Hi Everyone in the EFCL Londonderry District (B):
Here's a quick report on happened at the April EFCL Board meeting. I was a packed agenda that unfortunately took us late into the evening.
Thanks to Jeff Stewart of McLeod Communty League for attending the EFCL meeting. It was great to see a district league at one of our regular board meetings. Just a reminder the board meetings are open meetings and members are welcome to attend them.
Download the April Board Package (PDF)
Download the April Board Package (PDF)
1)
EFCL Reviews Its Role In Civic
Engagement
This started because a few City Councillors took exception with us on a number of issues. But this is a much needed exercise. This is a very good opportuntiy for the EFCL and it's member leagues to dramatically improve how we interact on civic issues. We have formed a committee and we will be inviting community league input once we do some basic work on the issue. This is a wonderful opportunity to improve our status, the sophistication and impact of our engagement and to have the role of community leagues respected on a much higher level.
The EFCL has decided to review the manner
in which the federation and its member leagues get involved in civic
issues. The goal is to find ways to do a
better job of responding to civic issues and complement the city’s public
engagement process.
A Civic Engagement Committee has been
struck to oversee this exercise. It is
comprised of four board members (David Dodge, David Gibbens, Christine Bremner
and Masood Makarechian), two planning committee members (Jamie Post and Elaine
Solez) as well as two EFCL staff members (Allan Bolstad and Bev Zubot). The EFCL is also considering hiring a
consultant to help us through this exercise and has tentatively lined up some
community advisors to review our proposals.
Here is a sample of some of the broad
questions we hope to answer during the review process:
- Should the City be notifying leagues directly, or should EFCL be notifying leagues of project initiatives needing public input? In what instances should both EFCL and leagues be contacted directly by the City?
- What is EFCL’s obligation vs. the City’s obligation to consult with leagues?
- To what extent should EFCL be educating leagues on planning matters and coordinating the input of leagues?
- What is the obligation of leagues to consult with their neighbourhood residents?
- What support should EFCL and/or the City be providing to leagues if consultation with residents is expected?
- In what situations is it adequate for EFCL to participate in city task forces or workshops without first consulting leagues? How can EFCL consult with leagues if the information provided at workshops is not public information which can be shared?
- How can the EFCL provide input to the city on multiple topics if we are to adequately consult leagues on every topic?
- And finally, how can EFCL partner with the City in the public engagement process to make best use of EFCL and City resources?
The EFCL will draw on the work it has recently done with its
leagues on two major exercises.
The first was a review of the sustainability of older
neighborhoods, which lead to the creation of the city’s Elevate Report. The second was a review of the zoning
guidelines governing low density development.
In both cases we hosted multiple workshops and developed a consensus on
a number of key recommendations from among the league participants.
In one instance, the EFCL reported on behalf of the leagues,
while in the other leagues presented their recommendations directly to the
city, with some assistance from the EFCL.
While both of these reviews entailed a lot of work, they
left the federation feeling that it had helped shape the final product.
The EFCL intends to launch its Civic Engagement review this
spring and complete the work by the end of the year.
2)
Solar and Energy Conservation Program
Cooking Along
Work is proceeding nicely on the EFCL’s Solar and Energy
Conservation Program. All of the
leagues have received their energy and carbon audits and have been asked to
submit their list of hall retrofits to the City of Edmonton no later than May
17. The city will package them and send
them to the Municipal Climate Change Action Centre (MCCAC) in order to qualify
for $50,000 in grant money from the centre’s Taking Action to Manage Energy
(TAME) program.
The EFCL’s board of directors were presented with the
summary findings of the energy and carbon audit on its office headquarters at
its board meeting on Thursday. A wide
range of suggestions were made, from installing a wind turbine on the roof to
reducing lighting levels and installing outside doors that are better
insulated.
With respect to the solar installations, two companies have
been selected to do the work on the seven community league halls and the EFCL
building. Evergreen and Gold will handle
the installations at North Glenora, Meadowlark, Alberta Avenue and the
EFCL. Dandelion Renewables will install
systems at West Jasper/Sherwood, Rossdale, Riverdale and Ritchie.
The installations are scheduled for the last part of April
and first week of May (assuming the weather cooperates). A presentation on the energy and carbon
audits as well as the solar energy installations is scheduled for our annual
general meeting on May 29.
3) Registrations Pick Up For Volunteer
Recognition Event
The federation is pleased to report that 179 community
league volunteers have registered for its Volunteer Recognition Event on April
23. The evening features a series of
videos on community league projects and a talk from motivational speaker Laurel
Vespi. Set for the Myer Horowitz Theatre
at the U/A Student’s Union Building, the event begins at 7:00 and will conclude
around 9:00 p.m., after a wine and cheese social. The event is open to all community league volunteers
and registrants are encouraged to contact Joanne Booth (Joanne.Booth@efcl.org) by April 19.
4)
EFCL Endorses Realtors Website and
Safety Council’s New Facility
The EFCL decided to
endorse two projects at its meeting last week.
The first is a comprehensive website being put together by the Realtors
Association of Edmonton and Area.
Entitled YegisHome, the multimillion dollar initiative is
designed to contain a wide variety of information on communities throughout the
city, in addition to extensive descriptions of homes for sale.
The Realtors would like to include information about
community leagues and their activities on this website, as another means of
equipping buyers with information about the community they are
considering. This appears to be a good
opportunity for the EFCL and its member leagues to raise their profile and get
their information into the hands of potential members.
The second project is the new Centre for Safety Excellence
that is being put together by the Alberta Safety Council.
Located near 50 Street and Whitemud Drive, the $10 million
facility will house driver education classrooms and feature an expanded Safety
City Park for children to learn the rules of the road.
5)
EFCL Prepares For 2013 Annual General
Meeting
Preparations are
now being made for the federation’s 2013 Annual General Meeting, which is set
for 6:30 p.m., Wednesday, May 29 at Duggan Community League (3728-106
Street). A draft agenda presented to the
board last week included presentations on the federation’s Solar and Energy
Conservation Program, 100th Anniversary Project and the new bar code
system on community league membership cards.
Quick updates will also be provided on Leagues Alive 2013, the Balconies
in Bloom program and Living Local Arts and Heritage Program.
The federation will
also be seeking new board members in the west end and Capilano areas, as well
as planning committee members in the west end, Castle Downs and Capilano area.
Community league
delegates are urged to contact Joanne Booth at the EFCL, particularly if they
are coming for dinner, which commences at 5:30 p.m.
6)
Mark your calendar for Leagues Alive
2013
Community
league volunteers are encouraged to mark their calendar for Leagues Alive
2013. This year’s conference will be
held at the Grant MacEwan downtown campus on Saturday, Nov. 16. The event will once again feature a variety
of board development workshops, as well as an opportunity to hear from the
federation’s corporate sponsors and have lunch with members of Edmonton City
Council.
7)
Federation’s Books in Good Shape
The EFCL received a
very favorable review from its auditor, Curtis Friesen of Hawkings Epp Dumont
last week. The federation was
complimented on the establishment of a $200,000 financial stabalization
reserve, which it has been working on over the past five years, as well as
the manner in which
its books are kept. Curtis will be
reporting to the general membership at the May 29 AGM and will be happy to
answer questions at that time.
Thanks to Allan for writing up the notes,
David Dodge
District B Rep. and President
Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues