FSNA
Ottawa Valley Branch

Board of Directors’ Meeting
April 22, 2009 

McMartin House, Perth 

1.      Call to Order             President Jim Piché called the meeting to order at 1:39 p.m. 

2.  Recording of Members Present

President – Jim Piché; Vice-President – Arthur Etkin; Treasurer - Doug Schoular; PSHCP – Ed Rockburne; Director-at-Large – Bill Irwin; Director-at-Large – Chuck Parent; Marketing and Recruitment - Larry Gray; Branch Report Editor – Judy Buehler; Webmaster – Steve Fahie;  

Regrets:  Lynda Smith – Secretary; Len Johnston – Past President; Larry Palmer – Membership.  

3a)  Approval of Agenda – Moved by Ed Rockburne; seconded by Doug Schoular.  Carried.  

3b)  Approval of Minutes of Nov. 17, 2008 – Motion to approve with corrections  – Larry Gray; seconded by Ed Rockburne; Carried. Changes are as follows:  Heading should read ‘Zion Memorial Church’.  30 Oct. Regional Meeting Update should read:  ’30 Oct. Regional Meeting Update +$470. outstanding charge:  $470.00 was our Branch charge for the National AGM expenses and National By Laws state it must be paid.’   

4.  Business Arising from the Minutes

i)                    Membership:  2009 Dues – 30 memberships are not paid yet. 
ii)                  Status of letter to determine interest of a Branch meeting in Arnprior – this item will be deferred until we have done more research. 
iii)                Status of ‘New Members’ report for Newsletter – this item will be deferred until Larry Palmer, Membership Chair, returns. 
iv)                2008 AGM Minutes – Draft minutes that have been amended and approved by the Branch Board of Directors.  They will be presented at the 2009 AGM.   

5.Reports:

Treasurer:  For DDS monies owing to the branch, National Office has stated, in a notice to the Treasurer in April 09, that until non-DDS monies are sent to National, branches will not receive their portion of DDS dues. 

Financial Report – Doug circulated copies to Board members.  Bank records from Bank of Montreal, Smiths Falls, are missing from Jan. 1, 2007 to May 15, 2007.  As Doug was not a signing officer at the time, Jim will go to the bank and get a copy of these statements.  Doug will then redo our Financial Statement for that time period.   

According to Doug’s records of the period May 15/07 to Dec. 31/07, we should pay National $2,661.40.  Our records do not coincide with Nationals – we show that we owe more than National shows we do. According to Doug`s Report it showed that we owe $11,680.92. Discussion was held and a motion was put forward to pay the amount noted by Doug.   Moved by Doug; seconded by Ed.  Carried, with Larry Gray and Chuck Parent abstaining.  Doug will send a supporting letter indicating the discrepancies.  He will ask National to send us a letter showing their rationale.  

Doug asked Jim to contact BOM for a set of statements and ING Direct for statements from Sept. 2008 to the current period, and from now on to send Statements to Doug’s attention.   

Jim will send a letter indicating new signing officers.   

Branch Report – There will be a small report – deadline May 8– featuring our revised website.   

Recruitment – Larry reported on meetings he has attended regarding the recruitment initiatives.  13,300 new members have been recruited, at the National Level.   

PSHCP – Ed reported a call from a member who has Medoc coverage and suffered heart palpitations while in the U.S.  Although he was seen by an American doctor, Medoc says he must return to Canada to be seen by a Canadian doctor, and if he is found to not have a condition, he could return to the US and be covered after ninety days.  We are not sure if he is still covered by Medoc, although he is still covered by PSHCP, for the each 40 days he is out of country.   

Website – Steve gave a very professional and comprehensive presentation on our revised website.  He recommends that we get our own web address, rather than using our current one of www.brockville.com/fsna_ON53.  For $32 annually, plus a small set-up fee, our current host, Ripnet, can get us our own domain name.  Steve suggested a few and the one chosen is:  www.fsnaottawavalley.ca. Moved by Ed; seconded by Chuck. Carried.   

President -  Jim mentioned that in PSHCP Bulletin #22, which is coming soon, there is an article re the contract that is being negotiated with our health care providers.  We will then probably get a PSHCP card, which will be used for prescriptions.  The pharmacy will collect monies directly from PSCHP.   

6.         Intermission 

7.         Correspondence – None 

8.         Old Business

i)          OVB AGM 2009 venue – We will hold the AGM in Perth at the Civitan this year – tentative date – Wednesday, Sept. 16.  We will raise the issue of having the AGM in April or May, in accordance with National by-laws. At the AGM 2007 and 2008 Financial Statements will be presented and voted on at this meeting.   

9.         New Business –

i)          Website Update – covered under Webmaster report

ii)         Future Meeting Dates – May 21(Thursday) – Regional Meeting – Ottawa; May 25 (Monday) – OV Branch Meeting – Zion Memorial Church, Carleton Place; June 15 (Monday) – OV Branch Meeting – Perth; June 21, 22, 23 – National Congress, Ottawa.  A motion was presented that OV Branch will cover the cost of the two observers to go to the National Congress in June.  Moved by Larry Gray; seconded by Arthur.  Carried.   Doug and Chuck will attend this meeting as observers. 

iii)        Branch Roles and Committee Mandates – Jim distributed copies of the draft roles and mandates to all Board members who will read and be prepared to discuss at our May meeting.  We should think about which committees we would like to head and be a member of. 

iv)        FSNA National President – Our National President has resigned and The National BOD is meeting to determine whether or not the First Vice is willing to step up to the Presidents Position until the present term expires. An Executive Search Committee has been struck to find a new Executive Director to replace Francis Bowkett who is retiring at the end of his contract ( expires end of June 09).  Jim distributed copies of a note from Acting National President outlining the issue. 

v)         HST Harmonization – Jim distributed an information sheet on how HST will affect seniors. 

vi)        Branch Checklist – Jim distributed a survey on the Top 3 Branch Roles.  Jim will complete the survey.  A hard copy of the survey will be kept in the Secretary’s Minute Book.  

Adjournment:  3:50 p.m.       

OV BOD Approved:  May 25th. 2009