Bayou Park Ratepayers Association
Executive Board Meeting Minutes
DATE: Tuesday January , 2021
TIME: 8:05 PM -9:54 PM
LOCATION: Google video call from 3686 Shadow Creek Road
ATTENDEES: Claire Lysnes, President | Hillary Kimsal, Communications | Kait Hunter, Secretary| Natasha Borutski, Director at Large| Bruce Topping, Director at Large
REGRETS: Neil Fenton, VP | Lance Brown, Past President | Rick Talbot, Treasurer
MINUTES
1. Meeting called to order by Claire Lysnes
2. Approval of Agenda
Motion to Approve: Claire Lysnes 2nd: Natasha Borutski
VOTE: All in Favour
3. Approval of Minutes from previous meeting ( November & December)
Motion to Approve: Hillary Kimsal 2nd: Claire Lysnes
VOTE: All in Favour
4. Open Issues
a) Holiday Lights Wrap-up - The event was well received by our community with lots of involvement. Les & Penni Courts of 2638 Grand Tamarack Crescent won “Best Lights” by popular vote. They won a $100 gift card to Canadian Tire donated by Dan Hosegood, member and owner of Hosegood Plumbing. The Event stirred a lot of excitement, and lots of votes were tallied. Nineteen households were nominated in the contest. The houses shortlisted for Best Festive Lights were 1) Dan & Alicia Kelly at 3685 Shadow Creek Rd, 2) Penni and Les Courts at 2638 Grand Tamarack Cres, 3) Peter & Danielle Robaszek at 3593 Timberline Ave, and 4) the Geisler & Graham family at 3563 Shadow Creek Rd. Les and Penni Courts won with 25 votes and Danielle and Peter Robaszek were the runner ups at 24 votes, so it was close. Danielle and Peter received a Tim Hortons hot chocolate, mug and tree ornament gift pack. We received a lot of positive feedback on this event, and it was great to see the neighbourhood come together. Next year we will encourage more nominations not only by neighbours, but nominating your own home as well. We will encourage those who may be too humble, with a “self-entry” option. Hopefully next year's participation will be even bigger. Also, to note, we gave out three randomly drawn Participant Prizes of Yellofruit non-dairy frozen dessert for participating in the event (selected using an online random number generator). The winners of these prizes were Kerri and Shawn Fogarty of Shadow Creek Rd, Carla Izzoti and Dave Tiverton of Timberline Ave, and Sarah Reynolds and Louie Stillinger of Shadow Creek Rd
b) Ice Fishing- Optically at this time, with the current provincial stay at home order and other Covid-19 restrictions, it wouldn't send the right message from our Association to encourage members to participate in this event. We don’t want to indirectly discourage anyone from following the provincial and regional public health restrictions. Neil’s advice was to postpone the event until further notice, and encourage everyone to stay home and stay safe.
Motion to cancel further planning of the Ice Fishing event in light of the current Ontario government stay at home order: Hillary Kimsal
2nd: Natasha Borutski
VOTE: All in Favour
We can potentially move this event to another day when families do not require any licensing, such as Mothers Day or Fathers Day. However, we may experience lower participation due to lack of fishing space, boats etc. Timing will also be dependent upon current provincial/regional Covid-19 restrictions.
5. Executive Report - Claire Lysnes
a) Barb and Martin Carriero are the first members to pay their 2021 membership fee, and they also made a generous donation of $25 to the BPRA. We will begin officially collecting membership fees on the Victoria Day weekend in May, but members are encouraged to pay at any time.
b) We are looking into having a virtual meeting with the Bramshott Property Owners Association Executive Board. We have been speaking with one of their Executive board members to knowledge share on beach matters. This will be picked up in the Spring as their board does not meet during the winter months.
c) Three aerial photos of the neighbourhood have been posted to https://www.bayoupark.org/about and you can see the different stages of development in the neighbourhood.
