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  2. 2022
    1. Annual General Meeting
    2. September 8 – Appointment of Auditors
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  3. 2021
    1. Annual General Meeting
    2. Board Meeting Minutes
  4. 2020
    1. Annual General Meeting
    2. Board Meeting Minutes

Member Resources

For more information, SGM or AGM specific questions please contact The Board of Directors directly – membership@pridetoronto.com

2022

Annual General Meeting 2022 - on February 16, 2023

Board of Director Candidates

Pride Toronto Board of Directors Candidates Q&A Session Poster

About the Board of Director Candidates

Nirmalan Vijeyakumar (he/him) profile photo
Nirmalan is a gay, cis, South Asian male, having grown up in Toronto, with strong roots in the Malvern community of Scarborough. Nirmalan is currently a Project Manager with the City of Toronto, and holds a Masters in Public Policy from the University of Toronto, and a Bachelor of Arts from Carleton University.

Nirmalan has contributed his time to the 2SLGBTQ+ community in a number of ways, from providing event support for Pride Toronto, to providing refugee re-settlement services for Rainbow Railroad. More recently, Nirmalan is Chair of the 2SLGBTQ+ employee resource group for the City of Toronto, where he advocates for 2SLGBTQ+ staff, and facilitates activities to support employee development.

Nirmalan is keen to advocate for equity deserving groups and has previously volunteered with the not-for-profit group, TTCriders. With his help, TTCriders was successful in advocating for a number of changes for transit users, including the introduction of two-hour transfers. Nirmalan has experience as a media spokesperson, working on policies, managing projects, and lobbying government officials. In his spare time, you can catch Nirmalan on the dance floor wearing some heels, enjoying a local drag show, and checking out Toronto’s vibrant art & culture scene.

Why are you interested in joining the Board of Pride Toronto? I am interested in joining the Board of Pride Toronto because I am passionate about, and wish to advocate and support, the 2SLGBTQ+ community, and the many intersectional identities within it. As a cis, gay, brown man, growing up in Malvern, Pride was my first real-life exposure to the community. It gave me hope and reassurance of what could be, if only I could be my true, authentic self. As a teenager, I watched the Pride Parade for the first time, and it gave me the courage to do something I never thought I could. I decided to come out. In doing so, I met new people within the community, my mental health improved, and it helped me to succeed in my professional life. My positive experience, is one which I hope can be emulated for other young queer people. At this stage in my life stage, I feel as though it is time for me to contribute, and give back to the community. Pride is an organization with which I truly align, and I believe I have the skills and abilities to assist with, and to help further, the success of the organization.

How will your experience, talents, and skill contribute to advancing Pride Toronto’s Mission, Vision, and Values? Pride’s mission, vision and values are centred on the idea of a movement, advocating for the rights of 2SLGTBTQ+ peoples. To achieve this, it requires a strong core, built upon anti-oppressive and anti-colonial frameworks. Governance models and management techniques need to be established, wherein the membership have a strong voice, and decisions are made in consultation with the community. I believe I can contribute to this, based on my education, experience, and skill set.

I graduated with a Bachelors of Arts in Legal Studies (Carleton University) and a Masters in Public Policy (University of Toronto). I have attained strong skills in policy making, research, and have a keen understanding of governmental relations. Additionally, I’ve used my education to gain professional & volunteer experiences in several areas.

At the City of Toronto, I am a Project Manager, working on transportation related projects. In addition to this role, I am Chair of the 2SLGBTQ+ employee resource group. I lead a team of staff who plan, coordinate and host professional development and networking events throughout the year, in a bid to foster an environment of inclusion amongst 2SLGBTQ+ staff. Furthermore, I have built and maintained strong working relationships with senior management, and identified opportunities for change, so that the City of Toronto is an employer of choice for 2SLGBTQ+ people.

Prior to the City of Toronto Pride Network, I worked with a number of organisations in a volunteer capacity, which includes providing operational support for the Inside Out Festival, and Pride Toronto. An experience I would like to highlight, in which advocacy played a vital part, is that of my time working with TTCriders. TTCriders is a community based group, which advocates for better transit. During my time with the group, I successfully helped to establish two-hour transfers, through a co-ordinated approach of advocacy with TTC commissioners, businesses, and transit riders. This new initiative allowed transit users to complete their vital errands, without having to pay more than one fare, on a simple short trip.

Pride has had a history of anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism, and we are working to address and combat this. What is your experience in working against racism, particularly anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism, and what is your vision for Pride Toronto’s external work in combating racism? As Chair of the City of Toronto 2SLGBTQ+ employee resource group, I have helped to ensure a strong focus has been placed on combatting anti-Black racism, and on Truth and Reconciliation. Over the past year, we partnered with community-based groups, who helped us facilitate several educational seminars and events. Additionally, I’ve also taken several training courses on anti-Black racism and Truth and Reconciliation, and proactively seek to continually learn and evolve my understanding regarding these issues.

My vision for Pride Toronto’s work with regard to combating racism, is to have a renewed focus on ensuring anti-oppressive, and anti-colonial frameworks, established in all of Pride’s initiatives, procedures, and policies. This is in addition to focusing more efforts and financial resources on initiatives that support black and indigenous groups. This would include special programming during Black History month and National Day of Truth and Reconciliation.

What is your experience in addressing and combating transphobia, transmisogyny, and transmisandry? During COVID-19, I volunteered with Rainbow Railroad to provide settlement services for a trans refugee. This was a life changing, and thought altering, experience. It provided a small glimpse of the trials, barriers and dangers that trans people face, not only in Canada, but elsewhere around the world, where there are no protections for gender identity or gender expression. As Chair of the City of Toronto Pride Network, I continue to advocate for our trans colleagues, with a current goal of implementing gender affirming health benefits.

Pride’s membership has voted to ban instruments and symbols of policing, including uniforms, cars and weapons, from participating in the Pride Parade and StreetFair. If elected to the Board, how would you ensure that this commitment is upheld? I would continue to uphold this commitment as directed by our membership. I will further ensure that any funding commitments or negotiations from other levels of government do not include any requirements of re-introducing instruments and symbols of policing. I will continue to advocate for the 2SLGBTQ+ community, and ensure Pride Toronto is consulted with, on the implementation of the “Missing and Missed – the Report of the Independent Civilian Review into Missing Person Investigations”, and other reports and projects by the city and/or police.

Accessibility is a crucial aspect for Pride’s celebrations, but we still fall short in providing a completely accessible Festival, especially for people with mobility issues, and the D/deaf and Hard of Hearing communities. What experience, resources, and knowledge do you have in engaging and supporting these communities? The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act requires that we become fully accessible by 2025. I have taken various training courses on this subject, and continually work to ensure increased accessibility in my workplace. For example, in a recent project I worked on, consultations took place with people who have mobility/hearing issues. This was to ensure that the project took their needs into consideration before implementation.

 Osmel B. Guerra Maynes (he/him) profile photo

Osmel identifies as a Black queer man of Latin American descent. Osmel is a results-driven individual with over ten yearsʼ experience in the not-for-profit sector working within membership-driven environments. Osmel is also a social justice activist with a focus on enhancing the inclusion of marginalized voices.

Osmel immigrated to Canada as an international student in 2003 to pursue a Political Science Degree at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario. Osmel has called Canada home for 10+ years. During his time working with 2SLGBTQ+ community-based organizations in Ontario, British Columbia and the Yukon, Osmel focused his work on advancing effective grassroots and province-wide social programming, enhancing the inclusion of marginalized voices, pushing for sound public policy, and overseeing effective strategic planning in the non-profit and charitable sectors.

Osmel is tirelessly looking for new ways to engage with his community, and always ensures that he provides a voice to all marginalized people, especially QTBIPOC folks. Osmel strongly believes in the power of inclusion to affect lasting social change.

Why are you interested in joining the Board of Pride Toronto? My name is Osmel B. Guerra Maynes (he/him) and I identify as a Black CIS queer man of Latin American descent. I pride myself as a social justice activist with a focus on enhancing the inclusion of marginalized voices and I am very interested in joining the Pride Toronto Board of Directors. I recently returned to Toronto from Ottawa where I was serving as the Executive Director of Capital Pride/Fierté dans la Capitale- Which is the National Capital Region (Ottawa & Gatineau) Pride Parade and Festival. I now hold the position of Director of Organizational Development, Community & Culture at HQ Toronto- which is located at 790 Bay Street and is a centre of excellence in healthcare for cis guys into guys, trans and nonbinary people. I strongly believe in the power of inclusion to affect lasting social change.

My experience as an advocate, community leader, team-builder, fundraiser, and a proud member of the LGBTQ+, Black, Caribbean, and Latino communities, make me an asset to Pride Toronto, as it embarks on its strategic plan in 2023 and beyond.

How will your experience, talents, and skill contribute to advancing Pride Toronto’s Mission, Vision, and Values? I am the former Executive Director of Capital Pride/Fierté dans la Capitale which is the pride festival that is celebrated in the National Capital Region (Ottawa and Gatineau). As a strategic leader in such a queer focused workplace, I worked hard to ensure that an intersectional lens was applied to all programming and services that the organization offered, with a particular emphasis on the systemic and structural barriers faced by Black and Indigenous sexual and gender identity minorities.

My previous managerial roles enabled me to establish a strong track record as an effective leader, whether it was in my role as an effective financial and operations manager, an inspirational coach and mentor, a respected community partner, an effective fundraiser, an equity advocate or as a relationship builder, who established partnerships with an array of private, community, public, and labour union organizations.

Pride has had a history of anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism, and we are working to address and combat this. What is your experience in working against racism, particularly anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism, and what is your vision for Pride Toronto’s external work in combating racism? I tirelessly look for new ways to engage with my community, and always ensures that I provide a voice to all marginalized people, especially QTBIPOC folks. I strongly believe in the power of inclusion to affect lasting social change. My role at HQ also focuses on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and have created spaces for all members of the 2SLGBTQ+ community.

I used an assortment of physical and culture-based consultation mechanisms to ensure active community input in the strategic priorities of the organization, as well as in the way they were implemented and monitored. In addition, I sought to ensure that staff, Board members, volunteers as well as students and external partners, fully understood the exigencies and politics of equity and diversity by organizing and facilitating diversity training sessions on issues facing racialized, Indigenous, persons living with disabilities and LGBTQ2S+ groups, including Black, QPOC and Trans communities.

What is your experience in addressing and combating transphobia, transmisogyny, and transmisandry? Being a director that focuses on DEI, social programming and community engagement it gives me a broad and extensive grasp of the human rights landscape of each province, as the experiences and needs of those we stand at the intersections of racialized, Indigenous identity, gender, social class, sexual orientation, sexual status, and mental health.

This required an acute ability to communicate the crucial human rights dimensions of challenges they face to a variety of stakeholders, media, and the broader public, including through public awareness campaigns. It also demands advising a variety of governmental officials, law enforcement officials and others regarding strategies, opportunities, and best practices, surrounding advancing human rights.

I have overseen the development and implementation of several education campaigns including queer & trans competency training, Anti-black and Anti-Racism training and HIV/AIDS awareness programming across Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, and the Yukon.

That being said, I ensured that Capital Pride dedicated more money to events intended for women, trans and non-binary people, as well as providing funding to the Wabano Centre for their Pride events.

Prideʼs membership has voted to ban instruments and symbols of policing, including uniforms, cars and weapons, from participating in the Pride Parade and StreetFair. If elected to the Board, how would you ensure that this commitment is upheld? As the former Executive Director of a Pride Organization, The question of whether police should march in the parade while wearing their uniforms has been an ongoing topic of debate for the National Capital Region’s 2SLGBTQ community. At Capital Pride/Fierté dans la Capitale we issued a statement requesting that officers not march in uniform during the Pride parade, a decision that I still stand firm on today.

We also wanted to hear from our community so we provided this question via online survey to engage our community. Though we found a number of respondents felt officers should be allowed to wear their uniforms, other consultations found some groups were deeply opposed.-the folks who were opposed were primarily marginalized folks who were Black, Indigenous, People of Colour, Trans and non binary folks who constantly get harassed by the police. while the folks in favour were primarily white cis gendered men and women.

Due to this response Capital Pride/Fierté dans la Capitale kept the existing policy in place, while also encouraging police to work on improving relationships with the 2SLGBTQ+ community.

That being said as a Queer Black, Latinx Cis Man I will continue to stand against Police participating in Pride in uniform or having any police vehicles, or equipment in the parade. Pride is Political and we need to defend our community from all forms of discrimination, especially from those who are paid to protect us.

Accessibility is a crucial aspect for Pride’s celebrations, but we still fall short in providing a completely accessible Festival, especially for people with mobility issues, and the D/deaf and Hard of Hearing communities. What experience, resources, and knowledge do you have in engaging and supporting these communities? During my time at Capital Pride/Fierté dans la Capitale, We created an accessible viewing space near the parade route for people with mobility issues, while also lobbying OC Transpo to provide free transit on parade day. All our events, especially our signature events were held in locations that were accessible.

At all our events we also provided ASL interpretation and langue des signes française, LSF. We also ensured that our events were LIVE streamed for those who were not able to participate in-person events and with this we provided closed captioning in both English and French. We also were able to acquire a sponsor who translated our materials into braille for the visually impaired community members.

 Samantha Fraser (she/her) profile photo

Samantha Fraser is a proud pansexual femme real estate agent, living in Torontoʼs Junction Triangle. Before becoming the local “Queerltor” as she’s known amongst clients, she built up 20 years experience working in membership organizations and non-profit event planning. Her goal at Pride is to leave the organization better than she found it, which she’s been doing since she first joined the board in January 2020.

Samantha is the founder and executive producer of Playground; an intersectional sexuality, gender, and wellness focused Toronto conference, founded in 2011 and released her first book on non-monogamy in 2013.

