NCF Board of Directors
Minutes of Electronic Meeting
June 23, 2020
SOME HIGHLIGHTS
- AGM starts June 24th and runs until July 1st, 2020
- New Operations and Development Manager Nathan Medema started June 8th.
- Increased HelpDesk staffing in office.
- NCF office continues mitigation efforts resulting from the covid-19 pandemic.
Minutes of a meeting of the Board of Directors
The meeting was called to order at 7:20 p.m. with Chris Cope as Chair and Graeme Beckett as Secretary for the meeting.
INTRODUCTIONS
Board members present:
Christopher Cope (bz787) Chair
Peter Chapman (fx720) 1st Vice-Chair
Peter MacKinnon (fr198) 2nd Vice-Chair
Sterling Jimenez (ga867) Treasurer
Graeme Beckett (aw958) Secretary
Lauren Gardner (fy923)
Michael Chan (ga869)
Anis Hanna (gb499)
Martin Dubois (al432)
Regrets:
Andrea Holland (es170)
Oliver Benning (ga678) resigned May 2020
NCF Management/Staff present:
Executive Director: Shelley Robinson
Guests:
None
Once around the table.
Informal pre-meeting conversation, with Directors taking turn offering personal views and commentary on interesting things that might not make it to the Agenda.
- Confirmation of Quorum
Quorum was confirmed.
- Review of the Agenda
Motion: To adopt the agenda as circulated.
Proposer: Peter MacKinnon (fr198)
Seconder: Sterling Jimenez (ga867)
The motion was carried.
- Review of the Minutes of the Previous Meeting
Motion: To approve the minutes of the April 28, 2020 meeting.
Proposer: Anis Hanna (gb499)
Seconder: Michael Chan (ga869)
The motion was carried.
- Reports
- Executive Director's Report (Shelley Robinson)
Shelley distributed her ED report in advance of the meeting for both the open and in-camera sessions of the meeting.
Select Highlights from the public portion of the Executive Director's Report
DSL MEMBERS:
April 1/20: 3224/2930 without CAF
May 1/20: 3216/2920 without CAF
June 1/20: 3211/2912 without CAF
June 21/20: 300 CAF
June 1/19: 3336/3055 without CAF
June 1/18: 3347/3126 without CAF
June 1/17: 3188/3061 without CAF
June 1/16: 3028
June 1/15: 2973
Operations
● Increased HelpDesk staffing at the office to manage more walk-ins and jump in modem configurations
● Our new Operations and Development Manager Nathan Medema started June 8th. He has run through the new online HelpDesk training with support from staff, met with Will and did an intense week of operations training with Andrew for hand-off. Switched over all relevant passwords and admin permissions.
● We continue to offer members payment plans, when needed and as requested.
● Summer Bilingual HelpDesk Analyst Sophie Vu is working on all HelpDesk tickets, in-office once a week
● Younes El Bakri is now Bilingual HelpDesk Analyst, Hardware Lead
● Luke Deschenes is now Bilingual HelpDesk Analyst, Billing Lead
● We now have two kinds of wifi extenders in stock, useful for when members have hard-to-reach corners of their homes (I purchased one for my home office and it made a huge difference.)
Communications and Advocacy:
● The new front-end website has been run through the member beta testing group: we’re making the
suggested changes, finishing up content and translation work: ready to launch on July 6th
● Sending June newsletter out once AGM begins June 24th, reports are on the way and will be posted online by Wednesday translated.
● We will include more details in the June newsletter.
COVID-19:
● NCF COVID-19 response: www.ncf.ca/coronavirus
● HelpDesk hours: Monday-Saturday 10am-5pm.
● Office hours: Monday-Tuesday, Thursday-Friday: 10am-5pm.
● Closed Wednesday, June 24th to rearrange office to make it easier for staff to socially distance
● Closed Wednesday, July 1st for Canada Day
● Only one member/member group in the office at a time, chairs are in the hallway spaced more than 2m apart
● many staff are still working remotely to ensure staff can maintain appropriate social distance in the office
● in-office staff are required to wear masks whenever they are not sitting at their desks
● we have a daily office cleaning checklist
● we have a Plexiglas shield for the front desk and a washable plastic cover for the debit machine
● we now have hand sanitizer, gloves, lots of cleaning fluid, hand soap and face masks
● Some members are using the lockbox (during and outside of office hours)
● If the in-office HelpDesk staff are available, we can arrange for curb-side delivery and pick-up
● We continue to encourage members with no payment method on file to use forms of payment that don’t require them to come to the office in person. As recommended by the Bank of Canada, we still accept cash.
Motion: To move in-camera.
Proposer: Sterling Jimenez (ga867)
Seconder: Lauren Gardner (fy923)
The motion was carried.
Motion: To receive the Executive Director's report.
Proposer: Peter Chapman (fx720)
Seconder: Graeme Beckett (aw958)
The motion was carried.
- Ongoing Business
- Treasure Update (Sterling Jimenez - in-camera)
The Treasurer, Sterling Jimenez indicated that his annual report for the membership at the 2020 NCF annual general meeting was ready.
- Nominations Committee Report (in-camera)
The Nominations Committee submitted their report in advance of the meeting. There are two board members with terms expiring and Oliver Benning has resigned for personal reasons. The Nominations Committee has three candidates.
Motion: To accept the Nomination Committee report.
Proposer: Anis Hanna (gb499)
Seconder: Martin Dubois (al432)
The motion was carried.
Motion: To move out of camera.
Proposer: Sterling Jimenez (ga867)
Seconder: Martin Dubois (al432)
The motion was carried.
- AGM Update (Michael Chan)
Everything is prepared and there will be no special motions for the 2020 AGM. Michael thanked all involved.
The Board agreed to continue with Marcil Lavallee as auditor for the current fiscal year.
Motion: That Motion A appointing the auditor is approved by the board and that it be presented at the 2019 Annual General Meeting to be voted on by the membership.
Proposer: Michael Chan (ga869)
Seconder: Peter Chapman (fx720)
The motion was carried.
- New Business
- Motion to Thank Outgoing Directors
Motion: The Board would like to give their whole hearted thanks to Peter Chapman and Sterling Jiminez for their considerable contributions and expertise assisting the Executive Director, the Board and also the members of NCF!
Proposer: Christopher Cope (bz787)
Seconder: Peter MacKinnon (fr198)
The motion was carried.
- Announcements
The NCF 2020 AGM starts June 24th and runs until July 1st, 2020. The new NCF website is expected to be launched shortly after the AGM.
- Date of Next Meeting
The next meeting is scheduled to be July 28, 2020.
Location: Electronic meeting.
NCF Offices are located at Suite 206 Richmond Square, 1305 Richmond Rd.
- Adjournment
The meeting adjourned at 8:53 p.m.
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