Each year the Board of Directors holds an AGM, usually in July. We move the location around BC, so that as many of our donors as possible have the opportunity to attend.
The 2018 meeting was held in Victoria, BC.
H.E.L.P. Honduras AGM – JULY 29, 2018
MINUTES
Four Mile Restaurant, 199 Island Highway, Victoria (lunch at noon, AGM starting at 1:00)
PRESENT: Mike Balahura, Brenda Balahura, Heather More, Richard Kasperski, Chris Dysart, Maureen Duncan, Bill Feyrer, Alan Marcus, Chris Chart, Brian Mather, Keith Phillips, Ann Moskow, Kathleen Nelson
REGRETS: Elaine Beaulac, Sharon Docksteader, Elaine Ross
AGENDA
Meeting called to order at 1:04pm with 9 members present and 4 guests. ( A quorum is 5 members present in person as per Bylaw 19, in part IV , Proceedings at General Meetings.
1) Introductions
2) Approval of Agenda
· M/S/C Dysart/Kasperski
As amended – President’s report ahead of Financial report
3) Minutes of 2017 AGM (emailed)
· M/S/C Dysart/Chart as distributed
4) Receipt of Financial Statement – Heather
· Handed out and presented by Heather
· Similar results as last year; USD exchange rate hurt us
· Transferred $$ each month as opposed to once a year
· Money sent late this year
· Financially solvent; happy to see US clubs back on board
· Lost quite a few senior students so were able to add ~50 new primary students
· Sponsor ~450 students – Heather will hand out a breakdown when numbers are received from Lurvin
· Still encourage sponsors to continue with “their child” as they progress up through the grades
· Mark Isfeld Interact Club makes it their goal to sponsor senior students
· Some people give extra money to help with costs of AYO- we let them decide what to do with the money
5) President’s report – Mike
· M/S/C More/Feyrer to accept the report as presented
· Successful year
· Did 10 presentations – continuing with the theme that we are providing children of the poor an alternative and opportunity to improve their life chances. Highlighting the success of the program
· SLIDES – brief example of presentations given to clubs
· Completed the Societies Transition
· Worked through transitioning from Elaine as Treasurer and holder of sponsor lists to Chris and Heather
· New program/software which has allowed me to communicate with sponsors through e-blasts
· Thanks Heather and Chris for working their way through this and guiding me so that I could communicate with sponsors
· Had booth at our District 5080 conference and also one at the International Convention – to meet goal of more sponsors/clubs involvement – we have a number of leads – got a brochure done and had some cards made – gave out a lot of cards and will follow-up on leads and cards that were given to us.
· Working with District 5080, Colville club and Nelson club to find way to increase US sponsors by finalizing a process which will allow us to provide tax receipts
· Q and A with AYO and beginning to get some interesting data on which to make future decisions. Many sponsors want to sponsor young children and the average age of our sponsored children has increased over last few years – with this projection continuing
· As kids finish and we add new ones the preference is to find younger students
· I asked AYO to take some video of students and moms talking about the importance of the scholarships and how it has helped. They have provided some and now I need to get these translated and figure out how to use these in a presentation.
6) Report on new program – Keela- for collecting sponsorship dollars and tracking sponsors – Chris and Heather
· Chris handles the donation side of Keela through online donations; automatically sends tax receipts; also takes monthly donations
· Cheques are accepted and Chris sends out tax receipts
· Heather takes the info from AYO (students) and matches them to sponsors; can communicate with sponsors; will try to keep same sponsors with same child if possible
· Program is a good investment as credit card fees are considerably less than Canada Helps; has the capacity to do marketing as well – looking for a person to do that part 2-3 times per year
· Has met the goal of keeping in better contact with our sponsors through e-blasts
· Keeping Canada Helps as we do have monthly donations as well as securities donations through them – only issue is the cost of credit cards
7) Report of January 2018 Monitoring Visit to Honduras – Mike/Heather/Victoria Harbourside Team
· Report will be attached to minutes
· Handed out – were unable to get to Tegucigalpa due to political unrest (Mike and Brenda); Heater did get in to visit Santa Barbera
· Bill and Chris had a list of questions related to sponsorship money ; how children are admitted to program; socioeconomic situation of the family and support of family for the program; when are children taken out of the program due to parents picking up tuition for their children; monitoring and tracking students over time; national statistics data is now available but need to add to this to show success of program compared to national average
· Video from AYO with Moms and children talking about the program
· Market the numbers of clubs in each district involved in the program