Born in England, she loves traveling, antiquing, watching horror movies and Star Trek, and deals with multiple invisible mental and physical disabilities. She lives with her husband and several rescue cats and believes that leopard print is a neutral. When not helping clients fight against crooked landlords, decorating a house for sale, or working on her second book, you can find her dreaming of future projects on the Internet at 2 am when she probably should be sleeping.

Why are you interested in joining the Board of Pride Toronto? I have really enjoyed my time on the board, over the last three years. It’s been a challenging road with so much to learn, but it’s such an important transition time in Pride Toronto’s history. As the pandemic kicked off not long after I joined in 2020, we spent two years doing a virtual festival. We had to hire a new ED and do a lot of cleanup work, getting Pride to where it is today.

But the work is far from finished. It’s definitely a more oiled machine than before, but there is still so much work to be done. As we transition from being more than a festival to a truly 365 organization, we aren’t going to get everything right, but I am extremely dedicated to trying as hard as we can.

To be completely honest; this is a tireless, thankless job. It can be exhausting to put so much of yourself into a volunteer position and still have so many say that everything you’re doing is wrong. But that’s also part of the job and I’ve definitely got some thicker skin now to deal with it! We have to take on the responsibilities of fixing mistakes that our predecessors made and not take it personally when people complain about either those past mistakes or ones we might make today. The board is not perfect. I am not perfect. But I believe wholeheartedly in the mission, vision, and values of this organization and how much we can get done when we come together, and I really want to continue doing this work.

How will your experience, talents, and skill contribute to advancing Pride Toronto’s Mission, Vision, and Values? I have just under 20 years of experience in events management as well as not-for-profit membership work. I’m used to working with everyone from volunteers to government stakeholders. I have also been running personal events for the bi+ / queer community in the city since 2011 like Playground Conference on sexuality and gender and Tell Me Something Good sexy storytelling at Glad Day Bookshop. Additionally, and in really simple terms, I show up. While I deal with multiple illnesses daily, I still have made it to almost every single meeting that’s happened since I joined the board in January of 2020, and I am committed to showing up to as many as I possibly can moving forward.

Pride has had a history of anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism, and we are working to address and combat this. What is your experience in working against racism, particularly anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism, and what is your vision for Pride Toronto’s external work in combating racism? Over the past three years, I have worked hard to help diversify the board, support the organization in our work with IBPOC communities and organizations, whether it’s to help heal, repair harms caused, or create new opportunities for collaboration. In my professional life now as a real estate agent, I often work with and advocate for racialized queers looking for housing. There is a lot of discrimination in my industry and I am constantly educating other agents on how to do better; housing is a human right.

I make a point of following (and promoting) multiple IPBOC social media accounts to ensure that the information I’m consuming is diverse and I am always listening and learning. I know that D&I is but one piece of the puzzle so, while I make sure to help create safe(r) spaces, I also work hard to stay in my lane and not take up space or pull resources away from Black and Indigenous communities.

As Pride represents so many different communities that exist under the queer umbrella, we have a lot of people counting on us. Our social media team has done a great job at highlighting so many of these communities, to help people learn about one another. I want us to keep doing this, to keep highlighting people from various backgrounds, to remind people that Pride belongs to everyone. We are also doing a lot of great work with countries around the world, many of which have terrible track records when it comes to how they treat the 2SLGTBQIA+ community, and how they handle racism. The connections that Pride is building internationally, as well as locally, will help us combat queerphobia and racism in solidarity with our friends around the world.

What is your experience in addressing and combating transphobia, transmisogyny, and transmisandry? Trans rights and lives are being threatened more than ever lately. I believe in visibility and, while pronouns are just one small piece of the puzzle and extremely rarely even mentioned in my professional life, I stick them in every bio and ask every client what theirs are (if I don’t know them already). I am blessed to know both professionally and personally so many trans, non-binary, and genderqueer people that I listen to and learn from daily.

Also in my professional life I am often educating fellow Realtors, landlords, and other people in the industry (like mortgage professionals) on the discrimination that our trans friends deal with on a daily basis. My clients trust me to help them find queer-friendly spaces and that’s something I take very seriously. I advocate for trans rights anytime I can with whatever platform I can find.

I’m also having conversations about gender constantly with friends and also family members. Hatred breeds from ignorance and ignorance breeds from fear, so I work to combat that fear by helping to normalize gender conversations – because they ARE normal. I wouldn’t dare call myself an ally – as it’s not my place to give myself that label – but I make a point of doing the work that an ally should and will continue doing until I die. Trans rights are human rights.

Pride’s membership has voted to ban instruments and symbols of policing, including uniforms, cars and weapons, from participating in the Pride Parade and StreetFair. If elected to the Board, how would you ensure that this commitment is upheld? Our members have voted against these things and I 100% support them in this choice. We listen to our members and follow their lead, but I also personally believe that symbols of policing do NOT belong at Pride. It would be irresponsible of us to allow so many people that come to Pride Toronto (to feel safe and included) have to deal with the fear and trauma that being around symbols of policing can bring up. The rates of policy brutality against our communities are ridiculously high and it must stop. Our unhoused queer family suffers even more in this city, with the brutal takedowns of encampments, and I truly believe that it would be irresponsible, careless, and inconsiderate of us to include symbols of policing at Pride.

From the moment I joined the board I have been making sure that, in addition to this being the wish of the members, that it’s also a cultural ideology that we live by at Pride Toronto.

Accessibility is a crucial aspect for Pride’s celebrations, but we still fall short in providing a completely accessible Festival, especially for people with mobility issues, and the D/deaf and Hard of Hearing communities. What experience, resources, and knowledge do you have in engaging and supporting these communities? I am gaining valuable insight working with fellow board member, Courage, as well as learning from our interpreters. I have multiple invisible disabilities myself, and work closely with many different disabled community members to ensure their concerns are heard. Historically, Pride has not done well in these areas. There is still so much stigma around disabilities, visible or otherwise, and we must do better.

My experience with festival and event planning helps me to see where there may be missing pieces; however I believe that the only way we can truly improve is to bring those communities together to work with us. We absolutely cannot make the assumption that we are doing everything that we can without talking to the people who require the accommodations in the first place.

Accommodation is more than wheelchair ramps or ASL. It’s about working to make our events accessible without people having to ask us for it. It’s about being proactive without having to scramble at the last minute to meet someone’s needs. We, and most organizations out there, must do better and I will work hard, along with our other disability advocates on the board, to ensure this is standard operating procedure moving forward.

 Troy Dunn (he/him) profile photo

Troy has been closely connected in the Canadian retail & tech industry for over 20 years. In 2005, Troy joined Apple to launch Apple Retail in Canada and continues to lead Apple Retail, which includes retail stores, small and medium business teams and in-store educational offerings. With stores across Canada, from Halifax to Vancouver, Troy continues to stay connected to communities and local issues across the country.

He has a passion for I&D work and has become a leader and ally across many different diversity networks at Apple including: Pride@Apple for North America. He is best known for leading the retail growth that Apple has seen in Canada, for his ability to connect with his teams and his passion for his country and community.

Troy is proud to be Indigenous from the Bras dʼOr First Nation and has spent many years on a personal journey of reflection, education and understanding which he instills in his four wonderful children.

Why are you interested in joining the Board of Pride Toronto? I’m currently on the boards of RCC (Retail Council of Canada) and CCAB (Canadian Council of Aboriginal Business). As a gay father of four wonderful kids, I want to invest my time in places and with organizations where I believe I can add value, have a personal connection to the work and most importantly help communities I care about continue to grow and elevate.

How will your experience, talents, and skill contribute to advancing Pride Toronto’s Mission, Vision, and Values? Toronto Pride is an organization that personally connects to my life and it also feels like it may be in a moment of time where more voices and perspectives are welcome. As I shared above, I’m a gay dad and my oldest daughter is 20. Being a gay dad 20 years ago came with many more challenges than it does today so my life experience in this space has given me a lot of perspective and ability to help our community of today. It’s been such a gift to share my learns and mistakes with parents to be. Additionally being Indigenous is a very important part of my adult identity. Living in Canada today I feel the responsibility to help the community heal and push for greater reconciliation across Canada including with Toronto Pride.

Pride has had a history of anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism, and we are working to address and combat this. What is your experience in working against racism, particularly anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism, and what is your vision for Pride Toronto’s external work in combating racism? Well as I shared I am Indigenous however have had a privileged life. My heritage was a deep family secret until the passing of my grandmother. I lost the ability as a child to know who I was however have taken this as an opportunity to ensure my kids know where they come from. In my family my partner isn’t white and consistently gets profiled by both police, border security and in everyday life just shopping in a store. It’s incredibly frustrating and honestly at times he feels defeated however I try wherever possible to create opportunities for learning and acceptance

What is your experience in addressing and combating transphobia, transmisogyny, and transmisandry? I am a committed ally and have served as the Executive Sponsor for Pride at Apple for North America. In this work these have been topics where we have put a significant amount of work and effort around offering education. I am also Apple’s Executive Sponsor for Out and Equal where Apple is a major event sponsor. Each year I bring about 150 Apple employees to the event and I ensure we prioritize our trans employees as Out & Equal and The GenderCool Project are LGBTQ+ organizations that work to create cultures of belonging in workplaces, schools, and communities for the transgender community.

Pride’s membership has voted to ban instruments and symbols of policing, including uniforms, cars and weapons, from participating in the Pride Parade and StreetFair. If elected to the Board, how would you ensure that this commitment is upheld? As I shared my partner is constantly profiled so it gives me a better understanding of the fear and historical pain this has caused the community. As of Board Member you would have my commitment to ensuring Toronto Pride continues to focus on creating safe spaces and events where everyone can be themselves without the fear of historical profiling, fear and discrimination.

Accessibility is a crucial aspect for Pride’s celebrations, but we still fall short in providing a completely accessible Festival, especially for people with mobility issues, and the D/deaf and Hard of Hearing communities. What experience, resources, and knowledge do you have in engaging and supporting these communities? My Oldest son has Autism and from a very young age used Apple products to help him better communicate. In my professional life I’ve made Accessibility a priority in our hiring strategy’s. In this work we were presented with awards from SPINAL CORD INJURY ONTARIO and CNIB for creating employment opportunities for the communities.

Board of Director Candidates

About the Board of Director Candidates

Courage Profile Image
I am Courage,
Natasha Cecily Bacchus. I am an athlete and performing artist, passionate about Deaf advocacy, fitness and physical expression. Throughout my life, I have nurtured my passion for fitness, competing as a professional athlete and securing medal positions in the Deaf Olympics, Pan Am Olympics and many other competitive sporting events. As an actress, I have participated in numerous theatre and film productions and have a strong desire to continue to grow and develop as a performing artist, expanding representation to include differently-abled persons and empowering Black Deaf women in Canada to shine on and off the stage.

Why are you interested in joining the Board of Pride Toronto? To create more accessibility for IBPOC Deaf Queer community.

How will your experience, talents, and skill contribute to advancing Pride Toronto’s Mission, Vision, and Values? With the all resources I have as a Black Woman Deaf Queer, artist, athlete and advocate, I bring with me many ideas and lived experiences with accessibility. I have a vast network of Black contributors in many sectors, including interpreters, artists, member of the IBPOC Deaf community, to list a few. I also want to bring the UK Black Pride model of accessibility to Pride Toronto.

Pride has had a history of anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism, and we are working to address and combat this. This includes the development of an anti-BIPOC racism strategy and our public commitment to internal anti-Black racism training for all staff, Board members and volunteers. What is your experience in working against racism, particularly anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism, and what is your vision for Pride Toronto’s external work in combating racism? As a Black Deaf, I have appeared on panels with the topic of antiracism in my Deaf community. With the lived experiences, I am able to share my stories, and promote for anti-Blackness and anti-Indigenous racism through sign language. My vision is for fully inclusion of learning how to combat racism, and ableism, specifically audism.

What is your experience in addressing and combating transphobia, transmisogyny, and transmisandry? I have not yet experienced addressing and combating transphobia, transmisogyny, transmisandry on a personal level. I do know that if i ever see any of that happening, I would speak up and educate the offenders. I am very open to learning more how to combat oppression against trans people.

Pride’s membership has voted to ban instruments and symbols of policing, including uniforms, cars and weapons, from participating in the Pride Parade and StreetFair. If elected to the Board, how would you ensure that this commitment is upheld? If I am elected to the Board, I would ensure that this commitment is upheld by making sure that we maintain the position of ensuring that there are no triggers in Pride Toronto events.

Accessibility is a crucial aspect for Pride’s celebrations, but we still fall short in providing a completely accessible Festival, especially for the D/deaf and Hard of Hearing community. What experience, resources, and knowledge do you have in engaging and supporting these communities? As a Black Deaf person, I have my own experiences advocating and receiving accessibility, and I am able to bring to the table my lived experiences, resources, knowledge of how to provide full inclusive access to the Deaf /HoH community. I also will help investigate why this was a struggle for the Pride Toronto organization, and help find solutions that will establish for a fully inclusive Pride Toronto.

Diedre Walton PhotoDeidre “D-Lishus” Walton is a Black, disabled, high-femme bi-dyke artist and activist with a raging addiction to purple flowers. Her work focusses on those systems and spaces that impact on our ability to engage in healthy, positive relationships with our bodies, our selves and our communities. She has a particular interest in the links between spirituality and mental health, and is fascinated with how reclaiming African diasporic spiritual practice can help black women and GNC folx heal from the traumatic effects of racism and hetero-patriarchy. When she isn’t writing, performing or engaging in community arts projects, d-lishus works in as an EDI Consultant, helping non-profit organizations become more inclusive through policy development, program evaluation, and training. d-lishus can often be found puttering in her garden, canning and pickling home-grown veg, or scavenging flowers from lawns and parks. 

