2016 planning meeting minutes

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Milan

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Jan 13, 2016, 5:47:04 PM1/13/16

to Toronto 350.org

=== 2016-01-12 Toronto350.org Decision-making Meeting minutes ===

Chair: Brian
Minutes: Milan
Present: Katie, Tresanne, Jesse, Robert, Jennifer, Dan, Snow Cubb, Laura

Agenda:
1. Introductions
2. Land recognition
3. Decision-making (major proposal on conflict resolution, pipeline campaign lead election)
4. Other items
5. Upcoming events
6. Volunteer opportunities

== 1. Introductions ==

Climate news
* BC rejected the Kinder Morgan proposal
* Cam Fenton "groundhog day" piece
* Good Jobs for All Coalition - Green print for Toronto, promote green jobs (bringing equity and climate solutions together)
* Toronto350 doing more indigenous solidarity - trip to Ottawa before April
* Chippewa of the Thames are taking a case against Enbridge Line 9 to the Supreme Court
* Community Response in the works to the report of the U of T fossil fuel divestment committee
* United Church just decided to divest as a denomination

== 2. Land recognition ==

We acknowledge that we are all treaty people on colonized land which is the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, and Mi'kmaq nations and decolonization is part of everything.

== 3. Decision-making ==

The member survey has apparently become so long that it is hard to complete
* Innovation Committee should consider amending the portion of the constitution which currently provides that anyone who has ever filled out the membership survey remains a member indefinitely

Purpose of decision-making meetings: principally to deal with major proposals

= Major proposal: regarding paying ~$500 to St. Stephen's =

To hold a conflict resolution process with a group of core members that had a conflict this past August/September regarding paying a small salary to the president of the group (Anna)
* This is considered a major proposal because of the amount of money
* Process has already begun
* Proposal lists some potential alternative uses for funds - but there is no reason we can't do both
* If someone has a proposal to do team/community building or hiring professional facilitators, we will consider that too
* Quite a few people involved in the conflict want to take part in the process

Some people present have not completed the membership survey
* Hence, we only have eight voting members now

Constitution
* "Quorum at Innovation Meetings is half (rounded up) of the quorum of Electoral Meetings, which is defined in the By-laws in Section 21.B (Quorum at Meetings)."
* But this is not an innovation meeting

By-laws
* "21. b. Unless a greater number of Delegate Members are required to be present by the Act, a quorum at Electoral Meetings is the lesser of ten (10) people or 20% (rounded up) of Delegate Members."
* We do intend to elect a pipelines lead

The constitution also says: "Major Proposals may only be brought forward for a vote at Innovation Meetings."
* This is wrong and should be removed

Does this need to be decided tonight?
* Otherwise, in a month

[We returned to this item at 8:26pm]

Any further discussion required?
* How many people are attending?
* There is still a strong interest - probably 8-10 choosing to participate

Would contribute to the group's internal conflict management capability and experience
* It's not a conflict management workshop, but people likely would pick up skills

What does the money go toward?
* Essentially an honorarium for the two facilitators
* One-on-one meetings, then a 2-3 hour group session
* 11-15 hours of labour

Are the people who think the money should be spent other ways parties to the conflict who don't want to participate in this, or people who were not involved in the conflict?
* This was discussed at an Innovation Committee meeting
* Probably a mix of both - pros and cons were discussed
* We can spend money on all of these purposes

Would it be open to people who weren't members at the time?
* It's for people who were affected by the conflict
* At least one person wasn't directly involved, but was nonetheless affected by the conflict
* There is no reason for people who were not at all involved to attend
* More people who were involved at the time may be brought in as the process goes on

People are of the view that the conflict still has a painful and divisive effect within the group
* May remain as an undercurrent unless efforts are made to deal with it

Will we have a spokesperson report back on the process?
* A very general report back is possible
* They have strong rules on confidentiality

In the past we have tried to do conflict resolution for free with people we know, and it hasn't really worked
* "This is after a long process of trying other things"

Rather than a full report back, we could have some general recommendations about avoiding future conflict
* "Lessons learned"
* St. Stephen's may help us develop this to report back to the group

Should this be added to the major proposal?

Motion: "To hold a conflict resolution process with a group of core members that had a conflict this past August and September regarding paying a small salary to the president of the group. With the assistance of the mediators, participants shall report back to the group on lessons learned."

Will the mediators be able to provide a resolution process if another conflict arises?
* This process is to deal with a very specific set of circumstances, and to get us through it in a positive way
* The suggestion about a report back is partly motivated by a desire to avoid future conflict, but it's not clear how specific our requirements should be for any report back
* If the report is agreed upon by the members who participate in the mediation, it seems likely that the report back will have relevance for avoiding future conflicts

The money for this proposal is for 11-15 hours of dealing with this conflict, not for developing a conflict management system going forward

Report-back not meant to deal with the details of this specific conflict, but more on strategies for avoiding conflict going forward
* Deciding whether or not to pay people or not in the future is not the purpose of this

Motion: "To commit approximately $500 to a conflict resolution process with a group of core members that had a conflict this past August and September regarding paying a small salary to the president of the group. With the assistance of the mediators, participants shall report back to the group on lessons learned."
* Moved by Brian
* Seconded by Tresanne
* 8 in favour
* None opposed
* 1 abstention
* Motion passes

= Vote: Pipelines Campaign Lead (Katie) =

[8:44pm]

Campaign leads take charge of campaigns, report back to the wider group, managing strategic plans and budgets for campaigns, talking with the rest of the executive, etc

Katie has already been acting in this capacity for about six months

Does anyone else want to run? No

Motion to elect Katie as Pipelines Campaign Lead
* Moved by Brian
* Milan seconds
* 8 in favour
* None opposed
* None abstaining
* Motion carries

== 4. Other items ==

= We need a quartermaster (Tresanne) =

Nobody is doing this now
* Brian has a lot of the stuff already, but isn't able to deliver it
* Quartermaster not expected to deliver things
* Brian will do it

= Stop paying Bullfrog (Tresanne) =

Jean said she would sponsor events for us. 350 Mothership also will give us money for certain projects (ie marches). We haven't benefited at all from paying it for the past year. (Tresanne)

We signed up because an employee of theirs was working with us, and we thought it would lead to funding

Total cost about $110 per year

We were late on payments for seven months, so we don't have a good relationship

Tried to get support for the Toronto version of COP21, but they were only willing to provide carbon offsets

May not be the most effective organization to donate to, but we may want to consider an alternative way to contribute to the renewable economy
* Solar shares, Zoo shares?
* Part of the motivation for donating was concern about the appearance of hypocrisy

Tresanne: "We're not as financially stable as we thought we were"
* Went over the figures with Ellery over the break
* We are not getting the donation from Jean

Motion: "We stop paying for Bullfrog Power"
* Moved by Tresanne
* Seconded by Jesse
* 7 in favour
* None opposed
* None abstaining
* Motion carries

Tresanne will talk with Ellery about actually doing this

= Support to frontline communities (Tresanne) =

Support frontlines by helping them fundraise when they put a call out for financial support instead of giving monthly. We would have to discuss at the time (I'm not proposing we do it every time there's a call out for financial support). Sometime last year we had voted on donating 10% of incoming donations to frontline communities. But I'm not sure we did this on a monthly basis as the treasurers either didn't know about it or we didn't discuss where to give it. This past summer we gave money to Unist'ot'en by matching donations of up to $500. People are more likely to give if their donation is going to be matched.