8) Report from Harbourside Team on Global Grant #7 for Women and Youth – Maureen/Chris/Bill
· Maureen reported from AYO the report she received because of the Global Grant that Harbourside monitors
· AYO celebrated 28 years spent working with children
· Grant funding finishes December 2018; reporting continues until June 2019
· In order to continue we need to prove sustainability
9) Global Grant #8 – Bill
· Report will be attached to the minutes
· Report handed out – submitted for $105000; awaiting approval; adjunct to HELP Honduras
· Economic argument for sustainability is that the grants have cost $750000 and the Moms have now been projected to make $2000000 in the same time that the grants have been happening – increasing their earning power through training
· Extended the program to other communities
· Grade 9s – difference between academic and vocational training; Grades 11-12 – job training issues; Graduates – getting jobs/continuing education
· Make it clear to clubs what HELP Honduras does and what Global grants do and how they link
10) Update on Kelowna Rotary’s Early Intervention/Stimulation Program GG – emailed from Mandy Hicks
· With respect to the Early Childhood Stimulation and Mothers Training Global Grant, we are happy to report that the program is running for the 2018 calendar year. We have 150 mothers and 150 children in the program. 15 mothers are receiving additional training as Mother Leaders. This program is very similar to the previous two global grant programs that we have successfully completed. Unfortunately, Rotary International would not approve the two trial programs that we wanted to run as part of our initial Global Grant application: reading comprehension for grades 1 to 3 and anti-violence/anti-bullying for children in grades 4 to 6. Rotary International insisted that we cannot bundle programs together in one Global Grant. Each program must have its own individual Global Grant with a minimum of $30,000 US$ budget. We didn’t have the funds to be able to do that!!!!
· Are they suitable for District grants? Maybe not due to the scope of district grants;
11) Presentation of Mark Isfeld Interact Club award winning video – Brian Mather
· Video that received $1000 award from RI was shown
· Interact club makes Christmas cards and wants to find a way to hand out charitable donations for these – legalities around this need to be addressed
· Interact club took $6200USD to Honduras last year
· Are there other Interact clubs who want to assist?
12) ` Election of Officers – Bill Feyrer
Positions requiring election – 2 year terms
· President: Mike Balahura –elected by acclamation
· Treasurer: Heather More—elected by acclamation
· Directors: Chris Dysart—elected by acclamation
: Maureen Duncan—elected by acclamation
Positions requiring election in 2019 (incumbents) – Vice-President (Gwen Telling), Secretary (Brenda Balahura), Membership Chair (Elaine Beaulac), Directors (Sharon Docksteader, Elaine Ross, Chris Chart, Bill Feyer)
13) Goals and Objectives for 2018-19
· update website – make it consistent; Heather has the information and she will work on it and then make a call for content; add a 2-3 minute video clip; add US tax receipt info to website
· need to develop a generic presentation that can be used by others to promote H.E.L.P. Honduras including video clips from AYO ;
· continue push to increase total number of sponsorships and dollars
· work with District 5080 and Colville Rotary Club (PDG Michelle Lee) for purpose of getting tax receipt for US sponsors; Nelson Rotary (PDG Norm McCarvell) will be the club to sign with the district for this to happen as they have a committee member on HELP Honduras
· establish Santa Barbera program monitoring group- formalizing an existing process; 3 members of the committee go each year so those 3 people will be “in charge” of monitoring and reporting on this program (Heather More, Gwen Telling, Jean Edge-Partington); NEEDS TO BE APPROVED BY BOARD
· monitoring trip for Jan/Feb 2019 – dates to be announced when school dates are sent from Don Kaminsky
14) Sponsorship rates
· currently C$180/primary, C$300/secondary Tegucigalpa, C$150/Secondary Tegucigalpa half year funding, C$250 Secondary Santa Barbera, C$350 Vocational/University
· US sponsorships – US$ 135 primary, US$225 Secondary, US$300 University
· currently covering but University/vocational rates may be going up so may need to be re-assessed; College is short $10 at this time
· would like a breakdown on exact costs of everything ie: uniforms/books etc to give to sponsors; be careful with this so people don’t start micro-managing what the costs are
· M/S/C More/Chart to hold sponsorship the same
15) Membership fees for H.E.L.P. Society
· currently $25 ($24 tax deductible); $1 for administration fees
· M/S/C Dysart/Chart to keep membership dues the same
16) New Business
· Vitamins to be carried to Honduras by those not carrying a physicians’ pack (prescription meds)
· Rotating the AGM between Kelowna, Castlegar and Victoria – Castlegar next year
· Options to get to Honduras other than United via the States – Air Mexico, Avianca
Motion to Adjourn at 2:57pm : Duncan
2018 BC Society Annual Report filed by Brenda Balahura on August 7, 2018 at a cost of $40.