2017 Executive Meeting Minutes
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January 24 Executive Meeting Agenda
Land Acknowledgement
"I would like to acknowledge this sacred land on which the Steelworkers Hall operates. It has been a site of human activity for 15,000 years. This land is the territory of the Huron-Wendat and Petun First Nations, the Seneca, and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit River. The territory was the subject of the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement between the Iroquois Confederacy and Confederacy of the Ojibwe and allied nations to peaceably share and care for the resources around the Great Lakes.
Today, the meeting place of Toronto is still the home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work in the community, on this territory."
Introductions.
OTPP divestment update:Amelia Rose
-one meeting this year
-working with many groups(divest waterloo, educators climate alliance, and many individuals)
-many teachers, many not
-trying to do more to get teachers and students involved
-trying to do a lot and be active this year
-trying to work on a media campaign
Should we reschedule conflict resolution workshop? When?
-we should reschedule it
-sometime in february
-How is this one going to be different and benefit us more than the other conflict workshops
-response: there are many people that haven’t been to the other workshops
-these are more general, not about a specific conflict
-make it optional but recommended
Meeting dates in February
-the 31st we’ll have multiple breakouts about different campaigns (new volunteer meeting to start)
-Not the 7th comedy fundraiser
-Exec meeting the 14th
-Breakout/planning meeting 21st
-conflict resolution 28th (email lyn)
Group structure
-Tresanne is going to step down from president in October
-she wants to train somebody from march to october
-we will elect somebody to train in march
-will we pay them?
-depends on how many hours it will take
-do we want two people or one
-ellery is stepping down
-try to find somebody interested
Agincourt Environmental council tabling opportunity
-Feb 22 9am-12pm at Agincourt C.I.
-Is it a good opportunity?
-Who will go?- caleb, possibly more
-get material from Katie
-get people added to list there
-get campaign updates for tabling
Municipal Campaign
-new lead
-report from last meeting
-campaign launch?
-first steps?
-sub-committee
Comedy Fundraiser:Kalina
-Overview
-Promotion
-need people to invite people on Facebook
-Help needed?
-Person at the door: Caleb
Volops from two meetings ago
-what happened to them
-what will we do to get new volunteers involved
-one on one with exec or new pub night
Website- Amelia Rose
-website created two years ago
-done by paid person
-haven’t changed much since that time
-works for active volunteers of 350 but is difficult for new members
-mostly good pages
-doesn’t get straight to the point of what we’re trying to do
-History of to350 page is very out of date
-homepage is very out of date and randomly put together (should be re-put together)
-makes difference with people donating to us
-we should explain in a clear page in a way in an about us page(ex. Broadbent institute)
-many groups have a very small sign up and about us then active campaigns with social media on the side and then a blog
-we don’t actively write blog posts but we should
-volunteers don’t go to our website because it is static
-we need to put social media at the forefront (a stream on the homepage)
-hardest thing is to be constantly putting up information (but we need to)
-find out the most important stuff and highlight it
-eliminate redundancies (our mission should be merged with history)
-who will do this???
-good pictures are key, key to have background images
-we need a new video about group
-current video is slow and long
-kalina will lead making video
-kalina will work on point form outline and we’ll comment
-need an active site
-bolg in op-ed style or updates, little individual action tips
-get each campaign to make a post each month and do one monthly update
Communication stuff for website
-we should have more comms stuff on website and dates about when things will happen
-we need a calendar (google calendar)-I’ll make it
-we should purge our lists (the 200 list in particular)
-make active@ up to date (and clearly define roles)ac
TO350 Board + Exec Meeting
Feb. 28, 2017
Attending: Angela, Amelia Rose, Caleb, Phil, Jody, Tresanne, Tali, Ellery, Kalina, Katie
Board Members Absent: Fatin, Maya, Pallavi, Brandon
Exec Members Absent: Roger
Chair: Jody
Minute-taker: Jody
Land Acknowledgment
"I would like to acknowledge this sacred land on which the Steelworkers Hall operates. It has been a site of human activity for 15,000 years. This land is the territory of the Huron-Wendat and Petun First Nations, the Seneca, and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit River. The territory was the subject of the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement between the Iroquois Confederacy and Confederacy of the Ojibwe and allied nations to peaceably share and care for the resources around the Great Lakes.
Today, the meeting place of Toronto is still the home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work in the community, on this territory."
1) Intros and check-in (5 min.)
Name, preferred pronouns, if your week was a type of weather what would it be?
2) Upcoming Events & Announcements (5 min.)
OTPP Rally Thursday March 2nd, 4-6pm @ Yonge/Finch [link to Facebook event]
Kinder Morgan looking for investors, asking pension funds like OTPP
Divest OTPP campaign is organizing a rally in front of the OTPP office at Yonge and Finch: teachers don’t want OTPP to fund KM pipeline
Groups participating: elementary school teachers, Toronto350
Conference call tonight at 9:15 with Brian -- final planning for the rally
Tresanne will add you to thread, thread will have details
3) Role of the President (Tres) (50 min.)
Weekly responsibilities and accomplishments
[link to prepared document]
8 hours helping directly with campaigns; 2 hours indirect campaign support, connecting people/information; 2 hours Tuesday weekly meeting; 3 hours short-term projects like elections, strategy sessions, conflict resolution; 2 hours admin/requests for tabling, endorsements, collaboration; 2 hours group development and exec coordination; 1 hour long-term projects like web development, fundraising, donor management + (10-20 hours of unpaid time like workshops)
Accomplishments
Sit-in at CB
budget; art build; materials; training
Starting COTTFN fundraising campaign and connecting with other organizers
Raised $30,000
Group strategy
Visioning session planning and facilitation
Supporting small projects by empowering leaders to grow as organizers, grow in the role + ladder of engagement
Organizing fundraisers
$2000 from Lysistrata with TSP
Hot Stuff fundraiser raised $750 with 416 Dating
April fundraiser raised $4750 through board/exec pages on website
Making connections for an intersectional movement
E.g. Fight for 15
Hours are rough estimates, not precise
For Board/Exec to understand role, also to help transition anyone else who would want to be in the role
Splitting roles would have advantages and disadvantages, but possible to do and would benefit
Oversight of time? Is that the Board?
Take some responsibility off the President’s shoulders; it’s hard to say no, but if you could defer to group processes for approval of overtime, it becomes easier to get support to prioritize and lighten the load
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1j14gGX4MnaCMCdwa_RrP2iNo6nvrnxy2uJZGtvpQsKU/edit
Next step: Conversation: talk about evaluation and oversight of President’s time
Stretch break!
Financial update
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nb-jYkQfg07s8QxwHRdL0falB2VCY16cHqVNnW2hsZ4/edit#gid=0
PayPal and Authorize.net are monthly, Stripe is one-time
No grants this year, all income has been from donations
Next step: Conversation: How can we keep communicating with donors and maintain relationships, help them see where their money is going?
In a healthy financial situation to support ongoing actions and meeting expenses
Effectively, currently at $5000
Ellery will continue to update this document once a month
Stretch break!!! (your brain and your body)
Fundraising plan
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vRaj7ATcPMJj6YcaMau6Zgcdk3opNEczz_HBOWbhJLA/edit
We’ve had attrition rate of 5 or 6 monthly donors over a year and a half (which sounds like low attrition, from experience)
Next step: conversation about attrition and payment systems
Some grants require you to be a corporation to apply; could be an important factor
Board could do more to support president with fundraising
Next step: move this conversation to e-mail
Proposal 1: We pay the president for the month of March, at $18.52/hour, 20 hours/week, which works out to around $1500.
What would the hours be used for?
More fundraising to a point of sustainable, higher monthly donations; still regular responsibilities (about 50/50 split but will depend on week)
Require an invoice, Tres gets a contract
8 in favour: 2 abstentions
Proposal 2: Provided there is a minimum of $3500 in Toronto350’s bank account at the end of the month, we will commit to paying the president for the following month, at $18.52/hour, 20 hours/week. We will start using this guideline at the end of March.
Set an end date or review period, maybe June +
5 in favour, 4 abstentions, 1 against
Go-around
Hesitation, feels precarious to pay about half our income on staff
Good proposal, could be complex, review period good idea, steady funds, use money for important president things is worthwhile
Feels precarious, not comfy with position of paid staff not knowing whether they’ll be paid, no better way to spend money without someone receiving a decent wage
Definitely need to pay someone this month to survive, March is good trial period, expense for this group is paid staff -- we need people resources and time, and that’s our tool to effect change
Agree!
We’re all passionate about this; but money could go based on need
Agree that we need someone in March; might talk about decreasing hourly rate if we were worried about money
We should frontload fundraising work to this next month, make sure it gets needed time; not comfortable with financial situation being precarious month to month
Might actually be less precarious than the last couple of months
4) Incorporation (Brandon/Pallavi?) (30 min.)
Thanks to Pallavi for doing research on advantages/disadvantages of being incorporated
Summary of research
Definition of incorporation
Legalities
Advantages
Disadvantages
Discussion of next steps
If we are going to stay incorporated, we need someone to continue filling the Treasurer role, since Ellery is leaving in April :’(
5) Exec Roles (Tres/Amelia Rose) (20 min.)
What roles and responsibilities do you currently have?
Where could you use support?
What work would you want to do if you had the capacity?
Short discussion on next steps
6) Recap decisions and next steps (5 min.)
Next step: talk about oversight of President’s time, possible support and accountability structures with the Board
Next step: How can we keep communicating with donors and maintain relationships, help them see where their money is going?
Next step: conversation about attrition and payment systems
Next step: schedule emergency board meeting within next two weeks on incorporation and fund-raising
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Exec Meeting Agenda February 14th 2017
Land acknowledgement (1min)
"I would like to acknowledge this sacred land on which the Steelworkers Hall operates. It has been a site of human activity for 15,000 years. This land is the territory of the Huron-Wendat and Petun First Nations, the Seneca, and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit River. The territory was the subject of the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement between the Iroquois Confederacy and Confederacy of the Ojibwe and allied nations to peaceably share and care for the resources around the Great Lakes.
Today, the meeting place of Toronto is still the home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work in the community, on this territory."
Introductions (4 min)
Announcements (8 min)
Conflict resolution workshop is Tuesday march 21 2017
Divest waterloo is having an event with big name speaker march 7th. Details tbd. Trying to maybe have a spinoff event here
Meeting for the 29th climate march is 3-5 Thursday March 16 from 3 to 5pm.
