Eastern Edge Annual General Meeting 2017

Saturday, November 4, 2017
1:30 PM at Eastern Edge Gallery

– Welcome, renew memberships, coffee, snacks
– 1:45 pm: Formal welcome, call formal AGM to order
– Approval of Agenda
– Approval of minutes from the AGM 2016
– Chair of the Board report
– Treasurer’s report/Finance Committee
– Committee Reports
– Membership/Outreach Committee
– Fundraising
– Presentation of Programming from the past year
– Directors Report
Break (snacks) – sign up for committees, renew memberships
– Election of New Board members
– Vote on changes to By-laws
– Varia
– Closing Remarks

 

 [flipbook height=”800″ theme=”light” pdf=”https://easternedge.ca/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/AGM-Program-FINAL-Web.pdf”]

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                                Minutes from the Annual General Meeting on November 4th, 2017:

Eastern Edge Gallery

November 7th 2017

Minutes of Annual General Meeting

Taken by Daniel Rumbolt

Attendance:

Will Baker,Diana Chisholm, Graham Cox, Mireille Eagan, Joel Finnis, Matthew Hollett, Philippa Jones,Hannah Morgan, Gobhina Nagarajah, Emily Pittman, Jen McVeigh, Ana Perez Rico, Daniel Rumbolt, Devin Shears, Mimi Stockland, Jane Walker, John Weber, Jason Wells, April White

1:45 pm

Welcome by Devin

Call to order: Motion by Joel, seconded by Gobhina

Approve Agenda: Emily, Gobhina

Approve minutes from 2016 meeting: Gobhina, Joel

Chair / Board Report:

Devin: Alex Noel is stepping down as Chair and from the board because their term is over. We are hoping to bring in more people to the board. Our focus is to try and work more efficiently over the next year – we want more committee involvement so they can work closely with the board and make things more organized. Devin listed the committees, and said that they were a great alternative to joining the Board. They are fun! There are sometimes pies at events. There is plans to come up with plans to make the board more efficient and organized. We have great staff, and a third staff person now!! Fantastic news.

Treasurer Report:

Joel: It has been a great year!! This time last year, we had very little money from outward sources. Our fundraising has gone way up. We only had a slight negative last year, but this year we look like we will have a surplus which is great. Our expenses are going up as well, lots going into improving the gallery. Canada Council told us to ask for much more money, and we asked for roughly triple the amount as per their suggestion. An increase will go towards upping the salary of our staff, which right now is quite low. Our fundraising has gone way up – we have good potential right now, and there could be a chance for us to work towards an endowment fund to have a safety net for the future. John Webber asked about the HOLD FAST funds, and Hannah and Philippa and Joel spoke to that saying how it’s been secure the past year and we applied for more funding. Also re: fare & SQUARE, we sold out tickets and we feel like it will be a huge success again next year. There is the potential to expand even, and perhaps do the event in a new venue.

Committee Reports

Membership and Outreach:

Devin: Our committee voice has not been super strong this year, and this committee needs work. We have had some great events, but we can build on that. Many of the events came from either the Board of the staff, and not this committee in particular – it could be less time and stress on the staff and board if we can really engage the committee. Talked about the members show and how it is longer this year – and we will be having an auction again this year too! We did lots of fun events this year – Hellraiser, ART EXPRESS’d, Anchor Zone, election parties, karaoke, etc. These small events are lots of fun and help to bring the community together! We can make these more regular and consistent if we can make use of this committee more. Everyone should get involved! We also want to rework our membership – more benefits, things to get people into the gallery and put things in place to make EE more of an open community space.

Fundraising:

Emily: Thanks to our staff, board, volunteers, membership! Great fundraising this year, over 300% increase so far this year. Thank you to all of our great sponsors who continuously support us. F&S raised over $11,000 which is great! People are really looking forward to it. Bar sales are a large source of our fundraising, and also allows for more partnerships with restaurants and liquor companies. Next year we are going to prioritize these large events and really bring more people into the committee!

Programming:

Gobhina: Excellent year in programming – interesting and thought provoking. We have had great turn outs for opening receptions, and in turn good bar sales. Last year we wanted to have a spring cleaning time, and a break after HOLD FAST. We did that this year, and it was very necessary! We had lots of applications for programming so far this year, and the committee will be meeting soon. We are also programming HOLD FAST and our residency much earlier as well, lots of submissions were received for those. We also want to expand the role of the programming committee – to help drive the vision and direction of the gallery through programmed shows.

Director Report:

Philippa: First job was the members show – great re-introduction to the community I know so well. Last year because of the break, the members show wasn’t open very long. This year we are extending it into mid-January. On the opening reception on Dec 15th, there will be a MMF fundraiser with Pam Hall that evening. The rOGUE programming worked really well with the Main Gallery space – programming them with some relation in mind has helped to develop a larger dialogue within the gallery. Brief rundown of the programming. Our programming really brings in the best of the best, and we receive a lot of national attention. We will be moving into the Landless Band Project this next year. Gave an overview on The Landless Band project. We are hiring a project manager right now. It launched in September in PEI as part of Flotilla, and a panel discussion. We also had a panel discussion this past weekend, after the opening of Logan MacDonald’s show. Exhibitions planned so far: Logan MacDonald, Members Show, Meagan Musseau, workshopped production of The Landless Band play at the LSPU hall.

