CNS AGM April 19th SNS Building, 6:30 pm.

[Climb Nova Scotia]

Climb Nova Scotia Annual General Meeting
Wednesday, April 19, 2006, 6:30 pm
2nd Floor Classroom, Sport Nova Scotia building, 5516 Spring Garden Road

Agenda:
- Minutes of Last Meeting
- President's Report (summery of what CNS did this year)
- Auditor's Report (CNS budget and financial situation)
- Election of Directors
- Election of Chairperson (New President)
- Discussion on proposal to admit climbers under the age of 16 as a class to membership as associate members. This would allow CNS to have junior members using Article 3, clause 02 of the Climb Nova Scotia bylaws.
- Open Boulderfest registration (For members)
- Screening of a climbing Video by Keith Swyer.


If you have been wanting to give back to the climbing community, this is your chance to join the board of directors of Climb Nova Scotia. We are also looking for volunteers to help with Boulderfest, or to serve on the Access Committee.

Traditionally we have pizza and beer at the AGM. Memberships can also be purchased at the AGM as well as boulderfest tickets (if you are a member). Boulderfest registrations by non members will not be accepted until 48 hours after the AGM. (Avoid the delay by buying a 2 year membership which pays for itself if you attend Boulderfest both years.)

Be advised that the building is locked. Someone will be checking the door regually to let you in between 6:20 and 6:40. If you are late you may be left standing on the street until the pizza arrives.

Teth Cleveland, President of Climb Nova Scotia

[Nate]

Hey Teth, can I get a membership at the meeting, I'm finally 16 and NOW you decide to maybe let people under 16 join....gees....
Nate

[ben smith]

hey I just want to stress how important it is to join cns if you aren't already a member- like teth said it pays for itself if you go to boulderfest each year, hell you can probably eat enough pizza and drink enough beer at two AGMs to afford the 20 dollars. CNS recieves funding from the government to put on things like boulderfest and provides a network that can do things like open up the woods, which would not have been possible with out cns liability insurance. We also use government money to support things like ghislain's website and keiths website with the google earth feature. The deal is though that with out enough members CNS get government funding, won't exist and things like boulderfest and tb woods events aren't going to happen because we can't afford the insurance. so if you are interested in having these events happen pony up the dough and show up to the AGM.

[The Mitt]

I don't think I could have said it better Ben.

Mitt

[ben smith]

err there should be a won't between cns and get government funding.

[The Teth]

Sure Nate, you can get a membership at the AGM. The last few years you have been a strong case for the junior membership idea. Maybe we should have considered this earlier. Still there are some hard climbing juniors out there who can still benefit. Besides it is good for our numbers. Technically the government is not supposed to give us money if we have less than 100 members, so we need to get them up. The Sagar’s have a family membership, so we can add Fin straight away. Anyone else out there with fammily memberships who have kids that climb?

Teth

[The Mitt]

Its time to get a Hone master like Nate out with the Stoners and have him follow Punshon for a day. Give him a couple sessions and he will be leading Grandpa up some of his own routes.

Mitt

[dcentral]

For Nates sake, I hope a little Critical Incident Stress councilling is thrown in with his membership. Sounds like he might need if the Stoners get a hold of him

[mike walsh]

sweet im going and getting a membership providing i dont have an exam that day....i can go to boulderfest legitamatly this time, score!

[ben smith]

word. thanks mike

[Nate]

Maybe some day soon I'll be able to tackle to hard core 5.6 trad action of my very own with these 'Stoners'..wohoo..Seriously though, I'm thinking of going up to Welsford this summer. Anybody else want to go? Jeremy?
Nate

[jnnfr]

Nate, Collin and I are definately headed in Welsford direction this summer, hopefully with Jeremy to show us the way. You can come with us

[Nate]

Stoked, I got to climb there when I was up for the Tour de Bloc and it's amaznig. When are you guys going??
Nate

[Climb Nova Scotia]

Here is some more information about the Climb Nova Scotia Board of Directors and some of the rolls and positions available on the board.

Teth Cleveland, President of Climb Nova Scotia

Mission Statement

Climb Nova Scotia is a volunteer/member run organization. CNS is a provincially endorsed and supported resource for all aspects of climbing in all areas of Nova Scotia. Climb Nova Scotia aims to promote, protect and support the sport of climbing in Nova Scotia for its members in an environmentally responsible manner.

Climb Nova Scotia serves its members through the following means:
* Acting as a climbing resource and educator, (e.g.: talks, slide shows, demos, courses, etc.)
* working to secure future access to provincial climbing destinations while maintaining healthy community relations (e.g. clean-ups,)
* respectful and environmentally responsible land use of approach to and at climb sites,
* providing training standards and certifications for rock climbing instructors within the province, both indoors and outdoors,
* holding events and functions, (e.g. boulderfests)
* obtaining and providing membership benefits for all CNS members, (e.g. discounts)
* funding assistance and sponsorships for various climbing related groups, individuals and functions that promote the sport of climbing in Nova Scotia, for Nova Scotians, and our visitors.
* (providing and maintaining equipment to orient and educate people interested in climbing,)
* communicating information to the climbing community on climbing and CNS activity, (e.g. website, newsletter)

Service Mandate

What does Climbing Include?
Ice Climbing
Rock Climbing
Bouldering
Mountaineering
Indoor Climbing

What do we need to do?