How will your experience, talents, and skill contribute to advancing Pride Toronto’s Mission, Vision, and Values? I have more than 15 years experience doing community activism and organizing in Toronto, beginning with membership on the Women and Trans Bathhouse Committee. I have board experience (as Chair and Treasurer) and am conversant with non-profit governance structures, reporting regulations, strategic planning and grant writing. With my EDI skills, I can contribute to Pride’s efforts to be more inclusive, honour the fullness of LGBT2SQ identities, and help to centre BIPOC voices and priorities within the larger portfolio of Pride Toronto’s work.

Pride has had a history of anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism, and we are working to address and combat this. This includes the development of an anti-BIPOC racism strategy and our public commitment to internal anti-Black racism training for all staff, Board members and volunteers. What is your experience in working against racism, particularly anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism, and what is your vision for Pride Toronto’s external work in combating racism? When I envisioned and implemented the first-ever public BIPOC LBT2SQ space in Canada 15 years ago, I faced an outpouring of hate mail from the larger LGBTQ community. These reactions made it clear how necessary spaces for BIPOC folks were. I want our community to become a place where no one else experiences what I went through when creating safe(r) spaces for those who remain marginalized at the intersections of multiple axes of difference. We need to honour the struggles for acceptance that brought us to the vivifying celebration of difference that the Pride festival embodies today.

What is your experience in addressing and combating transphobia, transmisogyny, and transmisandry? I started addressing trans inclusion as an activist, almost 20 years ago, while organizing to create spaces for queer women. I owe a debt of gratitude to my trans friends and allies who supported me through my coming out process and I have always understood my community as one that includes and is enriched by trans people. Embracing my queer identity always included understanding my privilege as a cis woman, and using that privilege to make it clear that spaces that are not safe for trans (and GNC) people are not safe for any of us.

Pride’s membership has voted to ban instruments and symbols of policing, including uniforms, cars and weapons, from participating in the Pride Parade and StreetFair. If elected to the Board, how would you ensure that this commitment is upheld? The Pride parade started as a protest against police brutality, and while times have changed, they have not changed equally for all of us. My contribution in this regard is to bring that long-term, historical lens to help contextualize these decisions as ones that speak to the health and well-being of our community as a whole. I can furnish an intersectional analysis that speaks to the ongoing experiences of Black, Indigenous, trans, GNC and disabled people who are still subject to higher levels of police scrutiny and violence.

Accessibility is a crucial aspect for Pride’s celebrations, but we still fall short in providing a completely accessible Festival, especially for the D/deaf and Hard of Hearing community. What experience, resources, and knowledge do you have in engaging and supporting these communities? I have done activism and allyship work with ORAD (Ontario Rainbow Alliance for the Deaf), who were actively involved with rainbow health toronto and the transAccess lobby back in the day. I’ve worked with, and still maintain professional ties with, ASL interpreters who work specifically with queer and BIPOC communities, and who have a vocabulary that helps to amplify the specific issues faced by communities that live within the marginalized and liminal spaces that those of us with multiple barriers to participation occupy.

Elizabeth Bate PhotoElizabeth Bate is a GTA-based writer and communications specialist. Working in journalism, government, and communications for over 15 years, Elizabeth is excited to bring her extensive experience to the board of Pride Toronto.

Elizabeth is active in her community, volunteering with the Women of Holy Blossom and the 2SLGBTQ+ group at Holy Blossom Temple, the Shore Centre (formerly Planned Parenthood), and other community organizations.

As a Queer woman, Elizabeth believes representation is important and strives to create space for others to speak their truth and share their lived experiences. She hopes to continue this important work with Pride Toronto, making room for people who have been left out of the conversation in the past.

Elizabeth is a self-proclaimed geek who loves all things sci-fi, mystery and thriller. When she’s not working to leave the world in better shape than she found it, Elizabeth can be found playing video games, baking, or working on her first novel.

Above all else, Elizabeth believes in leading with love.

Why are you interested in joining the Board of Pride Toronto? As a Queer woman I am interested in joining with other members of the Toronto 2SLGBTQ+ community to make a positive impact and help steer Pride Toronto into the future. With a background in communications, media, and government relations, I know my skill set would make me a valuable member of the board and bring an insightful, positive perspective. I am excited at the prospect of getting involved and taking on a leadership role, and know my enthusiasm and dedication make me the ideal candidate to fill this position.

How will your experience, talents, and skill contribute to advancing Pride Toronto’s Mission, Vision, and Values? With more than 15 years working in journalism, marketing, communications, and government relations, I bring a wide breadth of knowledge and experience that will prove valuable. My networks and connections can help the organization reach political, policy and fundraising goals, while my communications experience can help to refine messaging, target audiences, and continue to build effective outreach.

Pride has had a history of anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism, and we are working to address and combat this. This includes the development of an anti-BIPOC racism strategy and our public commitment to internal anti-Black racism training for all staff, Board members and volunteers. What is your experience in working against racism, particularly anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism, and what is your vision for Pride Toronto’s external work in combating racism? Working with various political organizations I have made it a priority to engage in training to combat anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism, and I am committed to continuing to unlearn the internal biases each of us carry. I am conscious of the space I take up and am committed to making room for the voices of BIPOC persons; listening to lived experiences, fighting for the rights of others when asked, and making room for others to seek the justice they deserve. I attend rallies, discussions and round tables, and strive to be better at this every day. 

What is your experience in addressing and combating transphobia, transmisogyny, and transmisandry? I have very little experience in this in a public forum, but I advocate every day in small ways for the acceptance of Trans and gender non-conforming persons. In my professional work I ensure that policies, language and messaging are gender-inclusive and neutral. I read, listen and make it a point to make myself aware of Trans issues and will continue to do so. I’m eager to learn more in this area and do what I can to make the world a safer, more inclusive place for Trans folks.

Pride’s membership has voted to ban instruments and symbols of policing, including uniforms, cars and weapons, from participating in the Pride Parade and StreetFair. If elected to the Board, how would you ensure that this commitment is upheld? I will continue to advocate for this policy and promote its positive and necessary aspects. By shining a positive lens on the policy, media can provide an alternative point of view, preventing only one voice being heard in this argument. It’s imperative that people see this not as an attack on police, but a reclaiming of our space from the institutions that have fought so hard against us and have criminalized and killed us in the name of upholding the status quo. We deserve a space free from the symbols of oppression while advocating for our own acceptance. 

Accessibility is a crucial aspect for Pride’s celebrations, but we still fall short in providing a completely accessible Festival, especially for the D/deaf and Hard of Hearing community. What experience, resources, and knowledge do you have in engaging and supporting these communities? The best way to combat an issue is to reach out to those directly affected by it and listen to what they have to say. My greatest resource is my ability to listen to what’s needed and then organize. I would love to engage my network, which includes individuals that specialize in accessibility issues, and learn more about what we can do to improve the accessibility of all Pride events.

Moka Dawkins PhotoMoka Dawkins is a Jamaican and Nova Scotian Black and part 2spirited Indigenous Trans-woman who has outstanding community accomplishments such as; Being a 2020 nominee for Inspire Awards for “Person of The Year”, enacting reformative policies throughout Ontario’s provincial correctional system for access to identity transitional needs for transgender peoples being detained in opposed gender identifying prisons, and inclusive 2SLGBTQ+ programing with Stacey-Love Jolicoeur. Moka is currently contracted as a lead Researcher and Development Specialist for Ryerson University and the University of Toronto on inclusive and reforms on conducive pathways for 2SLGBTQ+ communities and their histories. Moka’s advocacy for community goes further as she is the main feature in the new lgbtq2s+ reality documentary “Surviving The Block” where Moka shares her life experience of being violently stabbed by her attacker and friend back in 2015 and how police discrimination that night landed her in Canada’s most violent and notorious all men’s prison The Toronto South Detention Center. You can now catch Surviving The Block available only on OUT T.V. To learn more about Moka and her community engagements and how she can be an asset of sharing knowledge and more to your event/protest/organization you can visit www.mokadawkins.com. 

Why are you interested in joining the Board of Pride Toronto? To empower and support BIPOC LGBTQ2S+ peoples taking initiative to enable themselves into positions to afford themselves opportunities. This Pride board position will enable me to better advocate in attendance to 2slgbtq+ discriminative manners in which members face in their daily livelihoods and be able to provide solutions and resources with the board and organizational commitment and approval in enacting provisions of safer, protective, inclusive community resources. Change for the better must come with love, understanding, and commitment and Pride Toronto’s inclusive history of these traits is growth I inspire daily to self produce in my everyday life and interactions. 

How will your experience, talents, and skill contribute to advancing Pride Toronto’s Mission, Vision, and Values? My experience living as black/2s trans women who is a survivor of sex work violence and institutional violence is my motivation to promote and provide encouragement of social, academic, & economic advancement for trans/2s+ peoples. Ending high rates of depression and suicide within our communities needs the voice of support from someone who has experienced and overcome these destructive behaviours and thoughts. Recognizing the structure of pain and it’s detrimental effects on community and being able to enhance provided resources of support is an experience I can give to the commitment of Pride Toronto mission, vision, & values. 

Pride has had a history of anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism, and we are working to address and combat this. This includes the development of an anti-BIPOC racism strategy and our public commitment to internal anti-Black racism training for all staff, Board members and volunteers. What is your experience in working against racism, particularly anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism, and what is your vision for Pride Toronto’s external work in combating racism? My experience in combating racism against black and indigenous peoples has got me featured in Gord Downie “lead singer of Tragically hip” final project before his death due to glioblastoma cancer in 2017 Secret Path Freedom Of Speech documentary. It can be viewed here https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6d_LR6qGv_A&t=133s. My vision for Pride Toronto is to increase visibility and opportunity for racialized 2slgbtq+ peoples in all areas of Global Pride’s organization and communities. My advocacy work has also got me a 2020 person of the year nomination with Inspire Awards. 

What is your experience in addressing and combating transphobia, transmisogyny, and transmisandry? Part of my lived experience combating transphobia, transmisogyny, & transmisandry from the general public and government institutions has been captured by Yapp Films and made into a documentary called “Surviving the Block’’ available on OUT TV. This documentary entails the horrific life and death violence I faced by a client with views on my lifestyle with his mental health issues being a factor of him trying to kill me by stabbing me repeatedly in my face and stomach. And the dealings of responding police projecting racist and discriminatory attitudes towards me due to my identity. https://outtv.ca/show/surviving-the-block/ 

Pride’s membership has voted to ban instruments and symbols of policing, including uniforms, cars and weapons, from participating in the Pride Parade and StreetFair. If elected to the Board, how would you ensure that this commitment is upheld? By sharing my story and lived experience as mentioned above concerning my relations with police and their interactions towards me and other community members. 

Accessibility is a crucial aspect for Pride’s celebrations, but we still fall short in providing a completely accessible Festival, especially for the D/deaf and Hard of Hearing community. What experience, resources, and knowledge do you have in engaging and supporting these communities? To be honest, I have no real connections or experience in this aspect but do have connections to community organizers who have affiliates in providing these services. I am willing to learn and expand my service abilities to the community granted I am the successful candidate.

April 7 - Special General Meeting - KPMG Compliance Review & Audited Financial Statements

March 15 - Special General Meeting - Board of Director Elections

Board Meeting Minutes 2022

Date: January 10th 2022
Time: 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Location: Online/teleconference
Attendance:
Board Members: Brian De Matos, Grant Gonzales, Ande Clumpus, Jad Jaber, Samantha Fraser, leZlie Lee Kam, TiKA Simone, Maher Sinno
Staff: Sherwin Modeste, Bobby MacPherson (staff portion only), Dami Okunade (bookkeeper)
External: Ed Scheck (auditor), Kevin Thomas (auditor)
Regrets/Absent: Jad Jaber



Agenda Item 

Notes

Motions/Action Items

Approval of Agenda

Approving the Order of Business: 

  • January 10, 2022 Agenda

Motion to approve the agenda. 

Mover: Jad

Seconder: leZlie

Motion: Approved

Land Acknowledgment

Recognition of traditional Indigenous land.

Grant

Approval of Minutes 

Approval of Minutes: 

  • December 14, 2021 Meeting Minutes

Motion to approve the agenda. 

Mover:  Jad

Seconder: Sam

Motion: Approved

Declaration of Conflict of Interest

Chair: Standing item for accountability.



Discussed

Board Decision Tracker (FYI) 

Secretary, Brian.


One Item:

Discussion on Membership list. Full list of approved Members. Membership approval over the Holidays



Motion to ratify tracker.

Mover: Ande

Seconder: Sam

Opposed: Brian

Motion: Approved

Board Meeting Principles and Expectations

For Reference from the Chair.

Received

Standing Item: Executive Director Report

  • KPMG Audit

Executive Director, Sherwin


KPMG Audit underway.

We are looking at working with lawyers.


Draft Annual Report: move up Dave’s name so it’s alphabetical, Sherwin’s last name is missing an ‘e’. Fix names (TiKA, D!XON, leZlie)


Newsletter: please let Nipuni know if you are interested in a Board Highlight.


Honoured Groups Committee – 1 more Board Member needed.

Discussed

Standing Item: Treasurer Report:

  • Budget vs Actuals 2021-2022 Budget – FY22PL

Treasurer, Ande


Signatures needed on Financial Reports.

Discussed

Annual General Meeting Update

  • Annual Report Draft
  • By-Law No. 1 Amendments
  • Q&A Monitoring: Call for Board Volunteers

Grant and Nipuni


Wednesday Afternoon: staff meeting to review final items needed for AGM notice.

Q&A Monitoring at AGM: 2 Board Members needed.


Full Change because Ontario government has proclaimed ONCA.


Key changes: 

  • ensuring new spaces that we have include fully accessible washrooms.
  • number of Board Directors changes. New motion needed before voting in new Board Members

Grant: pending minor revisions of by-laws: grammatical changes to the by-laws, but nothing in substance in changing (capitalization, formatting, switching use of ‘the’ and ‘a’, wrong section was referenced).