Putting requests for money in a doc: Tresanne (2 min)
Fundraising (30 min)
Mainly job of president, Amelia Rose has expressed interest
Important for exec and board to help
Kalina willing to do events
Tresanne might get full time job, in which case more fundraising would fall on her replacement, but she would still assist
One of important things is to increase monthly donations
How do we feel about asking for money? Awkward. Needs to be justified. More comfortable doing it online/by email.
Rates of success for getting people to donate are much higher face-to-face than via email or phone
How do you feel when you donate money? Phil: best to have previous exposure to issue/organization. Katie: prefer to donate to something smaller where the money may be more beneficial.
Why do you give money? Roger: because it’s meaningful, it benefits society. Phil: if they don’t get my money, they won’t make it! Tresanne: if it’s a smaller thing, you know it will be more appreciated.
A difference in who is asking for the money (ie. if it’s someone you know, you’ll be more receptive than to a stranger)
Tresanne and Amelia Rose were on fundraising calls last year organized by 350.org
Make fundraising FUN! Yaaaaay!
Social events are good too because even if not a lot of money is made, relationships are and those are valuable, sister
Thank you gifts to donors (ie. free alcohol at events)
If you know people, approximately half of them will say yes
If a group has a fundraising plan, they are more likely to be successful (we have one - hooray!), keep it updated
Where does money come from? About 7/10 adults give money, 20% of people on welfare give money, volunteers more likely to donate, more people give money to charities than vote
Asking to donate an hour of income every month is a good place to start
Last year we had Board members make little blurbs about themselves and assign a monetary goal for them to fundraise via friends and family - was good to introduce people to the Toronto350 team as well, also fun
Do we want to do this again this year? Maybe in April.
Last year people matched donations up to a certain amount, but if we want to increase monthly donors we could do “with each new monthly donor, someone will donate $10”
If monthly donors don’t work out, we need to do fundraising event sooner
Kim Fry wanted to do concert on week of April 29 - could be fundraiser for Toronto350 - Tresanne and Kalina should chat to align this with in-progress planning
Are we comfortable with asking people to donate? Asks should start via email in first week of April, phone calls second week to follow-up and make sure to thank people! Goal - 7 people each
Can we get list of current monthly donors so we’re not overlapping?
Tresanne will send out list of current monthly donors
Tresanne will talk to Board members about fundraising
All exec members send little blurb with photo for fundraising competition
Exec Roles (50 min)
April 11 is elections
Tresanne will be running for president, the vice president role is a new one
Ellery is stepping down as Treasurer, we need a new one!
Tresanne will send Amelia Rose description of Treasurer role
If we unincorporate and don’t have a Treasurer, Katie will run, otherwise she will stay as Volunteer Coordinator and Pipelines Campaign lead
Amelia Rose will be sending out a call for Treasurer
Amelia Rose: do not recommend multiple positions, there is a lot of work to do on each campaign, and it makes it harder to get work done. He will be dropping Divest OTPP campaign lead - Katie would choose Pipelines over VC
Will be openly advertising for all positions, will cross problem bridges when we come to them
Does everyone feel their position matches its description?
Will be putting call out to members list, Amelia Rose will be sending it out as well
Roger is here until August when he moves to Kitchener, probably a good idea to get someone new in the position so he can train them
Media & Creative Coordinator tends to be same position - very closely related
Phil, do you still want to stay on as Research Coordinator? We didn’t use him that often, but he likes digging deeper into things.
Amelia Rose: for Divest OTPP, being on the executive committee has not helped with the campaign that much, suggesting we drop campaigns from exec and have them all meet monthly with exec/pres to update them on the campaign. For his campaign, hardly anyone from general members or exec gives enough for it to be beneficial. If campaigns are meeting once a month, it means they’re coordinating. Katie: I think the last OTPP rally benefited a lot from executive and members meetings. Tresanne: would be helpful to have the meeting so it’s not just campaign leads coming to meetings to represent. Amelia Rose: it would be easier for campaigns to coordinate with each other. OTPP meets more often. Campaign leads should be elected, but not on exec so they’re not bombarded with exec emails and worries. It is inefficient. For example, Valerie was the lead of the COTTFN fundraising, but not on exec.
Roger: two very different things a) campaign leads meeting with executive committee to update and ask for support; b) executive and campaign leads communicating and engaging with members on campaign happenings
Amelia Rose: it can be hectic trying to manage both a campaign lead position and executive
Katie: being on executive committee and pipelines lead has been very beneficial - she comes to meetings, engages with new members, etc. Always room for improvement for communication - ask Katie if you need volunteers!! Talking about fundraising with campaign leads is a good thing because campaigns can know the financial situation of the group, know their budget, and know when to apply for funding
Caleb: if it’s not valuable to be on exec as campaign lead, then they shouldn’t, but also people shouldn’t be forced off executive if they are a campaign lead. Often we focus on one thing as an entire group, and then shift to another.
Should it be optional to be on the executive committee if you are a campaign lead? YES. It is the responsibility of campaign leads to update the group on what’s going on.
Should people hold more than one role on the executive committee?
Discouraged from taking on two roles, encouraged to calculate your own time accurately
Position | Current person | Who is Running |
Pres | Tresanne | Tresanne |
Vice pres | -- | Amelia Rose |
Treasurer | Ellery | Katie? Kalina? |
Volunteer Coordinator | Katie | Katie |
Admin | Caleb | Caleb? |
Media Coordinator | Kalina | Kalina |
Creative Coordinator | Kalina | Kalina |
Communications Coordinator | Roger | |
Research Coordinator | Phil | Phil? (encourage new ppl) |
Pipelines Campaign lead | Katie | Katie |
Municipal campaign lead | Caleb? | |
OTPP campaign lead | Amelia Rose |
Ellery will not be running for any position.
Katie: if we had a strong candidate who wanted the volunteer coordinator position, she is open to any position. Admin and Communications are pretty good for new people to take on. She can encourage keeners at new volunteer nights.
Aiming to have new volunteer night next week!
Kiki is an artist who might be interested in running.
Erin is new, but will be leaving in the summer.
Kalina will reach out to Alex.
Katie will reach out to ppl who have been to one or two meetings in the past month or so.
Katie has idea for week of action after April 29.
Something outside US consulate
Talked about big black material
What if we surrounded consulate holding big black banners saying “Who’s in charge? Trudeau, Trump, or Exxon?”
Probably the Thursday before the march
Volunteer Orientation: prep for after the 29th. (25 min)
How do we keep energy going for volunteers after the post-action crash?
Katie: this year the big march is at the beginning of summer instead of the end, might be good to have a summer of outreach (tabling, farmer’s markets, etc.) Maybe taking the dinosaur for a walk?
Kinder Morgan construction is set to start in September
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TORONTO350 EXECUTIVE MEETING MINUTES
May 2, 2017
Intros
Valerie
Caleb
Amelia Rose
Tresanne
Kalina
Anju
Land Acknowledgement
I acknowledge the sacred territory on which the United Steelworkers Hall operates. This land has been a site of human activity for over 15,000 years. We recognize we are on First Nations territory and are grateful to be working on this land.
Support for New/Old Exec (15min)
Valerie has emailed Katie about getting oriented, hoping to see her early next week
Caleb will be doing projects until June, will figure out path for municipal campaign so we can have it ready for the fundraiser on the 13th
Tresanne needs ppl to do their jobs so she doesn’t have to worry about checking in
Amelia Rose’s role hasn’t been fully defined so they’re not sure yet
Anju met with manager, he has approved her submitted paperwork, it’s waiting with the ethics committee, but the manager’s approval is most important so it’s most likely all going to work out, going to hear within next day or two
What it Means to be Exec (30min)
want new volunteers to get engaged planning actions, etc. and we can do more behind the scenes work
make sure that events run smoothly because that’s where we can recruit volunteers
accountability by having a name associated to a task
be aware of financial situation (treasurer give updates to group)
knowing what’s going on with individual campaigns
campaign updates in writing from campaign leads
exec meeting should include campaign summaries (challenges, risks, achievements)
individual campaign strategy sessions for long-term planning
what campaigns are still viable? What new campaigns can we take on? What is our capacity for doing things?
We prob will keep the three we have. Don[‘t have capacity for more
OTPP – having their campaign strategy session
identifying stakeholders for the campaigns
all be promoting events ppl are working on
Kalina thinks we should all have a social media presence, Tresanne doesn’t want to push those not on social media to be present
Kalina offers to share social media “skills” with Ashley
in Anju’s company there are matching programs for donations (ie. whatever employees contribute to a charity, the company matches it)
April 29 Debrief (30min)
Tres: please don’t volunteer Toronto350 to be the running bank account for events without getting permission from the Treasurer and the President (as a non-profit if we go over $50,000 we have to hire an accountant to go over the books)
some of us got spread very thin because we were part of April 29 planning, but we also have responsibilities as members of exec, etc.
having flyers for upcoming events is important
Amelia Rose: we had too many people on organizing committee for the march (a lot of exec), more should have been done from other groups (this may have been possible if we had less ppl involved), on the day we missed signing people up for Toronto350 email lists and volunteering
Caleb: the march was good, the lead-up events were not well attended enough, having weeks in either direction completely fell through, Valerie raised an idea of having Toronto350 plan the march itself and the other groups do the lead-up events which would have worked. Kalina got saddled with social media, we need to make sure people are doing their jobs.
Valerie: march was great, organizing in two months when six would have been awesome, 500-600 people marched in Vancouver, in future we should designate certain people to be involved with a project like this
Anju: not enough publicity of Toronto350!! Didn’t see anyone from science community being represented (people from indigenous communities, political communities represented, but no scientists) Tres: so many of us had a role at the march that we didn’t have a chance to be “Toronto350”
Estela: there were almost too many people organizing, emails seemed like there was a lot of miscommunication, would’ve like to have Toronto350 more publicized, was confusing as to who was putting on the march, on social media front there should be ONE person doing social media
Kalina: From to350, needed help on social media from our communications coordinator. To350 was the only org doing lead up events and follow up actions. Thought other orgs would and would do more than endorse (have their name on it). Was getting criticized for not promoting teach in, but wasn’t getting help with our pre event promo. Other organizers from pcm didn’t attend any of our lead up events. Social media document – had hashtags, examples, links to fb, Eventbrite, bitly everything – nobody used. Could have been filled out by any exec. Boosted. Tresanne saying ppl don’t read docs isn’t a good excuse. Once the google group was created, created threads for each thing, didn’t get a reply from it
Keeping things in threads that are relevant to that thread
some ppl couldn’t access the google group
wanted to do postering, people not replying
preventing these things from happening in the future
subgroups working on comms, endorsers, speakers, lead up events, art build
making connections through lead up events
lead up events help get people out
capacity wise lead up was a lot – promotions was hard part
being clear with endorsers of what endorser means. is it just a name on the poster, how involved will they be
Volunteer Engagement
exec are not going to volunteer coordinator for people (Katie)
need to let Volunteer Coordinator know what we need and actively engage volunteers that come to meetings and events
Tres: in last few weeks, Rose and Sara have stepped up because we had specific event happening, but otherwise it falls to campaigns to have action items (maybe each campaign summary should have three action items)
Estela: could we have rotating volunteer positions? Tres: up to vol coordinator and exec to make that happen
Valerie: having routine would help. Is there a particular thing new people are good at or enjoy? Does this match with a campaign? We should have a routine.