We did fundraising for the Toxic Tour, and raised about $1,000 for Grassy Narrows

Today, Amelia Rose contacted Katie - the Pipelines Campaign has been asked to help the Chippewa of the Thames fundraise $50,000 for their court case
* Line 9 groups are taking this on, and they want someone from Toronto350 to help
* This will be on the agenda of the next Pipeline Campaign meeting

We could choose new fundraising targets every 6 months or so
* People more likely to donate for a specific purpose
* We raised about $1,500 in two weeks for Unist'ot'en

Would it be preferable to donate 10% of donations monthly, or support individual funding requests when they come up?
* The Chippewa are challenging a pipeline that runs right through Toronto
* Total legal costs are expected to be $400,000
* They need the $50,000 as soon as possible

Several Line 9 groups may come together for a joint fundraising event

Existing policy is to donate 10% monthly, but we were meant to re-assess it after six months

Alternatively, we could look at what we get on average and use about 10% of that to match donations from others, or to set up a fundraising event

Whichever option is simplest to implement may be best

We could keep track of what 10% of donations has been, then use that sum whenever a big funding request comes up, in order to match donations
* This doesn't add up to very much money
* Purpose "is more of a signal to people who are looking to donate to us that indigenous solidarity is part of our agenda"
* The small size of these donations should be prominently noted
* We may want to encourage our donors to give directly to frontline communities

We can undertake additional fundraising, over and above donating any share of our revenues

We could choose to support the Chippewa of the Thames specifically
* We could include a link to their fundraising campaign on our website
* Some Toronto350 people can work with Line 9 groups on a fundraising event specifically for this

There seems to be general agreement that 10% is a good commitment

We have a donation page on our website for the Line 9 land defenders
* How many such pages can we usefully have at some point?
* When do we decide to give up on one campaign and move on to another?
* Do the land defenders have a specific timeline or fundraising goal?
* They are going back to court around January 24th

Donation page on site just shows how to donate to us

Should this be left to the pipelines campaign?
* "It seems really important to support this action"

"The 10% concept is not something we want to revisit"
* We want the pipelines campaign to look into some sort of supplementary fundraising to support the Supreme Court challenge
* We can keep track of 10% of each month, then use it to match donations when a fundraising request comes up
* Present policy is to actually give 10% each month
* Do we need a motion to change to earmarking it?

Motion: "We will earmark 10% of donations every month. When there is a fundraising request, we will use that pot of funding to provide support to frontline communities."
* Moved by Jesse

Should people need to vote on which campaigns we help fund?

Motion: "We will earmark 10% of donations every month. When there is a fundraising request, we will use that pot of funding to provide support to frontline communities. Before funds are provided, a proposal must be approved by a vote by the delegate membership."
* Seconded by Katie
* 9 in favour
* None opposed
* No abstentions
* Motion passes

Do we want to keep using Paypal for donations?
* May exclude some potential donors

= Report and request for reimbursement for organizing committee of COP21 Toronto event: Parade of Lights, Queen's Park. Nov. 29 (Brian) =

Brian and Katie were involved
* Worked together with other organizations including Avaaz, Greenpeace, and the Catholic education organization Peace and Development
* They spent about $450
* They have discussed splitting that money between us, Development and Peace, and Greenpeace - would be $150 each
* Brian has not heard back from Greenpeace, but he is optimistic
* Brian will provide a detailed list of expenses

No funds from Toronto350.org have already been approved for this
* It's generally better to seek funding beforehand
* We could double check the minutes
* We could have a motion saying that if funds have not already been provided, we will provide them now
* Brian will look through the minutes, with the assistance of Tresanne if necessary

Motion: "We accept the principle of sharing the expenses for the COP21 Toronto event. We will contribute up to $150."
* Moved by Brian
* Katie seconds
* 9 in favour
* None opposed
* None abstaining
* Motion passes

= New campaign ideas? (Tresanne) =

Labour solidarity
* Leap Manifesto, March for Jobs, Justice, and the Climate
* Easier: bring climate change up at existing anti-austerity events
* The Ontario government is holding pre-budget consultations
* Protests are planned - we could bring banners, placards, etc
* "Cut carbon, not jobs"
* Build more alliances, support green job initiatives
* Green Jobs for All Conference - increasing interest in outreach to environmental organizations
* Dan is willing to bottom-line this or coordinate others

Reading group, to go through the Truth and Reconciliation Committee report (Katie)
* Could be internal to the group, or in collaboration with a study group working on this and documents on political economy
* Katie will circulate it as a volunteer opportunity

= Policy simplification and consolidation (held over from the last decision-making agenda) =

Are the number of policies or their complexity causing problems? Are there policies we can simplify or do without? Can we replace any with general guidelines? Which policies do we really need?

Arguably the bigger problem is errors and inconsistencies in policies (membership definition in the constitution, major proposals can only be voted on at innovation meeting error)

What can we do about this? Have a committee for people who want to look into this, to make recommendations to the group

This could be listed as a volunteer opportunity in the email with the minutes

The executive can amend the constitution unilaterally, but ultimately only the board can alter the by-laws (they need to fix their own problematic election text)
* People can make recommendations

Is there a sexy name possible for the group working on fixing policy documents?
* "Policy Hot Tub"?

Are there any alternative approaches to this proposed?

= New Partner Groups Policy (Lila) =

Milan has circulated draft text for comment
* Brian has not seen the document yet

Perhaps something to talk about at the next Innovation Committee meeting
* They should bring a recommendation to the group

Purpose: to formalize what has already happened and solve corporate governance problems

= Fundraising =

Presently up to the President and the board
* There used to be a Fundraising Coordinator, but is not now active

Snow Cub is working on "concept appropriate fundraising ideas"
* Are there any other ideas for fundraising?
* He would like to take on the responsibility, and forward fundraising proposals to the group

So far, nobody has shown much interest
* Maybe Robin and Stu, on the board
* If anyone is interested, they can contact Tresanne
* People who are interested can be added to the email conversation

Could fundraising be part of the forthcoming visioning session?
* Having discussion in a specific time and place may be more effective than saying "anyone who wants to do this can do so"

Some of the new volunteers may be interested in helping

We could create a new executive position for fundraising

== 5. Upcoming events ==

Wednesday, January 13th at 5 pm PT/8 pm ET: Monthly group leaders’ call – Fundraising Skill-Sharing Session
* Maeve McBride (350VT) and Valerie Costa (350 Seattle and a fundraising consultant) have graciously offered to host this skill-sharing session. We’ll cover the cycle of fundraising (cultivating, thanking, asking, etc), where your $ is likely to come from, the psychology of giving (getting past our barriers to asking, why people want to give), and prospecting (identifying leads). This is a 101 type workshop, mainly for groups getting started with or in the initial phases of fundraising. We will focus mainly on fundraising from individuals. (Tresanne)
* Katie will be on this

Friday, January15 at 5-6:30pm at OISE 5th floor lounge: Divest Ontario Teachers Pension Plan
* Getting a start on our goals for 2015 (Amelia Rose)
* Should be finalized on Friday

Friday, January15 6:30-8:30pm at Katie's House - 187 Margueretta Ave: Pipelines Meeting - New people welcome!
1. 350 People's Injunction--Demanding pipeline freeze/NEB reform
2. Brainstorming potential targets
3. Designing banners/other materials
4. Planning street outreach/MP outreach (Katie)
* Should be finalizing their strategy for the next few months, and cool things coming up soon

Saturday January 16, 6PM at Tyndale University College 3377 Bayview Ave.
* A Climate for Change: Paris & Beyond with Climate Scientist Katherine Hayhoe (Katie)
* We will be seeking signatures for a new pipeline petition - freeze pipeline approvals until after a total reform of the NEB

Saturday, January 23rd at 1-5:30 pm at Friends House, 60 Lowther Follow up to Paris Event
* What does the agreement mean, and what happens next? How will be bring our carbon emissions down and how quickly does that need to happen? How can civil society best support the transition to 100% renewables?
* With Paul Beckwith, climate scientist; Joy Kennedy, Fast for the Climate; Alice Zhu; Ben Donato-Woodger; Jim Baxter from the City of Toronto; and Jose Etcheverry from York University. Sponsored by Climate Fast (Lyn, Katie)
* Event focused on the Christian community
* $5 or pay what you can

Tuesday, Feb 16 at 7:30-9:30 pm (doors open at 7:00): Hot Stuff Fundraiser at Supermarket, 268 Augusta. Tix: $10 advance; $15 at door. (Tresanne)
https://www.facebook.com/events/806916219413262/
* This is our fundraising event, so everybody should help promote it and attend
* If you want to help do outreach, Liz is helping us organize this
* Tali collected a VolOp sheet for this

== 6. Volunteer opportunities ==

Jan 16 at Tyndale University College (see below) Would be great to have people go with Pipelines petition (Katie)

Jan 23 at Friends House 1-5:30 pm. Follow up to Paris Event - would be great to have volunteers for tablers/petition outreach (Katie)

Before Feb 16. Fundraising event (need people to help promote it). Hot Stuff at Supermaket. See events below or: https://www.facebook.com/events/806916219413262/ (Tresanne)

Milan

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Jan 21, 2016, 5:08:46 PM1/21/16

to Toronto 350.org

2016-01-19 Toronto350.org working meeting minutes

Chair: Bryan
Minutes: Milan
Present: Snow Cubb, Tresanne, Amelia Rose, Ellery, Jennifer, Matt (first time), Dan, Robert, Katie, Anna

=== 1. Land recognition ===

We acknowledge that we are all treaty people on colonized land which is the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, and Mi'kmaq nations and decolonization is part of everything.

