FrançaisAnnual General Meeting minutes July 15 2011
Municipal Hall – Lac des Seize Iles
The sixth annual general meeting of Friends/Amis was called to order at 7:15 P.M. Chris Campbell, president, introduced the members of the Board including our new members, Dave Estall , Louise Lorange and Michael Hyde. He thanked two founding members, Claude Lorange and Meghan Masterson, who are rotating off the Board.
There were over 60 members in attendance. Kathie Hyde approved the adoption of the minutes of the 2010 annual general meeting and Brent Theile seconded the motion. Carried.
Committee Reports
Membership :
2010
- Year ended with 91 memberships representing 166 members
2011
- As of July 15, 2011 we have 64 memberships thanks in part to our offer of a 3 year membership plan last year. Approximately a third of our members took advantage of the three year plan.
- We mailed the Spring Newsletter to our members including a return envelope with a membership form to encourage everyone to drop their check in the mail. This was before we were aware of the postal strike in Canada. Many have reported receiving the newsletter and now we are receiving responses in the envelope, most hand delivered.
As of August 31, we have 100 memberships.
- Our membership form was once again placed in the club packet along with a meeting announcement. We chose not to include our Spring Newsletter as we had already mailed it out to all our members. Membership forms are also posted on the Club bulletin board.
- The importance of the influence of large membership numbers cannot be underestimated when we represent our members on issues of concern throughout the year!
Financial
Annual Financial Report June 30 2011
Balance June 30 2010
- $12042.52
Revenues:
- Members $3390.00
- Donations $865.00
- Sale Calendars $2406.05
Total revenues:
- $6661.05
Expenses:
- Bank Charges $52.45
- Administration $165.60
- Professional Services – Biofilia $2180.98
- Legal services/ Incorporation $319.05
- Translation $1488.63
- Membership
- Eau Secours $25.00
- CRE Laurentides $22.58
- Web Site Development $600.00
- Youth Project $100.00
Total Expenses:
- $4957.09
Balance June 30 2011
- $13746.28
Notes:
Commitments:
- Biofilia $5088.96
- Miscellaneous $500.00 (est)
Pieter Folmer, Treasurer
Bill Clelland moved and Penny Love seconded that the financial report be approved. Motion carried.
Environment :
Lucie Robillard Barbeau
Corina Lupu has been working with Biofilia on the lake study for two years. They are now studying the herbaceous areas of the lake which follows the study of the littoral zone and water quality.
In the Fall, we became aware of grant money available for municipalities for environmental studies. The council became involved and tenders were sent out to various companies for bids and the successful bidder is Biofilia who will continue the study they already started.
They will study our watershed:
- Biological aspects
- Types of vegetation and animals
- Areas that need to be protected
The study should be completed by 2012 and will be used to develop a new Urban Plan for the municipality.
Web Site:
Last autumn, after several years of time spent discussing the potential for a website for the association, a concept of the site was drawn up and reviewed by the executive and board. I wish to thank both Alison Warner-Timusk and Marty Timusk for their invaluable advice in respect to their own experience with the development and maintenance of the Sixteen Island Lake Fishing Club website.
During the winter months in early 2011 I engaged the talents of Clea Mittag, a web designer, programmer and fellow laker, who has donated her time towards this initiative and to act as our official Webmaster. Consequently, we commenced with the first stages in the development of a new website to be launched later this year. The website, being completely bilingual, will be home to urgent news bulletins requiring the attention of the membership; current updates on matters that are deemed ‘Of Concern’; minutes of past Annual General Meetings; interesting and informative articles; and many links to organizations and services of local interest.
The plan is to launch the site in a simple format so that it may be easily managed by both Clea and myself, and to serve the membership with the information they require. As time permits we do plan to gradually enhance the site in a phase by phase process until all bases are covered. For now, we are presently developing the written documentation that will be the foundation for the site. Once the material is completed and approved it will be posted to the site, leaving the site ready to be launched; an event that your executive will notify you by email with all the particulars.
Lastly, I wish to thank Clea, Ken Calder and Michael Hyde for all their hard work and wonderful ideas for the new Friends/Amis web site.
Geoff Cresswell
Calendars:
Penny Love reported that the calendars are in and available at the meeting. Two hundred have been delivered with another fifty on the way. We are making the calendars available to our members first.
They will be available at Club functions as well as at the Love cottage. Remaining calendars will be sold at the Arts day in the village on August 6. (As of Aug. 31, we still have a few calendars for sale which we hope to place in La Station)
Thank you to everyone who participated in this calendar with photos and especially to Tim Boswell for pulling it all together for us once again.