Estela: when first went to Toronto350 meeting they had different lists for interests, where was that supposed to go?
Anju: we need to have exec profiles with skills and areas of interest
Going around the circle at the end of meetings to go over next task for the week has been very beneficial (maybe we should bring updates to beginning of meetings too so there’s a place to admit when you’re over capacity or need help). Anju: should be a smaller working group where this discussion happens
posting about group meetings on Facebook
Estela: adoptathons that she helps with has specific list of people to send out to in different locations to narrow interest. We need to figure out what we need and figure out roles from there.
May 13 Fundraiser
Rose and Tresanne have planned Mother’s Day weekend family friendly event
bake sale, raffle prizes, and games at Trinity St. Paul’s for three hours
needs help finding raffle prizes (something for home, candles, awesome poster, bags, etc.)
game ideas
Estela will do flyer for May 13
Kalina needs to make flyer for beer launch
Kinder Morgan
at Marxism conference Myeengun Henry spoke as well as a woman from a west coast First Nation, they will be setting up camps and looking for financial support
Chippewas of the Thames
trying to find out what community wants to do when Supreme Court decision comes down
will get called on the Monday to say they’ll receive decision on the Thursday
Valerie talked to Lana at Greenpeace
Upcoming Events
TCAN AGM May 13
COTTFN??
Grassroots College has an upcoming workshop series ($50 total), can we spread the word? If people in Toronto350 want to do it, they would waive the fee. Do we know any people who want to be mentors? Workshops are from 12-5 downtown on Saturdays in May-June.
Canadian Labour Congress is holding their National Convention on Thursday, May 11 @ 5:30pm, Metro Toronto Convention Centre – great opportunity to learn labour perspective on climate change
Next Steps
Anju: template for campaign summary page, look into company’s donation matching program
Kalina & Anju – action plan
Next Meeting
invite people who signed up on April 29 events to do something, perhaps breakout meetings
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Executive Meeting Minutes
May 16, 2017
- Land Acknowledgment
- I acknowledge the sacred land on which the United Steelworkers Hall and the University of Toronto operate. This land has been a site of human activity for 15,000 years. This land is the territory of the Huron-Wendat and Petun First Nations, the Seneca, and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit River. The territory was the subject of the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement between the Iroquois Confederacy and Confederacy of the Ojibwe and allied nations to peaceably share and care for the resources around the Great Lakes. Today, the meeting place of Toronto is still the home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work on this territory.
- Intros
- Tresanne (Pres)
- Amelia Rose (Co-pres)
- Kalina (Media & Creative)
- Caleb (Municipal Lead)
- Erin (Research)
- Valerie (Volunteer)
- Katie (Pipelines Lead)
- Campaign Updates
- Pipelines: waiting to follow the lead of others in terms of Kinder Morgan and Energy East. Still waiting on news for the Chippewas Supreme Court case. Kinder Morgan will be heating up during the summer – anticipated construction date is in the fall. Different fronts on Kinder Morgan include legal challenges (is website where you can donate to various challenges, some indigenous, some environmental). Valerie gave Katie a contact from a First Nation in BC who spoke at Marxist seminar and they have plans to do frontline defense – is there a way we can tie into this? There will be a lot of work being done by 350Canada for KM. Panel that was supposed evaluate NEB came out with their report which said they should scrap NEB completely. Federal government will draw the process out as much as they can. Environmental and indigenous networks have been arguing that the NEB should be dealt with before approving a pipeline like Energy East. Considering up- and downstream greenhouse gas emissions (this is something we can get people to do in the short term – until end of May). Hoping to have pipelines strategy meeting on May 28 (Sunday). Want to use beer launch as strategically as possible. Want to train volunteers to be able to go to bars, sell the beer, and get staff knowledgeable on what it’s supporting. Vision for the summer is a lot of outreach at events – raising money and awareness, making it a thing people in Ontario care about. Valerie has tried to reach Myeengun about a response from COTTFN when the decision comes in – could be something the community wants us to do to show support. Treaty Alliance Against Tar Sands Expansion launched a campaign to pressure banks to defund the pipelines. Katie would like us to be able to go to COTTFN.
- Municipal: There is a TransformTO letter sent out by TCAN asking environmental groups to sign on – Caleb thinks we should support. We do! Try to get high profile building in downtown Toronto to do some sort of green energy retrofit, excitement around getting Queen’s Park to do it, but it has a historical designation so we can’t. Green buildings are a big part of TransformTO, as well as the provincial plan. Goal to have 100% of municipal buildings carbon neutral. Valerie drafted note to Green Jobs for All Coalition, Caleb sent it out before the meeting to see if they’d be willing to work with us – link retrofitting with green jobs. Also published GreenPrint for Toronto, which is a plan to keep Toronto from being hit with major effects of climate change. Caleb is making a doc with all the campaign info, goals, and action ideas so it’s all in one place. He will share with the exec once it’s ready. Wants to plan out the campaign really well before launching it, take the time we need. End of July-mid July is an approximate timeline.
- Divest OTPP: In April there was the climate march so the campaign took a little break, but Jeff Rubin spoke at CIGI in Waterloo. He spoke on financial aspects of divestment from all sectors. We connected with Divest Waterloo who put on the event, and there is a live stream video of the event that they want to push out to audiences – Brian is helping with this outreach. Main focus is normally on various different meetings that happen (March, April, August), but between those times there’s not much opportunity for action, and Brian is still strategizing how to move the campaign forward.
- Exec Roles and Updates
- Erin: researched the Dish With One Spoon Treaty mercury poisoning. She will likely not be able to attend meetings anyone and will be moving soon. Martin seemed interested so Erin will get in touch and try to find a replacement.
- Valerie: ideas around a routine and volunteer retention. Having some difficulties, but Estela will come over and help her through it. Getting familiar with NationBuilder is more complicated than anticipated. She is not totally comfortable with this aspect of volunteer coordination. Katie will help her again as well, and Ryan has volunteered his time to come train.
- Amelia Rose: They are shadowing Tresanne, talking about a fundraiser film in July. Potential for fundraiser around panel discussion of scientists speaking around the idea of getting to 350ppm.
- Tresanne: she is really busy in the next two months because she’s going away for a bit. She’s trying to transition Amelia Rose into the role and still finishing financial details of April 29. Potential for additional funds from the climate march to go to Toronto350. Not sure about final totals from May 13th fundraiser, but will update once she gets Rose’s expenses. Got our name out well and was a lot of fun! Also working on donor relations. Her payment is up in the air for next month right now, but once she figures out expenses/financials she’ll have a better idea. We got over $200 in recurring donations from monthly donor challenge.
- Hydro
- OhmConnect has partnered with TorontoHydro for incentives to power down during peak hydro hours. People who sign up receive monetary rewards for following through! It’s based on their previous year or two averages. For every person who signs up we get $15, and they have Facebook posts that we can use to promote.
- Indigenous Solidarity
- Kalina: thinks we should be open to engaging in debate on social media to be able to sway popular opinion
- Katie: we should be more concerned with indigenous groups than the climate vegans, doesn’t think we should put anything else out to reopen any closed doors. Indigenous groups who have a relationship with us know that we’re okay.
- Caleb: we should do the statement of solidarity in the context of Resist150
- Amelia Rose: agrees.
- Social Media
- Kalina may do a workshop for Ashley and other peeps – May 30th
- KALINA FOLLOW UP WITH ASPA ABOUT GREENPEACE SPACE
- Incorporation
- we are currently incorporated as a non-profit
- a few months ago the board met with 3 members and 4 exec, one was there for 5min via phone – they talked about un-incorporating and the board voted to do it
- they were waiting until the march was over to go through with the paperwork
- now up to exec to say yes or no
- since then we have heard that most of the board may not want to be on the board anymore for various reasons
- three ways to stay incorporated:
- current board stays board
- majority of board leaves, we select new board, must have minimum 3 board members & max 11
- exec members become board
- need decision quickly
- is the burden the board is talking about actually related to being on an incorporated board
- advantages of being incorporated:
- adds security to employees
- can apply to certain grants
- helps with organizing events
- disadvantage
- financial responsibilities (taxes, etc.)
- only 10% of stuff can be political if we become a charitable organization
- Amelia Rose spoke to two people who work for incorporated groups and they said if we have staff or are using stuff particular to non-profit groups then we should stay that way
- we would need at least three people to step in because of the likelihood of board members resigning
- what does the board do?