=== 2. Introductions ===

Climate news:
* For Our Grandchildren competition for high school students, trying to write about what a carbon neutral world will look like (Brian)
* Substantial Kinder Morgan protests in Burnaby
* 7 people arrested yesterday in Vancouver for being on a Kinder Morgan barge (further follow-on actions), now released
* Buying local as a silver lining to the reduced value of the Canadian dollar
* Five people arrested for blocking trains in the U.S. were able to refer to climate change in their trial (Delta 5 trial)
* $10+ billion being spent to refurbish four reactors at Darlington; Pickering to operate partially until 2024

=== 3. Items for consideration / Updates ===

== a. Brief Financial Update (Tresanne) ==

Finances are better than Tresanne's assessment last week, particularly if we can find a grant to keep paying a salary

Ellery strongly advises that we do more fundraising or increase our donor base
* For budgeting they had to make a lot of assumptions about the year ahead (doesn't consider all possible work which could be done)
* Having more funds available will let us do more for many projects

== b. Feb 13 Cross-provincial meeting on Line 9 (Katie) ==

All-day event in Montreal
* Ontario-Quebec strategy meeting on Line 9
* We have been invited to send people to participate
* Is anyone interested in going?
* Includes numerous non-350 groups
* Katie will probably go, Brian may also

== c. Website update (Katie, Tresanne, et al.) ==

There is a page on the website for providing feedback to improve how it functions
* https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wQmp4ssXZyUs-ZpfTzqY3E1khI6jYjHWLzBM4NeKI0g/edit

== d. Volunteer Hub (Katie, Tresanne et al.) ==

How to more effectively make use of the energy and talents of volunteers?

Streamline volunteer participation process

== e. Learning Meetings: ideas (all) ==

How many have there been so far?
* Just the first one on mental health, activism
* We also previously offered IT security and secure communication training
* Potential topic: the legality of being an activist and facing situations which may result in legal consequences
* Non-violent direct action training
* Different degrees of legal risk associated with different protest actions
* Collaborative leadership and knowledge translation - achieving evidence-based forms of decision-making
* Dealing with the media (serving as an effective spokesperson)

Bring in a collaborative workshop provider like Tools for Change
* Or have people who have attended their training share it with other group members

== f. Social Events Ideas (all) ==

416 Dating event upcoming

Pub crawl?
* Maybe when it's warmer

Last year's block parties
* Served a purpose: talking about pipelines outside two MP offices
* Drum band, brownie pipeline

Open mic night (music, live artwork, poetry slam)

Social events, learning meetings, and the website update are all being worked on by the Volunteer Hub and discussed on their mailing list

The members@ list only gets minutes and meeting announcements
* Is that boring? Does it fail to engage people?
* We have discussed this before
* Maybe worth sending a callout about possible social events to the whole list
* We do send event invitations to the members@ list

Members@: 185 people
active@: 35 people
volunteer@: 10 people

== g. Meeting with Caroline Bennett (Katie, Brian) ==

Involved in a cross-country tour on murdered and missing indigenous women
* Won't be available for several months after this, but we could meet with her assistant on Friday or another date and time
* He suggests we bring a written statements about why we wanted to meet, what we're looking for, a statement about the group, etc
* He will pass it on and get back to us about a potential meeting with her

Purpose is to ask her to present our petition in parliament
* Bennett is in town on Monday
* Katie has checked that the language is compatible with parliamentary language
* Minimum to get it read is 25
* We would ask her to present it once we had reached a certain level of signatures
* Dan and Laura collected signatures at an event the other day
* It is going on our website
* There are more actions in the next few days to get signatures
* The petition calls for all pipeline applications to be frozen until the NEB process is revamped
* One online option: petitions.parl.gc.ca (needs an MP sponsor)

Big Kinder Morgan protest on the west coast this Saturday
* The Canada350 group is quite active on this

=== 4. Volunteer opportunities ===

Sat. Jan 23 – tabling for Pipeline Petition at Friends’ House (see below)

Follower-upper

416 Dating Event promotion

Fundraising Team

=== 5. Breakout Groups ===

== a. Campaign Breakouts ==

What are breakouts?
* At a working meeting, we try to devote 30-40 minutes to let people discuss specific ideas in smaller groups
* For instance, there were breakouts early in the process of preparing for the People's Climate March in New York

Planning the visioning session (Tresanne)
* Tresanne, Amelia Rose, Katie, Anna, Milan discussing via email
* We will be having an in-person meeting to plan
* Likely to happen in a few weeks (specific date not set)
* There is also likely to be an in-person meeting about partner groups (Lila requested)
* Document and email thread are ongoing
* If you want help plan, email Tresanne or Anna

Pipelines Action – This Monday! (Katie)
* Primary goal: get a good photo or visual to share via social media
* Show solidarity with people protesting in Burnaby
* Launch a campaign which will probably be long
* Big B.C. event on Saturday
* Likely during the day, in a high-traffic area which would facilitate petition-signing
* Also get a photo outside the office
* Large novelty letter or note
* Try to talk to Carolyn Bennett at U of T
* Broad social media dispersal after
* Facebook event will be created

Climate Justice Planning (Tresanne)
* Deferred for this meeting

U of T Divestment Community Response
* No breakout, but if anyone is interested in helping as an author, proofreader, or otherwise contact Milan (mi...@toronto350.org)

== b. Other Breakout groups ==

Website
* Page for recommending changes: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wQmp4ssXZyUs-ZpfTzqY3E1khI6jYjHWLzBM4NeKI0g/edit
* Deferred for this meeting

=== 6. More Volops ===

350Canada is trying to get people to call Jim Carr this week, re: the Kinder Morgan hearings and lack of NEB reform

Tresanne spends a lot of time making sure meetings happen, making sure we have a chair, making sure minutes are circulated, etc
* It would be good to delegate this to a volunteer meeting manager
* Tasks, send reminder to chair, follow-up if minute taker doesn't circulate minutes within a few days, verify with Anna that space is booked
* Any volunteers?
* Have we ever designated someone specifically to work out what kind of meeting each will be?
* Who decides what the learning meetings will be?
* Has it fallen to Katie by default because she and Alex set it up
* There is now a Google Doc shared with the volunteer hub that lists the type of upcoming meetings
* Dan will try it for a few weeks (but is away next week)

Another task that takes a lot of Tresanne's time (keeping her from working on the visioning session and so forth) is following up with people on the urgent tasks in her Google Doc "list of things that need to get done"
* Backing up the website, etc
* Would involve getting in touch with people, and updating Tresanne once a week (or immediately if there is a problem)
* Isn't this a set of tasks for the Administrative Coordinator (AC) (we need to elect a new one)
* Would this be temporary? Until we have a new AC?
* Anna will do this

416 Dating Fundraiser
* Liz is helping to organize it, we only need to do promotion
* Needs a point person (has been Tresanne or Tali)
* We also need people to do outreach for this event (there is a Facebook page and a poster that Tali made)
* $10 early bird tickets by January 31st, $15 later
* Amelia Rose set up ticketing in NationBuilder
* Volunteers will get a free ticket for the event
* If you get five people to go and confirm it with Tresanne she will give you a free ticket

