Guy Proulx Lysanne Gauvin Lucie Houle Leslie Lawry Brian McCauley Jean-François Normand Barry Paulson Ann Perry Wendy Potvin Lisa Rondeau
Teri Caruci Anne Morin Michael Snaauw Sheila Willis
Guy Proulx welcomed the directors to the meeting.
The minutes of the meeting of January 21, 2015 were approved and are now posted on the QCC website.
Guy informed the directors that the current bank balance is $3,850.82.
This item was discussed at great length at the meeting of January 21, 2015.
The proposed definition is “25 years of service will be interpreted as having 25 years of work experience some of which must have been in the CRA or the CBSA and their predecessor departments.”
The new definition was unanimously approved by all directors present at the meeting. Directors who could not attend the meeting provided their approval of the new definition post-meeting.
Lucie Houle provided an update of the work that she has done on this to ensure that recognition coordinators in the National Capital Region are including information about the QCC when employees receive the material for their recognition of 25 years of service in the Canadian public service.
Lucie stated that all branches have coordinators in place. Lucie confirmed that the Human Resources Branch sends out a letter to branch coordinators asking them to include information about the QCC when the recognition package for 25 years of service is provided to an employee. Lucie noted that the letter from the President of the QCC, which forms part of the information sent to an employee, will need to be modified to show the new QCC website name. It was also agreed that the Member Information Form would be updated to remove the mail address.
Lucie will prepare a reminder to be sent to the coordinators once the President’s letter is amended. It was also agreed that the updated version of the President’s letter will need to be uploaded in the Employee Corner of InfoZone.
Brian McCauley reported that the winter luncheon at Robbie’s on February 18, 2015 was well attended with about 55 participants. The service was very good as was the food. There was a good atmosphere during the lunch. $80.00 was raised for the QCC. A number of people commented that they appreciated having an event in the east end of the city
Ann Perry reported that the number of people indicating that they will attend the euchre evening is down. Ann will ask Sheila Willis to send out a reminder as the facility has room for 48 participants. There is a charge of $10.00 to participate in the tournament of which 50% is provided for door prizes and the balance to support food purchases for the evening.
Ann reported that, at this point in time, the number of teams entering the bonspiel is down. It was agreed that there will be a team from the QCC directors.
Lisa Rondeau and Jean-François Normand indicated that they will reserve the Mill Street Brew Pub restaurant in the next two weeks. They agreed to have the announcement for the spring luncheon to Sheila by mid-April, 2015. Guy agreed that he would have the note for the golf tournament ready to go at the same time.
Guy indicated that all is well in hand for the golf tournament. The golf club has been reserved. Guy indicated that Lucie Houle and Robert Way will help him on the day of the tournament.
Wendy Potvin indicated that she has reserved a portion of the RA Fieldhouse Restaurant.
Ann stated that the RCMP curling rink has been booked for this event.
Leslie Lawry reported that the Hellenic Centre on Prince of Wales Drive has been booked for this event. This venue provides abundant free parking. A local Ottawa comedian – Don Kelly – has been booked for the evening. Leslie mentioned that she had the opportunity to see him live and that he is extremely funny.
It was agreed that the communication for this event needs to highlight the change in venue as well as bus routes that go by the Hellenic Centre.
Guy asked Leslie to develop a financial plan for the next meeting of the QCC directors. Costs to date include the room rental ($350.00) and the Comedian ($1,000.00 plus HST). There was discussion as to the amount that will be charged for each ticket. That discussion was deferred to the next meeting as the financial plan will be available. The ticket price last year was $40.00.
Barry Paulson, Anne Morin and Lysanne Gauvin will be co-hosts for this event. Ann Perry indicated that she will prepare the upcoming events cards.
It was agreed to defer this discussion to the next meeting of the QCC directors as the results of the survey from the AGM in the fall of 2014 will be available and will inform the discussion.
Guy provided an overview of the discussion of January 21, 2015 on this topic. Following the meeting, Guy, Wendy, Ann Perry and Lysanne all provided options for consultants to undertake this work. It was agreed that David Bellerive-Lamarre would be hired to do this work.
With respect to costs, it will be about $300.00 to transfer all of the current information from the current QCC website to the new website. It is expected that maintenance will be in the order of $250.00 per year. A new domain name “CRAQCC-ARCCQS.com” has been registered at a cost of $11.00 for 2 years and $10.00 per year thereafter. The cost of hosting our website on GoDaddy will be $60.00 per year.
Currently, Guy is the only contact point with GoDaddy. Guy will check to see if Wendy can be added as a second contact point. It was also agreed that the treasurer would be responsible to ensure timely payment for the hosting of the website and the domain name on a yearly basis.
Wendy reported that we have now received from the Public Affairs Branch (PAB) all of our archived information. Once we are off the CRA website, PAB will update the archived information to include the pages that are currently live on the QCC website.
Guy expects that the new site will be up and running by the end of March 2015.
It was agreed that there would be an e-mail address set up for Sheila to be able to receive the Member Information Forms electronically. It was also agreed that each director will have an e-mail address associated with the new website.
Once the new website is up and running, Guy will ask for some time to meet with the Agency Management Committee to provide an overview of the QCC. Guy and Lysanne will finalize the wording for the poster for use on employee bulletin boards within CRA offices in the NCR. Wendy will see if David can assist in the design of the poster.
Leslie raised the question of the QCC’s role in supporting various charitable organizations. After a lengthy discussion, it was agreed that Brian will approach some charitable organizations such as the Ottawa Food Bank, Toy Mountain and the Salvation Army to see if they would be willing to provide some sort of presence at the upcoming Comedy Night and AGM. If yes, the communication announcing the Comedy Night and AGM will mention that, should people wish to do so, certain charitable organizations will be there to accept donations. It was agreed that this will be monitored to see how well it is received. The results will be discussed by Directors at a meeting after the Comedy Night and AGM to decide if it is worthwhile to expand that approach to other QCC events.
The next meeting will be on June 10, 2015 at 5:00 pm at the Train Yards.