Access
• Immediate Issues
• Landowner Issues
• New Site Development
• Data Base

Safety
• First Aid – Boxes at sites
• First Aid Courses
• Emergency Procedures
• Bolt Maintenance & Replacement

Training and Certification
• Top Rope
• Outdoor Instructors
• Indoor Instructors
• Safety

Equipment
• Drill
• Ice Climbing
• Rock Climbing
• Cleaning Tools (Brushes)

Development Issues
• Route Development
• Crag Development
• Environmental Impact
• Trail Improvement / Development

Promotion of Climbing
• Sponsorship
• CNS Events
• Public / Private Events
• Sport Orientation

Policy Development
• Bolting
• Land Use
• Environmental

Communication
• Web Site
• Newsletter
• PR / event notices

Membership Benefits
• Discounts
• Facility Deals
• Events

Expectations of General Board Member

All members of the CNS board will be expected to:

• Attend all Board Meetings;
• Must work closely with other board members and be a good team player;
• Report at each Board Meeting in respect to their role;
• Respond promptly to communications;
• Make decisions that best serve the CNS membership;
• Insure that all records (or copies of records) accumulated as a member of the board be kept on file at the CNS office (including electronic files);
• Responsible Conduct;
• Do what they say they are going to do.
• Not to commit to tasks they cannot accomplish.
• Participate in email based decision making process,
• Respect confidentiality of decisions;
• Publicly support board decisions;
• Should have climbing experience;
• Serve on one committee or fill a support role (e.g. Membership Coordinator) or take full responsibility for organizing one event per year;
• Complete a two year term as a board member;
• Decision can be made via email if quorum is attained with sufficient response time.
• When responding to email inquiries, responses are sent to all concerning parties so board members know a response has been sent.
• To follow the approved spending limits without Board Approval
• $200 chair.
• $100 other executive.
• $50 other board members.
• Hold and attend an open Annual General Meeting.

Specific Roles

Executive Members
Chairperson
• Responsible for overall accountability and integrity of the organization; be aware of fiscal responsibilities, liability issues
• Maintain open communication with board members
• Ensure that the organization is serving its members according to the mandate
• Ensure that roles and responsibilities of board members are being upheld
• Acts as an ambassador of CNS
• Facilitate open and respectful decision making
• Chair all board meetings and AGM
• Call regular board meetings (every 4-6 weeks)
• Develops agendas for meetings
• Assign responsibilities to board members and volunteers
• Ensure funding is in place and obligations are met (prepare and submit an annual report)
• Ensure that records at the CNS office are kept up to date and maintained
• Ensure that insurance is up to date
• Ensure that CNS is in good standing with the Registry of Joint Stocks

Treasurer
• Deposits - Invoices - Receipts - Cheques
• Develop and monitor Budget
• Block Funding Application (with Chairperson)
• Insurance
• 1/4ly Reports for Board Meetings
• Year End Report for AGM
• Manage Check Books
• Monitor Cash Boxes
• Attends Executive meetings
• Maintain active communication with those who handle CNS monies
• Monitor financial exchanges for Route Development / Rentals, Instruction / Courses, Membership

Secretary
• Email Reminders of board meetings and task reminders as necessary
• Book board meetings and AGM meeting space
• Screen and Forward CNS email from Sport NS to appropriate persons
• Organize Office and Office Files
• Distribute Mail from Sport NS mailbox
• Take and keep on file Minutes for Board Meetings and AGM
• Send reminders to board members of Action Items one week after a board meeting
• Distribute copies of the minutes to Board Members two weeks prior to the next meeting
• Annual Joint Stocks Registration update and payment
• Attends Executive meetings
• Help Prepare agenda for meetings
• Serve on at least one committee

[The Teth]

We did not have a secretary to take minutes at the AGM so I slapped something together to let people know what happed. Not very detailed I know, but it was over a week before I had time to get to this and I had no notes to work with.

Teth

Climb Nova Scotia Annual General Meeting
Wednesday, April 19, 2006, 6:30 pm
2nd Floor Classroom, Sport Nova Scotia building, 5516 Spring Garden Road

Minutes:
- Minutes of Last Meeting: The minutes were not brought to the meeting so the minutes were not read.

- President's Report (summery of what CNS did this year): See Appendix A.

- Auditor's Report (CNS budget and financial situation): CNS made over $1000 this year, mostly because there were no guide books or films sponsored this year. The extra money will likely be spent this coming year to bring in a high level instructor to train new instructor trainers.