=== 7. Upcoming events ===

* January 23 at 1-5:30 pm at Friends House, 60 Lowther (Sat.) Follow up to Paris Event – as noted in last week’s minutes (Lyn, Katie)
* Feb 2, 2:00-5:00 pm (Tuesday), York U Students’ Centre – Anti-Oppression 101 [*]
* Feb 6, 1:00-4:00 pm (Saturday), OISE 242 Bloor St. W. – Alliances and Coalition Building [*]
* Feb 13 all day Saturday in Montreal: Cross-provincial meeting on Line 9 (Katie)
* Feb 16 at 7:30-9:30 pm (Tuesday): Hot Stuff Fundraiser at Supermarket, 268 Augusta. Tix: $10 advance; $15 at door. (Tresanne)
* Feb 24 3:00-6:00 (Wednesday) at OISE. How to Facilitate Great Meetings*
* Feb 29 (Monday) LEAP Day Events
* March 31, Deadline for submissions to Speak Up for the Planet! Proposals from high school students and groups aimed at preparing for and living in a carbon-free future.
http://forourgrandchildren.ca/event/high-school-students-take-note-climate-change-competition/

[*] - From Tools for Change

=== 8. Next meeting (Learning) ===

Nicki and Maya may be talking about solidarity

Katie may also do a meeting on campaign planning

Chair: Ellery
Minutes: Brian

Milan

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Feb 9, 2016, 10:45:46 PM2/9/16

to Toronto 350.org

=== 2016-02-09 Toronto350.org Decision-making meeting ===

Chair: Dan
Present: Milan
Present: Amanda, Tali, Ben, Lila, Tresanne, Katie, Dan, Amelia Rose, Anne, Dennis, Michael, Brad, Snowcubb

== 1. Introductions ==

== 2. Land recognition ==

We acknowledge that we are all treaty people on colonized land which is the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, and Mi'kmaq nations and decolonization is part of everything.

== 3. Items for consideration / Updates ==

= 3a Divest Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (OTPP) Campaign: (Amelia Rose) — 5 min =

Update: a lot has been happening
* There are a number of AGMs happening over the next two months and we are going to be at them
* If you want to get involved, we will be tabling or doing something related
* Catholic, public elementary, English secondary schools, French schools
* In April, we will be at the OTPP AGM
* If you are interested contact Amelia Rose

Corporate Knights in November said that OTPP had already divested its portfolio
* Another report said they are invested and lost money (Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives)
* As far as the campaign knows, the OTPP still has big investments in oil and gas

= 3b Grassy Narrows: (Amelia Rose) — 5 min =

Background: Grassy Narrows is a First Nations community north of Kenora which has been dealing with environmental problems on their land for 50 years
* In recent years they have started blockading logging trucks due to disagreements with the government about how much logging should happen and where
* They have been bringing people to Toronto to lobby the provincial government
* They need to fundraise to support this

Would we like to donate to them?
* We did two years ago when they last tried to raise funds

This year they are coming in May by walking from Grassy Narrows (a river walk)
* Objective: petition Kathleen Wynne to clean up mercury from their water
* Logging is still a big issue
* They also need help with childcare, lodging, and food

Should we donate? How much?
* Alternatives? Chippewa of the Thames, Unistoten?

Perhaps the Climate Justice Committee should consider this?

Should we put this off?

We should have an overall strategy for funding frontline communities
* Katie will work on this

= 3c Election of Administrative Coordinator =

Do people need to announce their candidacy in advance?
* No, we haven't required this in the past

No nominations

= 3d Election of Communications Coordinator =

No nominations

Hopefully someone will run soon

Tali is continuing with this role, but she wants to focus on her position on the board

= 3e Major Proposal: Major Proposal: Partner Groups Policy: (Lila) — 15 min =

Lila
* Circulated the draft text a week ago
* A few of us have been working on this
* She feels it's very important to get it formalized and adopted now, before the visioning session that Toronto350 is undertaking and the UofT350 retreat

Milan
* It's inappropriate to put this forward for approval in this premature way
* I wrote this draft text to start the discussion about how our relationship with independent campaigns should operate
* It wasn't meant to be used immediately as a policy
* Three of us had one meeting, where we decided that we had very different ideas about how this should work: https://www.sindark.com/350/2016-01-24PartnerGroupsMeeting.txt
* We agreed that we should definitely run this by our treasurer, accountant, and board
* My understanding is that the people proposing this don't want Toronto350 organizers to also be working on these supposedly shared campaigns and want to be able to change their objectives, strategies, and tactics unilaterally
* Tali and I have been looking into how other organizations manage this
* As a matter of due diligence, it would be good to finish this research before going forward
* I think it's a mistake to rush forward with a policy which has received so little scrutiny, and where the people who ended up looking at it really disagreed

Ben
* 2/3 of the people at the meeting did agree
* Unilateral decision-making by campaigns is "how campaigns work"
* This is why the U of T divestment group makes decisions about their campaign
* This would formalize the relationship and let that campaign do what they are now

Michael
* I assume the purpose of this is for campaigns that are not run by 350, so you would expect the policy to say that it's up to campaigns to make their own decisions
* This is intended for campaigns that are independent organizations
* The policy text describes in detail that they are independent organizations
* One exceptional thing: the line about dispute resolution mechanism, since this presumes to state that Toronto350 can bind the other organization
* He thinks this should be removed

Amanda HS
* A lot of this is describing the way things already run, and she thinks that's pretty good
* We could rename it
* Divestment is the example case, and they don't come for approval to Toronto350 for their decisions

Tali
* Agrees with how Michael interprets this document
* The divestment campaign is already a separate organization
* They are not really a Toronto350 campaign because they have conflicting obligations under U of T rules
* The hope is to formalize the relationship and make it explicit that UofT350 is separate from us, but an affiliate or partner
* We should do due diligence by looking at how other NGOs structure these relationships, from a fiduciary duty and legal perspective
* We want to be able to provide financial and other support without being liable for their decisions and how they spend their money
* Currently we are liable, but we don't have the information. This would make us fail an audit.
* They should have to come to us for approval to do things.

Katie
* Agrees with Michael and everyone else about how this document is intended to separate Toronto350 and UofT350
* One issue is the name: in the real world, Toronto350 and UofT350 are synonymous and often used interchangeably
* So this isn't the same as partnering with Climate Fast
* Climate Fast doesn't use our NationBuilder, Facebook lists, website list - these are our biggest asset
* If UofT350 wants to separate completely, they cannot have access to our lists
* At a minimum, there has to be a way of managing it - otherwise we will be spamming the same people at the same time
* There is a risk of having conflicting communication strategies
* Thirdly, if we take divestment as a case study, we know they plan to move on from divestment to pipelines and other campaigns which may clash with ours

Lila
* UofT350 may not be planning to do this

Katie
* This is what I've heard at meetings I attended
* Having two different pipeline strategies between two groups which people are at risk of confusing is a problem
* Perhaps this agreement could automatically end when the divestment campaign does

Brad
* I think proprietary issues are a big concern, including our database
* Access control should be part of the agreement
* Re: using the dispute resolution mechanism, he imagines it would be for Toronto350 people who are experiencing a dispute with an external group

Tali
* The policy document describes a partner agreement separate from the policy
* There would be a negotiation process with each partner groups where each sees what it can get from the other
* This would include access to proprietary content, use of names, etc
* Those specific finer points would vary depending on the partner group
* Perhaps they could be given NationBuilder access only to people who have opted into that campaign
* A different partner group might have an entirely different arrangement
* Perhaps the dispute resolution clause should be cut for now and revised at a later time

Ben
* Divest Ryerson created a separate Facebook group which let things be screened and scheduled
* They also have a style guide and communication plan
* There would need to be an agreement on email and NationBuilder
* U of T clubs have distinct legal responsibilities
* Toronto350 also needs to legally protect peoples' privacy

Katie
* If this is the general policy, and then there will be more specific agreements with other groups, the general policy should not allow access to our NationBuilder database
* This isn't in any way a case for the creation of this sort of policy
* If anything, our relationship with UofT350 should be sorted out as its own thing
* It's not a partnership in the sense of this document
* Would this policy work for any other partner groups?