- they have to meet twice a year
- take on the liability
- a few board members feel we have too much structure, want to eliminate paid staff and board, feel we could do more activist work without that stuff
- Amelia Rose: since the Treasurer has to do financial stuff it would make sense for him/her to be on the board
- Board positions: Chair, Treasurer, Fundraising
- Next steps:
- tell board we want to stay incorporated
- see who wants to stay members of the board
- board of three members
- past board mandate said President does fundraising, so we’d have to modify
- do we have a plan to replace board members? Can we call a shotgun meeting to elect an interim board?
ameli...@toronto350.org
Exec Meeting Minutes
May 30th, 2017
Participants:
From executive – Amelia Rose, Valerie (both took notes), Ashley
Non-executive – Sara, Rose (didn’t get notice in time that today’s meeting was for executive only)
1. Establishing a routine for our meetings
All agreed that establishing a routine would be helpful with retention of new members, as long as there is sufficient notice of meetings and that the routine is followed consistently
Agreed that Executive, with input from members, will establish a monthly calendar that will be sent to members at the beginning of each month, along with weekly reminders four days in advance (by Estela, Ashley, Valerie)
Also noted that there could be special or extraordinary events that can “throw off” the routine, and we need to be flexible without abandoning the routine altogether
Try to stick to just one meeting or event each week, so people aren’t overloaded
As resources permit, provide food at meetings (e.g. pizza, veggie tray)
NOTE: Calendar will be posted on our web page
AGREED: In general our routine will be as follows – with meetings every Tuesday:
1st Tuesday – Executive only; 6:30p.m. Steel Hall
2nd Tuesday – for everyone; first hour educational and second hour campaign and event planning and evaluation; 6:30 p.m. Steel Hall
3rd Tuesday – for everyone planning meeting on campaigns and following month’s calendar
4th Tuesday – for everyone –5-6 pm – public outreach/tabling; locations tba including near downtown subway stations
2. Ideas for educationals (2nd Tuesdays of the month)
General:
presenters can be from TO350 and other organizations
focus will be on climate change but could also include presentations from other campaigns that have had success/lessons for us (e.g. Fight for $15 and Fairness, a campaign we endorse)
we can have speakers and/or films (or other formats?)
Specific suggestions:
June 13th first hour – Major issues with pipelines in Canada; second hour skills-building (how to engage/respond to the public on these issues); ACTION: Sara and Valerie to approach Katie to be the presenter
For other dates:
Political advocacy – how to?
Speakers on science of climate change – approach UofT faculty (Sara to approach); TCAN, Toronto Renewable Energy Network
Solidarity with Indigenous campaigns e.g. Myeengun Henry, others
Lessons from the Fight for $15 and Fairness – Pam Frache possible presenter
Good Jobs for All Coalition – either co-chair as possible presenter
3. Voting to Executive
AGREED there will be a vote re: Ashley to take on role of Internal Communications (6 days notice required)
In future will need to replace Erin for research, as she will be stepping down
4. Board of Directors – new directors (information)
The Treasurer to become a member of the Board
Will reduce size of Board to 3, with a focus on fundraising (especially from donors; FUNdraising events can still be organized by executive and members)
5. TO350 Materials
Action:
a)Valerie will store materials currently held by Tresanne (t-shirts, buttons)
b)Need to find out who has petitions and leaflets (Katie?)
c) for public outreach activities we need a folding table (does anyone have one) and a “Roll up” - Ashley and Sara to research this and see if we can afford a good quality one for displays
6. Next Meetings
Cancel Nation Builder training earlier scheduled for June 6
June 6 – Planning meeting for all (exception to general routine because of pre-scheduled activities – to debrief Beer Launch and plan for educational and public outreach
June 13 – Educational on pipeline issues; followed by skills-building on engaging with the public on these issues
June 20 – plan next week’s public outreach (e.g. materials, location)
June 27 – Tabling 5 pm
7. June 3 Beer Launch
Be there at 5 pm if possible
Info materials – Katie
Selling pizza and samosas – Valerie, Ashley and Rose available to sell at tables
Music – Katie
Sound equipment – Sara
Postering - tell Katie if available to poster on Thursday
- All – help clean up after 9 pm
ameli...@toronto350.org
Minutes-Executive Meeting-July 4, 2017
Land Acknowledgement
Present: Ashley, Tresanne, Brian, Katie, Sean
Items:
1. Invite people to showing of “”Tomorrow” film at York on Facebook!! So far not very many invited on facebook. An email was sent out. There are also posters available.
2. Hootsuite-what is it? Simultaneously posts on different social media, can schedule ahead of time. Any known dates (both for Toronto350.org and other general environmental days) can be put in calendar right away. Tresanne suggested Toxic Tour in Aamjiwnaang as one. Is there a calendar where people can add content on Hootsuite? Ashley doesn’t think so. There is a google calendar that we all share, which is now on the website as well. If someone is at an event and takes pictures, email to Ashley and she can post on everything.
3. Pipeline Campaign--Beer Project--3 bars currently serving Hopposition Ale, 2 are on board to hold events. It was agreed to purchase the 2500 light weight coasters-Brian will order, for $507, using the $371.50 from Pipelines campaign and try to ask for more money at the next members meeting to cover the rest. Katie suggested that the Pipelines campaign could also ask for another $500, as the last $500 was from October, more than 6 months ago. Katie also suggested formalizing a set amount for campaigns every 6 months (ie: $500 every 6 months) so that we can all plan ahead..
4. Strategy Session-Amelia Rose suggested this agenda item, and is not present, so it was shelved. Last strategy session was in December (?)
5. Working with Other Groups-currently work with $15 and Fairness (Amelia Rose is at their meeting now). Valerie has suggested getting more involved with Labour focused groups like Good Jobs for All. Need more coordination with other environmental groups as well (ie-Greenpeace) on things like pipelines and divestment. Would it be one person working on this? An executive role? What would we ask other groups to do with us? Specific campaigns? OR to develop coordinated campaigns? Difference between just supporting other groups (through sharing promotion of events etc) and actually developing a relationship/campaign with another group. Liaising with other groups is meant to be a role for the President. President should share opportunities for coordinating with other groups. Members can volunteer to go to other groups and report back. This discussion can be continued.
6. New Rules for Requesting Funds--Need to work out how campaigns get money, how often and how much and by what process. How much should be budgeted per year for campaigns and projects? Katie and Tresanne thought that there was a standard $500 that campaigns could request every 6 months. Also, how do special projects request money? It was proposed that budgets for events need to be submitted at least 1 month before. But, does that compromise our ability to be nimble? Postponed for decision making until Treasurer and President elect are present.
7. Next Meeting--July 11 “Tomorrow” Film--at York University--
Update-need mc, mics, and tables.--Can York do tables? Tresanne wiill look into that. Tresanne and Amelia Rose are organizing--but would like other members to MC. No one present was going to be attending (except Tresanne).
ac
July 18, 2017 Campaign Meeting Minutes
Land Acknowledgement (2min)
I acknowledge the sacred land on which the United Steelworkers Hall operates. This land has been a site of human activity for 15,000 years. This land is the territory of the Huron-Wendat and Petun First Nations, the Seneca, and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit River. The territory was the subject of the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement between the Iroquois Confederacy and Confederacy of the Ojibwe and allied nations to peaceably share and care for the resources around the Great Lakes. Today, the meeting place of Toronto is still the home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work on this territory.
Intro + Names (5min)
CAMPAIGN PLANNING (110min)
Next week’s tabling (10 mins)
At Trinity Bellwoods Farmers market
Tuesday the 25th at 5-7
Will be about Kinder Morgan
Who will be there
Tresanne
Rose
Kevin
Valerie
Brian? (he has the supplies)
Handouts about TO350, Beer campaign, Flyer for August Educational, Sign-up sheets, TransformTO
Next month’s educational (10 mins)
Last two were on pipelines and Demain (a movie)
Next
TransformTO and the info about Municipal campaign by Caleb (September)
Decolonization 101 by Tresanne (in August)
Communications around this
Post of Facebook and Twitter
Email Blast
Post on blogTO, NOW ant Toronto.com (on website and possibly in print)(Sarah)
Do this for any events going forward because it’s easy
Flyer (Sarah)
Next month’s calendar (5 mins)
August 1: Exec meeting (anyone can come) 6:30-8:30 at 25 Cecil
August 8: Educational Event (6:30-8:30 at 25 Cecil)
August 15: Campaign Planning Meeting (6:30-8:30 at 25 Cecil)
August 22: Tabling (TBD)
August 29: TBD (Social?)
Election of a new Research Coordinator (10 mins)
Rose Elected 5-0-0
Amendments to the constitution (10min)
Voting membership
Wants to make voting membership eight or ten meetings instead of 2
Educational events, campaign meetings and outreach should be included
2.5 months seems like a lot
We should separate voting membership on elections and money
To vote on financial matters, one must have attended 10 events (Educational, Tabling, Meetings)
For non-financial votes 6 events is enough
5-0-0 passes
Pipelines Campaign discussion (30 mins)
Our current project that is raising funds for the fight against Kinder Morgan
We are brewing a beer with Junction Brewery to raise money for legal battles against KM Hopposition Ale
This is to show Canada-wide opposition to KM
Next Event: the Greater Good (229 Geary Ave.) Wednesday July 19 at 7:30-10:30
There is good support, keep reaching out to bars to carry it
There is a limited amount of beer
Jess will reach out to local media contacts (send her info: Ashley)
In Vancouver there will be a big Rally on September 9 against KM
Will we do a solidarity march? Yes!
Who will take a lead in this? (CFS will also help) Jess, Sarah, Kevin, Ashley (will send emails, Valerie will send contacts) can help
We will reach out to other groups (A29 organizers)
Reach out to Canada 350
Frame this around Frosh week (new batch of supporters)
Social media campaign (live video link)
Do a meet, not a march
Engage public (petiton, photo-op)
Do this at TD or other funder, have a specific target
COTTFN decision - rapid response?
A legal battle against line 9b (best chance to win)(we funded them)
We raised $35,000 and forged a good relationship with COTTFN
We will hear decision in the next two weeks
COTTFN will probably be meeting in Ottawa
They want us to support them in their action
Busses??
Greenpeace will probably do busses. We should contact them.
Municipal Campaign (30 mins)
Focus of the Municipal Campaign is green building retrofits which is in line with TransformTO’s plan to retrofit all government buildings by 2050
Decided to pursue public schools as there are more social co-benefits
Next task is choosing school or group of schools that we will reach out to and build a working relationship with to put this plan in motion
Want to go with a school in a more low-income area
Caleb wants to focus on schools that are grade 7 and up in order to have a greater effect on the students and show them that there are jobs in the climate/renewable energy sector
Sarah suggested a school near a community garden as parents in those areas may have already involved their kids in community gardens/environmental initiatives
Valerie suggested that a school near a community centre could also work. The Parkdale/Regent Park area would be suitable
Valerie suggested combining environmental aspect, social aspect and climate jobs with this initiative
Caleb’s Suggestions: Parkdale Collegiate, Ryerson Public, Runnymede, Jarvis Collegiate, Danforth Tech, etc.
Looked at working with ally organizations including Good Jobs for All, Toronto Environmental Alliance, etc.
Should we partner with school board trustee? We can reach more schools this way, but have to be careful of being non-partisan
Do people have connections with other organizations related to the school sector? Sarah can reach out to her contact at the Suzuki Foundation
Jess suggested identifying a teacher who is passionate about the environment and can would be willing to champion this
Can also research schools that have already participated in some green initiatives
Caleb can research eco-schools to find out more about this
Sean suggested having an education package we can present to people outlining costs, benefits, etc.
