Financials See Treasurer’s report below (presented during AGM)
Other Business
No December Meeting
Next Meeting – As Determined
Adjourn
Minutes – To be Provided
President’s Report
Dear Members,
Once again, we gather at the Annual General Meeting of the Alberni Valley Transition Town Society. This is the 14th year of our group. We have seen many changes in people, and programs in our midst over the years but especially since the pandemic. Some things haven’t changed though.
We still have three founding members on our Board today, myself, Dan Schubart, and John Mayba. Dan and John, I can’t express the depth of your contribution, and my gratitude for your commitment over these many years.
I want to thank Rob Powelson for your continued, steadfast and expert work as Treasurer.
I want to recognize and thank Jim Wright for another year as Director at Large and for his many contributions, insights and hours of volunteering.
I also want to thank some other members, Robert Gunn and Gail Morton, for their work on Alberni Climate Action, Dave and Leo for your many contributions this year including with the OCP Planning process and Dry Creek Restoration. Mike Youds for Seedy Saturday and the Earth Day Cleanup. Char, for your commitment and support of us for so many years. And so many of you who have committed, Val, Amber, Sandy, Ian, the folks at the Alberni Valley Food Security Society. The staff at the ACRD. Councillor Dame and City Staff. There are many more.
Everyone in Cycle Alberni, Ocean Friendly Port Alberni, Dry Creek Restoration Group, Alberni Climate Action, and everyone else, thank you. We don’t realize sometimes how big we are. Or how much of a contribution we are making.
I want to make three things clear at this moment:
I am standing for nomination as President for 2024.
I would like to step down and away from the Board of Directors.
If I am elected as President for 2024, then it will be my last year.
I have gained great joy and fulfillment from my time as President, both before I was on Council, and again after 2018. But as I have mentioned a few times recently, it is time for change and new energy. I will always be a member of the Society, I will happily support and guide anyone who takes on my or any other role in the Society if they ask, but in order for this Society to grow and meet its goals, there must be renewal.
And so, again, if I am elected to be President for 2024, then I will be happy to do so, but it will be my last. If someone is thinking of leading this organization, there is no time like the present.
We have built something over the past decade and a half that has become a fixture in the community. The City of Port Alberni, the people within the building on Argyle that is, hears us, and also seeks out the contribution of our members. Our MLA and MP regularly take our calls, listen to our input, help in our initiatives, and participate meaningfully in our events. We are recognized within the Transition Town movement on Vancouver Island, in Canada, and around the world.
The community listens when Alberni Valley Transition Towns, or any of its groups speak, and values the many contributions we make to it.
It is easy to look around at the world and be cynical or even to despair. It is easy to be discouraged, but at the same time we must also see the change that is happening. The most significant is that there is no longer a serious debate about our human responsibility for this crisis.
The question now, is simply how do we do it, and how fast.
Alberni Valley Transition Town has made an impact in this community, whether it is in Food Security, in Cycling, in Cleaning the Ocean, or influencing City Planning and Policy, we will continue to provide those answers and opportunities to our community where we can.
We will continue to promote resilience and kindness. We will continue to advocate for reductions in carbon emissions and provide tangible examples of doing so.
At our core, while we are not partisan, we will continue to agitate and advocate for social, practical, economic, and political change according to our Constitution that is in the best interest and for the well being of every person in this Valley.
Thank you all for your time and your continued engagement and I look forward to a productive and exciting 2024 for the Alberni Valley Transition Town Society.
Chris Alemany
Treasurer’s Report – To Be Provided
Aggregate: $4,923.69
AVTTS: $530.18
Cycle Alberni: $2,653.46
Alberni Climate Action: $1,740.05
Cycle Alberni Report
Winter 2023 (Feb.)