Tali
* Step Up?

Katie
* They don't use our NationBuilder

Tali
* The idea is to use UofT350 as a baseline

Katie
* But it's not a baseline, it's a very unique situation

Tali
* Other universities will be similar: Ryerson, York, etc
* They would also be external organizations that we're super tight with

Dennis
* They are also a partner group - the Toronto350 name and logo are part of their materials
* UofT350 is the worst case scenario: the most complex, interactive, and overlapping
* Each campaign strategy agreement can include a unique dispute resolution mechanism, broadly compatible with the Toronto350 system
* The liaison requirement could help get people engaged with Toronto350.org
* I don't see too many big problems with it, if you focus on the fact that you're trying to get an agreement on it
* Toronto350 is not a charity, so there is no way the government can come after you for spending money through external groups
* You owe it to stakeholders to make sure funds given to external organizations will achieve your ends

Milan
* Once again, this was meant as a first draft, written in about 15 minutes
* It's not the case that campaigns are able to make all decisions unilaterally
* They have to follow the major proposal process
* They have to follow the financial procedures in the by-laws
* The fact that the divestment campaign hasn't been is a problem, and one of the reasons why we need a policy of this source
* Also, this draft UofT350 partner agreement wasn't negotiated, it was just written up by the proponents from UofT350
* The actual agreement also wasn't circulated electronically beforehand
* It's also not clear what the status of Toronto350.org's divestment campaign would be after this

Lila
* It was circulated electronically
* This circulation was meant to be the negotiation with Toronto350

Milan
* That really isn't the same thing

Michael
* The way it's written is as a partner groups policy, so the name should not be changed
* Do we want to do something for university groups in general? How should we deal with groups that have practically the same name?
* How would we deal with these two cases
* You need to decide whether it is an independent group or not
* If they are independent, we can't tell them what pipelines policy to have
* The policy does allow Toronto350 to break off partner group relationships
* We should keep this as the partner group policy, and let UofT350 be an independent group that follows the proposed agreement
* If Toronto350 wants to be able to veto their campaigns, there should be a different policy to do this

Are we going to vote on this tonight?

Snowcubb
* This is a draft and it's obviously incomplete
* It's well formulated but a lot more could be added
* Some more subclauses could be added to a lot of sections
* OK as a draft, but needs to be more fleshed out

Can we decide by consensus whether this should be voted on tonight?

Do we need to have a vote on it because it was proposed?

We will pause on this and come back and vote on it later

= 3d Major Proposal: Pay for a Facilitator for the Visioning Session: (Tresanne) — 15 min =

Visioning session February 27th / 28th
* Proposal to pay an outside facilitator
* It would be $1,000 for the whole weekend
* Now it looks like we may be able to internally facilitate some of the lighter discussions
* We would be spending $500 - 600 on it

Is the visioning session just a discussion, or is it for decision-making?
* Yes, we expect there to be some decision-making

Will the facilitator be familiar with our decision-making procedures, by-laws, constitution, etc?

What we want is a clearer and more specific vision and mandate for the group going forward
* Also, a clearer way for campaigns to work with the group
* It won't be about voting, but about coming up with text for these things that everyone gets input on
* The text would then go to a vote at a later meeting

Is there a specific person in mind?
* A friend of a friend of Tresanne
* She was 10 years experience

How many people have confirmed attendance?
* About nine people complete the Doodle

What's our bank balance after all outgoing payments?
* We had about $7,000, aside from Tresanne's pay, as of early January
* Trinity St. Paul may also be supporting us with another $1,000 or so, but this isn't guaranteed

Motion to approve $600 for this purpose
* Moved by Tresanne

We need to know exactly how much we will be paying and how much facilitation we will get for it

So can we vote on this now?

One person quoted $50 an hour, someone else said $125 an hour but offered us a 50% discount
* The second person is available February 27th and 28th

Motion to allocate a maximum of $600 for a facilitator for one day
* Otherwise, we won't hire one
* Moved by Katie
* Tresanne seconds

* 9 in favour
* None opposed

* Two abstentions
* Motion carries

Tresanne is bottom-lining this
* Has an email thread with Amelia Rose and Anna
* Anyone else who wants to join can

== 4. Upcoming events ==

Next week the dating stories fundraiser is happening during our normal meeting time, so there will be no meeting
* The event is comedy, people telling dating stories
* Happening at the Supermarket in Kensington Market

If people want to tell a dating story they still can

Tresanne has printed materials to post

Update on the president's role, grants, and accessibility training
* Stu is probably coming back in September, but maybe not
* Tresanne doesn't know if she will be running at the next election, in early April
* She is undecided
* The board voted to continue to pay the president, so Tresanne is looking into various grants including the Tar Sands Solutions Network
* She will be talking to the board about this

Tali has been looking into accessibility training
* She went to a workshop at Volunteer Toronto that teaches NGOs which legislation they have to follow
* Since we have one employee we must meet a number of obligations under the OADA
* We would be in the easiest category, but we would need to train every one of our volunteers about how to interact with people at all levels of ability
* We would need to create volunteer training for this purpose and keep records
* It would need to be redone every year
* We also need to meet in accessible places
* Our website also needs to be compliant with systems for the blind
* Technically we are already out of compliance
* We need to keep this in mind if we choose to pay anybody in the future
* Will require a lot of work by the Volunteer Coordinator

Most non-profits don't do this
* The legislation was passed in 2012
* Then they are non-compliant
* What are the penalties for non-compliance?
* Probably a warning, then fines
* Of what magnitude?
* Environmental Defence is a charitable non-profit which has been audited several times, and they don't do this
* This is Ontario legislation, not monitored by the Canada Revenue Agency
* There is a big difference between small, medium, and large businesses
* The kind of training required at our level is very minimal
* With the amount of volunteer churn we have here, we could make a minimal effort
* At a bare minimum, we would need an orientation document to distribute to every new volunteer
* We would need to prove that we do that

How is a volunteer defined?
* Anyone who volunteers any amount of time with us

Green Toronto had a two hour presentation on this and everyone had to sign to confirm it
* Employers are also doing this

The board should follow up and see if we actually need to do this
* Tali has done the research and we do need to do this
* The board knows about this
* Should it be up to the board to deal with this?
* There are no legal experts on the board

People can provide input to the board on this subject

The board should recognize that this is a big job

Snowcubb may be able to take this on
* He's not clear on how to go about it
* He can talk it over with Tali

The fundraising team and solidarity squad are both looking for new people

What does a solidarity squad do?
* Indigenous solidarity, along the lines of the recent learning meeting
* Working out how to provide financial support to communities
* Also an email list for events which we want to support

Opportunity to shadow the Treasurer or the President

== 5. Volunteer opportunities ==

Next Wednesday at U of T, U of T Environmental Action is having a conference for 100 high school students
* There is an opportunity to table during the lunch period

Scarborough Green Fair - Saturday April 2nd
* Usually a big event

There is a Doodle for going to Home Fires Burning, near Ottawa
* A woman had a vision a year ago of holding a sacred fire for missing and murdered aboriginal women
* Started on April 25th and planning to continue until April 28th
* Some non-Toronto350 are also going
* It will be for a few days, and somewhat flexible based on peoples' schedules

== 6. Volunteer opportunities ==

Milan
* We should set this aside until we have seen what other groups do
* At a minimum, the agreement with the partner group actually needs to be negotiated, not presented as a fait accompli by one party

Lila
* This was circulated, which is a proper procedure

Michael
* Has the U of T group approved this

Lila
* I have circulated it to all the U of T students

Michael
* Was this actually approved at a meeting?