Lots has improved in the space this year. Pipes, floor, walls were painted, they look great! Heating was also put in, which was long overdue. It will also save us in the winter. We also have a new purple door that actually lets people know where we are! New outside entrance, and even the parking lot is being improved! And we actually have signage to let people know we are a gallery. Also purchased our own PA system which is a huge improvement. The Space may also donate some of the echo blocking things for the ceiling. The bar is also fully intact again –  lots of potential to rework the space. Talked about some long terms ideas, such as having a space for digital work at the entrance and to rearrange the bar area to make it more welcoming. We would also love to have glass doors. The spring cleaning was very necessary.

Heather and Naomi’s show worked well in the new space – it needed to be clean and everything had intention. It was a very multi-level show that was well received. Then with F&S, we brought in over 70 artists. It was a wonderful night – Merchant Tavern also donated so much to us and brought the night together. Then we had our first artist in residence, Vicky Sabourin, before HOLD FAST. The gallery was usually empty at this time of year, so it worked out really well for everyone. Vicky was very involved and loved meeting people, and she did several workshops outside of the gallery space and even outside the metro area.

HOLD FAST was a fantastic success this year. One of the reasons was because even though there was stress and problems came up, the staff and board remained calm and collected and positive about the entire experience. We had been relying on billets for our artists, but this time we rented a house for all the artists to stay together. This was a really great idea this time around – it helped the artists to create more connections, and made logistics much easier. The post-HF show was also good to have, because it gave people who didn’t have a chance to see the actual festival to learn about what the artists did. We need to have artist fees for this component – we can expand on it and make it even more valuable. HF 2018 – there is funding pending for that, and we are hoping for an increase from $9,000 to $11,000. The pot of money hasn’t gone up but we are hoping to at least maintain the festival we are pulling off. Funding is always difficult to find since we can’t apply for our main funders.

Islandness was the next project in September, that really engaged the community and was much more expansive than just the exhibition within the gallery space. We took Jane and Vivian to Flotilla to have a panel discussion titled ‘I am a rock’ which talked about the challenges and success of making art in rural locations. Our role in Flotilla was to bring as many artists as possible, and we really tried to do that. It is fantastic to network with our peers and to share our experiences, and to show our NL artists that we are just as ahead of the art game as everyone else. And now we are at THE LAY OF THE LAND, by Logan MacDonald and curated by Jason Penney. Camille Georgeston-Usher and Megan Gail Coles also participated in a panel discussion as part of this project and The Landless Band project.

Please submit to the members show! Lots of potential for that. The programming we have coming up should be very exciting – you can still join the committee, which is a fantastic way to get involved with EE and the arts community. We did not have anything programmed past the current show, which is an issue and was so so difficult to write our major programming grants. We need to program well over a year in advanced, it is necessary. Maintained our ArtsNL funding at $42,000, which is great! Lots of people were cut. We also got out $5000 increase from CEDP, which is helping to keep Daniel as the Assistant Director. CC and Canadian Heritage is pending, City grants are due at the end of the month. We received a huge amount of coverage form press this year – it is fantastic news! We would love to have even more, such as Inuit Art Quarterly. We are pretty open to almost any event that needs to be hosted.

Staff – Philippa came on board in December as interim, and then as permanent in March. Philippa has potential 2 months off per year for residencies or professional development. This is to be approved by the board and is contingent on what is happening in the gallery. Usually we get a new Assistant Director each year, and it isn’t feasible to keep re-training people each year, so we kept Daniel on board and will no longer be using GTEP funding. We were also able to hire on a third staff person, Hannah Morgan, to help run fundraising events and outreach. She will also be starting to look for HOLD FAST funding well in advance.  

Social media has been increasing consistently over the past year, and we are much more engaged with our community now. Advocacy is also a massive part of the Director’s job – Philippa is also on the VANL advocacy committee and is able to keep us all connected. This also involves promoting our artists within a wider arts community and collaborating / connecting with other arts administrators and professionals across Canada. Applying to more funding this year – Digital Fund, ACOA, etc. We would also love to be able to tour shows and to provide much more assistance to curators. This leads into our potential mentorship programs to partner emerging artists with established artists and arts professionals. We also have a new library space in partnership with VANL! We still need to re-arrange it and have an official opening for the space, as well as create a committee for it. It will also be a community space to sit quietly and do work, a nice area for our members. We want to start a critical art discussion group, as it will benefit all of our members from emerging to established. In HF 2018 we have potential partnerships in the work! Lots more to be announced. Gave a short summary of the entire report, available in the AGM program and online.

Break! Renew memberships and eat some pie.

New board members (and long standing) spoke briefly about themselves and now we vote!  

Board members voted in: Matthew Hollett, Gobhina Nagarajah, Diana Chisholm, Joel Finnis.

Motion to adjourn meeting: John Weber, seconded by Joel.

Thanks everyone!