Resolution of the Directors. Recommend to pass a special resolution that will allow us to amend articles. Need 7 Board Members to sign to officially reflect change.

Sam to update Resolution with e-signature blocks, which will be emailed to Board Members to sign.

Motion to approve  draft By-Law No. 1 Amendments (pending minor formatting and grammar revisions)

Mover:  Sam

Seconder: leZlie

Motion: Approved





Motion to support resolution to change the number of Directors in the bylaws:

Mover:  leZlie

Seconder: Ande

Motion: Approved

COVID-19 Community Support

Yuri was originally to speak to this Board initiative, but unable to attend Board Meeting.


Sherwin: impact of Covid-19 on community has been particularly challenging with Omicron. We will purchase grocery gift cards that will go to community members (no questions asked). Gift cards can be e-transferred, delivered or picked up. First come first serve by both email and phone. Also have some Pizza Pizza vouchers that we can distribute.


lezlie: great idea, people loved the meals delivered to seniors in December.  

Samantha: We can also look into distributing individually wrapped masks.

Motion to support up to $4000 out of the board advocacy fund, to purchase grocery gift cards, as a COVID-19 support initiative.

Mover:  Sam

Seconder: Ande

Motion: Approved

Membership Approvals

Grant:


Any new Members from now until the AGM?

So far, 3 New Members.

Motion to approve new Membership Applications. 

Mover:  Sam

Seconder: leZlie

Motion: Approved

Standing Item: In Camera Session 

  • Meeting Minutes – December 14, 2022

Grant, Secretary (Brian)

Motion to move in camera:

Mover: leZlie

Seconder: Sam

Motion: Approved




Other Business / Extra Time 



All

Motion to move out of in camera:

Mover: Maher

Seconder: Ande

Motion: Approved

Adjournment

Co-Chairs

Motion to Adjourn.

Moved: Ande 

Seconded: Brian

Motion: Approved

Date: February 15th 2022
Time: 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Location: Online/teleconference
Attendance:
Board Members: D!XON, Grant Gonzales,  leZlie Lee Kam, Maher Sinno, Samantha Fraser, Yuri Hernandez
Staff:  Sherwin Modeste, Nipuni Dhanawardana
Regrets/Absent: TiKA, Jad Jaber



Agenda Item 

Notes

Motions/Action Items

Approval of Agenda

Approving the Order of Business: 

  • February 15, 2022 Agenda 

Motion to approve the agenda. 

Mover: Grant

Seconder: leZlie

Motion: Approved

Land Acknowledgment

Recognition of traditional Indigenous land.

Grant

Approval of Minutes 

Approval of Minutes: 

  • January 10, 2022 Meeting Minutes

Motion to approve the agenda. 

Mover: leZlie

Seconder: Sam

Motion: Approved

Declaration of Conflict of Interest

Chair: Standing item for accountability.

Discussed – Yuri

Board Decision Tracker (FYI) 

For ratification from the Chair.

Motion to ratify tracker, with amendment of adding SGM items.

Mover: Grant

Seconder: Sam

Motion: Approved

Board Meeting Principles and Expectations

For Reference from the Chair.

Received – Yuri

Standing Item: Executive Director Report

Executive Director, Sherwin

Operations 2023 initial plans being discussed. HR changes discussed, Grant updates and Community Engagement.

Exciting event from Senior’s Committee: leZlie going to be doing a seniors event at Rekai.

Thank you to D!XON for doing a piece with the Federal Govt for Black History Month. They will also talk about Global Black Pride.

 

Sherwin: going to be attending ILGA World Conference in Long Beach in May. 

Planning to return to office by mid-March (part time).

Board appreciative of the work of staff during these difficult conversations. 

Meetings with the Ministry of Tourism.

Going to be co-leading a piece working with other Pride organizations. Plan is to reach out to other Prides in the province.

Meetings with Destination Ontario/Toronto. 

Sam: Consider small towns in Ontario (Kincardine, Keswick). Small towns with at least 300 people. 

leZlie: include Manitoulin island

Action item: Sherwin to share list of other Pride organizations in Ontario that we are hoping to work with; Board will have a chance to review and add suggestions.

Still in talks with Caribbean Carnival. Sherwin to connect with Nicoy and leZlie on any support on creating safer spaces at Festival. 

Discussed

Standing Item: Treasurer Report:

  • Budget vs Actual Summary: Summary. Budget vs. Actuals 2021-2022 Budget – FY22 P&L – Short .pdf 
  • Budget vs Actual Full: Full. Budget vs. Actuals 2021-2022 Budget – FY22 P&L .pdf

Sherwin: 

Current books are in a good state. Onsite audit to be done – coming up.

Maher:Looking at the  budget – can we show what we are doing throughout the year. The budget doesn’t really reflect that. Suggestion: clarifying that programming to show that we are doing community events throughout the year.

leZlie:  Seniors Pride and 2Spirit Pride – more resources needed. 

Sherwin:  These committees are new. Budget is set for 2022; but you have the commitment that this will be a priority. Point well taken.

D!XON: priority should be given to local artists, community. Quality over quantity of artists and programming. 

Process: Board Members that are artists and have applied to participate in Parade – applications reviewed by ED and not staff.

Budget is for a more high level overview of costs.

Discussed

Annual General Meeting / Federal Grants

  • AGM Debrief
  • Board Elections: Special General Meeting
  • KPMG Audit
    • Audit Status and Next Steps
    • Special General Meeting 

Sam: Board participation to be improved for next time.

Multiple Board Members: difficult AGM to go through. Accessibility concerns need to be addressed.

Sherwin: no intention of ever entertaining the conversation of bringing back police to the Festival behind Membership backs.  We’re going to continue to work with Blackcap, Breakaway, etc.

Grant: Difficult to chair. Needed to clarify the NDA piece and why it was there.

leZlie: concerns over individual responses. Can we describe to Membership what groups we are working with, and what we are doing.

Sherwin action item: Yes. Information can be provided with how we are working with harm reduction.

Samantha: AGM chat was difficult to see and respond to. 

leZlie: Behaviour of some individuals in chat took a toll on the human beings who are staff members, other Board Members, Board.

Maher: look at an email addressing concerns.

Yuri: need to look at how we can have a productive meeting. Need to also consider how potential Board candidates are feeling.

Grant: Two special general meetings: one will be just for Board Elections.

Sherwin: We can put out both dates at the same time for the Special General Meetings so Members are fully aware of what we are covering in each meeting.

Sam: need to clarify with Membership why KPMG report was delayed.

Sherwin: Programs/Community Engagement highlight in Newsletter to highlight events we are doing year round. Looking at Townhall after Pride Month; can include Program Managers to provide some updates on year round programming. 

D!XON: Yes, impact on potential Board Members important. Good to separate Board Elections. 

Discussed

Membership Approvals

Membership Applications submitted by Feb 11.

Board to review member applications on their own and approve over emails.

Discussed

Annual General Meeting/ Federal Grants continued

ED reported that the KPMG report is not ready; but will work with KPMG as much as possible to get it earlier as per Board request.. 

Yuri

Other Business

Sherwin:

Board get together (that was missed in December because of rising covid-19 cases) will happen later this year, in either March or April.

Discussed

Standing Item: In Camera Session 

Board 

Motion to move in camera:

Mover: Sam

Seconder: leZlie

Motion: Approved

Other Business / Extra Time 

All

Motion to Move Out of In Camera Session included in In Camera minutes.

Adjournment

Co-Chairs

Motion to Adjourn.

Moved: leZlie

Seconded: Maher

Motion: Approved

Date: Tuesday, March 29, 2022
Time: 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Location: Online/teleconference
Attendance:
Board: D!XON, Grant Gonzales, leZlie Lee Kam, Maher Sinno, Samantha Fraser, Yuri Hernandez, Jad Jaber
Staff: Sherwin Modeste, Nipuni Dhanawardana
Regrets/Absent: TiKA



Agenda Item 

Notes

Motions/Action Items

Approval of Agenda

Approving the Order of Business: 

  • Board of Directors Meeting Agenda – March 29, 2022 (1).pdf

Motion to approve the agenda. 

Mover: Samantha

Seconder: Jad

Motion: Approved

Land Acknowledgement

Recognition of traditional Indigenous land.

Yuri

Approval of Minutes 

Approval of Minutes: February 15, 2022 Meeting Minutes.  

Motion to approve the agenda. 

Mover: leZlie

Seconder: Maher

Motion: Approved

Declaration of Conflict of Interest

Chair: Standing item for accountability.

Discussed

Board Decision Tracker (FYI) 

For ratification from the Chair.

 

No updates since December; Grant to take ownership of this tracker.

Discussed

Board Meeting Principles and Expectations

For Reference from the Chair.

Received – Yuri

Standing Item: Executive  Director Report (attach)

Executive Director, Sherwin.

 

Operations

We are ahead of schedule from previous years.

 

Have also started 2023 conversations. We will not have access to Yonge Street, Wellesley stage and Central stage due to construction.

 

HR

We are looking into bringing on students from the United Nations Association of Canada youth program.

 

Finance Manager – relooking at job description

Director of Development – relooking at posting

 

Community Engagement – League of Festivals (Pride Toronto, Caribbean Carnival, Luminato, Salsa on St. Clair) continued conversations. Other Meetings held: Aids Services Organizations (ASO) meeting, 416 Caucus Meeting along with Minister of Tourism. Meetings scheduled: Mayor and Councillors for Festival Updates

 

Next Press Release: scheduled for Friday, April 1st. naming events and headliners

 

Harm Reduction – meetings with harm reduction organizations – they are leading and they will decide how they are working with police.

 

Global Black Pride – getting a lot of traction. More details coming in the next meeting.

 

First time in Pride’s history: Francophone Day on Saturday.

 

April 28 – Programming launch at CN Tower. Space limited. Nipuni to follow up with the Board. In general, we will let you know where we need speaking engagements. Targeted asks for specific board members to amplify work we are doing.

 

Sam: How are we looking at sponsorships?

Sherwin: Tara is helping to schedule meetings, Sherwin is helping with attending meetings and signing, Kat is taking lead on new sponsors and

Shay is providing admin support.

 

leZlie: Where does Sober Pride fit into Pride 2022?

Sherwin: There is a budget and space for Sober Pride for three days.

Sherwin to follow up on meetings for Sober Pride.

 

Maher: Finance Manager.

Sherwin: looking at making this position full time.

 

D!XON: Posting for Finance Manager – is it remote?

Sherwin: no, we need all hands on deck for in person Festival.

 

Sherwin: leZlie and Brian reached out to Fierte Canada. This year: Pride Toronto is putting forward Brian Cope to be put on Fierte Canada Board. Brian has been elected. On a quarterly basis: Brian will bring a report to the Board.

We support Brian to get elected, go to the meetings and events to represent Pride Toronto and Queer seniors. Fierte Canada has never had a queer senior on its Board.

 

Sherwin: Parade Route contingents: Indigenous community, honoured groups, thank you to our frontline workers, seniors, ‘my first pride’ for individuals who have never attended pride (David Lewis chaperoning that group). Implementing a ‘tap out’ zone for parade individuals who want to exit the parade (idea came from ASO meetings). So people can leave parade safely (health reasons, panic attacks, people who can’t walk the whole route).

Discussed

Standing Item: Treasurer’s Report:

Budget vs Actual Summary

Budget vs Actual Full

Sherwin

 

No two staff or two board members can approve . Need 1 staff and 1 Board Member, for approvals.

 

Financial statements: we’re in a healthy space.

 

leZlie: why do we have paid duty police?

Yuri: legally, we have to pay police to have the Festival, as in many major cities.  

Sherwin: it is a city requirement, but police need to charge (as per bylaw of 2016). Looking into incorporating  more community officers (who don’t hold guns).

 

leZlie: accessibility and attendant care?

Sherwin: that means PSWs. Attendant care at particular stations at a particular time (ie. at Wellesley station: there will be attendant care from x time to x time). Suggestion: Rotate attendant care amongst the welcome centres.

Which organization are we going with? 

Sherwin: we may have to use more than one.

VHA: leZlie has trained them in 2SLGBTQ+

leZlie: more chairs at welcome centres. Seating areas and water areas (flow waters). 

 

Jad: How are we supporting black PSWs?

Sherwin: inviting frontline organizations to send

Discussed

Special General Meetings

1. KPMG Report / Audited Financial Statements

2. Board Elections

Grant: SGM#2 Upcoming April 7th: staff team working with to secure another platform.

 

Membership

leZlie/Grant: explain why we are using GetQuorum in the email.

 

Grant: auditors need to focus and explain to Membership what auditors need to look at and what they don’t look at during annual financial audit.

 

Maher: Ramadan is coming up; for upcoming meetings late at night.

 

Sherwin: next update that goes out needs to state that with respect to our support teams and those observing Ramadan, meeting will not be going later.

 

SGM: More info coming. Nipuni to follow up on Board roles needed. 

 

Board Elections: unable to hold on March 15 because App was having issues. This presents a huge challenge. 

Sherwin: will need to reschedule March 15 meeting to one hour meeting, just for elections.

 

leZlie: suggestion to have Meet & Greet with Board Candidates. 

 

Hybrid model for board meetings – can look into this moving forward.

Discussed

Membership Approvals

Defer to email. By end of week.

Discussed

Ontario Provincial Election Approach

leZlie a part of Senior Pride Network Toronto.

 

Slate of questions for provincial elections: what are you going to be doing for queer individuals?

 

Grant: 3 or 4 question, questionnaire. Perhaps we can post their responses, to better inform those who are voting. 

Grant: call out to Members to have suggestions, call out in the Newsletter. Membership@pridetoronto.com.

Can do the same thing for Mayoral candidates.

Ask for the party’s stance on the provincial election.