Lila
* No, but everyone except for Milan is OK with it

Michael
* Doesn't it need to be formally approved by UofT350 for this to be a formal agreement between groups

Lila
* They will approve this

Ben
* They won't approve the agreement unless the overall partner group policy is in force

Michael
* The agreement won't take effect until both groups have approved it

Dan
* Toronto350 needs to decide whether to go forward with the partner group policy, and separately if we should accept this specific strategy agreement

Michael
* The partner group policy doesn't say anything controversial, but we might not want this to be the policy for UofT350
* It sounds like some people want to add a line to the strategy agreement saying that UofT350 needs to get new campaigns approved by Toronto350
* This would make them subject to Toronto350
* UofT350 would need to agree to any such requirement

Dan
* How about we have a vote about whether to make a final decision now for each of these documents?
* Should we vote on the partner group policy now?
* Dan moves that we do
* Lila seconds
* 4 in favour
* 1 opposed
* 6 abstaining
* Motion passes

Motion to adopt the partner group policy
* Moved by Lila, subject to further review by the board
* Is this with any amendment to the text on dispute resolution?
* This would mean removing "Dispute Resolution Mechanism: If necessary, the Dispute Resolution Mechanism set out in the by-laws of Toronto350.org shall be employed to adjudicate any conflict." from the policy, but requiring that any campaign strategy agreement include one
* Replacement text: "The campaign strategy agreement will state which dispute resolution mechanism will be used in the event of a conflict between Toronto350.org and a partner group."

Katie
* The section on Delegate (voting) membership is confusing

Tali
* In order to be a member of either Toronto350 or a partner group, you need to meet the membership requirement of the group in question

Katie
* My concern is that a lot of UofT350 members only come to Toronto350 meetings that relate to their group, and then use their voting power to do things that they want to do

Michal
* They are still Toronto350 members
* This is an issue with the qualifications for being a Toronto350

Motion to adopt the partner group policy
* Moved by Lila, subject to further review by the board
* This is with the amendment to the dispute resolution mechanism
* In favour 9
* 2 opposed

* 1 abstention
* Motion passes

Do we want to decide today on the UofT350 campaign strategy agreement?
* Dan proposes that we vote on this today
* Lila seconds
* 3 in favour
* 6 opposed
* 3 abstention
* Motion fails, so we will not decide on the campaign strategy agreement today

When will we decide on it?
* Perhaps at the visioning session?
* Would it fit there? UofT350 is its own group, not a campaign but an external organization

Tali
* Now that we have passed this policy, we need to come up with an agreement to define our relationship
* Tali is happy to go through the proposed document
* She and Milan are looking at what other NGOs do
* We are hoping 350.org will provide information on what they do
* If people have contact with other NGOs that work with university groups, please let Tali know about it
* Engineers Without Borders does this

Milan
* The campaign strategy agreement should be negotiated between UofT350.org and someone from Toronto350.org who hasn't been part of the divestment campaign
* That way, it's an actual agreement between two parties and not a case of just one party writing their own agreement

Michael
* It would be better to use a document of our own than any sort of template from 350.org
* Toronto350.org will need to decide if there should be restrictions about starting new campaigns without approval
* He thinks this is a bad idea, but he thinks other people want it

Brad
* He doesn't have a problem with the partner group policy
* In addition to the campaign strategy agreement, we need to have a general ally policy agreement
* If we're going to have a campaign strategy agreement, don't both groups need to have a nearly identical campaign in operation
* Doesn't Toronto350.org need to have it's own campaign to make U of T divest? Otherwise this isn't an agreement, it's just a way of supporting an ally

Milan
* This is why this policy is incoherent and shouldn't have been passed so hastily
* The policy was written based on the idea that Toronto350 would also have a campaign running with the same objective

Katie
* We have adopted the partner group policy, but not agreed that UofT350.org should be a partner group

== 7. Next meeting ==

What kind of meeting is it?
* A working meeting

Chair: Katie
Minute-taker: Katie will find someone

Milan

unread,

Mar 8, 2016, 9:09:02 PM3/8/16

to Toronto 350.org

=== 2016-03-08 Toronto350.org working meeting ===

Chair: Katie
Minutes: Milan
Present: Amelia Rose, Jennifer, Ellery, Brian, Anne, Dennis, Milan, Tali, Tresanne, Rosemary, Michael, Snowcubb

Agenda
* Introductions
* Land acknowledgment
* Debriefs
* Upcoming events
* Volunteer opportunities
* People's Climate Plan
* Breakouts
* Next meeting

== Introductions ==

== Land acknowledgment ==

We are all settlers on indigenous land, and we keep that in mind with everything we do.

== Debriefs ==

Fundraising support from the 350.org mothership
* The 350 mothership offered fundraising mentorship to local groups (classes)
* Tresanne sent a message to the act...@toronto350.org list
* Amelia Rose is going to be on a related call
* Calls happen at a time that conflicts with the last hour of our weekly meetings
* Classes and mentoring on fundraising are being offered to 12 people across North America, and Tresanne is included
* Targeted toward helping organizations break out into achieving higher levels of funding than in the past
* Should we change our meeting time to avoid the conflict?
* Could people come from 6-8pm instead?
* Starts on April 5th
* We could also adjust the structure of meeting to make sure anything Tresanne ought to attend is in the first hour
* When are the next executive elections happening? April 5th is the closest date to the end of Tresanne's contract

Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan divestment (Brian)
* They are getting ready for the annual members' meeting, at the beginning of April
* Last year they had modest success in bringing this organization to acknowledge and discuss fossil fuel divestment
* Previously they had dismissed it
* They have heavily invested in Cenovus Energy ($3.3 billion) - discussed in This Changes Everything documentary
* Legally, the plan is run by the Ontario Teachers' Federation and the Ministry of Education
* Similar to OMERS, the municipal employee pension fund
* In order to get them to change formally, action needs to come through the grass roots and individual teachers' federations (elementary, secondary, Catholic)
* They can present motions to divest to the Ontario Teachers' Federation
* It would be good to support this with a letter writing campaign
* There is room for political action
* The Catholics are fired up by the Pope and the Laudato si' encyclical
* Their AGM is on Saturday and Sunday (same time as secondary school teachers)
* The OTPP divestment team will be down at the meetings talking to people and distributing materials between 8am and 9am, when people will be entering the meeting (Harbour Castle and Sheraton Centre)
* We can't be inside the meeting, which is for delegates only
* It's possible to supplement the ethical case for divestment with a financial case
* CCPA report on fossil fuels and pension funds (p. 35-6): https://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/National%20Office%2C%20BC%20Office/2015/11/Pension_Funds_and_Fossil_Fuels.pdf
* We can send an email to our mem...@toronto350.org list
* Would it be helpful to issue a press release?
* Perhaps alongside a demonstration next year
* Trinity St. Paul's investments earned 8.8% last year, after fossil fuel divestment (significantly better than the Toronto Stock Exchange as a whole)
* A press release could help us start building a story before the April meeting
* Brian will write a draft release and will coordinate with Tali
* We can also post it as an event on our Facebook page
* We could number the pamphlets and offer a Starbucks gift certificate to a winning number, as a way of collecting contact information

Pipelines group
* Hasn't met in a while, trying to regroup since the federal government's announcement of a climate test for pipelines
* At the premiers' meeting this week, Trudeau said that pipelines would finance the transition to clean energy
* These new pipelines are incompatible with the 1.5 ˚C warming limit
* They are working on messaging, images, and memes
* Re: Line 9, they are working on a fundraiser for the Chippewa of the Thames court case against Enbridge (likely to happen in late April)
* This may include a silent art auction (contact artists who may wish to donate)
* Taylor (from the board) has a Sustainers Club, of people who will contribute monthly toward land protection
* We are looking to have awareness- and money-raising events on a monthly basis
* Ecology Ottawa is making anti-Energy East stickers for loonies

Fossil Fools Day (April 1st)
* Do we want to do anything?
* Previously, it has been tied to divestment campaigns
* This time, it could alternatively be tied to the pipelines campaign