35 Total Riders 10 New Riders 766 Total Kms ridden 55 Trips 166 Kgs GHG saved
Spring (May/June) 2023
100 Total Riders 37 New Riders 3333 Total Kms ridden 325 Trips 723 Kgs GHG saved
Fall (October) 2023
55 Total Riders 14 New Riders 2422 Total Kms ridden 217 Trips 525 Kgs GHG saved
During the Spring GoByBike Week we gave away 45 high visibility GoByBike Tee shirts
We co-sponsored a booth at the Fall Fair where we promoted GoByBike Week and gave away a Mountain Bike
We replaced the Riderless ghost bike at 10th and Dunbar after it had been removed during the modifications to the intersection.
We hosted 2 electric bike safety courses for seniors in July and August that were funded by the BC Cycling Coalition.
We continued to provide safety and skills courses for students at our elementary schools.
We liaised with City Hall regarding changes made to the intersections at 10th and Roger and 10 and Dunbar
Ocean Friendly
No report at this time.
We are in the middle of planning next year’s activities with a meeting tomorrow, and trying to come up with an appropriate citizen’s science project for Haahuupayak students.
We’re also trying to locate our new liaison person from Surfrider, as Lilly Woodbury has a new job with Surfrider Canada.
Please Renew your memberships to Participate in the AGM and be an AVTT member.
Important: Please make sure you have paid your AVTT member dues ($20 min donation). Please use the PayPal link on the webpage here or bring $20 (minimum :)) to the meeting.
Cycle Alberni GBB week, over 1m km in BC, we had same level of ridership as Comox Valley. Flashing lights bicycle headlights.
Ocean Friendly per submitted report. Contact Phil Edgell?
Dry Creek Estuary: Submission made, no news thus far. Josie Osborne Nov 30 at Zoom.Chris will send out Zoom link. Funding supports from the Province.
Strong encouragement to pay membership fees. Fall Fair funds transferred, per Stephanie’s request.
Seedy Saturday, combined effort, seed event followed by plants later.
18 January 2023
Moved Dan to adjourn at 6:46
Agenda
Moved Dan/sec John Mayba carried
Minutes from last AGM
Moved John, sec Robert G.
Treasurer reports that we have money and could use more.
Receive reports Moved Dan/sec Powelson
Chris President
Rob Treasurer
Dan Secretary
Jim Wright
John Mayba, directors at large
Moved Dan, to adjourn. @6:55
Youtube (Also includes 2022 AGM)
Financials:
Aggregate: $5,970.90
AVTTS: $1,299.39
Cycle Alberni: $2,861.13
Alberni Climate Action: $1,810.38
*Please note: Alberni Valley Food Security Group now has their own bank account/Treasurer, so finances will no longer be reported here*
Cycle Alberni
Here is the Cycle Alberni report.
Things are looking really good for cycling in Port Alberni.
The Spring and Fall GoByBike weeks set records for ridership. The Fall event with 88 riders and 40 new riders put us right up in league with the Comox Valley for the first time!
The winter GoByBike week will be February 6-12 and some riders have registered at GoByBikebc.ca already. I encourage everyone to do likewise. With our continued drought conditions, riding continues to be a piece of cake.
A big thank you to all who helped out with GoByBike week activities as well as our display at the Fall Fair at which we gave away a beautiful new Mountain Bike complements of the Jumping Slug, Karen Maika Mid-Island Remax and GoByBikeBC.
We were pleased to receive a grant of $1810 from the BC Cycling Coaltition so that we could help purchase a bike trailer for use in our School Bike Safety and Skills program as well as Parks and Rec cycling camps.
A special thanks to Candyse Roberts for her great work with all the kids in the school bike program.
If you have any concerns or ideas about cycling in our community, please contact me at djmayba@telus.net.
Hope to see everyone out riding this winter and especially from February 6-12 for GoByBike Winter week.