Discussed

Standing Item: In Camera Session

● February 15, 2022

● Member Complaint

Grant:

Can approve minutes at the next meeting.

Member complaint: no new updates. 

No in camera session.

Other Business / Extra Time

leZlie: planning is happening for June 18 Queer Seniors Event with Rekai. Reports coming soon.

 

Sherwin: pls check calendars food invites. Add Seniors Pride and more details on speakers.

 

Samantha: pls add descriptions. Nipuni to add comments and speakers at different stages.

 

leZlie: June 1st flag raising at City Hall. 

 

City covers the cost of flag raising event, we are guest at  the event. 

Discussed

Adjournment

 

8:00 pm

Motion to adjourn:

Mover: Sam

Seconder: leZlie

Motion: Approved

Date: Tuesday,  April 26, 2022
Time: 7:30 PM – 9:00 PM
Location: Online/teleconference
Attendance:
Board: D!XON, Samantha Fraser, Grant Gonzales, Jad Jaber, leZlie Lee Kam, Yuri Hernandez, TiKA, Elizabeth Bate, Deidre ‘D-lishus’ Walton and Moka Dawkins
Staff: Sherwin Modeste, Nipuni Dhanawardana
Regrets/Absent: Maher Sinno, Courage
ASL Interpretation: Christopher Desloges, Dean Wiebe, Christie Reaume



Agenda Item 

Notes

Motions/Action Items

Approval of Agenda

Approving the Order of Business: 

  • Board of Directors Meeting Agenda – April 26, 2022

Motion to approve the agenda. 

Mover: leZlie

Seconder: Elizabeth

Motion: Approved

Land Acknowledgement

Recognition of traditional Indigenous land.

Yuri 

Approval of Minutes 

Approval of Minutes: March 29, 2022 Meeting Minutes

Motion to approve the agenda. 

Mover: Yuri

Seconder:  leZlie

Motion: Approved

Declaration of Conflict of Interest

Chair: Standing item for accountability.

Discussed

Board Decision Tracker (FYI) 

For ratification from the Chair.

Discussed

Board Meeting Principles and Expectations

For Reference from the Chair.

Received

SGM Elections Debrief

Grant: welcome and congratulations to new Board Members!


Board Members: great to have you all on the Board!


Grant: orientation over the next few weeks and then months (as we will shift focus and get busy with the Festival soon). We do have an orientation package for the new Board.


Next meeting: Elections for Board Roles in May. Speaking engagements coming up for the Festival.

Discussed

Standing Item: Executive Director Report

Executive Director, Sherwin


Thank you everyone and welcome to the new Board Members!


Festival Planning: full planning mode. Surpassed goal in fundraising areas. First time we’re having a Food Truck Zone. A lot is happening in community engagement. Lot of programming coming up – please take the time to read through updates.


D!XON: Clarification on upcoming conference.

Sherwin: provided more information on ILGA Conference.


D!XON: Can we get a more robust refresher on Global Black Pride (GBP) and the opportunities. When is it happening? 

Sherwin: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday (no programming because of Caribbean Carnival parade) ahead of Caribbean Carnival Weekend Blockobana happening on sunday. Pride Toronto, GBP and Blackness Yes! working together.


D!XON: Financial support from Pride Toronto? 

Sherwin: No, we are trustee but GBP is doing own fundraising,


D!XON: How are we supporting local artists both in representation and fair wages?

Sherwin: Blackness Yes! is leading the stage and curation to ensure local artists are being highlighted and compensated fairly. Blockobana is a Blackness Yes! event, not Pride Toronto event.


D!XON: Marketing and promotion on what GBP means in terms of what is different?  What is the festival about?

 

TiKA:  Want to create community awareness around artist payments.


D!XON: What measures will GBP and Pride Toronto use to ensure local artists are being paid a fair rate for the production and implementation of their show?


Grant: information is already available on ED Reports over the previous months since we started working with GBP and Blackness Yes!.


Sherwin:  If there are resolutions that need to be addressed within the black community of artists, let’s bring the community together to address. I’m working with any collective that brings grievances. We have made great progress so far. Will start with a meeting with Blackness Yes!, GBP and the Board. 

Discussed

Standing Item: Treasurer’s Report: Budget vs. Actuals 2021-2022 Budget – FY22 P&L- Short.pdf

Full- Pride-Budget Vs. Actual 2021-2022.pdf

Executive Director, Sherwin


Review of budgets and actuals information sheet.


Both City of Toronto, Federal and Provincial Govt Grants – we’re going to hear back from them very soon.


Expenses: most of our expenses will be on Festival weekend; we’re in a good place right now. All Managers have been asked to reduce 10% of their budget, with the exception of artists fees. 

No deficits – budget will be surplus or budget neutral.


New Board Members: you will get an introduction to all of the staff. Next Board Meeting: all Managers to attend, so you can get a comprehensive  updates of what’s coming up 

Discussed

Standing Item: In Camera Session:

  • New Elected Members
  • NDA Discussion
 

Motion to move in camera:

Mover: Elizabeth

Seconder: TiKA

Motion: Approved

Other Business / Extra Time

All

Motion to Move Out of In Camera Session included in In Camera minutes.

Adjournment

Board Co-Chairs

Motion to Adjourn.

Moved: Samantha

Seconded: Elizabeth

Motion: Approved

Date: Tuesday, May 17, 2022
Time: 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Location: Online/teleconference
Attendance:
Board: Samantha Fraser, Grant Gonzales, leZlie Lee Kam, Yuri Hernandez, Elizabeth Bate, Moka Dawkins, and Maher Sinno
Staff: Sherwin Modeste, Nipuni Dhanawardana, Bobby MacPherson, Lee Hamilton, Jamie Nicholson, Nicoy Davis, Katherina Symes, Laura Colonna (contractor)
Regrets/Absent: Courage, Deidre ‘D-Lishus’ Walton, D!XON, Jad Jaber
ASL Interpretation: Dean Wiebe, Jessica Kingsbury




Agenda Item 

Notes

Motions/Action Items

Approval of Agenda

Approving the Order of Business: 

  • Board of Directors Meeting Agenda – May 17, 2022 (1).pdf

Grant: Amendment: Membership Approvals

Sam: Board Responsibilities for month of Pride (part of ED Report)

Motion to approve the agenda. 

Mover: Sam

Seconder: Elizabeth

Motion: Approved

Land Acknowledgement

Recognition of traditional Indigenous land.

Yuri 

Approval of Minutes 

Approval of Minutes: Board Meeting Minutes – April 26, 2022 #3

Motion to approve the agenda. 

Mover: Yuri

Seconder: Moka

Motion: Approved

Declaration of Conflict of Interest

Chair: Standing item for accountability.

Discussed

Board Decision Tracker (FYI) 

For Ratification from the Chair.

Nothing to ratify

Discussed

Board Meeting Principles and Expectations

For Reference from the Chair.

Please continue to reference the document.

Received

Standing Item: ED/SLT Board Report – May 17, 2022

Executive Director, Sherwin


Operations: We did a walk through the Festival footprint today. Many, many contracts being approved right now (for exp. porta potties for footprint).


HR: Finance Manager interviews done (references being checked). 

Director of Development (going to interview later in June).

Request for Auditors (closes on May 20th). We currently have a temporary contractor for Marketing and Branding team.


List of Honoured Positions (who the Ambassadors are) have been provided to the Board.


Sponsorship – we’re on track. Conversation on branding on cookies – Sherwin to connect with the company.


Sherwin attended ILGA Conference in Long Beach – great learning and great connections were made with attendees. 


leZlie will be at Canada Pride; representing the voice of queer seniors and Pride Toronto during the first week of June.

Discussed

Standing Item: Treasurer’s Report: 

FULL BudgetvsActuals2021-2022Budget-FY22PL (1).pdf

Summary BudgetvsActuals2021-2022Budget-FY22PL (1).pdf

Executive Director, Sherwin


In terms of income and grants

next month: bulk of expenses are going to happen for Festival. The projection is that we’re expecting to meet all financial obligations.


Grant: low percentages shown on financials are because everything (ie. sponsor commitments) comes in June/July. July: will be an accurate depiction of our financial health – re. nature of the Festival. 


Moka: clarification of budget codes requested.

Answer: budget codes are administrative piece.


Elizabeth: Do financials look okay at the moment?

Sherwin: In terms of sponsorships, we’ve done very well. The only area that has really been impacted is grants.


Maher: Do we have a contingency plan in place re. financials/grants?

Sherwin: we have commitments, but are waiting for a number on the amounts. Since for two years there was no physical festival, we have some surpluses we can rely on if needed.

Discussed

2022 Pride Festival – Staff Update

Jamie: Affiliate Events and Major Cultural Partnerships, Visual Art Installations. 

  • Art installations starting June 1st (https://www.pridetoronto.com/pride-2022/visual-art-installation-2022/). 
  • Major Cultural Events (Affiliate Events: we work with Major Culture partners like Stakt, City of Toronto (flag raising), Luminato, Red Dress Ball, NXNE etc.

Elizabeth: request for comprehensive list of programming and events. 

  • Action item: Nipuni to email Board.

Lee: Upcoming Programs including Cabana Pool Party, Island Party, Fierce and Reckless, and Festival Weekend.

  • We have venues, headliners, etc confirmed. Programming team working on curator information (tech riders, invoices and other admin pieces etc.)

Kat: Update on Grants and other Fundraising. Five outstanding grants that are Festival related and five others that are not Festival related (year round programming).

  • Working on raffles for events (finalizing raffle license).
  • We are doing tiptap pay. We’re going to have 80 different machines on Festival Footprint. Portion of what comes in goes to our charity of choice (BlackCap). 

Nicoy: Community Prides and Not for Profit Partnerships. 

  • Seniors event with Rekai coming up 
  • Amongst other community Prides, this is the first time we’re doing a Francophone event.
  • We’re working with our nonprofit partners, like The 519 to put out word about the upcoming Festival weekend.

Nipuni: Re-cap on what Community Connect Events is and update on this year’s Community Connect taking place in Scarborough, North York and Etobicoke.

Sherwin: Other events also being planned, like a Meet & Greet with the Honoured Positions, Labour Union Event, and Consul General breakfast.

Bobby and Laura: Operations, including StreetFair, Parade, Volunteers and all other logistics.

  • Laura: a challenge we faced was that lot of production companies were tapped out because of all the festivals coming back. Supply (labour and onboarding) did not meet the surge in demand.
  • We have some amazing AV partners coming back. Everything’s coming together. We did a walk through of Festival Footprint.
  • All City stakeholders (traffic management plans, road closures, bylaw officers, noise permits – on same page/ stakeholders fully aligned. Including BIAs, residents’ councils.

Sherwin: New this year is saturday and sunday programming at Nathan Phiillips during Festival Weekend – Jamie is working on this.

  • Parade will have tap out stations for people who need to leave parade (health and wellbeing reasons).
  • PSWs – for first year – info to come.

 

Questions on staff presentations:

leZlie: thank you so much for the presentations, and all of the work. 2spirit powwow?

Kat: Happening on Saturday, June 4. Rain date: Sun, June 5. This will be at Dowsnview Park – starts at sunrise, ends at sunset. Open to all.


Elizabeth: thank you to all as well. Can we include porta potties on Festival map?

Laura: yes, all porta potties will be on the official map.


Elizabeth: Water station for marchers? Will sunscreen be available?

Sherwin: working on a potential sunscreen sponsor. Water will not be sold; free or pay what you can.

Laura: water drop (bins) will be located in the marching area, Rosedale valley road etc. and available for marchers.


Elizabeth: for tickets who do we go to?

Sherwin: email will be sent out for your Board badges.


Sam: are sticker stations happening? 

In terms of covid, what precautions are we taking?


Sherwin: sticker station – yes we have a lot in the office to use (leftover from previous years). 

Covid restrictions – we will follow whatever is in place re. Public Health recommendations. Common touch surfaces (like porta potties and picnic tables at food zone) will be sanitized very frequently. Also strict capacity limits: backstage area (so no large crowds), hand sanitizers available at all pride activations, welcome zones, and port a potties; still working on PPE (and having them available at different stations). 


Sherwin: Board to engage with our stakeholders.


Sherwin: we have merged 5 flags together, and then second flag is trans flag. Also, will have a My First Pride contingent, Flag Contingent, Ukrainian Refugee Contingent.


Dykes on bikes – only contingent that will have gas vehicles (due to historical significance). They’ve agreed to no idling and will be making a donation to an environmental group.


Leading Indigneous community, honoured groups, seniors, front line workers.


Moka: did we reach out to Afghani community for contingent? 

  • Sherwin to connect with Rainbow railroad for my first pride. 

Maher: safe visibility to marginalized communities –  what ways can we do this?

  • Nicoy: This is what the My first Pride Contingent will address – creating a safer space for Queer and Trans newcomers.
  • Sherwin: different groups requesting diff types of support. So on our socials; you will see support for different communities. Human rights: conversations coming up and session with consul generals re.  impact of homophobia, biphobia and transphobia on individuals in those community and the impact on countries’ economy and tourism.

Grant: thank you to the staff for all that you’re doing; we’re excited. We’re going to be right with you and looking forward to June.


 

 

Officer Elections

Sherwin facilitate the Officer elections; Nipuni ran Zoom polls for anonymous voting.

Board Elections: can nominate yourself or others. Tenure as a Board Officer will be  now until February (after January AGM).

Officer Position: Board Co-Chairs:

  • leZlie, Moka, Sam: nominate Yuri and Grant.
    • Yuri and Grant: both accept nomination.
  • Maher:  nominate myself. 

leZlie: can we have Maher start shadowing Yuri and Grant immediately so that there is no gap, with Grant not running again for Co-Chair.