Can also reach out to organizations that do green energy retrofits, but need to reach out to schools first
Need a new name for the campaign
Suggestion: Green Futures
Would like to plan over the Summer and then approach a school and actively campaign in September
A trustee or teacher would be a good first contact, most schools also have eco-teams which are led by a teacher
Jess, Kevin, Sarah, Rose
8. Aamjiwnaang First Nation is doing a Toxic Tour of their community
The 19-20 of August
There will be busses by Rising Tides Toronto
Bus leaves the 20th
If you want the workshops the 19th, go by car
Look on Facebook and Eventbrite
There will be a movie in Toronto starring the Gray sisters about the chemical valley
Playing in the Summer works festival in Toronto
Go see it
More info: www.broadleaftheatre.com
ac
Executive Members Meeting - Tuesday, August 1, 2017
Ashley chairing
Land acknowledgment
Introductions
Agenda for the meeting: retreat, New York Times article, Kinder Morgan Solidarity meeting in September, Chippewas of the Thames.
Amelia-Rose: idea for a video to communicate to new members what Toronto 350 does.
We haven’t actually outlined the purpose of the video and how this would be useful
Ashley had the idea that the video could outline the up-coming events
General consensus that perhaps more of a promo video rather than giving information about up-coming events as otherwise would become redundant quite quickly. Useful for social media sharing etc about Toronto350
Ashley: Retreat: Caleb is leading the municipal campaign and has suggested the idea of a retreat for a weekend. His family has a cottage and possibly this is an idea for a retreat. This is something that needs to be discussed with him. Proposed dates; 16-17th, 23-24th September 2017, perhaps October would be better as many people are busy/away during September. General consensus; this needs to be discussed with Caleb and when more executive members are present ?could do a poll to see which dates would work for most people.
Amelia-Rose – Valerie has an idea of a reading circle where people can talk about articles or books that they have read. Might be an alternative to the tabling/outreach when the weather gets colder. Haven’t decided if this will replace the tabling or run along it as a separate event.
Sean : Possibly St Lawrence market for indoor tabling when the weather becomes colder
Could possibly look at the ‘Reading circle’ as a regular event or a social event ? once a month. Pub night as an idea. Diana - Kingston 350 had a social event every month with lots of food that was well organised and worked very well.
Short articles could be given out the week beforehand and then discussed at the reading circle. They could maybe related to the 2nd Tuesday educational event and be the responsibility of the person doing the next educational event.
Amelia-Rose: New York Times Article about the doom and gloom of climate change and how everything is happening faster than would initially thought. Some members (Brian) who are not here have expressed a desire to read and discuss the article – can we somehow use some of the material in our promotion. Nobody present is sure of the name of the article; can post the article on the T350 Facebook page.
Sean- Possibly the name is ‘The Uninhabitable Earth’ in the New York Times Magazine by David Wallace-Wells, July 9th 2017. This is also critiqued appropriately rather than pure shock tactics/catastrophising.
7.04pm: Kinder Morgan Solidarity Event. Ashley reached out to affiliated groups to see if they would be interested – one responded to say they could not assist, the other to say that they would be able to respond on a personal level only.
The Group in BC already has a lot of things in motion.
Rose to look into the availability of Yonge and Dundas Square for ?tabling idea.
Diana - ?candlelight vigil instead – something in the evening, ?educational/fundraiser. This could be discussed more at the Campaign Planning meeting. Ashley – Candlelight vigil sounds really nice; if this could be easily organised this might be the frontrunner idea. Perhaps a Social Media campaign could be the last resort.
Amelia-Rose: Line 9 decision. The Chippewas of the Thames, Supreme Court decision has come out against the First Nations petition. Since this has been lost they are giving the company 30 days notice and then some kind of action is going to happen – we are not really sure what this is. The pipeline is already up and running as it was approved two years ago – already running oil through this. Various different people in the group are looking into this and will report back with more information. ?What could be the potential next steps.
Ashley: Trying to raise awareness of Toronto 350 on Social Media. At the last meeting Jess gave a big list of potential ideas. Everyone reads the list and no objections made to any ideas.
Video interview may be difficult to organise - could we use iPhones to make the videos.
Why we fight – videos of members of T350 members.
Green Technologies – maybe this could be something, but need someone to look at this in more detail.
Sean - David Suzuki Foundation – Facebook page – keeps up to speed with latest green technology. Diana – can set up to have a personal news feed for the page and share this on the Facebook page of Toronto 350 news. ?is this set up on the T350 web page currently – probably not? Ashley – to look into this Facebook idea.
Diana – works in communication. Would be interested in helping out with the Facebook updates. Specializes in environmental photography.
Kalina is the media co-ordinator - perhaps could look into this.
Ashley and Diana to work together on the Facebook page.
Sean – would like to see an educational response to what has been in the media about line 9; misinformation / partial information – can T350 post correctional articles on the Facebook page?
Amelia-Rose; elections
T350 is non-profit – board, executive, members and volunteers. The board and the executive have to be elected every so often. The executive is elected every 6 months and the board every 12 months. Some people are stepping down from the Executive and we need to set up when we are going to have this election. Perhaps the next campaign meeting or the last week of August. Some board members have said they would like to step down; ?could we elect new board members. The election has to happen by December but it can happen before then.
Rose – T-shirts. From email responses there seem to be multiple ideas about the direction T350 could go with this. Perhaps the easiest/simplest option would be to pay to get these done by an external company such as freshly baked tees – could be done quite quickly and we know the t-shirts would be good quality. Can get a quote and see if ethically sourced t-shirts are available.
Next Week – Educational meeting lead by Tresanne – Decolonisation presentation.
Amelia Rose Khan
Executive Meeting Minutes
September 5, 2017
Land Acknowledgement
I acknowledge the sacred land on which the United Steelworkers Hall operates. This land has been a site of human activity for over 15,000 years. This land is the territory of the Huron-Wendat and Petun First Nations, the Seneca, and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit River. The territory was the subject of the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement between the Iroquois Confederacy and Confederacy of the Ojibwe and allied nations to peaceably share and care for the resources around the Great Lakes. Today, the meeting place of Toronto350 is still the home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island, and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work on this territory.
Introductions
Amelia Rose, Kalina, Caleb, Estela (late)
New President’s Agenda Moving Forward
Number of things coming up to prepare for
Most urgent thing is we need a new board
September 19 will be the date for the new board
Exec elections are coming up in October
Fundraising needs to be a more primary focus
President and treasurer are working on a fundraiser – not sure what it’ll be yet, but they’re meeting this week to discuss
It’s about not having to do a fundraiser all the time, but doing a bigger one once or twice a year so we’re not always trying to raise money. Trying to have stability
Planning a large fundraiser for the fall
Comments from Tresanne and from other people are conveying exec has low esteem – we have to figure out how to make the whole exec look at what they’re doing in a better light
Caleb – we phrased the idea of having a “mind, body, soul” healing circle where we talk about our experiences and work through things with a facilitator. Could be an idea for an educational night. Is it people’s conduct that is putting people off? Should we have some behavioural criteria to avoid certain situations?
Estela – making it clear what our roles are, they get jumbled sometimes (i.e. wasn’t aware of multiple people on social media)
Kalina – making it clear what the role of the executive committee is (when do we follow a democratic approach, when does an “executive decision” come into play), we should be asking more of each others’ individual roles
They were at a conference where they spoke of the need for more diversity
One person said we need to make an effort to bring people of colour onto the agenda more – actually reach out to people and ask them to be involved
We talk a lot about diversity and indigenous solidarity in our group, but if you read Tresanne’s resignation email, a lot of was that we don’t put these words into practice. We don’t go out and make it happen.
We need to make more of an effort to actually bring people here
There were a few more people of colour in the group a few years ago, a few have left and started a new group directly focussed on people of colour
Many ways we can do it – putting out climate justice policy, solidarity statements, connecting with different communities
If we want to make this something bigger, we have to try, not just see who comes to our meetings by chance – we need to be active!
Caleb – the solidarity squad that was set up after the last strategy session didn’t go forward at all and this was an effort to forge relationships with communities, we should make more of an effort on this concept. The idea of a climate justice policy is good to show that climate justice is something that we’re actually working on
Estela – you can’t force the connections, but we should watch what First Nations groups are doing so we can reach out when they may need help. We should do this more in between big events instead of letting the momentum fall (i.e. Chippewas still need support even though the court case is over). We need to make ourselves visible for when people need help. Going to events where we’re welcome and having a presence is good. The strawberry vigil that happens outside the police station every year would be another good one to attend.
Caleb – it would be interesting to look into attending things (not as just a promotional thing). We used to have a thing where 10% of our budget goes towards First Nations communities. Is that still a thing?
Amelia Rose – someone needs to bring it up. So, if a group needs help someone can suggest it, and it’ll happen. But someone has to bring it up, it doesn’t automatically happen. We have to choose one that everyone agrees with.
Caleb – the sit-in happening at INAC right now doesn’t always have hot food. It would be nice as an organization to make them something and bring it to them, and see what else they may need. It would be clear we are Toronto350 and it’s our thanks for what they are doing. At the facilitated discussion, we talked about how to make the climate more welcoming to indigenous peoples, and we should continue this discussion. Caleb will send out an email.
Executive Elections
Who is planning to stay on? It’d be good to know sooner rather than later.
They’ll probably be on October 10.
Kalina and Caleb are both planning on staying in the same roles
Board Elections
We have one returning board member, two others are stepping down, and another has said nothing yet
We need another two board members to make up a 3-person board – we can have as many as we want, but need a minimum of three
If anyone knows anyone they’d recommend to be a board member, let Amelia Rose know, and he’ll get in touch with them
There was an email sent out about it – please reference this for more info
Our board has not communicated with us a lot lately, but they’re expecting the next board to be more open with everyone else, and they will increase contact with the board as well
Maya is the board member staying on
Retreat
Only half the people got back to Caleb, and one person couldn’t make it
We’re not going to have a retreat, but we will have a one-day strategy session in downtown Toronto
Organizers have suggested October 14 – please let Amelia Rose know right away if this works for you
Agenda items: direct action as a tactic and how it’s not as accessible for POC, diversity and inclusivity in our organization, functions of the exec
Executive Ideas
trying to put together ideas – ones that most of exec will agree on
group always says new ideas are welcome and people can bring up any idea they want, and we see if we can move them forward in any way
if you have more ideas – keep ‘em coming!