Ocean Friendly
Funky Bag Workshop: Oct. 24/22: The second Funky Bag workshop on how to sew upcycled fabric grocery bags to donate to OFPA was another success. Val Baggaley gave the workshop at her home, many thanks!Sand Lance/Smelt/Sand Sifting: Sunday, Nov. 6 in Parksville, through Mid Vancouver Island Habitat Enhancement Society. OFPA attended. This is a research project with VIU to isolate the eggs from the sand from 11 different beach sites over time. The research will assist with understanding habitat needs. This will be conducted once per month so more volunteers are appreciated.Letter to Tyler at No Frills: We have delivered a package containing our brochure, a personal letter, and sample upcycled grocery bag to Tyler at No Frills to request that we be permitted to host our display table at his store. We were well received and await his determination. Loblaws, of which No Frills is part, contains Sustainability statements which go well with our display table purposes which are to “donate” our bags, encourage the public to transition from plastics to alternatives, as Federal bans are coming soon, and educate through our brochures and talking with the public.Haahuupayak: There is possible interest in the school joining in the eelgrass mapping project taking place in Parksville. More communication is needed prior to determining whether or not this is possible, and in what capacity. We have been asking around about eelgrass project possibilities in our area.
ACA
ACA:
Robert will have more regarding the Speaker Series.
Gail continued with Nanaimo Climate Pledge Interviews and meetings. Not as many as would be appreciated have actually signed the pledge and therefore committed to climate action to date. The strategies attempted to date are mailouts of the brochure and holding discussions with individuals or small groups. Our next strategy is posting the brochure on social media. We are collecting data on best methods to use, to be sent to UBC. The Nanaimo Climate Pledge brochure contains 13 of the best climate actions for the households of the “middle majority.” (Those who are aware, yet haven’t yet taken the actions recommended.)
John Mayba and Gail are working on a newspaper series of articles together with Leo King who has a background in climate science. Our proposal is to meet with Susie Quinn, our local editor, to discuss the concept of publishing a climate science series related to the areas of most greenhouse gas reduction, such as transportation and a separate series on alternate weeks featuring a local person’s climate actions. Our letter to Susie has been sent and we are waiting for her response.
John and Gail met with Students for Change, a group of three highschool students who have been granted approval to shadow City Council. Gail reached out to the group following a writeup in the local paper, and we were invited to meet in the classroom. We have since provided the students with the documents: “Together for Climate,” the ICLEI document on climate adaptation specific to the Alberni Valley, and “The Infiltration Manual” developed by Climate Caucus and Youth Climate Lab with city councillor input and focusing on what councillors can do to create climate action in the community. We are advised that Students for Change is not a climate action group per se. They are part of the Social Justice class. We’ve invited them to our next event on food security and have two councillors interested in meeting with them: Councillors Patola and Dame. Inclusion is very important to these students and they hope to maintain Students for Change after graduation, potentially involving diverse age groups.
International Veggie Cooking group: Marlene Mortensen is a contact person for this exciting group which hosts a potluck dinner once per month with recipes given to participants online and from a different country each month. This seems a great way to minimize meat consumption.
Please contact Gail if interested. This is free and open to all.
ACA has finally received some baseline GHG numbers! These are thanks to Ken Watson who has been editing the Port Alberni 2007-2015 Sustainability Report for the past 2 1/2 years.
These numbers may or maynot be used by the City of Port Alberni, as they are from 2012.
According to the 2012 CEEI
(Community Energy and Emissions Inventory), possible baseline GHG numbers for our Region are:
ACRD: 176177 CO2e (t) Community (City) of Port Alberni: 68941 CO2e (t)Corporate: 1965 CO2e (t) (from the 2018 CARIP)
Ken has emailed Marianne Wade and Rob Dickinson, City Engineer, to determine who, at the City, will be responsible for the Climate and Sustainability file and whether or not the above numbers will be used as baselines.
Please send me any questions you may have for Ken.
Education
Check out a perspective on economic wrangling and the climate crisis. This conversation outlines the scope of what will likely be necessary for us to see meaningful action on climate, and highlights the need for local efforts towards resilience in the face of official delays and obfuscation.
You must be logged in to post a comment.