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
• 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
• 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 
• 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
• 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

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
• 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