Social Media
Past few years it was just people posting things, was usually a few people posting whatever they found & whatever they wanted
The last communications person did it whenever and mostly posted climate articles – that worked on and off, but sometimes he wasn’t around to post anything
Right now social media is working pretty well
People who work in PR have given us advice on what to do on social media
People in our group have generally thought these were good ideas
Kalina: we should be opening up more a of a conversation on our social media to get people engaged. “Inbound Marketing-” it’s harder than with a business because we’re not selling a product, we’re selling an idea so it’s hard to physicalize. Inbound marketing is the idea that we spend less time trying to get our message out to a broader audience, and more time on being effective when they come in. This means having answers to their questions in one space. For example, we talk about transitioning to renewable energy and going solar, but we don’t necessarily talk about the complications and obstacles that this technology still must overcome for this to be viable.
Estela: think we should keep to the large-scale posts and follow the guidance of the 350 Mother, we are about movement building and mass mobilization
Kalina: agree, but to be fair, those were posts that Ashley brought up at a meeting and were agreed upon by the group
Caleb – we should be focussing on more large-scale things, particularly on tar sands and pipelines. Doesn’t have a problem with posting the small things, but rarely. Interested in opening up debate of “how do we make the transition?” Could be good to occasionally start conversations.
Kalina – we could start a poll on Facebook to kickstart conversation
Estela – at the heart of the whole economic issue, until the subsidies of Big Oil (and investment) stops, then oil production keeps going
Caleb – that also makes people get involved with our strategy (side note: one of Caleb’s teachers saw the Tranzac event on social media and went)
Estela – we could post more international stuff, climate change is happening everywhere
Kalina – Posting about floods in Bangladesh during Hurricane Harvey was good because multiple examples create a through-line. Multiple articles making the same point about the same event (esp. same day) can just get redundant, but when an event happens, posting about other similar events can help people see the pattern instead of the anomaly
Estela is going to see who is still interested in being on the members list
Kalina – who should be in charge of social media? Do we want to send Ashley links? What do we want to do?
Caleb – ideally it’s just Ashley posting
Estela – person doing SM should have a clear idea of what can be posted
Facebook should be 2-3 posts per day, Twitter can be much more
Estela – could we chat every month about what our priorities are to talk about on social media that month?
Caleb – a lot of Twitter is circumstantial, we could play more with that, but it could be interesting to have a main focus for a month. We could have subtopics and more materials for people to reference if they want more info
Estela – we should be retweeting indigenous communities and making sure we’re following active communities (Idle No More posts all the time)
Kalina – posts cannot be going up with spelling and grammar mistakes and should be formatted nicely. Even IF we are going to put multiple paragraphs before a post, it must be formatted well (i.e. spaces between paragraphs, proper punctuation)
Talking about for-profit business postings online
Amelia Rose – if someone has helped us, getting their name out might not necessarily help us. Putting their name out there make it seems like we’re going to using them repeatedly. Greenwashing companies shouldn’t be posted on social media. In general, companies are looking towards their bottom line. Sometimes we just have to say we can’t put materials up on social media.
Estela: there are a lot of greenwashing companies, and it’s not our job to help businesses
Caleb – we definitely should not be posting about large corporations, we should talk about this more with the solidarity squad
Kalina – in some cases there are chances to build relationships with our community, and since we’re Toronto350, it’s important to promote those doing good things in our city. It adds to an intersectional approach that local businesses would become part of our community, especially when they may be struggling with new things such as $15&Fair or incurring the additional expenses that come with trying to run a greener business. I think it’s important to support these efforts, but I don’t think we should be touting businesses on social media. I think exceptions could be made.
RULE: for now, until further discussion with SS, no posting for-profit business without complete agreement from the executive
Campaigns
Urgency (new) – the urgency of climate change
Isn’t formulated, is something to be talked about more
Will talk about it at strategy session
Line 9
COTTFN said they would hold an action 30-days after the decision came out, it’s up in the air right now
Been suggested we do something here in Toronto
We talk about all the other pipelines, but we haven’t really talked about Line 9 in much detail for a few years, so we should address it
This will also be talked about more
Kinder Morgan
In total, Hopposition Ale has raised $800 for Pull Together
We made $300 at our last event on August 31
Event was posted more widely than previous ones
Money is going to BC
We need to look into what happens with the campaign when they make all the money they need
We’re looking into more events to raise more money
Suggestion from Valerie to do an event this Saturday in conjunction with the rally happening in BC (“Kinder Morgan We Still Say No”), Valerie is away and Katie is sick so we’d need someone to spearhead. This would involve making sure those who Valerie’s has been in touch with are contacted and making sure Katie stays updated. On our end, we may not be able to get enough people out.
Estela is away this weekend – we need more lead time for stuff like this
Caleb – we knew about this back in June or July and nobody took the lead – having a clear lead person would be good. The International Socialists wanted to be part of the event (5-8) people – if they’re going to do a tabling, we could come out and support. Would they be able to take the lead on this? Someone could send them copies of the petition. Caleb will email Peter to update him.
Kalina – made a #StopKM twibbon that we will use on September 9 on social media and check-in to the Vancouver rally
Energy East
Lot of NEB updates
Not sure if they’re restarting the NEB hearings
State government in Michigan is reviewing their Line 5 which may impact the flow of Line 9
Campaign Reporting Docs
Kalina – where’d they go?
Caleb – we should do them quarterly because they’re detailed and could get repetitive
What is the decision on these? Reports should be turned into executive at the beginning of a new season (i.e. at the exec meeting in the month of a changing season)
P4A Video
Idea brought up last year that we should follow through with
Caleb has people interested in merging science with activism – they want us to do presentations in classrooms or have a video of us
Goal to link science with civic action – these people want to make a doc with 350 (we’d be their “sample organization”)
They’ve offered a video production budget so this could be a good opportunity for us – thinking about making a 3-min video about our group and possibly other videos about specific things – could be done by December
Estela – does anyone have footage of 350 at big events? Yes we do!
Kalina and Caleb will follow up with this – make discussion part of next campaign planning meeting
Beer at Events
Recommend that we strictly say no alcohol allowed at potluck events
We’ve always prioritized alcohol – we should turn a new leaf, we drink after meetings and at social events, but perhaps we should try a new strategy
Going out for drinks after a meeting is a choice so people should be free to do that – at social events like potlucks we should have an alcohol-free environment
Conclusions/Next Steps
If you know anyone who may be interested in being a board member, forward their information to pres...@toronto350.org
Bring up energy/esteem of Executive – will address roles and expectations during fall strategy session
Increase solidarity and work with frontline communities by actively seeking out these groups and individuals – should we bring warm food to the people sitting-in at INAC?
Executive – please let Amelia Rose know if you’re planning to stay on the committee, and if yes, whether in the same position
We will not be having a retreat, but instead will have a strategy session in October
If you have something you think would be good to post on social media, send it to Ashley, and she will schedule it on Hootsuite
NO posting about for-profit businesses on social media unless agreed upon by the group beforehand
Solidarity Squad will talk more about the for-profit business postings if it needs further addressing
Going to be doing more work around Line 9 – not sure what form this will take
Kinder Morgan action on Saturday will be an online action – participants (anyone) will add this Twibbon to their profile picture when the rally kicks off in Vancouver and check-in to its location. Caleb is emailing Peter to coordinate
Campaign Reporting Docs will be due quarterly at the change of seasons by the executive meeting (i.e. by this, one would have been due at this meeting, but we’ll disregard – next one is due at December’s exec meeting, then March, June). All campaign leads are expected to have these completed on time.
Kalina and Caleb will look into getting the video made for P4A, and its content will be part of the next campaign meeting
Social events we’re hosting (e.g. potlucks) will be alcohol-free environments, but we can still hold events at places that serve alcohol, and people are free to go for drinks after a meeting
Amelia Rose Khan
Executive Meeting Minutes
October 10, 2017
Land Acknowledgement
I acknowledge the sacred land on which the United Steelworkers Hall operates. This land has been a site of human activity for 15,000 years. This land is the territory of the Huron-Wendat and Petun First Nations, the Seneca, and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit River. The territory was the subject of the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement between the Iroquois Confederacy and Confederacy of the Ojibwe and allied nations to peaceably share and care for the resources around the Great Lakes. Today, the meeting place of Toronto is still the home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work on this territory.
Introductions
Amelia Rose (President)
Valerie (Volunteer Coordinator)
Kalina (Media & Creative Coordinator)
Ashley (Communications Coordinator)
Review of agenda
Report Back
Great Lakes Water Walk
Location of the table wasn’t ideal
Should check next time where the walkers will be to maximize visibility
Got some sign-ups for Toronto350 and on the KM petition
Kalina - work with Brian on getting all the signage sorted
Toxic Tour
Amazing experience with lots of great people
Walked the tour this year instead of driving which really highlighted how much land was taken away
Suit against Ministry of Natural Resources for not updating the environmental assessment of the Chemical Valley (Ron Plain)
Executive Updates
Elections
We need two people basically: one to lead the group and the treasurer
Treasurer needs to update on finances, and we’ll be bumping them up to the board as of October 17
All other positions people can move in and out of
A few people have said they’re not staying on
Ashley will be staying until the end of the year
Strategy if exec get too busy
If you’re going to be away, email the President, and they will assign someone to fill the roles
Weekly tasks
Regular fundraising phoning
Caleb organized the phone-banking night at the CSI cafe
Got kicked out because the cafe was booked
Is this something we can have as a regular activity?
Group agrees this would be a good thing
Strategy Session
Updates on location, date and time.
October 14 @ UofT the Koffler House Room 113 from 9-5pm
Updates on who will lead sessions.
Kalina may not be able to make it now
Katie can’t make it
One or two board members can maybe make it
Is it possible the 21 could work?
Other Updates.
Date may be changing
Bring food potluck style
Out of vision we want to emerge with a mission statement
May be some speakers
Should be coming out of the session with a written document outlining what was decided and future work plans
This document should be reviewed at each exec meeting to ensure implementation
We should go back and read minutes from last strategy session so we are not wasting time debating the same things
Preparations for Oct. 10 educational (promo, chair, etc.)
