the upcoming year’s council meetings will be sent to the Board members.
The Abbotsford Estate Planning Council has asked to reserve a table at our November meeting.
The various new business topics were covered in the discussions above.
The next meeting will take place at 8:30am on September 9, 2008 at the offices of Manthorpe Law Offices, #102, 15399 102A Avenue, Surrey, BC V3S 8V7.
The meeting adjourned at 10:15am.