Tim is running low on photos for next year and would appreciate entries from all the lake photographers. Just email your photos to him at: t.boswell@boomworks.ca
Nominating Committee:
- Two founding members will be leaving the board after serving six years.
Meghan Masterson and Claude Lorange
- Thanks to you both for your valuable input over the years. You’ve helped to build Friends/Amis into a valuable community association.
- Also after six years as treasurer Pieter Folmer will be step down as treasurer effective January 2012 but will remain on the board as a member. I will assume the treasurer’s position when Pieter vacates it
- Effective tonight we have two new members joining the board
Louise Lorange will be taking the family board seat – most of you will know Louise as an active member of our community.
Dave Estall will also be joining. Dave is a long time resident of Lac des Seize Iles. I have known Dave since our pre teen years growing up together on the lake.
- Michael Hyde is also a new board member since this past spring and has been active on amongst other things working on our developing website.
- Welcome to you all and thanks for stepping forward to work for a better community.
Bill Clelland
Municipal :
Chris Campbell reported that this a very active time municipally.
Changes were made at the South End with little planning despite a request from F/A
members who are engineers to look over the design. The project is significantly overspent.
Due to the large amount of money proposed to repair or replace the loading dock, Quebec law required that the citizens vote on whether to hold a referendum or not. The citizens voted to require a referendum after which the mayor and council decided not to proceed with the loan and deferred the project until 2013.
A public hearing was held on the North end parking area. Several recommendations were submitted with no response from the municipality. Also no response on a request to view the plans for the pavilion, toilets etc.
North wharf construction has been pushed back to 2013.
At the request of the mayor, Victor Cossette and Chris Campbell, after completing extensive research, submitted three possible scenarios for the North wharf area:
- Repair; redo as is
- Tear it out and replace similar to the South end
- Modify design change piles etc
Submitted to the council—no response
George Calder and Richard Lessard reported that money has been set aside for the wharf project by the council but we need to be vigilant to insure that it is still there when the project comes up.
Thanks to everyone who has helped on these projects. The floating wharves at the south end cost a fraction of the original plan.
The helicopter issue is in court mostly because of the oversized dock not approved by the CCU.
Cell Tower:
F/A has played a major role in communicating with the public. Richard Lessard spoke on the amazing response to a blog set up by young lakers requesting signatures on a petition against building the cell tower. Over 500 signatures of which 79% were from residents and their families. The petition was presented to the council but was rejected as irrelevant by the mayor.
- January and February: F/A corresponded with Videotron, Industrie Canada, MRC, Municipality and residents. We received response from everyone except the municipality.
- March: Mayor called a special meeting to change the zoning on the mountain.
Ted Claxton, an attorney from Lac Wonish, became involved and was present to give an overview to our members.
Mr Claxton stated that the tower is under federal and provincial jurisdiction
It will be an 89 m tower on top of a 120m mountain right in the village. He is orchestrating responses from all the landowners in the tower vicinity.
Videotron could negotiate with the other two towers in our vicinity.
- Mr. Claxton’s position – The municipality has done things contrary to their bylaws.
He has filed a complaint with Quebec Municipal Affairs and they have 90 days to respond. He has also filed a motion in Superior Court against the Municipality to be heard July 28.
- Mr. Claxton stated that the Municipality could not change zoning of the mountain from residential to commercial without a referendum. The council, instead, voted to amend the present zoning rather than change it, thus, once again, avoiding a consultation with the citizens. The amendment reads that a tower exactly the size of videotron’s proposed tower be allowed on that specific piece of residential property.
He stated that the cell tower needed to be a public issue. That Industrie Canada could succumb to pressure from residents. Also publicize where possible.
We need to be sensitive to the villagers need for high speed internet and to present them with alternatives to the tower.
We have published articles in 2 local French and 1 English newspaper.
Phillipe Ventura stated that he doesn’t like the confrontation and Chris Campbell responded that confrontation by the council began as soon as the last election was over. We are very concerned and have never seen a situation like our present one in this municipality. The villagers have also expressed concern about the friction.
- Richard Lessard stated that the problem was largely created by the manner of approval of the cell tower by the council:
- No consultation
- Too quick
- No one included
- Process was wrong and created bad feelings
- Friends/Amis feels that we have a lot of work to do to restore relationships between all the residents. We need to sit down and talk with each other.
Other Business:
The activities of the municipality have become a real challenge for the Association and, as such, have become a distraction from our original concept of a lake association.
Everyone was urged to attend the Municipal Council meeting on Saturday, July 16 at the clubhouse on Green Island.
Adjournment:
As there was no further business, the meeting was adjourned: moved by Geoff Cresswell and seconded by Elise Latour.
Respectfully submitted,
Mary T Campbell
Secretary