- Election of Directors:
Heather Reynolds Sagar joined and took the executive position of Secretary
Conan Baker joined and took the executive position of Treasurer
Jeremy How join the board of directors.
Chris Hayes is no longer Treasurer and is now an Ex Official director.
Teth Cleveland remains a director, and took the role of Membership Coordinator
David Blanchard remains a director and Clinic Administrator
Cara Berube remains a director, but is no longer Membership Coordinator
Ben Smith remains a director and was elected President
Keith Swyer remains a director and Webmaster.
Chris Daniel remains a director.
James LaRusic remains an Ex Official director.
Rafal Andronowski is assumed to have abdicated.
Felix Hanke resigned his director position.


- Election of Chairperson (New President): Ben Smith was elected as chair person.

- Discussion on proposal to admit climbers under the age of 16 as a class to membership as associate members. This would allow CNS to have junior members using Article 3, clause 02 of the Climb Nova Scotia bylaws.
Motion was passed. Climbers under 16 my now join CNS as Associate members.

- Open Boulderfest registration (For members)
Laptops were available for online registration at the end of the AGM.

- Screening of a climbing Video by Keith Swyer. Ran out of time. No screening.



Appendix A:

Climb Nova Scotia
Year in Review: 2005/2006

Board Changes

Ben Smith, Chris Daniel, Rafal Andronowski, Felix Hanke, and Keith Swyer joined the board.

Cara Berube (formerly Cara Hazelton) was made a full director. She had been an ex-officio director.

James LaRusic went from a full director to an ex-officio director so that he would not be obligated to attend meetings. Ex-officio directors do not effect quorum for board meetings, but can still represent the board in negotiations.

Keith Swyer took over the roll of Webmaster.

Rafal Andronowski took the roll of Co Newsletter editor, and then took over full responsibility for the newsletter when Denise Fillion moved back to Calgary. Rafal has yet to produce a newsletter.

Denise Fillion’s absence also leaves the Secretary position open. Secretary is one of the three executive positions on the board.

Events/Sponsorships:

Milk Energy Sport Fair:
CNS paid for two belayers for the climbing wall at the sport fair held at Dalplex. Heather Sagar agreed to hand out CNS brochures at the event. Many youth got their first opportunity to experience climbing at this event. Getting youth involved in sport is a high priority to the Department of Health Promotion which provides the primary funding for Climb Nova Scotia.

CNS Sponsored The Community Justice Society to take 9 “youth at risk” climbing at Ground Zero climbing gym. Again, this is inline with Department of Health Promotion priorities.

Boulderfest 2005 was successfully organized by Cara Berube, with assistance from Nathan Smith, Chris Daniel, Devin Lyons, Stacy Lockerbie, Roger Fage, Felix Hanke, Rafal Andronowski, Ben Smith, Conon Baker, and others. Special mention should be given to Chris Daniel who managed to get the free keg of Keith’s beer, Conon who got the beer to the boat, and to Ben Smith who’s energy really helped carry things along.

CNS Top-Rope Clinics:
CNS held a Top-Rope clinic in the Fall. HRM Department of Recreation also organized a CNS Top-Rope Clinic in the Fall of 2005.


Access:

At the 2005 AGM CNS members voted to change the CNS by-laws so that 10% of the money CNS takes in is placed in an Access Fund. A separate account has been setup for this fund and 10% of the money CNS took in this past year will be placed in the fund. If CNS receives donations for the Access fund, they will be placed in the new account as well.

Terence Bay Woods Access Issue.
Climbers were asked to stop bouldering in this area because the landowners are planning on building their house in the middle of it. Although construction of their house has been delayed, they still have concerns over people climbing on their land. CNS has been able to convince the land owners to allow CNS events on their land. The land owners agreed to this because CNS is insured. CNS hosted a bouldering event in Terence Bay Woods in the Fall of 2005 and a second event in the winter of 2006. Negotiations are ongoing to get more regular access to the Woods.

Cape Breton Highlands National Park access issue:
Negotiations with the Cape Breton Highlands National Park were successfully concluded this Spring and the cliff at Black Brook is now open to climbing. Climbers must visit the Warden’s Office in Ingonish to acquire a free permit before climbing. It is likely that CNS could negotiate access to Little Smoky as well, but if Black Brook does not see much traffic it may not be worth the effort to open a second cliff in the same area.

Bridgetown Access Issue.
Negotiations for access have been handled by local climbers who have made good progress. There has been a recent issue with a landowner who controls the preferred path to the boulders and possibly some of the boulders as well, who is now concerned about having boulderers on their land. CNS is monitoring this situation.

Rebolting At Eagle’s Nest.
Some of the bolts at Eagles Nest may date back to the early 1980's, they are smaller than the bolts we use now, many of them are poorly placed from a sport climbing perspective, and many of them are in questionable condition. Many bolts need to be replaced. A number of years ago this was pursued, but there was some sort of hangup with getting permission from the Halifax Regional Municipality. Board changes since then leave us unsure of where things left off, but we need to revisit this.

Web Site Changes

Keith Swyer took over the roll of Webmaster and created a completely new CNS Website. The new website includes online registration with online payment for memberships, Boulderfest, and CNS top-rope courses. It also contains many other new and cool features.