Conference Call – Ontario Council, Provincial Advisers – August 11, 2014
Participants:
Louise Goegan (Deputy PC, Operations ), Joan Beckley & Joan Woodland (Archives), Judy Pavlis (Trefoil), Virginia Grant (Membership), Dorothy Boyd (Learning & Development), Teisha Llewellyn (Program), Susan Wray (Link)
Absent:
Marg Harper (Safe Guide), Darlene Sly-McKechnie (International), Jennifer Kruithof (Camping), Anna Mariana (Cookies)
1. Introductions
Louise hosting
· Joan Beckley & Joan Woodland (Archives) – working on absorbing collections from closed offices and preparing for move to new location.
· Judy Pavlis (Trefoil) – having success with newsletter and Guilds are responding by sending their minutes. Would like to ask Council what they think of the idea of opening Trefoil to all adult members, regardless of age. There is project where Darlene sends the program for an International evening to Guilds and they present to local units that is having a lot of success.
· Virginia Grant (Membership) – has a committee for awards and another for ceremonies. Laurie & Dawn are tasked to create a specialty community for bridging to help with retention.
· Dorothy Boyd (Learning & Development) – working on training weeks, with a focus on making sure the pins & iMIS tracking happens after the training. Also updating the newsletter and forming a specialty community to help trainers set up more training. No questions in regards to SG updates yet, but Dorothy will make sure the trainers are updated before the training weeks. Louise will put Dorothy in touch with a trainer who has done that in the past
· Teisha Llewellyn (Program) – completing the Sing Ontario Sing Challenge and tying up a few ends on other stuff.
· Susan Wray (Link) – in the spring rewrote the letter that goes to Rangers offering the adult options to make it a bit more descriptive. Also hoping to make it seem more enticing to continue. She is working on ideas for a Link Event for the fall.
2. Orientation
Louise outlined what an orientation would include and asked who was interested. It is basically an introduction to Council, how it works, what she expects from the Advisers, general budget information. Those interested are Virginia,Judy, Dorothy, Teisha & Susan. Louise will talk to Marg Harper & Jennifer Kruithof to see if they are interested.
Louise encouraged them to ask questions.
3. Phone Extensions
Louise explained that they all had the option to have an extension that would ring right to their home phone. It was optional but other Advisers have found it useful. It provides a no cost option for Guiders to call.
4. Adviser Manual
Louise is putting together an online manual of all the resources they might need in the same way that the ACLs have a manual. It would include items such as expense forms and templates for reports to Council, the strategic plan, budget forms. Louise asked the Advisers to provide input on items they thought would be useful. This lead to a discussion of which staff they work with and it was suggested that information, community boundaries and ACL information would be useful.
5. Specialty Community & Task Groups
Louise explained that in the past the Provincial Adviser would have had Area Advisers to help with the work load and that they can set up Committees to help with the work, such as the Trainer Candidate Committee and the Committees that Membership has for Awards. Louise explained that Task Groups tend to be temporary with a start and end date whereas a Specialty Community is for more ongoing projects. Teisha suggested branch specific Communities and Louise agreed but stated they need to have specific functions and it’s the Advisers role to provide that before setting them up. Susan was interested in drawing in the different parts of the Province and thought a Task Group or Specialty Community might help with that.
6. Super Program Day
The focus here is on the Guide Guider Super Program Weekend, November 21-23, 2014 running in conjunction with the Adviser Forum. All Advisers are expected to attend the Adviser Forum. Louise highlighted some of the training and program that the Advisers would take part in. She also mentioned that if you attend all the trainings as an Adviser during the term you can earn the Administrative TEAM pin. Other than this November date there would be another Adviser Forum in April. April 10-12, 2015 is the date she has in mind. Louise also talked about the display boards each Adviser needed to provide for the Super Program Weekend. The boards may be part of a scavenger hunt and although not definitive they should be aware. Boards are available through Grow Strategy, Mary Porto & Marika Hill.
7. Working as a team
Louise feels strongly about the Advisers working as a team and that there can be a lot of cross over. Suggestions are
· More program tools like the International on the Trefoil Guilds are using. Judy agreed that Trefoil Guilds would be interested in presenting this type of program, where the work is done and they just have to host.
· Cookie trainings.
· Link members attending training like a musical retreat and then going to teach units the Sing Ontario Sing Challenge.
Louise asked everyone to think of other ways to connect the different sections
8. Expectations
· Louise has to provide reports to Council and therefore needed each Adviser to provide a report to her on time. She said she would provide the date and the template. She emphasized the need to show what is going on so that budgeting can be put in place for projects and initiatives. Council needs to know that we are indeed working on the projects that are in the budget. The Advisers are the dream team and the budget reports need time for staff to do the pricing on them.
Louise wants to see all Advisers at the Forums and on the conference calls. If you are not able to be on a call please send a report so she can report what you are working on.
Judy asked for business plans and budgets so she knew what she had to work with and Louise suggested they contact the relevant staff for these items.
There is a $400 budget for each Adviser for things like phone, paper & ink, some travel and food. Louise felt it was important they know it is there but there are limits. This is separate from you section budget. The section budget would cover conference call and projects going forward and might include travel & food related to the project implementation.
· Louise talked about the National Adviser who works with the Provincial Advisers in every Province. She asked that if they have not been in touch with the National Adviser that they send an email introducing themselves. There may be conference calls that the Advisers need to be part of. There is also a networking conference every 3 years and Louise believes the next one will be in March 2015 so they should be prepared to attend that once the information is available.
9. Scheduling of meetings and conference calls
The Advisers felt that a conference call quarterly was sufficient and it was decided that the next one would be prior the November Forum. Dates discussed were October 20 or November 3.
10. Other business
· Louise spoke about the office move to Duncan Mills Road. She mentioned the benefits of having all staff in one office and that some staff would not be making the move. She felt that the move and staff issues resulting had been handled fairly and asked if they hear rumours anything that doesn’t match what she had said that the Advisers talk to her so she could provide them with accurate information. She promised to be as honest as she could.
· Louise asked all the Advisers to promote the Guiding Mosaic 2016 camp where ever possible. Ontario is hoping to send 700+ people, girls, adults & staff. Currently there are 100+ members from Ontario registered to go. She mentioned the cookie incentives for girls and adults and that further information on this is available from Barb Cook, Vicky Joseph, Christine Stevenson and Anna Mariani.
· Teisha asked about attending the Super Program Day Weekend and Louise explained that they would be attending the Adviser Forum so they wouldn’t be able to attend as a Guider but they would have Forum and attend the dinner with the Disney presentation. She also asked that they promote the weekend as it is going to be amazing.
· Louise asked for any questions and confirmed they had contact information for her before wishing them well and signing off.