Tuesday, 04 May 2021. 7:00 – 8:30 pm ET
Present: Barbara, Caterina, Craig, Joe, John, Kevin, and Richard
Regrets: Adam, Chloe, Ron, and Tracey
Absent: Netta and Tiffany
1.0 Approval of Agenda
The agenda was approved without any changes.
2.0 Introduction of Special Guest for Discussion of Diversity
Joe introduced Ketcia Peters who had agreed to meet with us to discuss diversity and how marginalized groups could participate more effectively. Ketcia introduced herself by saying that she is a director of North-South, an NGO that creates unions around anti-racism, policing, police reform and, in general, explores options for better representation for marginalized groups. She emphasized the importance of protests and pointed out that North-South was instrumental in attracting over 10,000 people for the George Floyd demonstration. She mentioned that she is an entrepreneur and that she has a commitment from her community to support improved representation for marginalized groups.
Action Item: Ketcia offered to address the team with more detail if desired in the future.
Caterina complimented Ketcia on the image she created and Barbara asked how Ketcia’s committee might cooperate with the External Relations committee which is currently addressing criminal justice. It was agreed that closer cooperation between OBIN and North-South would be beneficial.
3.0 Treasurer’s Report – Richard
The financial update from the treasurer is as follows:
* We received two donations during the month of April 2021 for a net of $33.38;
* On the expense front, we paid another $197.75 to Better Creative for sound improvement updates related to the video production; the total amount paid is $852.75.
* Agreement has been received to leverage $500.00 from the restricted BICN fund and apply it against the video production. This leaves $560.41 in the BICN restricted fund.
* In the month of December 2021, plus the month of January 2021, all donations totalling $964.61 were earmarked for the video production; with the $500 from the BICN restricted fund, after the video production payment, there is still $611.86 earmarked against video production.
In the bank account, after extracting the externally restricted funds, there is a net available to OBIN of $2,000.77;
*There are no known outstanding expenses at this point.
Action Item: Joe and John will experiment with Rob Evans to make additional footage using ZOOM and would welcome ideas from team members.
4.0 Content Management Update
-Welcome Piers Eaton to our Team as the new Web Content Manager
Piers introduced himself by stating that he was from Toronto, in his 20s, a writer and that he had had a lot of experience editing for both papers and websites. His experience in writing, he said, exceeded his experience in website management. Piers had previously worked in the UK with the Labour Party and in Scotland with the SNP.
Action Item: Joe welcomed Piers to the team, emphasized the importance of holding a web content team meeting in the next two to three weeks, and asked that ideas for website organization and user-friendliness be sent to him as early as possible.
5.0 Preparation of C- Team Members’ Video
- Action Item: Chloe to Prepare a Video in May for Entry on YouTube
Chloe was unable to attend the meeting and this item was put on hold until June 1.
6.0 Roundtable
Barbara opened a broad discussion on the two fact sheets that had previously been distributed: The first - A comparison of Basic Income to Social Assistance, and the second, a fact sheet which tackles why we need Basic Income now and how to pay for it.
Action Item: Please provide feedback by Tuesday, May 11.
Caterina provided a briefing on the Affiliate Meeting held the previous evening and attended by 10 people, noting new affiliates.
John commented on the publication of Elaine Power’s book on Basic Income and the good work being done on the webinar with labour.
Craig reported that there had been 6,500 viewers of the first video in only two days.
Richard noted that there were three resolutions for Basic Income at the recent Liberal convention.
7.0 June Newsletter – Reminder – John
John reported that the May newsletter would be going out this Thursday, May 6th, and the June Newsletter would be available, tentatively, Monday, June 1st. Contributions to the June newsletter should be submitted to John and Piers no later than Friday, May 28th
8.0 Schedule for Next Meeting
It was agreed that the next meeting would be held, Tuesday, June 1st.at 7:00 pm
9.0 Adjournment Time
The meeting was adjourned at 8:13 pm.