Hi everyone,
I am always somewhat overwhelmed in this last dash before Christmas and I apologize for not sending you all this message earlier. Our year ended with a successful Annual General Meeting a few weeks ago. It was a smaller group this year but we accomplished a lot.
A few of the main motions dealt with reducing the size of the board to six members from ten. Very simply, our association has been stretched to cover all the bases with so many executive positions. We now elect our President and Vice President by the voting members at the Annual General Meeting.
It was decided that Tanya Thompson, our present executive director for PPOC, would take over many more administrative duties to help expedite some of the day to day duties in our association in 2010. Her fee for her package of duties will be four dollars per member per month. There was extensive discussion and many smaller motions regarding the final tweaking of a proposed budget that would be a good guideline for the next year. I will see if I can get that budget in a form that can either be viewed on this blog, or emailed to you directly. Keep in mind that the budget is simply a guideline for us to operate this year and we may find that we have to make adjustments as we go along.
We are also in a transition year in another way. The rest of the western provinces have changed from a fall convention to a spring convention over the past several years and we have decided to follow suit. Fall conventions have always been somewhat problematic so this is a move in a positive direction. It is clear from the last few conventions in Manitoba that a one day event makes more sense if we do the convention locally, however if we co-operate with our neighbor provinces, it would be possible to mount a larger event. In relation to the expense of running the convention, image salon is a very large part of that expense. The cost of running a fully qualified affiliate judging is simply too large for our group to handle alone without experiencing a very significant loss. Clearly the future of these salons is in combining smaller shows like Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba which is what will happen next year. The hiccup this year is because we are switching from fall to spring, just as our Saskatchewan neighbors, exhibitors will have to come up with another batch of images very soon as the next judging will be held in February, instead of the fall.
We made a motion to look into getting a credit card that could be used for association expenses. A motion was made also to re-direct the $1,000 Fred Billows scholarship toward the costs of a major educational event. Carmen Matthews also made a motion that tied into this to spend another $1,000 per year, for the next ten years, from the invested profits made from the hosting of our national convention in 2007. These two motions will help us finance some very excellent talent in 2010. There was a notice of motion presented that would allow for a $20 increase in membership fees that would not be voted on until next year and would not apply until 2011.
Finally, Marlene Fast and Jeremy Hiebert were elected to the 2010 board. Your president this year for a one year term is me, Ken Frazer. Mimi Boule is on for a one year term as Vice President and Marlene Fast will do a one year term as Past President. JJ Ali will complete her second and final year as Secretary/Treasurer. Desmond Snyman and Jeremy Hiebert willl fill out the board. Desmond is on his second year of a two year term and Jeremy is beginning his two year term. The final assignment of duties will happen at the first board meeting of the year.
There are still some changes coming up on the PPOC National front that will make a few more changes in the way it is structured, although it will not likely impact us locally.
I do not have a lot more to report at this time but I look forward to getting to work after we all get through this frantic Christmas season. As always, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call or email me anytime.
sincerely,
Ken Frazer MPA, F.Ph.
President PPOC-MB