Officer Position: Treasurer: 

  • Grant: very technical role; I wanted to nominate D-Lishus. Like to defer because she is not here; further conversations.
  • Currently Yuri is Acting Treasurer.
  • Sherwin: they have to be here to accept nominate. Call for other nominations?
  • No other nominations
  • Sherwin: okay

 

Officer Position: Secretary:

  • Grant, Sam, Moka, leZlie: nominate Elizabeth.
  • Sherwin: Congratulations Elizabeth; with four nominations, there is no need to vote!

 

Other items:

Moka: Trans Committee. Parade permits 7pm-11:30pm (additional permits to start march earlier?). More information on Ambassador position.

Sherwin: Trans Rally is one of the most important parts of Pride; reminds me of the struggle. For 2022, all permits have been submitted and approved. I will be at the next trans meeting to explore all possibilities for 2023. Apologies for lack of transparency and accountability in the past. Agreements signed off on Monday – you’ll receive an Ambassador package.

Sam: Roles and responsibilities for the Board for June? 

Sherwin: speaking engagement document made available by Nipuni & other commitments to be emailed out.

Grant: Membership approvals to be approved via email.







Vote to re-elect Grant Gonzales as Pride Toronto Board Co-Chair: Passed.

Vote to re-elect Yuri Hernandez as Pride Toronto Board Co-Chair: Passed.

Vote to elect Maher Sinno as Pride Toronto Board Co-Chair: Failed.



Vote to elect Treasurer deferred.











Election of Elizabeth as Pride Toronto Board Secretary:

Passed.

Standing Item: 

In Camera Session

Board

Motion to move in camera:

Mover: Sam

Seconder: Moka

Motion: Approved

Other Business / Extra Time

All

Motion to Move Out of In Camera Session included in In Camera minutes.

Adjournment

Board Co-Chairs

Motion to Adjourn.

Moved: Sam 

Seconded: Moka

Motion: Approved

 

 

Date: Monday, June 13, 2022
Time: 6:30 PM – 9:30 PM
Location: Online/teleconference
Attendance:
Board: Samantha Fraser, Grant Gonzales, leZlie Lee Kam, Yuri Hernandez, Deidre ‘D-Lishus’ Walton, D!XON, Jad Jaber, Moka Dawkins, Maher Sinno, Courage
Staff: Sherwin Modeste, Nipuni Dhanawardana
Regrets/Absent: N/A
ASL Interpretation: Dean Wiebe, Cynthia Carruthers




Agenda Item 

Notes

Motions/Action Items

Approval of Agenda

Approving the Order of Business: 

  • Board of Directors Meeting Agenda – June 13, 2022 (1).pdf


Motion to approve the agenda. 

Mover: Grant

Seconder: Sam

Motion: Approved

Land Acknowledgement

Recognition of traditional Indigenous land.

Grant

Approval of Minutes 

Approval of Minutes

  • Board Meeting Minutes – May 17, 2022 #4

leZlie want to amend May minutes to include following:  have Maher start shadowing Yuri and Grant immediately so that there is no gap, with Grant not running again for Co-Chair.

Motion to approve amendment minutes:

Mover: Sam

Seconder: Grant

Motion: Approved

Declaration of Conflict of Interest

Chair: Standing item for accountability.

Discussed

Board Decision Tracker (FYI) 

For Ratification from the Chair.

Nothing to ratify

Discussed

Board Meeting Principles and Expectations

For Reference from the Chair.

Please continue to reference the document.


Yuri: especially important during Pride Month, with all events going on.

Received

Standing Item: 

ED/SLT Board Report – June 13, 2022

Executive Director, Sherwin


Operations: All Contractors on Board now for Festival. Most vendors are asking for payments upfront.


Human Resources: welcoming Amit to the Team as Finance Manager. 

Starting Director of Development Interviews tomorrow. There will be two rounds of interviews. With the nature of this role, there will be Board Members on the Hiring Committee for each round of interviews.. 


PowWow: 2Spirit Powwow was amazing in early June. Board and staff were in attendance. 


*Time for ASL Dean and Cynthia to join; and check settings to begin signing for Courage (who was available after 8:00pm to join call*


Community engagement: we are a hosting group from Italy tomorrow. We are also having three community engagement events (Honoured Positions Meet and Greet, Labour Union event, and Phobia Panel event) during the week leading up to Festival weekend.


Sponsorships: we may surpass current targets. 


Programming update: have been getting very detailed programming updates leading up to Festival month. Currently in execution mode for Festival month.


Initially Francophone gave $10k to curate the program. Curator said they gave artists all money, then we gave an additional $1k. At Francophone advisory committee, it was by the curator suggested $1750 of $2000 community funds was used for stage. This was approved by the committee. 


Moka: what is being done to ensure each artist has a place to stay?

Sherwin: we do not offer accommodations to local artists. The intent for Francophone stage was to hire local artists from Toronto. At no point in time was the Curator offered rooms. However, when Pride Toronto was notified that we have some artists coming from Montreal; the Curator was offered some rooms that we have available to us through Metropolitan University. These rooms were not promised; the information that went to the Board from the curator wasn’t accurate as presented.


leZlie: Please be proactive so that we understand what is happening.

Sherwin: we had been actively  working with the curator to come to a resolution, but they did not like the resolutions we presented – so they went to the Board.


D!XON: how did we come up with the number for the cost of booking artists? 

Sherwin: for all stages (with the exception of Blocko), the curators are aware they were getting $1000 per hour for curation across the board. I made sure the curator knew that they knew that booking artists from Montreal would mean additional costs.


D!XON: understand that equity is important for each stage. For me, the cost of artist is getting less than minimum wage, but the ask is so big. What about quality over quantity? Less stages, but more for artists. so they have meaningful  wages.


Sherwin: messaging has been consistent: book local artists. Curator meetings have been happening for months. We will be meeting with francophone curator  as soon as possible. We have a lot of Francophone artists from Toronto.


D!XON: please address the issue of low pay for artists?

Sherwin:  Curators agreed on this curation fee  in 2019; this is not new and we are not deliberately paying the artists low wages.


Moka: How do we respond to community complaints?

Sherwin: redirect to me; since these are operational issues. 

Discussed

Standing Item: Treasurer’s Report: 

2023 Budget – Last Year Vs Current Year Explanation.pdf

2023 Budget – Source Sheet.pdf

2023 Budget Figures.pdf

2023 Budget- Charts.pdf



Executive Director, Sherwin


Grant column is low but we are almost there.

Sponsorships – based on funds that are already in; but it looks like we are going to exceed.

Parade participation: exceeded expectations. It is looking like the largest Parade participation; going to exceed World Pride.

Where we are off with Streetfair, we are making it up with Parade.

Expenses: we are on target; but be prepared in the next month and a half, these numbers are going to exceed because of Festival weekend.


D!XON: Tourism Canada $1million is that for 2022 or 2023?

Sherwin: coming this year, a small percentage will cover 2022, but most 2023. They will provide a full breakdown of what is expected from us.


D!XON: in coming weeks, more money is going to be spent. So the budget we are looking at is what is spent up to now? 

Sherwin: Yes, that’s correct.


Sherwin: 2022/2023 budget is with the Board now. Please look at it. We will discuss it further.


RFPS Auditors: we have one or two responses. Right after Festival, we will look to interview.

Sherwin: thank you Sam for coming to Blue Jays Pride Night.

Met with most of the Honoured Positions ambassadors today; thank you lezlie and Moka; they are two of our ambassadors.

Discussed

2022 Pride Festival Update 

ED, Sherwin


Sherwin: close to 700 volunteers have signed up; lower than previous years.


Planning of festival: we are in full Festival mode. Community connects this past weekend; great feedback from community.


Jad: more programming for queer Arabs; funding needed. 

Sherwin: Yalla barra is the current stage but there is; definitely room for improvement.

Sherwin: we were contacted by a trans wrestler, who plans to come out during Pride. Story will break 20th or 22nd of June, and we are looking into having them join us in the Parade.


Samantha: please provide more clarity on speaking notes.

D-Lishus: please also provide information about speaking times.


Grant: homework for Board – read budget, send questions, and keep signing up for events coming up.

 

Officer Elections (Treasurer) 

Grant: had a conversation with D-Lishus about potentially taking on the Treasurer role.

Call for nominations for call for Treasurers.

Sam: I nominate D-lishus.

Yuri: I nominate D-lishus.

leZlie: I nominate D-lishus.

D!XON: responsibilities for Treasurer?

Grant: budget oversight, weekly meetings between Director of Ops and Sherwin, significant responsibility as signing authority, chairing monthly audit and finance committee

Grant: any other nominations?

None.

Grant: Dlishus do you accept nomination?

Dlishus: I do have interest in taking on this role; and thank you Grant. I’m moving far temporarily and do have concerns about signing cheques; but can join meetings virtually. Is it possible to have another Board Member support with signing cheques?

Sherwin: our system is virtual; all our payments are done virtually. If we have to prepare cheques, it’s very few and far between.

D-lishus: I accept the nomination.

 Grant: D-lishus acclaimed as Treasurer! We’ll touch base more later.

Sherwin: full handover of Treasurer role  in July after Festival. I will have all the necessary forms ready that need to be completed so that you can sign them when you are in Toronto for Pride Festival weekend.

Grant: Ande (former Treasurer) will support with transition as well.

 

Standing Item: 

In Camera Session

Board

Motion to move in camera:

Mover: Yuri

Seconder: Sam

Motion: Approved

Other Business / Extra Time

All

Motion to Move Out of In Camera Session included in In Camera minutes.

Adjournment

Board Co-Chairs

Motion to Adjourn.

Moved: Sam

Seconded: D-Lishus

Motion: Approved

 

Date: Tuesday, July 19, 2022
Time: 6:00 – 9:00 pm
Location: Online/teleconference
Attendance:
Board: Courage, Moka Dawkins, Samantha Fraser, Grant Gonzales, Jad Jaber, leZlie Lee Kam, Deidre ‘D-Lishus’ Walton
Staff: Sherwin Modeste
Regrets/Absent: D!XON, Yuri Hernandez, Maher Sinno
ASL Interpretation: Alex Skrzyniak, Cynthia Carruthers

Agenda Item 

Summary/Notes

Motions/Action Items

Approval of Agenda

Approving the Order of Business: 

  • Board of Directors Meeting Agenda

Motion: To approve the agenda (Approved). 

  • Mover: Deidre ‘D-Lishus’ Walton
  • Seconder: Moka Dawkins

Land Acknowledgement

Chair delivered the land acknowledgement recognizing traditional Indigenous land.

 

Approval of Minutes 

Approval of Minutes

  • Board Meeting Minutes – June 13, 2022

Motion: To approve the minutes (Approved).

Mover:  leZlie Lee Kam

Seconder: Samantha Fraser

Declaration of Conflict of Interest

Chair requested any Board Director to declare a conflict of interest. This is a standing item for accountability.

 

Board Decision Tracker 

For information. Required an update, after which the Board will be asked to ratify. 

 

Board Meeting Principles and Expectations

For reference. 

 

Executive Director Report 

The Executive Director indicated that there is no written report this month as the team was focused on reorganizing the office post-Festival.

Festival debrief meetings will occur in the coming weeks. All staff will return to the office on July 25 with a debrief schedule. Debrief with the City completed, with positive feedback despite some issues.


The Executive Director encouraged the Board Director to register and participate in Global Black Pride events. 


Board and staff will be promoting the 2023 Pride Festival at Montreal Pride, and will be distributing inflatable beach balls. 

Discussed

In Camera Session (Legal Discussion)

 

Motion: To move in

camera (Approved). 

  • Mover: Samantha Fraser
  • Seconder: Deidre ‘D-Lishus’ Walton

Motion: To move out of in camera session (included in In Camera minutes).

Standing Item: Treasurer’s Report

Actual v. Summary

  • While income was lower than planned, so were the expenses.

2022-23 Operating Budget

  • The Board discussed the draft budget, which was circulated in June for review. 
  • A Board Director raised a question around contingencies, and they indicated that they felt it was small. 
  • A Board Director asked how those numbers were reached.
    • The Executive Director explained that number were compared to 2018-19 budget (the last in-person Festival) but costs, particularly vendor rates, have increased drastically over the pandemic.
    • The Executive Director further explained that staff expertise were relied on to inform anticipated expenses related to specific areas (e.g., Festival infrastructure).  
  • A Board Director asked whether the anticipated sponsorship revenue is too high, considering the actual numbers post-Festival are lower. 
    • The Executive Director indicated that these numbers were based on the existing and growing interest of prospective sponsors for the 2023 festival. 

Motion: To approve the 2022-23 operating budget (Approved). 

  • Mover: Deidre ‘D-Lishus’ Walton
  • Seconder: Moka Dawkins

Motion: To recommend to the membership the appointment of Crowe Soberman LLP as the 2022-23 auditors (Approved). 

  • Mover: Samantha Fraser
  • Seconder: Deidre ‘D-Lishus’ Walton

Special General Meeting

The Board discussed scheduling a Special General Meeting (SGM) for the purposes of considering the appointment of the 2022-23 auditors.

A Board Director indicated August would not be ideal given vacation schedules. The Executive Director confirmed that early September should be the latest date in which to schedule the SGM. 

Motion: To confirm Thursday, September 8, 2022, for the Special General Meeting. 

  • Mover: leZlie Lee Kam
  • Seconder: Moka Dawkin

Other Business

Donation – Pow Wow
A Board Director (leZlie) will be traveling to the Six Nations of the Grand River to participate in a Pow Wow. leZlie will be bringing a donation of $500, as well as tobacco. 

Donation – Food Bank
The Executive Director reported that Pride Toronto has been receiving many requests for donations to food banks. The Board discussed a cash donation v. food donation, and to encourage one another to volunteer. The Executive Director will purchase $500 worth of non-perishable food for donation. 

 

Standing Item: 

In Camera Session

 

Motion: To move in

camera (Approved). 

  • Mover: Samantha Fraser
  • Seconder: Moka Dawkins

Motion: To move out of in camera session (included in In Camera minutes).

