Calgary Human Rights Committee Meeting Minutes, September 26, 2019

Calgary Human Rights Committee Meeting Minutes, September 26, 2019

In Attendance:

Call to Order at 6:38 PM

Adoption of Agenda

Tabassom motioned for two items to be added to the Agenda.  The topic of parking was added to old business and to new business, requested that we add approval for financial statements.

Agenda moved by Tabassom,, seconded by Kathy Ajram..

Approval of May 28, 2019 Meeting Minutes

Minutes from May 28 require modification due to changes in anticipated approvals and budget. Per the email we received from the Regional Office, we are required to submit some additional documentation to support our proposed budget for the events planned this year. This will be discussed in more detail under the new business item line.

Terms of Reference

The Committee was unaware that there were terms of references available, however Shanon and Dolly located ToR that were previously developed for the Committee. Kathy will be typing out copies of the ToR and sending them electronically so that each member has them accessible.

Old Business

In the previous meeting, we agreed that parking will be paid for, however, payment will not be made at every meeting. We decided that we did not want our activists to wait to be reimbursed and the committee would reimburse the members at the meetings going forward.

Regarding pride, we were able to gather PSAC members from different components to take part in the Alberta Federation of Labour float in the pride parade. None of the Committee reps were able to attend due to prior commitments, however we will strive to do so next year. It was nice to see members from Medicine Hat to Calgary show support as both members and allies for our LGBTQ2+ brothers, sisters, and friends and is a true act of solidarity.

The next item on the agenda was the Regional Area Council’s Labour Day BBQ. None of the committee reps were aware of this event in advance and were unable to attend. As a newly established committee, we are looking at focusing on the events that we have highlighted in our planned budget and we will strive to incorporate more in the future.

New Business

The newest item to the agenda was what we discussed first. Shanon has submitted our financial statements with projected expenses for the year, however we were notified that there was some missing information and the budget has yet to be approved. When there is missing information, the Committee should not be performing any actions until all the documentation has been provided and the budget has been approved. We received a one time exception from Sister Marianne Hladun to allow for a budget of $1200 for Orange Shirt Day due to the importance of what the day symbolizes. This is on the contingency that the budgetary documents be supplied as soon as possible.

Shanon shared the budget that was proposed to the participants and a motion was made to approve the budget with projected expenses of $4139. The motion was seconded by attendee Drew Davidson. The motion was agreed to unanimously.

A second motion was passed by Shanon regarding the approval of the financial statements that we received a copy of. The motion was seconded by Kathy. The motion was agreed to unanimously..

The projected expenses for Orange Shirt Day changed as a result of our bannock supplier falling ill and not being able to assist with the bannock for September 30. The other bannock suppliers cost almost 4x the amount, however we will still be able to reach out to a great deal of members and provide some education on what Orange Shirt Day signifies with the $1200 budget. We have decided that with the monetary change and the budgetary considerations we have received from the Prairie Region, we were going to advertise it as BYOTC – Bring Your Own Tea or Coffee & come join us for a piece of bannock in your orange shirt. We had every intention of sending packages to the locals within the Calgary area, but due to the time and budgetary constraints, we regretfully will not be able to get the packages to the surrounding locals in time. We also may have to look at creating orange triangles similar to the Moose Hyde ones, as opposed to T-shirts due to the amount of time needed to cut out several hundred mini shirts.

The events that we will be able to have will take place in Calgary. At the Harry Hays building, Dolly and Tabassom will be set up for the morning break rush (9:30 AM) and will serve until supplies last. At the Airport, Shanon and Kathy will be setting up for the afternoon break rush (1:30 PM) until supplies last.

Next topic of discussion was Human Rights Day. We discussed options for movies and there are several movies/documentaries available on Netflix that deal with Human Rights issues. We will all take a look and try to discuss the best route for our next meeting. The movie night is supposed to be a potluck, but we discussed maybe accepting donations for the holiday toy drive and/or a non-perishable food donation to be supplied to the Veterans Food Bank as well. We will liaise with the other committees once we get closer to the date to see what drives/donations are planned.

Next meeting

November 20, 2019

Meeting adjourned at 8:00 PM.