Nickie Young, who has made anti-Harper videos, wants to do a media workshop with Toronto350.org
* It will be at his house
* First is likely to be about building a narrative, how to be interviewed

Hot Stuff Fundraiser
* The place was packed and we made a bit over $750
* They normally allow each group to do this only once
* Perhaps we could incorporate another into our Chippewa of the Thames fundraising
* Maybe we can set up some kind of recurring fundraising event of our own
* It may be worthwhile to use NationBuilder to try to assess how many people we brought out and how many were brought out by Liz
* We could have used more people promoting, as Tresanne feels she did most of it (Amelia Rose helped with the website, Katie helped at the door)
* Did we get any photos or videos from the event?
* Tresanne got some, but in a format which she cannot use

Good Green Jobs for All Leap Day meeting (Jesse?)
* February 29th
* Did anybody go? No

Home Fires Burning
* Sacred fire that a woman named Sue had a vision to establish for a year, for healing of families of missing and murdered loved ones
* Running until April 29th, when Sue is leaving - others might continue it
* Near Ottawa, on unceded native land on Victoria Island
* 10 people went with Tresanne, 4 from Toronto350
* Trip came out from learning meeting a few weeks ago, about building solidarity with land defenders
* First visit to a place held by land defenders
* Tresanne is going back in April
* Going to spaces where land defence is happening is a learning project for all of us
* There is also a solidarity squad email list

== Upcoming events ==

Power Shift (Amelia Rose)
* 3 day conference, mostly for youth
* 4 have happened so far: BC, Halifax
* The next is in Alberta in April
* Organized by the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition and their partners
* Registration fee is $35, but transport is obviously much more
* April 1st - 3rd

Learning meeting - Debunking Growth: Economics for Activists (Katie)
* Happening in April
* Likely to be a 3 hour workshop
* A 101 on critiquing capitalist economics for activists
* There will be several presenters, including a Marxist economics teacher, an economist who worked with the Occupy movement (who will talk about real-life examples of de-growth economics), and a performance art group (De-growth Collective)

Learning meeting - Lubicon Cree Documentary showing
* Called one of the greatest human rights violations in the world by the UN
* Has been trying to negotiate a treaty with Canada since the 70s or 80s
* Katie has a documentary about it

New supporters event - end of March (Katie)
* 1-1.5 hours of introduction to the group for new people

Spring (not April) - Ecology for Activists! (Katie)
* aka Nature Nerds Run Free
* Walks in High Park and other natural places

== Volunteer opportunities ==

Divest Ryerson film screening - March 30th
* Does someone want to reach out to Ben about Toronto350 being involved in the event?
* Tali will help

Katie wants someone to read over and report on the final Ontario Energy Board report on Energy East
* 96 pages
* Rosemary will help

Tali wants someone to take over the Communications executive role
* As of now, nobody is running
* Some people expressed interest in the comms hub, Tali has emailed them and not heard back

== The People's Climate Plan ==

From the 350 Canada team
* "In the works proposal" for their strategic plan over the next six months or so
* They have asked for feedback on it

Might we want to adopt any of this as part of our strategic plan?
* Arguably, our group has been lacking a plan since the last election
* 350 Canada has been having similar questions and this is their attempt at moving forward

There is a North American phone call about this plan tomorrow
* Katie will be on it, others can be too
* Happening at noon

We can't circulate an electronic version at this point, but Katie can send copies to individual people

If people want to be on tomorrow's call, they should talk to Katie

== Visioning session ==

We had a facilitator on the first day, which most people appreciated

Major topics: decision-making power, group structure
* Change takes a lot of effort

More people attended Saturday than Sunday

Tresanne will send around a longer written debrief

One good feature: conversations were framed around improving the efficiency and experience of Toronto350, encourage people to get involved
* Make people feel that they are doing the work they want to do
* We haven't always managed time, people, and resources well

Main topic Saturday: the structure of the group, and re-thinking what we want the board to do
* Re-naming positions, restructuring to be more in line with how things have actually worked
* Brainstorming internal tasks, redistributing work between the board, executive, and active members in a way that makes more sense

Some long-standing members attended, and some who joined in the last few months
* It seemed to go well for everyone, including in terms of helping new people understand the group

Main result was ideas for further discussion, more structure in ongoing discussions

Renaming types of members: core, supporters, active

== Breakouts ==

1) Discussing group structure (Tresanne)

Dan typed up some of what was discussed at the visioning session

We have been thinking about how the term "executive" sets up power differences
* The executive in this group doesn't mean very much anymore
* "Core", "active", and "supporters" may make more sense, and allow people more flexibility to move between

The core would work on mentoring members, retention, long-term vision, social events, liaison with staff, and finance
* Core people would be those involved for longer

Active people would be moderately active, willing to engage with medium-term tasks

Supporters would be new people, those only willing to take on immediate commitments

Core and active could be voting members, but not supporters
* How would that be implemented in the constitution and by-laws?

Advantages of this approach
* More clearly defined roles might help accountability
* Not presently clear who does what
* Especially since campaigns have become more independent and people stopped reporting back
* Decision-makers (core and active) would have more institutional knowledge - preventing people from spontaneously bringing up random ideas without context

Would involve more reporting back from campaign leads, including at U of T and Ryerson
* Have them come in to meetings, or communicate through some formalized system

Cons
* Would exclude some people from decision-making

One alternative we might consider is trying to revitalize the executive, edging out people not meeting their obligations, assembling a group that is willing to be reliable
* Relates to the question of how to sort people into these three groups
* Perhaps core could require a six month commitment, three month for active

Would this replace having executive positions?
* Would only the president be elected from now on, with others defined into groups by meeting requirements?
* How would we assign specific responsibility for things like communication, fundraising, etc?
* One risk of eliminating executive roles is it strips individual responsibility
* We can't just collectively assign a set of tasks to a large group of people, because that is a recipe for inaction
* Jobs like Volunteer Coordinator are too big for one person
* In the past, sometimes people have been elected to positions at their first meeting

350 has "a general activist feel" which isn't necessarily for everybody
* Early in the year, Katie made a big presentation on everything we have done and a lot of people were there
* A lot fewer have been around since
* Discussion of structure is important for people who have been around for a long time, but new people need to feel like there is a chance for them to do something

At the visioning session, the facilitator asked people to list the things Toronto350.org needs to do in order to run
* Day-to-day logistics, material production, etc
* Who is actually doing these things?
* Campaigns get things from the group, but don't often contribute to these tasks

Where did the energy from that big early meeting come from?
* Many participants had not previously been involved at all
* What can be offered for people to "latch on to", in terms of current activities
* Simple: be at Place X on Day Y

The treasurer now has a lot of quite specific and important work to do
* We need to have a plan in case we don't have someone willing to take over when one leaves

We might stop using the term "executive" without getting rid of individual areas of responsibility

We agreed that it would be ideal for campaign leads to be on the exec, but they haven't been showing up

If a new president is elected in April, how much power should we give them to make changes about structure?

2) Discussing the role of the board (Tali)

- Board to provide knowledge on compliance with Non Profit laws; would be interested in having some or all members attending a legal clinic to learn more as we have no legal experts on the board
- TO DO: 1) Need to clearly define what membership means, and 2) determine the clear roles board members will take on (ex. Fundraising, Finance/Legal, Management and Oversight, HR)

== Next meeting ==

Type: Similar to this week
Chair: Katie
Minutes: TBA

Milan

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Mar 16, 2016, 4:25:02 PM3/16/16

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2016-03-15 - Toronto350 Planning Meeting Minutes

Present: Milan, Dan, Brian, Ellery, Mike, Rosemary F., Michael, Snowcub

Go Around/News

Milan - Check out Atlantic article on “Obama Doctrine” foreign policy by Jeffrey Goldberg: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/04/the-obama-doctrine/471525/

Dan - Ont Conservatives acknowledge carbon pricing, but want it revenue neutral

Brian - Cost of wind is competitive with cost of refurbishing Darlington; the world’s current electricity needs could be met by a solar array about ½ the size of Ontario

Ellery - Chippewa of the Thames will get their Supreme Court hearing; will need help

Mike - new (Welcome!!!), has been interested in TO350 for a while.

