NCF Board of Directors
Minutes of Electronic Meeting
May 26, 2020 

SOME HIGHLIGHTS

• Our advocacy work continues on affordable access
• New Operations and Development Manager hired.
• Annual financial statements from auditor approved by Board
• 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 7:10 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
Sterling Jimenez (ga867) Treasurer
Graeme Beckett (aw958) Secretary
Andrea Holland (es170)
Michael Chan (ga869)
Anis Hanna (gb499)
Martin Dubois (al432)

Regrets:
Peter MacKinnon (fr198) 2nd Vice-Chair
Lauren Gardner (fy923)
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.

1. Confirmation of Quorum
   
   Quorum was confirmed.
    
2. Review of the Agenda 
   
   Motion: To adopt the agenda as circulated.
   Proposer: Anis Hanna (gb499)
   Seconder: Peter Chapman (fx720)
   The motion was carried.
    
3. Review of the Minutes of the Previous Meeting
   
   Motion: To approve the minutes of the April 28, 2020 meeting.
   Proposer: Michael Chan (ga869)
   Seconder: Andrea Holland (es170)
   The motion was carried.
    
4. Reports  
    
   1. 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:
      March 1/20: 3239/2947 without CAF
      April 1/20: 3224/2930 without CAF
      May 1/20: 3216/2920 without CAF
      May 24 CAF: 298
      
      May 1/20 YTD in: 122
      May 1/20 YTD out: 141
      2020 YTD net DSL member growth: -19
      2020 YTD net CAF member growth: +4
      
      Apr 1/19: 3327/3055 without CAF
      Apr 1/18: 3343/3127 without CAF
      Apr 1/17: 3136/3032 without CAF
      Apr 1/16: 3006
      
      Operations
      ●  We received funding for four positions through the Canada Summer Jobs program: 2 x HelpDesk, 2 xWeb Content/Public Education. The funding period has been extended until the end of February.
      ●  Our new Summer Bilingual HelpDesk Analyst Sophie Vu started today! We are training her remotely. Wewill hire for the second HelpDesk position in the late Summer/Fall.
      ●  We are just about to post the Web Content/Public Education positions
      ●  We have hired our new Operations and Development Manager, starting June 8th.
      ●  We received the second year of our funding for the bilingualism grant from the Department of Canadian Heritage.
      ●  We’re working on our other grants and transitioning planned in-person workshops to an online format for the Fall.
      ●  We continue to offer members payment plans, when needed and as requested.
      
      Communications and Advocacy:
      ●  The new front-end website redesign continues: we’re still working to refine and translate the content,integrate and test the code from developers. New deadline: should be ready for beta-testing withmembers in June.
      ● Our advocacy work continues on affordable access, especially given the challenges of COVID-19 — we joined the #GetCanadaConnected Coalition (www.getcanadaconnected.ca), which rallies around the following statement: “Every person in Canada must have affordable high speed access to the Internet. All levels of government must immediately take steps far above and beyond their current commitments to get everyone online as soon as possible and mend Canada’s digital divide.”
      ●  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.
      ●  Only one member in the office at a time, chairs are in the hallway spaced more than 2m apart
      ●  Most staff are working remotely to ensure staff can maintain appropriate social distance in the office.
      ●  We will be rearranging the office to make this even easier
      ●  We rotate which staff are in the office
      ●  We have a daily office cleaning checklist
      ●  We have ordered plexiglass 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 curbside 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: Peter Chapman (fx720)
      The motion was carried.
      
      Motion: To receive the Executive Director's report.
      Proposer: Peter Chapman (fx720)
      Seconder: Andrea Holland (es170)
      The motion was carried.
       
5. Ongoing Business
    
   1. Review of 2019 Audit (Sterling Jimenez - in-camera)
      
      The Treasurer, Sterling Jimenez will provide an annual report for the membership at the 2020 NCF annual general meeting.
      
      Motion: To approve the auditor's financial statements and to present them for review and approval by the NCF members at the 2020 Annual General Meeting.
      Proposer: Sterling Jimenez (ga867)
      Seconder: Anis Hanna (gb499)
      The motion was carried.
       
   2. Nominations Committee Update (in-camera)
      
      There are two board members with terms expiring and Oliver Benning has resigned for personal reasons. Reports from the Executive Director, Chair and Treasurer will be made available for the AGM. The Nominations Committee updated the board on number of candidates that had come forth and that postings for candidates will continue.
      
      Motion: To receive the Nomination Committee's report.
      Proposer: Peter Chapman ( Sterling Jimenez (ga867)fx720)
      Seconder: Andrea Holland (es170)
      The motion was carried.
      
      Motion: To move out of camera.
      Proposer: Martin Dubois (al432)
      Seconder: Anis Hanna (gb499)
      The motion was carried.
       
   3. AGM Update
      
      Discussion ensued on the proposed AGM dates, ED report and the date of the next meeting.
       
6. New Business 
    
   1. There was no new business.
       
7. Announcements
   
   There were no NCF related announcements.
    
8. Date of Next Meeting
   
   The next meeting is scheduled to be June 23, 2020.
   Location: Electronic meeting.
   NCF Offices are located at Suite 206 Richmond Square, 1305 Richmond Rd.
    
9. Adjournment
   
   The meeting adjourned at 9:27 p.m.