Location - Steelworkers Hall is not available
Kalina is emailing Aspa
May have to cancel this month’s educational and bump to next month
Suggestions for 5th Tuesday of October and November Calendar
Preparation of 1 month ahead
Could have Good Jobs for All, Fight for $15, & someone to speak about cap and trade
Valerie will contact Carolyn, Katie will email someone about cap & trade
Which Exec in charge of which Tuesday dates?
We all work togeeeether!
Solidarity action with AANDC sit-in
Katie will follow-up to figure out a date for us to go as a group
Support the Indigenous-led divestment campaign Mazaska Talks - Days of Action Oct. 23-25
92 of the world’s biggest banks are going to Brazil for a conference
Indigenous group in Seattle wanted to do direct actions for banks funding new fossil fuel projects
We have been talking about doing a KM related direct action anyways
Leadnow did something at TD recently
Did 350 Seattle have any plans or ideas of what sort of action?
Valerie - direct actions work best when they’re fairly large, problem with small ones is there’s no media coverage, nobody knows about them, and it almost becomes a caricature of activism
Katie - we could just stand outside the bank handing out information and encouraging people to divest. If we draw from different groups then it’ll be easier.
Kalina will work with Katie and others on creating literature for action
Seattle350 said they want to shut down banks, but others can do more creative things outside banks
Group in Australia that does bank actions regularly and one of their big ones was when they got to the bank before the employees and handed them the materials
Going to reach out to some groups and people and come back to this
Tabling at Yes In My Backyard (YIMBY)
Kalina can make it for sure. We’re going to commit to December 9
Events
Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women Vigils - Oct 4th
Leap Manifesto was the document they were trying to get the political parties to endorse, now they are working to localize the Leap
Thunder Bay was the first place to do it
The Leap has put out a call to grassroots organizations to come together around the municipal election (called it a “radical strategy”)
Meeting being organized by The Leap - who is interested in attending?
Summary
Phone-banking fundraising
Strategy Session possibly being moved to October 21 - Katie to confirm, Amelia Rose to book room and email confirming others’ availability, Valerie will follow-up
No speakers during strategy session
Waiting to hear from Greenpeace about whether we have a space for the Oct 10 educational - if not, we’ll push to November
Katie will contact someone about cap and trade for November’s educational
Tentative solidarity action with INAC sit-in participants on Friday the 13th
Monday 23rd may be an action outside TD bank for Kinder Morgan & in solidarity with Seattle350
Going ahead with YIMBY tabling September 9
MMIW Vigils happening tomorrow across tomorrow
Involvement with LEAP group in 2018 municipal election
Katie has cheque from Tranzac to deposit! Yay!
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Toronto350.org Exec Elections. Tuesday October 17 2017
- Land Acknowledgement (2min)
I acknowledge the sacred land on which the United Steelworkers Hall operates. This land has been a site of human activity for 15,000 years. This land is the territory of the Huron-Wendat and Petun First Nations, the Seneca, and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit River. The territory was the subject of the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement between the Iroquois Confederacy and Confederacy of the Ojibwe and allied nations to peaceably share and care for the resources around the Great Lakes. Today, the meeting place of Toronto is still the home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work on this territory.
Intro + Names (5min)
Caleb
Ashley
Majd
Rose
Hala
Lisa
Sean
Kyla
Shawn
Valerie
Kalina
Amelia Rose
ELECTION + OTHER VOTES (25 mins)
Voter Identification
People eligible to vote will receive a symbol of that ability
A member would have been to at least 10 meetings
Constitution Amendments
Section 4, update
Remove Treasurer
Update executive officer description document.
Add Volunteer Coordinator
Would make President and Volunteer Coordinator a must-have
Other positions are optional because they could be filled in
8-Y 0-N 0-A
Section 5, remove
Financial statement from the treasurer
Says it will be read at the executive elections
Actually gets read at AGM in December
7-Y 1-N 0-A
Election of treasurer
Taken out of executive meetings
Add Volunteer Coordinator
Election of Exec and Board Member
Positions
President
Amelia Rose (elected)
Administrative Coordinator
Caleb 9-Y 0-N 0-A
Shadow for Communications Coordinator
Ashley will be stepping down in December so we want someone to learn what she does so they can step in. Ashley’s vote: 9-Y 0-N 0-A
Empty Shadow Position
Media and Creative Coordinator
Kalina 9-Y 0-N 0-A
Volunteer Coordinator
Empty Position
Research Coordinator
Hala 9-Y 0-N 0-A
Fundraising Coordinator
What is the relationship between this position and the Board?
Would coordinate with the president
Making sure that things are constantly happening
Treasurer position tends to be more demanding so they don’t like to fundraise
Empty position
Campaign Leads
Katie - should we hold off on these elections until after the strategy session? We’ll hold off if they don’t want to be exec
Municipal - Valerie wants to continue with Caleb’s ideas and implementation, we are still at feasibility stage. The city’s TransformTO plan is something we should be keeping track of, and the LEAP is looking for a possible role in next year’s municipal election
9-Y 0-N 0-A
Treasurer
Hala
Education from OISE
Works for women’s human rights institute at UofT
Works for life insurance company
Primary job is doing investment
Interested in divestment
Artist and circus performer
Wants to expand horizons
Worked for grassroots/non-profits before, but never sat on a board - was tree sitter
Wasn’t expecting the once a week commitment (board meetings are approx every 3 months), would have to shift
Extra time commitment may be a deal breaker
Lisa 7-Y 1-N 0-A
Works at manager of finance systems at Canadian Tire
Has I.T. skills
Wants to give back to the city
Believes in the cause and can invest time
In India ran three companies and worked with accountants, did the books so has history
Has sat on boards to help make decisions, helped build companies from scratch in an ethical way
Interested in teaching street kids so tutored every Saturday
Volunteered since moving to Toronto
Time for group outside Treasurer position - has a demanding job, will have to put things in her calendar, will want to attend the more we are a team
Welcome to the team!
Shawn
Is a chartered accountant
Will withdraw, but is willing to lend a hand if needed
Jennifer 1-Y 0-N 0-A
Chartered accountant
Wants to use skills to help orgs like us
15 years of experience working in public accounting firms
Knowledge of government remittances, etc.
Excited to be able to do something to fight climate change
CAMPAIGN PLANNING (90min)
Pipelines Campaign discussion (40 mins)
Divest the Globe - Oct 23th (Direct Action at Bank)
Action targeting banks that are invested in fossil fuels, particularly those who infringe on indigenous land rights
92 of world’s largest banks are meeting in Brazil at this time
There’s a website with registered actions
If anyone is interested in planning or taking part, contact ka...@toronto350.org
We’re going to be doing informational and relationship building work, not a shutdown, would be great if we could actually get ppl to close accounts
Bank will be TD (6 of 92 banks that have highest investments) - one of biggest funders of Kinder Morgan pipeline - west coasters goin’ hard
Waiting to hear about decision in BC regarding Kinder Morgan case - people are also preparing for more frontline actions (construction is set to start on October 24)
Will be using a petition started in the States during Standing Rock - can present the petition at the beginning or end of action to the bank or workers - central action organizers really want people to do that
Doesn’t have to be tons of people because it’s not a rally or a march (10-15 people at one bank)
If we have more people, we could potentially be at different branches at the same or different times
Katie has been in touch with people from LeadNow about a similar protest regarding Kinder Morgan, will get more ideas from them
Advantages of central TD: huge courtyard (lots of room), symbolic
Disadvantages of central TD: because of location, the people may be less likely to speak with us or listen, whereas places like the Annex might be more interested
Noonish action would make most sense if we’re looking to actually present the petition at the end
Media coverage - Kalina needs to make sure the word gets out.
Caleb - would opt not to do action at central branch - too many suits, and security would be more of an issue, they might not even let us in with the petition - there’s a TD at Bloor & Bathurst
Kalina - we should have the second steps ready for people. If they’re going to be taking money out, we need to give them a place to go.
Valerie - we need to be careful about naming a specific place in case we mislead people - “credit union” can be terminology
Materials: ¼ page flyer (front could be about the day of action 5Ws - wording can be taken from website, back could be why we are at TD, Kinder Morgan, etc. and what you can do)
In Seattle, they built up this action to get the city to divest
Who can go? Valerie, Kalina, Caleb (if it’s the one at Bathurst and Bloor), Sean
When asking people to divest, what do you ask people to invest in? We’re not really at liberty to give people that sort of advice.
Katie is going to talk to LeadNow tomorrow.
Ashley will send an email blast to the members list on Thursday.
Kalina will prepare materials.
Next week’s tabling (10 mins)
Kensington Market Pedestrian Sundays
No tabling next week because of bank action
Next month’s calendar (5 mins)
Katie will be hosting the Energy East educational on November 14
Sean is interested in starting something up around Line 9
December Fundraising - Selling Pins (15 min)
Low cost to make with decent profit
Valerie will send Ashley Aimee’s email for the design
A little labour intensive, but good return
Ashley will reach out to Estelle as well
Sean, Valerie, Lisa, Kalina, interested in helping
Majd is doing research on activists and community organizations and is planning on making a film. She’s been in contact with us since late summer and wants to make a documentary or other sort of film to explain different dynamics within grassroots organizations. Caleb also suggested a promotional video - we can have materials that back up the research and factual sides, and others that deal with the people (interviews). Wants to speak to someone in Toronto350 to see what we want out of it.
If you’re interested in participating, get a consent form, read and sign it. You can email to Majd or Caleb (a...@toronto350.org), or give a hard copy.