Adjournment

 

Motion: To adjourn the meeting (Approved). 

  • Mover: leZlie Lee Kam
  • Seconder: Moka Dawkin

Date

Tuesday, August 2, 2022

Time

6:00 – 9:00 pm

Location

Online

Attendance

Board: Courage, Moka Dawkins, Samantha Fraser, Grant Gonzales, Jad Jaber, leZlie Lee Kam, Deidre ‘D-Lishus’ Walton, D!XON, Yuri Hernandez, Maher Sinno


Staff: Sherwin Modeste, Nipuni Dhanawardana

Regrets

None

ASL Interpretation

Rogue Benjamin, Cynthia Carruthers

 

 

Agenda Item 

Summary/Notes

Motions/Action Items

Approval of Agenda

Approving the Order of Business: 


Changes to agenda:

  • Fasken not available to join meeting 
  • Approval of GetQuorum for SGM
  • Move Festival Debrief to 6:30

Motion: To approve the amended agenda (Approved). 

Mover: Jad Jaber.

Seconder: Deidre ‘D-Lishus’ Walton

Land Acknowledgement

Chair delivered the land acknowledgement recognizing traditional Indigenous land.

Grant Gonzales

Approval of Minutes 

Approval of Minutes

Motion: To approve the minutes (Approved).

Mover: Moka Dawkins

Seconder: leZlie lee kam

Declaration of Conflict of Interest

Chair requested any Board Director to declare a conflict of interest. This is a standing item for accountability.

Discussed

Board Decision Tracker 

For information. Required an update, after which the Board will be asked to ratify. 

Discussed

Board Meeting Principles and Expectations

For reference. 

Please follow prompt from Chair when speaking, especially for ASL interpreters

 

Executive Director Report 

Executive Director

Very successful Global Black Pride (GBP). Special thanks to leZlie for going above and beyond; very supportive in taking international delegates out to have a great experience outside of conference. Shout out to Shay for also going above and beyond for GBP. We have recommendations/calls to actions from delegates asking that Pride Toronto put on an annual black conference. We started initial conversations with Blackness Yes! on this.


In regards to tracking staff hours, we have implemented timesheets for staff hours to ensure we have records of hours worked.


Sherwin will be part of the opening ceremony at Montreal Pride. The rest of the team will be joining in Montreal as well.


Kat, who is currently a Manager, was the successful candidate for the Director of Development and Government Relations job position.


New job postings are going to go up soon.


Connect Ontario grant received.


Board Members expressed the need that when acknowledging grants more information is needed about the grants.

Motion: To approve the following: We do hereby consent to the approval of the following as it was presented at a regularly called meeting of the board of directors of this organization.

Therefore, it is resolved that the organization shall enter into agreement with the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport Ontario Reconnect 2022 Grant, receiving $185,000 in funding for the Pride Toronto Festival between June 1, 2022 to June 30, 2022 (Approved).

Mover: Moka Dawkins

Seconder: leZlie lee kam 

Opposed: None


Motion: To approve the following: We do hereby consent to the approval of the following as it was presented at a regularly called meeting of the board of directors of this organization. Therefore, it is resolved that the organization shall enter into agreement with Canadian Heritage Building Communities Through Arts & Heritage – Local Festivals Fund, receiving $99,800 in funding for the Pride Toronto Festival between June 1, 2022 to June 30, 2022 (Approved).

Mover: Yuri Hernandez

Seconder: Moka Dawkins

Opposed: None

 

2022 Pride Festival Debrief

Executive Director: Donna Joyette worked with us last year for the staff Festival debrief. We wanted to bring her back again for a debrief of this year’s Festival.


Facilitator: Donna Joyette.

Purpose of debrief: look back on Pride Festival 2022 and what could be better. Not about any certain people or group, but instead we’re aiming to have a constructive conversation on how to improve the Festival. Report will then be created with main areas/themes of successes and improvements.


Board Members generally highlighted the following as areas that worked well: the change to green powered vehicles led to smaller floats and changed participation. Without gas powered vehicles, there were less floats and a more intimate feel to Parade. Was good to see  community groups at the front (need to continue this). Being able to march together was great, some parade participants enjoyed no barriers (even though this wasn’t intentional).


Board Members highlighted the following areas that need improvement: more people power needed and organization to prevent some of the many last minute items. Some of these issues are from before 2022, so systems need to be put  in place to prevent things like making day of purchases and needing Board to drive golf carts.

All on the same page that barricades are needed. More marginalized Aids Services Organizations were in the back – need to be aware of placement. Too much going on at the same time, for example Yalla Barra stage at the same time as the Parade. 

More support needed for Ambassadors. Some artist bookings were last minute. More accessibility needed, especially for the D/deaf community (ASL interpreters were spread out). More information needs to be shared in advance.

Most likely going to continue to have less volunteers moving forward, so will need to plan and be prepared for that. Security continues to be a concern. More procedures need to be in place to protect the Board, staff and the space. The seniors have specifically requested that Pride Toronto hosts a virtual Pride Parade party on sunday so they can participate without the crowds. Need to review working conditions for artists and backstage experience for artists. Marketing and promotions should also include the artists other than headliners.  Speaking notes and obligations for Board Members need to be communicated in advance. Need to keep a virtual component of Pride programming. 

 

Governance Planning

● Board Committees

● Membership Applications

● Orientation Materials

● Secretary Appointment

● Staff-Board Retreat

● Strategic Planning

Secretary Appointment needed for the Board. Responsibilities include: formal notice SGM, Membership list, Board lists, Board liability insurance, Minutes. Please consider the role. Nominations will be held at the next Board Meeting on August 30.


Strategic Planning: need to start getting underway.


Staff-Board retreat: looking at September or October. Staff will be gone for 2-3 days, the Board would join for 1 day. Purpose would be to look back at 2022, and plan for 2023. 


Board committees: need to restructure and reconstitute. Keep:  (1) Advocacy, Equity and Human Rights and (2)Finance and Audit, and (3)

Governance and Policy.

Change: Sponsorship from a committee to a working group (function would be to help resolve any issues). 


Board Members would like to support more in decision making, opportunity to engage and add professional opinion and input.


Membership Applications Working Group: Moka, leZlie, Samantha

Orientation Materials Working Group Board: Sam, Maher

Grant: will revisit this convo on Aug 30th Board meeting.

Motion: To request that staff secure GetQuorum as the platform for the September 2022 Special General Meeting (Approved)..

Mover: Moka Dawkins

Seconder: Yuri Hernandez

Membership Approvals

Chair/Executive Director


Membership to be done via email.


Next meeting Aug 30th: Board Governance 101 training from Fasken. Pickup conversation around historical issues.

 

In Camera Session 

Board Members

Motion: To move in

camera (Approved). 

  • Mover: Yuri Hernandez
  • Seconder: Moka Dawkins

Motion: To move out of in camera session (included in In Camera minutes).

Adjournment

 

Motion: To adjourn the meeting (Approved). 

  • Mover:  Deidre ‘D-Lishus’ Walton
  • Seconder:Samantha Fraser

Date

Tuesday, September 30, 2022

Time

6:00 – 8:00 pm EST

Location

Online

Attendance

Board: Courage, Moka Dawkins, leZlie Lee Kam, Deidre ‘D-Lishus’ Walton, D!XON

Staff: Sherwin Modeste, Nipuni Dhanawardana

Regrets

Samantha Fraser, Grant Gonzales, Jad Jaber, Yuri Hernandez, Maher Sinno

ASL Interpretation

David Kolenda

 

 

Agenda Item 

Summary/Notes

Motions/Action Items

Land Acknowledgement

Chair delivered the land acknowledgement recognizing traditional Indigenous land.

leZlie lee kam

Approval of Minutes 

Approval of Minutes

Motion: To approve the minutes deferred to when we do have quorum.

Declaration of Conflict of Interest

Chair requested any Board Director to declare a conflict of interest. This is a standing item for accountability.

Discussed

Board Decision Tracker 

For information. Required an update, after which the Board will be asked to ratify. 

Discussed

Board Meeting Principles and Expectations

For reference. 

Please follow prompt from Chair when speaking, especially for ASL interpreters

Discussed

Executive Director Report 

Executive Director


ED Report was sent out.

In addition to what’s in the report:

Queen West Art Crawl: September 24, 2022

Nuit Blanche: Oct 1st and 2nd

  • there is a piece that is happening at the office.

Pumpkin carving and handing out pumpkins. 1 in the East and 1 in the West. Handing out for different parts: October 22nd and October 23rd. Opportunity to profile organization outside the downtown, also it’s part of family and youth programming.


In addition to pumpkin marking, make a donation of nonperishable food item in queer communities.

Discussed

 

Treasurer Report

Treasurer


Financial Committee: bi-weekly. Going to start meeting weekly during audit.


Finance Manager is doing great with making sure books are up to date.


As of right now, we have an operational surplus coming out of 2021/2022 season. Right now organization is financially healthy.

Finance Manager is great; confident in their skill set.


Formal training for new treasurer will begin next week for approving payments etc.

Discussed

Board Governance 101 Training

Sophia MacRae training from Fasken


Topics of Governance Training include: Role of Individual Directors, Powers of the Directors, Pride Toronto Board of Director Agreement, Role of Officers, Role of Staff, Directors and Delegation of Powers, Directors’ Duties, Conflicts of Interest, Role of Members


Composition of Board governance: Board matrix: different skill types, so different aspects of governance and community are represented.


Training to be sent to Board Members, and Google document. will be set up for Board to ask any questions to Fasken.

Discussed

In Camera Session 

No in-camera session

Discussed

Other Business / Extra Time 

Board Recruitment Committee: leZlie, Moka, D!XON, D-lishus.

  • Need to have more discussions on recruitment.

Discussed

Adjournment

Chair

End of Meeting

Date

Tuesday, October 18, 2022

Time

6:00 pm – 8:30 pm EST

Location

Online

Attendance

Board: Courage, Samantha Fraser, leZlie lee kam, Deidre ‘D-Lishus’ Walton, D!XON, Yuri Hernandez, Maher Sinno


Staff: Sherwin Modeste, Nipuni Dhanawardana

Regrets

Moka Dawkins, Grant Gonzales, Jad Jaber

ASL Interpretation

Mel Cyr

 

 

Agenda Item 

Summary/Notes

Motions/Action Items

Land Acknowledgement

Chair delivered the land acknowledgement recognizing traditional Indigenous land.

Deidre ‘D-lishus’ Walton

Declaration of Conflict of Interest

Chair requested any Board Director to declare a conflict of interest. This is a standing item for accountability.

Discussed

Board Decision Tracker 

For information. Required an update, after which the Board will be asked to ratify. 

Discussed

Board Meeting Principles and Expectations

For reference. 

Please follow prompt from Chair when speaking, especially for ASL interpreters

 

Executive Director Report 

Executive Director

Major construction that was slated for Yonge St will not be happening; so Festival footprint for 2023 year is not changing.

Wellesley Parking lot stage will be available as well for 2023.

Looking at pros and cons of Nathan Phillip Square and Yonge-Dundas Square as main stage.


Movements in HR:

Programming and Operations Coordinator roles to be posted.


Community outreach – targeted outreach to bring different people to community specific events.


Team is currently looking at finalizing the sponsorship deck.


Team is also promoting year round activities for volunteers – to keep them engaged and involved throughout the year.


Pride Toronto lunch and learns cover different topic areas (like 2SLGBTQ+ history). There is room to grow and add more topics.

It is doable to have board member involvement with the lunch and learns.

leZlie: more in depth discussion about it. Lunch and learns are important for engaging the corporate world; having Board Members be present can have greater impact.


Pride Toronto was the honoured group that led off Atlanta Pride this year. This was a huge honour for us. Traction was amazing – a lot of Parade attendees were interacting with Pride Toronto team.

D!XON: need to build process for Board Members attending other Prides as well. 


Senior leadership team, along with Sam and leZlie attended 2Spirit Toronto meeting. It was very productive and they were receptive. It is a good start as we continue to move forward with reconciliation.


 

Treasurer Report

Deidre ‘D-lishus’ Walton


External audit: ongoing Building Communities through Arts and Heritage (BCAH).

Internal audit: ongoing with new auditors Crowe Soberman LLP.

Travel policy was a recommendation so that there could be set guidelines in place when people are doing business on behalf of Pride Toronto.

A piece that keeps coming up is Board Member and staff compensation for work that they do as artists and as performers for Pride Toronto. Looking into this will be a priority.

 

Approval of Agenda

Approving the Order of Business: 

Motion: To approve the agenda (Approved). 

Mover: leZlie lee kam

Seconder: Samantha Fraser

Approval of Minutes 

Approval of Minutes

Motion: To approve the amended August 2, 2022 minutes (Approved).

Mover: Samantha Fraser

Seconder: Yuri Hernandez


Motion: To approve the September 20, 2022 minutes (Approved).

Mover: Samantha Fraser

Seconder: leZlie lee kam

Policy Approval

  • Travel Policy
  • Grant Policy

Travel Policy

Samantha amendments:

  • Should be more specific for rental vehicles, for example economy rather than luxury, unless a larger vehicle is required.
  • Same for traveling via train,  room sizing (standard room with no additional features) – be more specific.

Grant Policy discussed.

Motion: To approve the Travel Policy (with Samantha’s amendments) and Grant Policy (Approved).

Mover: Samantha Fraser

Seconder: Yuri Hernandez

Abstain: leZlie – because they are out of town and not able to access the policies on their device.

Membership Approvals

Chair/Executive Director


leZlie: Membership approval process needs to be developed.

Samantha: can supporting with social media checklist. 


Deferring Membership vote to online.

Discussed

AGM Planning:

  • Board Recruitment Approval
  • Number of positions available
  • Special Qualifications
  • Set the date for AGM/ in person-virtual
  • Information Session? (Oct 28)
  • Establish Interview Committee

Currently we have two vacancies.