d) We need to re-write our constitution and bylaws as well as obtain the Association’s Article of Incorporation from the Ontario government. Former BPRA Executive Board members recently confirmed they do not have any records of these documents. The BPRA is provincially incorporated; however, per the Nuans - Government of Canada Corporate Name and Trademark database, the last filing appears to have been in 1992. Question of whether our incorporated non profit status is still active, whether we need to register a change in directors and association address with the government, and whether the Association may owe back taxes (unlikely due to our non profit status but needs to be confirmed.) A positive benefit of reviving our status as a provincially incorporated non profit is that it is likely to significantly reduce our Gsuite expenses, which are currently $468 a year. We may also become eligible for community-focused government grants. Discussion continued during New Business.
e) Former BPRA President Mark Smith has come across the numbers for the baseball diamond scoreboard at Timberline Park. He will be passing them on to the BPRA for storage and loaning out to groups who may want to use the baseball diamond. However, we assume that Severn Township may be installing an electronic scoreboard at the ball diamond in the near future as they installed the electricity transformer box for it during Summer 2020.
6. Financial Report - Rick Talbot (Presented by Claire in Rick’s absence; Rick provided his notes in advance)
a) Bank balance is $4530.45 which puts us inline with the expense projections here :https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NsWvpI1-XKsF6I1e 45LU4Cw__CVvJTu4rrRy2eTREu4/edit?usp=sharing
b) Reimbursables to pay out in January:
- Rick Talbot: $93.60 for three months of GSuite (Nov 1 - Jan 31).
- Hillary Kimsal: $27.31 for the Tim Horton's prize pack.
- Claire Lysnes: $19.13 for the new hasp and combo lock for the shed door.
c) Tree costs - I haven't heard back from the place that I enquired
with, but WhiffleTreeFarm in Elora sells Maples, Walnut, Beech, etc, for
under $50 for a 3-6 foot tall tree.
d) We have a signed form from Linda Thompson to acknowledge that the
weed spray accounts have been reconciled and the BPRA is disentangled.
7. Communications Report - Hillary Kimsal
a) Social Media Update- We currently have 115 followers on Facebook and 70 on Instagram. This has been a great way to reach out to local businesses as well.
b) February Newsletter will include our new Valentines Fundraiser, this may help recuperate some lost income from Covid-19 restricting our typical events. We will have $100 in gift cards to win, and Leslie Newhall of Northern Birch Boutique has graciously donated a $50 gift card as well.
Motion to spend $100 on gift cards for the Valentine's Day Fundraiser: Hillary Kimsal
2nd: Claire Lysnes
VOTE: All in Favour
8. New Business
a) Articles of Incorporation- Claire was able to find our incorporated file, listed under ON2866827 on the Nuans database. Question whether it is still active as last filing appears to have been in 1992. We will need to use a legal service to provide us with the Articles of Incorporation. Initial research shows this may cost $80-100. We may need to update the names of Directors and the Association address via notice of change. We are not sure at this time how far back this will need to be done for. Due to the BPRA being a non profit organization, it may be exempt from having to pay taxes.
Motion to utilize a service to obtain copies of original Articles of Incorporation and related documents from the Ontario government, the costs approximated at $80-$100: Claire Lysnes
2nd: Hillary Kimsal
VOTE: All in Favour
b) Events and Initiatives 2021- All Board members have taken responsibility for our 2021 programming, as permitted with Covid-19 provincial and regional public health restrictions.
9. Member Inquiries
a) Dog Waste- It has been brought up numerous times, about those with pets leaving their waste behind on others' yards and the roadside. We have reached out to the Severn Township Bylaw office. The Bylaw office has confirmed they will be visiting the area more frequently, along with the Orillia SPCA, to monitor that local dog owners are cleaning up after their pets. We also shared the link to the Severn Township Bylaw complaint form with the members who voiced the concern. However, going forward, this is something residents will need to follow up on with the bylaw office directly, as bylaw enforcement isn’t within the Associations’ purview. Residents can report a concern to Severn Township at the following link: https://forms.severn.ca/Report-a-Concern. We will share this with members in our social media channels/communications.
10. Next meeting: February 18, 2021 via Google Meeting
11. Adjournment @ 21:54
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