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350.org Meeting Minutes, 7 November 2017
Opening:
· Land acknowledgement
· In attendance[TC1]: Valerie, Amelia Rose, Elba, Tim C, Julie, Hala, Liza, Kristof, Caleb, Majd, Ashley, Katie, Tim
· Agenda review
o Clarification that the first Tuesday of each month is usually an exec meeting (this meeting); second Tuesday focuses on skills; third Tuesday focuses on campaigns/planning; fourth Tuesday usually focuses on actions/tabling
· Strategy: Exec met to create a strategy document last weekend
· Sign in sheet passed around
Elections
· Volunteer Coordinator role up for election
· Role description read aloud
· Kristof self nominated and gave a short speech about qualifications
· Valerie asked how Kristof plans to retain volunteers
o Response focused on building relationships/acknowledgement and ensuring volunteers have transformational as well as transactional tasks
· 6 votes in favour of Kristof out of 6 eligible voters
Strategic Document
· Introduction to strategy document and discussion about how to present the document ensued, which is planned for two weeks from now, 21 November
· Clarification that the reach is about 3000 people on social media, 200 members on mailing list, and 5-25 at any given meeting
· One suggestion was to send priorities to members to determine main areas of interest
· There will be a rotation, whereby members spend 10-15 minutes on each topic in breakout groups, facilitated by different people
o Pipelines: Ashley
o Divestment: Hala
o Municipal campaigns: Valerie
o Provincial elections: Kristof
o Education: Tim C
o Enhancing work with other organisations: Elba
· Facilitators will type up notes from their sessions afterwards
· There is a plan to be solutions and action oriented, with efforts to identify people to commit to tasks during sessions
· Valerie will prepare text for a PowerPoint presentation and Caleb will add graphics, Katie to help create questions for groups (mentioned during ‘go around’)
· Majd offered resources (research materials, consultant, etc.), but must first check with supervisor
· Materials required: markers, flip chart paper
· Everyone to bring snacks
· Communications messages will be coordinated across platforms (Ashley to coordinate social media and Caleb to send email) and engaging title TBD
Calendar
· 14 November: Katie to give presentation on Energy East pipeline
· 21 November: Strategy meeting
· 28 November: update on strategy meeting; phone banking/fundraising; social
o Everyone to bring phone and laptop
o Elba asked about creative/online ways to fundraise, leveraging the time of year. Ashley mentioned we’ve looked into making pins to sell, but now is not the time.
§ Elba and Ashley to ask Kalina (sp?) to prepare some artwork to entice people to make donations in exchange for a piece of art
· 5 December: AGM
· 12 December: Potluck social at Valerie’s house 19:00
o Everyone to bring their own drinks and think of games (example given where you throw a toonie into a bucket and make a wish/condemnation/appeal
o Tim to make a playlist
Go Around
· 4,000 people shut down a coal mine in Germany for a day as part of COPP protests
· Syria signed onto Paris Accord, leaving US as only country to not sign
· Ongoing opposition to Kinder Morgan
· BC Utilities Commission said Site C Dam will be over budget and won’t live up to planned objectives
· Recent approval decision on Nebraska Trans Canada pipeline
· Caleb and Amelia Rose attended an event at U of T on Grassy Narrows. There has been some progress made, but the province still hasn’t released the promised $85 million for cleanup
· There could be another Standing Rock type of uprising in Minnesota opposing Line 3
· Majd mentioned there will be a meeting at OISE 7 December, 18:00-20:00 to help set up an advisory board on connecting activists with academics. 350.org is welcome to the meeting and to sit on the advisory board
· Question raised about our approach to elections. Do we endorse candidates? No. Instead we elevate issues, create report cards, etc.
· Email blast to go out to all members from Ashley, and there will be a facebook group for the strategy meeting
· We should specifically reach out to people who have come to meetings in the past and make efforts to invite those we think would be interested
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Executive Meeting Proposed Agenda
December 19, 2017
Land Acknowledgement
I acknowledge the sacred land on which the United Steelworkers Hall operates. This land has been a site of human activity for 15,000 years. This land is the territory of the Huron-Wendat and Petun First Nations, the Seneca, and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit River. The territory was the subject of the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement between the Iroquois Confederacy and Confederacy of the Ojibwe and allied nations to peaceably share and care for the resources around the Great Lakes. Today, the meeting place of Toronto is still the home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work on this territory.
Introductions
Amelia Rose
Kalina
Valerie
Kyla
Kristof
Liza
Review of agenda
Priorities for 2018
Breakout Updates and decisions on recommended 2018 priorities
Divest Campaign
People wanted three things: focussing on post-secondary institutions, banks, and pension plans
Expressed maybe we should go for smaller targets first
New person working to divest general pension plans - if we do want to do this campaign, we’ll need a lead who can be on executive because Brian is unable
Ryerson, York, and UofT campaigns are moving forward (York and UofT have asked for our assistance now and then)
One of the two areas that seem to have the most interest from our volunteers and a good area to go because we don’t have to spearhead
Possibility to increase membership through these partnerships
It’s more about the faculty and staff pensions than student tuition
Kristof will gauge volunteer interest to see who’d be active
We need to be able to measure the progress of campaigns to see if we’re spending our time efficiently
Potentially have more than one person taking the helm
If we’re putting out a call for a campaign lead, we need to make the goals of the campaign clear
We should outline the goals for at least a year in advance for each campaign
Probably be good to start at universities because we’ve had the most success there - maybe we should focus on supporting the existing university initiatives
Actions: find new divestment campaign lead - contact Amelia Rose if interested in working on this campaign, Kristof send out
Provincial Election Campaign
No one was really interested in the provincial election
There will be a lot happening around the provincial election
People weren’t clear about how we could mobilize around environmentalism for the provincial election
Could be lumped in with education
Municipal Campaign
Talked about two things: retrofitting a school and the election
Caleb did a lot of research surrounding the school project, but we didn’t have capacity to pull it off
Buildings are covered under the city’s climate plan so schools will be included in that anyways
Talked about issuing a report card for the election candidates
Group looking at ten points that should be covered
Good Jobs for All Coalition and $15 and Fair are both municipal work as well - not necessarily a campaign around it, but definitely information to be distributed
Good Jobs for All is pressuring Toronto Community Housing to make greener choices
Can also partner with Our Toronto and Sidewalk Toronto (both working on Quayside neighbourhood) and GreenPac
People have expressed that if we are going to get involved in politics, they want to know exactly who we’d vote for
People also expressing ONE report card would be best, not one from each individual organization
Actions: Valerie and Amelia Rose keep going to meetings, Valerie remains campaign lead
Pipelines Campaign
Pipelines not in Toronto that are on people’s radar
Line 9 is also on people’s minds (goes through Toronto)
We’ve been told to focus on Toronto more and be more visible
Asked to hold a panel discussion
The other big campaign people associate with our group
Education
People want to be educated on a variety of topics
The Energy East educational was a success - people came who were not our usual members
We should look at the list to figure out what we should host (have one in January)
Partnership
Indigenous Solidarity (include Jan. meeting with Nancy Rowe-Henry)
Hasn’t been a very active element
Labour groups, environmental groups
General calendar of when big protests and events are happening
Creating new partnerships and strengthening existing ones
Want to do more around indigenous solidarity - in January we’ll be holding a meeting about how to make our space more accessible to indigenous and minority peoples (4th Tuesday)
Good Jobs for All and $15 & Fair are both very diverse organizations in a lot of ways
Make people more aware of our partnerships
Finances
Board Decisions
We’re on financial lockdown
Going to get a monthly report from Treasurer
Money for events should be kept separate than float money
Until January we’ll be tight for finances
We’ve met basically all our financial commitments for 2018 (minus the president’s salary) so extra money made is beneficial
Kristof can reach out to the labour movement, but the money may not be free
Pushing for things like divestment and TransformTO that may make the labour movement more
Fundraising
Staff
Don’t want to hold funds for other organizations
Confuses our finances
Fall 2016 we helped with fundraising for Chippewas, April 2017 we held for the PCM
Liza panicked when she didn’t know about the new NationBuilder page - she doesn’t know whether the bank will accept the money and then we go into debt
The money may get taken out before we actually receive the money donated
Make sure board members and executive members are part of any email related to finances
Decisions like holding funds need to go through an approval process (at least via email)
People generally feel like we have larger capacity than we actually do
Board is going to work on grant applications and other funding opportunities
Amelia Rose will be creating a fundraising plan
Campaigns / Programs
Most grants are geared towards this area
All grants Tresanne applied for we didn’t get (most were geared towards staff which are harder)
Grants are done for 2017
Donations by individuals are much better
Training by Tim C. (new member)
Going to help us with phone banking
Maya (board member) said we raised good money at last phone banking
Money goes to two different places: PayPal (we have to manually put in bank) and Stripe (automatically goes into bank)
Amelia Rose will send Liza names of people who donated at last phone banking to make sure the money has come in
After major events we should be sending an email to donors saying thank you and showing them where their money is going
Fifth Tuesday of January could be another phone banking day with the first half hour being training from Tim
Outreach / Messaging
Urgency of Climate Crisis
Climate justice
Be a voice for the vulnerable (as opposed to being about policy, etc.) - don’t BE the voice, but SUPPORT the voices
Diversity
Frontline communities
Active volunteers
30-40 active volunteers is ideal
Kristof’s union has 60,000 members with 400 active members
Need a ladder of engagement to gauge who is an “active” member
Brand awareness and clear direction are key to retention
Need a communications coordinator and a new website
Valerie is happy to work with our future Communications Coordinator on a communications plan
Part of our call out to find someone to work on the website - Kristof had someone who reached out and was interested
When people see “last updated on” and it’s an old date, they tend to think that the website or organization is dead
The OTPP tries to keep updated on the funds that are being planned
Would need an administrator to go in and “clean up” every week to keep track of comment threads
Kristof has connections to progressives who may be interested in building for NationBuilder - Ground Forest Digital & Compass 360
When we get someone who wants to work on the website, they should be actively involved with the group
Need to work on rebranding ourselves
How do we get more traffic to our website? The more people see what we’re doing, the more they’ll donate - should our site be embedded on other people’s websites?
More detailed advertising and marketing plan to promote social media posts and attract more viewers
Media
Have a media section on our website, but it hasn’t been updated in awhile
We have had large media in the past (mostly because of divestment) so we do have available coverage
There are groups all across Canada who are getting media attention by submitting op-eds and other things - we should be trying to be more present to the public
Media will drive more people to our group - we want them to be able to recognize who we are just by hearing our name
Even if a story is happening that relates to a specific campaign, they may reach out to other groups because our voice is small
Communications plan would also include media exposure
Perhaps each campaign can develop a media section and work with the coordinator to create a plan
We have to make sure we’re CASL compliant - contacting donors is okay, but when people sign up at events and in other ways, we need to keep the slips to prove that they gave us their information
Have to make sure people who sign up opt-in as members
Have to ask people whether or not they want to continue receiving our emails - no response means opting out
This falls under the board’s responsibility
Kalina will send email with fonts and colour codes
New Space
Meetings
Have to be done by 8:30 so there are times where we’re unable to finish
Has to be accessible
Holding Materials
Held in various different places across Toronto
Art Builds
Can be done at Steelworkers, but it’s not the nicest and can’t be held
Can be done at Greenpeace, but need permissions each time
Action Plan for 2018 priorities
Key Dates
January 2018 Calendar
350.org Event - Jan 31st.
New Communications Coordinator