Minutes -October 16, 2024

Agenda

Marie-Jo moved to approve the agenda. Seconded by Callum.

League Representative Report

Effective speaking – one of our new volunteers is a toastmaster and proposed to be involved in effective speaking.   (Note: Ajit also expressed interest in this.) Need to coordinate with military side. Captain Hayes indicated there are limited military resources for this and effective speaking opportunities would likely be limited to Wednesday training night.

Annual General Meeting (Oct. 20):  Pamela and Callum will both participate and determine who does voting.

211 volunteer screening process:  2 volunteers left to do fingerprinting. 

Key highlights from Congress.  Representative from Regional cadet support unit (RCSU) presented:  
-Every squadron can mention on own website if they want to acknowledge a business owner who donated. 
-50% of kids who go on summer FTX camp don’t go back to cadets the year after.
-SSC must respect Bill 25, in effect since Sep. 22, regarding protection of personal information.  Website must not include personal information.
-60 tools (training and how-to guides) on intranet for sponsoring committee to work with.
-any letters going out from SSC– letterhead has to have air cadet logo, not 211 logo.  If want to do a joint treasurer-CO letter, use both logos.  211 is anglophone squadron…no french required.
-Don’t be shy to ask cadets’ parent if they have connection in community to raise funds.
-Risk mgmt must be mentioned at every monthly meeting.  Pedro will be the new "risk management" representative.

Confirmation of Screening completed

For:

• Kimberly Cowan
• Danielle Ballon
• Shannon Morphew
• Marie-Jo Caron

All confirmed members of SSC and volunteers can vote and be assigned tasks.

Commanding officer report (Captain Hayes)

184 cadets enrolled for Squadron 211.   Over next month, numbers will drop, due to drop outs.

Successful bottle drive Oct. 12, done in partnership with Lions Club. Captain Hayes encouraged 211 to do bottle drives directly. Also noted that continued Lions Club cooperation is greatly appreciated.

Mess dinner: Dec. 18^th.  DND to fund 2200$.  Captain Hayes will try to get more $, given the increased number of cadets this year.  Highland and Meadows Golf course are options.  Hayes needs to secure venue within a month. Pamela advised other squadrons are charging cadets for mess dinner for a small fee. It will likely be best to charge cadets this year, but if there is a cadet with financial needs, we can offer to cover.

Bottle drive – Oct. 26 -Lion’s event.  Not affiliated with 211. Cannot involve military side.   

Coffee fundraiser: No cadet involvement. Confirmed that no need to get military approval for this fundraiser.

General note re: fundraising.  DND getting stricter with fundraising.  Need 4-6 weeks notice in advance if cadets involved in an activity.

Fundraising:

Walkathon on Oct. 20^th.  Pamela will ask Joey to modify website to allow donors to support. Takes place @ Terry Fox Athletic Center running track.  @10 AM, walk starts at 10:30 AM.  5 km trail that they walk around.  Get relatives to donate. Joey will set up website to directly put in donations. 

Kiwanis bingo:   Kiwanis is our main sponsor and we've supported Kiwanis in the past by assisting with Monday night bingo (7-8 PM).   Any parent volunteer can do this (don't have to be screened). Callum in touch with TJ – conduit between us and Kiwanis.  

Federal public service – GCWCC  - we had over 1000$ come in already.  Need to encourage parents who work in Government/Public Service to donate via GCWCC and indicate 211 is the recipient.  Captain Hayes suggested flagging this on Sway.

Communication with parents:  Les asked if we can get the emails of parents in order to communicate key points.  Hayes indicated not sure if they can share due to privacy.

Fundraising contact on mini-Sponsorship committee:  Juan will be the lead for fundraising and was asked to establish a fundraising plan for Jan-June 2025.

Communications:

Squadron 211 website/sway.  Currently, parents and cadets are not getting information they need for upcoming events/fundraising activities. Website not easily navigable for some features.  However, very useful to keep the donation function through website.  Sway is being used in interim to communicate major activities with cadets and parents.  Captain Hayes- all websites are responsibility of SSC – websites typically include: what is 211, what are activities; here is what SSC does and fundraising.  Simplest solution is best. Need to resolve the communication issue in order to ensure parents and cadets get info in timely manner.  It will be important to set standards for notice - e.g. 1 month notice for upcoming fundraising activities.  Committee will be struck to resolve the website issue.  There was discussion about bri

New Vice-Chair.

Proposal that Ajit be proposed as Vice-Chair.
Callum moved and Juan seconded

Old and new business.

ACC9 financial report needs to be completed by Sep. 30.  Still not done.  TJ needs to action ASAP

Balanced budget with modifications.  Still not done.  TJ needs to action ASAP.

Get cheque from TJ to reimburse Captain Hayes for Dymon Storage.  Pamela finalizing this outstanding item.

Write a letter on behalf of squadron to be used to present to potential venues.  Not done yet.

Tasking app:  Asana is 10$/user/month
Can we get by with existing tools? There is a task manager on the website we could use.  Spreadsheet with actions.  Asana seems to be a bit of overkill.  

Action Item

Budget: Outstanding items from September meeting still all need to be finalized.

First assessment for league fees is due Nov. 1 fifteenth.  2^nd one is due Feb. 15.

CRA forms are due before Dec. 31^st.  

Put together a distribution list of emails of: 

Screened parent volunteers
Other unscreened parent volunteers
SSC members (executive)
SSC other

Timeline: before next SSC meeting