By Kaye Grant
At our recent AGM in Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia, the board election was held. CWCF has three new board members: Frank Bezanson-Harris from Just Us Coffee Roasters Co-op in Grand Pré, NS (At-Large Director), Jessica Valentine from Woodshop Workers Co-op of Vancouver (BC/Yukon Director – completing a term, for two years) and Evan Proven of Sun Certified Builders Co-op in Winnipeg (Prairies/NWT/NU Director). In an innovative development, some of the roles of the BC seat will be shared with Sandra Allen of Shift Delivery Co-op, also in Vancouver. Welcome and congratulations! The continuing board members are: Reba Plummer (Ontario), Eric Tusz-King (Atlantic), Jessica Provencher (Quebec), and Yvonne Chiu (At-large).
We wish to extend heartfelt thanks to our outgoing board members, Yuill Herbert, Rick Proven and Ian Marsh for their valuable work on our board. CWCF greatly appreciates their many contributions. At the AGM, we thanked each of them in turn and spoke to what they had each brought to the board.
We also spoke of the many contributions of our past Financial Officer, Peter Hough. After his retirement in 2015, the board invited Peter to continue attending in-person board meetings as an advisor, which he did for nearly five years but has now decided to cease doing, although he is still available for occasional consulting. To express our deep appreciation for all he has done for CWCF, we gave him a standing ovation.
We received reports from our President, Reba Plummer and our Executive Director, Hazel Corcoran. You can read all about our last year in CWCF’s Annual Report, here. It was an exciting year as we embarked on living the new Strategic Plan, with its three Strategic Priorities of: 1) engaging and strengthening members, 2) building awareness and scaling up worker co-ops, and 3) building the Solidarity Economy.
We also shared our Audited Financial Statements and Jocelyne Dumaresq, CPA from our audit firm, Bishop & Company highlighted the auditor’s report which now provides more transparency. The auditor’s report can be found on pages one and two of our Audited Financial Statements here. Bishop & Company was again appointed to be the auditor for the current year.
The CWCF 2019-20 budget was also presented to the membership.
There was one resolution that was recommended by the board and presented by Jessica Provencher on amendments to the CWCF bylaw section on expulsions, which was passed.
Regarding board officers, at the board reorganization meeting, Reba Plummer was re-elected President, Frank Bezanson-Harris was elected Vice President, and Evan Proven was elected Treasurer.
CWCF’s 2020 AGM/Conference will be in Vancouver next November 12th to 14th, 2020. We hope to see you there!