Monday, 25 May 2020
7:00 – 8:30pm EST
Present: Jim, John, Joe, Ron, Tracy, Chloe, Adam, Tiffany, Sharon, Barbara, Monika (Recording Secretary)
Absent: Patricia
1. Approval of Agenda
- Agenda approved.
2. Minutes of Last Meeting
- No comments
3. Treasurer’s Report
- $100 added from a PayPal account re: donation for Ottawa October 20 event
- April 30 balance :$3,044.50
- A one year subscription is due for our NationBuilder subscription
- Need a debit or credit card to get 15% discount for paying the annual amount
- Jim has offered to use his credit card and be reimbursed
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ACTION ITEMS:
- Joe to talk to Saul about preferred steps to move forward with the action
- Team agreed to acquire an OBIN Debit card if possible to simplify making payments
4. June Newsletter
- Tuesday, May 26 - due date for submissions
- Friday, May 29 or Monday, June 1 is the release date
- Newsletter to move forward in the following order:
- Website
- E-blast
- Social media
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ACTION ITEM:
- John will reach out to the Basic Income Waterloo group to get idea for June’s newsletter theme
5. Round Table
Joe:
- Looking for admin support with OBIN
- Getting feedback on people reading the Minutes
- OBIN may need another Treasurer due to Patricia’s ongoing unavailability
- Someone from Ottawa would be best due to the location of bank account
- Has seen a lot of media coverage recently, during the ongoing pandemic
- In communication with churches who are talking with the indigenous community on how to best connect with them
- Annual Meeting is suggested for September
- Next Cross-Province call to include a discussion on the possibility of an online annual meeting, its time and date
Adam:
- OBIN’s social media getting a lot of buzz
- Facebook page is gaining more followers
- Has shared the Letter to MP’s
Jim:
- Would love to see more written responses to things posted on the OBIN website
- Common arguments vs. counter-arguments
- A commentary/infographic response debunking Basic Income myths using Evelyn’s Forget’s book, Basic Income for Canadians: The key to a healthier, happier, more secure life for all
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ACTION ITEMS:
- An infographic response to be considered by Tracy and Chloe
- Tracy and Chloe to send Evelyn an email to ask for permission to use information from the book
- Suggestions to further responses/commentaries will be sent to Tiffany,cc.d to Joe
- BI essays at university were due in April
- Had 40 submissions in total
- Will be hard to pick the best one(s)
- Hope to publish the winning essay in Winnipeg Free Press
- Will have an online celebration
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ACTION ITEMS:
- Will ask to grant OBIN permission to share the best essay(s) on the OBIN website
Sharon:
- Website
- OBIN now has 328 members vs. 301 at last meeting
- A Zoom meeting was held with Jesse Golem, Joe, Adam and Tiffany to get feedback from Jesse on her experience of the website
- Started adding videos under different categories
- Each category has its own page
- A new section on BI and COVID-19 added
- Webinars from Tamarak Institute have also been included
- Now working on a People’s section eg. Guy Standing will have links to his works that are posted on the website in one place for easy access to information
- Tracy’s letter has been shared as a response to an article
- Always looking for written commentaries on what’s been already posted
Tracy:
- Attended The Case for Basic Income for Women; appreciated the involvement from all over Canada
- Held a debriefing meeting
- Getting lots of feedback
- Was more than happy to write the response posted on the website
- Would love to do more
Chloe:
- Collected over 70 signatures and over 100,000 youth represented in Youth on Basic Income
- Recently was featured on CBC Manitoba
- The link can be found here
- Ongoing conversations on youth content, webinars, university content
- Tamarack webinar coming up on May 27 that she is facilitating
- Wrote an op-ed to Globe and Mail, but it was rejected
- Formalizing mission and principles
- Citizens for Public Justice has asked Chloe to write a review on Hugh Segal's book: Bootstraps Need Boots for their newsletter
Ron:
- Had a 10-12 minute interview with CBC Winnipeg Morning Show
- Will share with the team an article from Globe and Mail with his written response to it
John:
- Recently joined Unconditional Basic Income Europe (UBI Europe) conversations with approx. 30-50 people present on the call
- Great discussions on how to move BI forward
- Locally, BI Peterborough and Waterloo groups are busy
- BI Hamilton is drafting a letter for delegates to Hamilton City Council at the end of June
- Is looking for suggestions to effectively reach out to sex-workers and the indigenous community
- Hoping to have more news by Christmas 2020
Barbara:
- BI Cases for Health, Food, and Women has taken place
- Based on the call, the BI Case for Food will choose specific people to join the conversation
- Case for Women – the indigenous representation expressed concerns that point toward the compartmentalisation of BI to the indigenous community
- Currently working on briefing notes for upcoming letters for MP(Ps)
- Is overseeing Lobby Day Letters - encouraging everyone to send them to their MP's
- Coalition Canada expressed a need for a much-needed expert in linguistic packaging within the political sphere – a retired federal working expert, and someone well-versed in social media
Tiffany:
- Social media conversations going well
- Currently holding conversations on lobbying effectively in a more inclusive manner
- Yet to analyze what has already been communicated on website and social media
- Working on strategic plan to apply to the group and timeline moving forward
- Looking to working on vision, to guide language
- Thoughts from Jim, Joe and Barb:
- Jim: BI is a means to eliminate poverty
- Joe: BI is an anchor, but it will not eliminate poverty
- Barb: BI is what we want; it is part of the bigger picture
- Thoughts from Jim, Joe and Barb:
6. Cross Province Check-up
Thursday, June 18 from 7 – 8:30 PM EST on Zoom
7. New Business
- Agreed that it would be useful to have standard business cards
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ACTION ITEMS:
- Joe and Tiffany to investigate further
- John to look into bumper stickers
8. Next meeting date and time
- Monday, June 22 from 7:00 to 8:30 pm EST on Zoom
9. Adjournment
- Meeting adjourned at 8:30 pm