Land Acknowledgement - We are all settlers on indigenous land, and we keep that in mind with everything we do.

Mindfulness Exercise (Dan) 3 mins

Updates

a) Divest Ont. Teachers’ Pension Plan - Brian

Ont. English Catholic Teachers’ Aasoc. and Ont.Secondary School Teachers’ Federation Annual General Meetings last weekend. Flyering this weekend with 8 volunteers was generally sucessful in terms of communication and general awareness.

Union locals meet annually at this summit with a handful of motions for divesting the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan of its fossil fuel holdings. One motion that made it through OECTA was a social justice plan which sought funds for a committee to deal with mass dislocation and migrations connected climate change.
There is a need for continuing awareness efforts.

b) Chippewa of the Thames legal challenge - Ellery

They will need for money to proceed before the Supreme Court. We will mount monthly activities related to this here at TO350 to include specifically focused fundraisers. Nicky will update on planning next week.

c) Divest Initiatives - Milan

A] Divest U of T

Decision possible by Gertler by end of month

Ctee is preparing for all eventualities pro or con

Amanda HS and Cricket are media contacts.

How will Toronto350 support this?

B] Ryerson - no news as yet

d) Energy East - Ellery

Big thanks to Rosemary Frei for her précis of the OEB report; it’s very readable and useful. See it at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/16XPm4aLZNP0dfHezZPeNvUDs7Rm3_Vv6EadfZbstenI/edit

Next meeting Pipelines Group on Sat, the 19th, from 6-8 pm. Please email katie@toronto350 for location and details.

4. Possible Discussion/Breakouts

Katie was going to lead a presentation/discussion/brainstorming on the draft of the

“People’s Climate Plan” which has been developed by Canada 350.org and LeadNow. There was a national phone call this past week on the plan, Katie, Rosemary and Milan attended. Unfortunately Katie is sick and won’t be able to present. Here’s a link to the doc if folks want to read it over and think of a) any questions that come up, b) anything that doesn’t seem clear c) how we might be involved/use this framework: at Toronto350. https://docs.google.com/document/d/17sEKpFYUMzcKCLI4c5NXs2szlAwVS4MQCjxBOPLdurU/edit

Discussion: 350 seeking endorsement among all environmental organizations, especially “stong” one.

Milan - was present at the cross-country call; noted that there were elements and mechanisms that need to be added to doc. Sign-up on-line is for groups, not individuals.

Ellery - appreciated the high-level perspective; outline is good, but not easy to follow.

Brian - good idea to join all strong orgs, but need to differentiate each org’s core goal as supporting the actions of the coalition

Ellery - liaisons with other groups formal or informal

Mike - I don’t see politicians as the enemy. He is exploring what he can do to get off fossil fuel dependency, but even after a large investment he thinks he can only achieve 40% (a 60% reduction).

Brian and Dan - Need for system vs individual change to ease and support what will be a drastic transition

Milan - recommended “Sustainable energy without the hot air”. Available free at http://withouthotair.com Very useful resource document.

Visioning Session/Restructuring--Next Steps - Ellery

Ellery in discussion with Tresanne - how to structure TO350

I] Board role: fundraising, finance, legal, strategy

Need for clearer decision-making process;

Ii} Membership: what constitutes being a member? Bar too low currently?

She and Tresanne discussed jobs, organized areas of involvement

by category: emphasis on how to become involved In an on-going, energizing way

Developing a sense of how much is needed and how much people are actually able to give. Refine our understanding of how our priorities help shape our roles

There’s also a need to maintain check-up process to encourage more accountability, but also to support individual members in what they do.

Fossil Fools Day -- brainstorm possible targets/actions for fossil fools day

Example: Kathleen Wynne for Supporting Energy East/Enbridge/OTPP

Possibility for action: outside her constituency office or at Queen’s Park?

Dinosaur; carbon bubbles; oil barrel challenge modelled on ice-bucket

challenge; or oil barrel dunk (Michael)

Call out for people to plan and organize event. (email)

5. Volops

a] Tabling, April 2 , Joe Cressy Community Environment Day

The event will be held on:

Saturday, April 2nd from 10am to 2pm

Central Technical School, 725 Bathurst St, Toronto

Email (find point person)

b] River Run 2016 is on its way again! From May 30th to June 3rd we will be joining with Grassy Narrows community members, elders and youth to call on the Ontario government to recognize and compensate those affected by mercury, to clean up the river system, and to end clearcut logging.

The details are:

We'd love for you to be involved! Many of you have helped out with the River Run in the past, and we are having our first official volunteers meeting to give people more information about River Run 2016 and discuss big and little ways for everyone to get involved and help support Grassy Narrows!

When: Monday April 4th, 2016

Time: 6:00-8:00pm

Where: Steelworker's Hall, 25 Cecil Street

c] Home Fires. This weekend - 1-2 spaces left in Ellery’s car. Going on Friday night, coming back Saturday Night; including Tresanne, Ellery, Nate, Ariel. if you want to attend contact: ell...@toronto350.org.

Next week: Decision making meeting (Quorum is 10 voting members).

Major Proposals requested before midnight tomorrow (Wed, the 16th): defined by spending more than $500, call to restructure, anything which may involve legal risks.

If no quorum or major proposals, a regular meeting would take place.

Next Chair: Brian

Next Minutes: Dan

Milan

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Apr 16, 2016, 3:40:39 PM4/16/16

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Toronto350 Agenda for April 12

Brandon Fenton, chair

Brian (scribe), Brandon (Chair), Roger, Amelia Rose, Dan C. , Ellery, Tresanne, Dan M., Tali, Anne, Katie, Neil, Snowcub, Milan, Kevin

Items:

1] Land Acknowledgement

2 a] Financial Statement (Ellery)

Yearly budget and recent monthly statement.

We’re in pretty good shape fiscally.

We’re making a general effort to get off subsidies while raising and bolstering donations.

We can afford pay for president’s stipend as well as donations we voted to support indigenous people and expenses incurred by campaigns if nothing major arises.

We should start trying to forecast expenses for large events like Break Free.

2 b] Motion to pay President/Coordinater

Moved [by Ellery, seconded by Tali]: Pay President/Coordinator $1050 for the month of April.

Rationale: The role of coordinator is essentially the paid bottom liner who maintains the momentum of Toronto 350. This is a paid position and is structured so to acknowledge and make visible the often invisible labour that is associated with it.

Ellery as treasurer reports we have enough money from donations, cash position to do this. We also have several fundraising initiatives this month, specifically the Trinity-St. Paul’s Lysistrata partnership and the “Triple your Donation” initiative from the Board. Also there is an application for a grant to help pay for this position from 350.org.

There was some discussion about the actual title of the position. It was decided keep the title and change it later when we had time to fully discuss the question.

Motion was passed: 10 in favour, one abstention.

3] Elections

● Delegate members shall be given some token to indicate their status, such as a coloured sticker or self-identification: Quorum was achieved in time for vote.

● Proposed amendments to the Constitution – none

3b] Proposal to create a new postion

Moved [by Milan, seconded by Brian]: Create the position of Research Co-ordinator.

Role Description:

• Providing research support on request to all Toronto350.org campaigns, including in the preparation of documents and media releases

• Collaborating with Toronto350.org members on researching and developing best practices for the operation of the organization

• Helping to curate and make available useful resources including best practices, policies currently in force, and other materials of ongoing importance to Toronto350.org operations and campaigns

• Leading periodic workshops to share relevant information with Toronto350.org members

Discussion about this position focussed on the need and usefulness for such a position, some terms (esp. “best practices”), the need for other existing positions to be filled, how the campaign leads and others would interact with this position, inter alia.

Motion passed: 6 in favour, 1 opposed, 6 abtentions

Election for this postion

Candidates: Milan, Snowcub

Vote by secret ballot: Milan 10, Snowcub 2

3c] Nomination and election of executive members

• No new nominations

• Election of president –

Tresanne (unopposed).