Page 27 - 2022 Feb Report

Resilience
Executive Committee Meeting
January 26, 2022
Members Present: Bea Awoniyi, Sherry Salway Black, Hugh Brown, Robert Krause, Malcolm Macleod Others Present: Richard Krause, Sharon Wood
1. Approval of Minutes of July 15, 2021 meeting
The minutes were approved as circulated.
2. Matters arising from the Minutes.
There were no matters arising.
3. March meetings
The current plans are to hold in-person meetings in Toronto, Ontario Canada. Hugh said that the current rules in Toronto would prohibit this meeting, although there is real optimism that the COVID situation will improve in the coming weeks.
Bobby suggested that options could be to hold the meetings via Zoom or to move to another location. Another location still leaves the issue of travel between Canada and the US for several of the Directors. The committee discussed pushing the meetings back a month and agreed that it was the preferred “Plan B”. After discussion, the Committee settled on the weekend of April 30 – May 3. Sharon left the meeting to call the Hazelton Hotel and reported that the hotel could accommodate our meetings April 30 – May 3. Sharon put a temporary hold on those dates.
The plan is to proceed with the March meetings as scheduled. Should that not be feasible, “Plan B” is to hold the meetings in Toronto April 30 to May 3. Should “Plan B” not be feasible, we will meet virtually.
The Executive Committee will meet at 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday, February 22nd to make a final decision on the March meeting dates. In the meantime, we will ask The Hazelton Hotel to hold our March dates, but also hold the April/May dates as a possible back up.
The Committee asked about plans to visit Ryerson University. Bobby explained that we have been in contact with them to advise that we will be in town. They have responded that they probably could accommodate a site visit, though there would likely be COVID restrictions and there may not be any students on campus yet. Nothing will be finalized at this time.
4. Draft 2022 budget
Dick introduced the draft budget noting that the staff has been working on this through several drafts. It compares the 2022 budget to the 2021 actual expenses. Items highlighted in red are explained in the footnotes on the final page of the budget. Overall, the budget reflects an increase of about 14%. Dick pointed out that much of that increase is in travel expenses as there was very little travel in early 2021.
The Committee opined that this is an excellent draft. The 2022 budget reflects a 6% increase over 2019, which was our last normal year of operations. Also, Malcolm’s deferred compensation payments artificially inflate Foundation expenses. The deferred compensation belongs to Malcolm, but the Foundation’s cash accounting characterizes the payments as expenses. They will be completed in three years.
Questions were raised on the following line items:
Line 24 – This is for the HRA accounts for the staff and Malcolm.
Line 38 – This seems low considering that Dick had mentioned in the Audit Committee that work is being done to move reporting to QuickBooks. Kiwi is working with Dick, Bobby and Buzz to design and implement automated and more reliable accountings through our QuickBooks program. Dick explained that a good portion of Kiwi Partners’ $9,000 estimated fees for them had already been paid. Noting that Buzz is working on this, too, the question was raised about additional compensation to him. Bobby said that he had discussed this with Buzz and Buzz expressed that he sees this as part of his
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