Saturday, May 7, 2016
Ottawa Public Library, 120 Metcalfe Street, Ottawa ON
Guest Speaker: Stephen Pope, OAA, FRAIC, Member of the Ontario Planning Act Working Group spoke on The Current State of Land Use Planning in Ontario.
President’s Report
Every report of this kind has to begin with a big thank you to all those who gave their time – all of it volunteer – to this group over the past year. First, I want to thank Bill Phillips, our past President and webmaster for all his work on our web site and his active participation on all our executive meetings keeping us on track during our discussions and reminding us of FUN’s history and past policy positions it had endorsed. David Josephy, our secretary for the past three years, has always been a voice of optimism and encouragement about the future of FUN and is always prompt with his minutes – usually having draft minutes circulated within hours after our meetings. Geoff Kettel has been the policy spokesperson for our group, representing us on a provincial advisory group on Bill 73 since last spring, keeping us up to date on planning developments across the province, and drafting several of our policy documents. Don Stewart, our Treasurer, has been happy to carry on with that necessary but unglamorous task for the past three years, and has been another voice of hope for the future of this organization.
It must be said that the past several years have been difficult ones for FUN. For two years in a row there has been no membership secretary and that has made it difficult to maintain the membership base we had since the position became vacant. Consequently, we’ve been unable to do any outreach work or give groups in other cities useful advice on how to network more effectively.
On the other hand, as a 15-year-old organization with well thought policy documents on provincial issues, FUN has been able to provide thoughtful input on issues under review by our provincial government. Since last May we have made representations to the provincial and federal governments on issues such as Bill 73, opposing the placement of the Victims of Communism memorial beside the Supreme Court building, making a submission to the Ontario Municipal Election Act review in July 2015, and opposing the now shelved construction of the GTA West highway extension.
The next year will be crucial to the survival of this organization. If we cannot win back some of our former members by this time next year, the survival of this body will be seriously in doubt. Being stretched by other volunteer commitments, I have let down FUN in the past year, and this explains many of our current problems. To rectify this, I’ve decided to resign from another volunteer organization and devote that time and energy to this one. All of us who remain on the executive believe that FUN has an impressive legacy and can still give policy and organizational guidance to other neighbourhood associations across the province in the years to come – and we intend to show this by our example in the next 12 months.
Archie Campbell, President
Financial Report for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2015
Assets as of December 31, 2015: 3,307.82
Election of Officers and Executive Committee for 2016/2017:
President: Archie Campbell, Dalhousie Community Association (Ottawa)
Treasurer: Don Stewart, Federation of Citizens Associations of Ottawa-Carleton
Secretary: David Josephy, Old University Neighbourhood R. A. (Guelph)
Past President: William Phillips, South Rosedale Residents Association
Members at Large:
Geoff Kettel, Federation of North Toronto Residents Associations
Clairene Aguila, Greenspace Alliance
Jessica Smith, Greenspace Alliance
Establishment of Membership Dues:
Ratification of the $25 annual Membership Fee for voting member associations whose representatives will eligible to be elected to the Executive Committee.
Auditor for 2016: Dave Metzak CPA.