Samantha: do we need full Board?

  • Sherwin: Minimum is 7 Members, Maximum is 12 Members

Yuri: need to look at group of people as a whole, and cover demographics as best as possible.

leZlie: need to talk about Board responsibility: ie. reading, emails. Need Board to be able to fully commit.

Dlishus: need to get moving on process of recruitment, so that interviews can be done.

leZlie: has read the recruitment posting; need to have 2Spirit representation, people with visible disabilities but be mindful of how we’re recruiting. Meeting with 2spirit toronto was very clear.

Dlishus: for those who went to the 2Spirit meeting, please provide debrief so rest of the Board could support.

Courage: If we could have the recruitment postings in ASL and SLQ format, that would be great.

Sherwin: can work with 2Spirit Toronto to help us spread the word. Can look into ASL format. If there are any tweaks to recruitment posting, please send by end of day tomorrow,. 

Courage: will offer recommendations of deaf interpreters for posting.


Two current Board Members whose terms are ending; they will need to fill out an application form if they are running again.


Date of AGM

Recommendation tentative date: Wednesday, Jan 26, or Thursday, Jan 27 – put a hold on both days.

In-person vs. virtual?: 

  • If in person, need to look at masks, contrat tracing, proof of vaccination.

Information session about Board Recruitment. 

We have a video recording from last year with FAQs, we can post that with the transcript for people who are interested in learning more about being on the Board before applying.

Discussed

Strategic Planning 

Sherwin

Need to restart strategic planning process. We have existing information and data from when we had the strategic planning initiative. Sherwin has contact who can review data and pick up from where things were left off last year.

Dlishus: how recent is data?

  • Sherwin: less than a year old.

Sherwin will follow up with more information.

 

Staff/Board Retreat

Please let us know 3 days in advance if you are unable to make it.

The retreat is an opportunity for dialogue, suggestions, connection amongst staff and Board.

Friday evening into Saturday will be Board and staff.

Sunday: planning and team building for just the Board.

D’lishus: If Board Members want to reaffirm commitment to their role, it should be done separately outside of the retreat. Perhaps Co-Chairs could check in with Board Members on that.

Sherwin: if people have ideas for Sunday, please send through.

 

Other Business / Extra Time

Sherwin:

Yesterday, Courage, myself and Nipuni met to connect on how to better support Courage in ASL interpretation.

Courage was helpful in suggesting names and contacts of interpreters.

It is a particularly busy time  for ASL interpreters at the moment.


Samantha: Ask Board and staff for accommodations for retreat. 

Sherwin: we will send something out to collect this information.


Sherwin:
During Global Black Pride, an individual who came to attend the conference returned home medical bills.

We donated $1000 from staff advocacy funds. Is the Board willing to donate $500 as well?

No objections from Board.


Sherwin:

Some of our staff have not had time to take vacation because of their responsibilities (ie. having to be available to support audit). Asking Board: As a one time exception this year, can we payout the remaining vacation for staff who have not used it, which would total $15k-$17K?

D’lishus: This was brought to my attention as Treasurer and the conversation happened with the Finance Manager as well.

Sam, Courage, leZlie: Yes, all in agreement that this needs to be done. For peoples’ self care and as an organization it’s good not to carry over a lot of vacation days into the new year as well.

 

In Camera Session 

Board Members and Executive Director

Motion: To move in

camera (Approved). 

  • Mover: leZlie lee kam
  • Seconder: Samantha Fraser

Motion: To move out of in camera session (included in In Camera minutes).

Adjournment

Board Members

Motion: To adjourn the meeting (Approved). 

  • Mover:  Samantha Fraser
  • Seconder: Courage

Date

Tuesday, November 15, 2022

Time

6:00 pm – 8:30 pm EST

Location

Online

Attendance

Board: Samantha Fraser, leZlie lee kam, Maher Sinno, Moka Dawkins,  Grant Gonzales, 

Yuri Hernandez, Courage

Staff: Sherwin Modeste, Nipuni Dhanawardana

Regrets

Deidre ‘D-Lishus’ Walton, D!XON, Jad Jaber

ASL Interpretation

Taedra Harris

 

 

Agenda Item 

Summary/Notes

Motions/Action Items

Land Acknowledgement

Chair delivered the land acknowledgement recognizing traditional Indigenous land.


Samantha: to connect with Two-Spirit organization about a bursary.

Moka: spreading awareness throughout academic organizations and Fueling the Fire event on trans rights, trans liberation and Trans Remembrance Day.

leZlie: September went to the Serpent River Pride celebrations. Approaching Pride Toronto, Elder Blu and 2Spirited People of the 1st Nations about a gathering for indigenous grandmothers in Toronto. 

Grant Gonzales

ED Report

Operations

Full swing for 2023 planning: booking vehicles – because the quantity of operational supplies/vendors are lower since before the pandemic.


HR: New Community Engagement Manager and new Marketing Manager started this week.

Hiring rest of Ops and Program team is the current priority.


Community Engagement – a lot is happening:

International Impact Fund is out now.

Call out for people to join advisory groups will be going out soon.


Continue to work with Fierta Canada to work with other Prides in Ontario. We have been sharing resources, and information. Need to make sure reserves are involved as well in this process.

Action Item: Sherwin to connect with leZlie for contacts.


Sponsorship: aligning our sponsorship needs with our assets.

Finalizing application for TD; we’re asking for more this year because we are losing space in the village, so we will need to move out to other venues which means additional costs. The ask will be for an increase over 3 years.


Programming: looking at working with Just for Laughs for potential comedians.

Samantha: looking at other mediums of art to incorporate into the Festival and throughout the year, including  actors, comedians. 


Maher: did the fund the board set aside last year for Palestinian LGBTQ+ and feminist organization go through?

Sherwin: Yes, it went through. 


Volunteer Training

leZlie: important component of the training will be how we work with Rainbow Seniors.

Sherwin: yes, Training Manager will reach out so we can enhance the intergenerational piece of training.


Strategic Planning:

New consultant going to review current/historical data and get back to us.


Request for three Board Members to attend Fierte Canada Conference in Kelowna, BC on March 8, 9, 10, 2023.

Grant, Sam, Yuri volunteered.


Also request for three Board Member to attend the InterPride Conference in late October 2023; Yuri volunteered.


San Diego Pride 2023 in July: Moka and Grant volunteer.

 

Approval of Agenda

Approving the Order of Business: 

Motion: To approve the agenda (Approved). 

Mover: Samantha Fraser

Seconder: Moka Dawkins



Approval of Minutes

Approval of Minutes

Motion: To approve the agenda (Approved). 

Mover: leZlie lee kam

Seconder: Samantha Fraser

Declaration of Conflict of Interest

Chair requested any Board Director to declare a conflict of interest. This is a standing item for accountability.

Discussed

Board Decision Tracker 

For information. Requires an update, after which the Board will be asked to ratify. 

Discussed

Board Meeting Principles and Expectations

For reference. 

Please follow prompt from Chair when speaking, especially for ASL interpreters

Discussed

Executive Director Report Continued 

Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund (OCAF) Grant review.


leZlie went through a review of Grant – just recommended some tweaking.

Sam and leZlie have grant writing experience; so will take a lead on grant application reviews but all Board Members are to review and be aware of the grants that we are applying to.


leZlie: Thank you to the Grants team for their work on the OCAF grant.


Received information on Celebrate Canada Grant; tight deadline. Sherwin is going to look at it and decide by the end of day tomorrow.


Sherwin to connect with Courage on Accessibility grant.


Board Members to volunteer on Honoured Positions: Sam, Moka, Yuri.


Training and Volunteer: Pride Toronto will be pausing Training that is not related to sponsorship, vendors and volunteers. No longer offering training outside of that group. Going to put an call out for trainers in the new year. Formal call out in January. Looking at having a roster of trainers.

leZlie: Who is vetting trainers?

Sherwin: we will need a committee of board and staff.

leZlie and Moka volunteered to be on this committee.

Motion: To approve Pride Toronto’s application to the Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund (OCAF) grant.

Mover: leZlie lee kam.

Seconder: Samantha Fraser.

 

Treasurer Report

Met with our auditors today for the annual audit that is being conducted. They are very thankful to the Pride Toronto team for answering all the questions. Since they are a new auditor, they are asking for a lot of information and details. They have additional questions they will reach out to the Board for.

Government audit is still underway. 

Sherwin Modeste

Membership Approvals

Yuri to recirculate Membership list from last meeting, with a deadline to approve.


Grant: new Membership package for this time. 

To be deferred to online (Yuri to circulate

Membership Application Committee (leZlie,Moka, Sam) to start work on a Membership application review process.

Discussed

AGM Planning



Recruitment Committee Members: leZlie, Moka, Grant, D!XON, Dlishus, and Sherwin.


Date: leaning towards Thursday, Jan 26 for online AGM.

Discussion of in-person (how to keep individuals attending safe vs. Public Health guidelines) vs. virtual (because of the time of year (winter), middle of flu season, potential spike in Covid-19 cases).

Motion: To hold the Annual General Meeting virtually (Approved). 

Mover: Samantha Fraser

Seconder: Moka Dawkins 

Strategic Planning

Already covered during the ED Report, but want to mention that we’re hoping to have the consultant join the Board Meeting in December.

Sherwin Modeste

Staff/Board retreat

Grant: Sherwin had circulated presentations that facilitators had done. 

As a best practice, set aside time for predetermined topics and welcoming ideas on topics to discuss (anything from governance, to community specific topics).

Would be good to develop a Board calendar for standard items. like approving the budget at the beginning of July.


How the Board can provide expertise: staff can provide updates and the board can give feedback. Can build this into a Board calendar as well. 

Sherwin Modeste

Other Business / Extra Time

None mentioned.

 

In Camera Session 

Board Members and Executive Director

Motion: To move in

camera (Approved). 

  • Mover: leZlie lee kam
  • Seconder: Samantha Fraser

Motion: To move out of in camera session (included in In Camera minutes).

Adjournment

Board Members

Motion: To adjourn the meeting (Approved). 

  • Mover: Moka Dawkins  
  • Seconder: Samantha Fraser



Date

Tuesday, December 20, 2022

Time

6:00 pm – 9:30 pm EST

Location

Online

Attendance

Board: Samantha Fraser, leZlie lee kam, Moka Dawkins,  Grant Gonzales, 

Courage, Deidre ‘D-Lishus’ Walton, D!XON, Jad Jaber , Maher Sinno, 

Staff: Sherwin Modeste, Nipuni Dhanawardana

Regrets

Yuri Hernandez

ASL Interpretation

Cindy Muskat and Aneesa Mustafa

 

 

Agenda Item 

Summary/Notes

Motions/Action Items

Land Acknowledgement

Chair delivered the land acknowledgement recognizing traditional Indigenous land.


Personal reflections from Executive Director, Sherwin. Working on policy that Two-Spirit representative will always be at the front of the Parade 

Grant Gonzales

Approval of Agenda

Approving the Order of Business: 

Motion: To approve the agenda (Approved). 

Mover: Samantha Fraser 

Seconder: Deidre ‘D-lishus’ Walton



Approval of Minutes

Approval of Minutes

Motion: To approve the agenda (Approved). 

Mover: Samantha Fraser

Seconder: leZlie lee kam

Declaration of Conflict of Interest

Chair requested any Board Director to declare a conflict of interest. This is a standing item for accountability.

Discussed

Board Decision Tracker 

For information. Requires an update, after which the Board will be asked to ratify. 

Discussed

Executive Director Report 

Executive Director Update


Operations

Nathan Phillips Square is the mainstage for 2023 (was one of our stages in 2022).

Human Resources: multiple postings are out right now as we bring in more staff to prepare for the Festival.

Grant applications were introduced to the Board via email, but we would want a formal motion to approve the applications to the grant.

Community engagement: work is continuing. Honoured Positions applications and International Impact Fund applications are out.

Community Connect planning  is underway.

Town Hall with not for profit partners to be held in January. 

Headliners: cost of artists has gone up (as many other Prides and Festivals are noticing).


leZlie: what is the accessibility and safety plan for NPS?

Sherwin: we’re initiating a meeting with all Prides to discuss safety at Festivals. Also have requested a meeting with Minister of Public Safety: Hon. Marco Mendocino about the need for increased safety measures for our communities.

 

Honoured Positions Committee consists of: three Members of Board, two staff,  three community members.


International Impact Fund: work with Dignity Initiative and others for targeted outreach. This is a pilot project.


leZlie inquiry on Two-Spirit Impact Fund. 

Sherwin: Board would have to approve because this would be new funding.


Tiktok is a social media tool that is very popular amongst our communities. Since this is a potential new sponsor, we are vetting them through the process that all potential sponsors go through to see if it is a right fit.


leZlie inquiry on Programming; who would be major cultural partner? 

Sherwin: This would be cultural organizations like tiff, ROM, Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

leZlie: Any cultural partners we work with should receive sensitivity training and 2SLGBTQ+ 101 training to ensure that they are interacting with individuals in our community respectfully.

Sherwin: yes, feedback from events are all being taken and this is an ongoing conversation.


leZlie: thank you for the excellent article in the Wall Street Journal. 

Sherwin: they are doing all of our US marketing for us through a Canadian company (Global heroes). The partnership is for a series of articles.

Motion: To approve Pride Toronto’s application to the following  six grants: Canadian Heritage (Celebrate Canada), McConnell Family Foundation (Stage 1 grant), Canadian Heritage (Support for Interpretation and Translation), Canadian Heritage (Community Support, Multiculturalism and Anti-Racism Initiatives), Canadian Race Relations Foundations (National Anti-Racism Fund- Festival Weekend), Canadian Race Relations Foundations (National Anti-Racism Fund- Til Island Party) (Approved).

Mover: leZlie lee kam

Seconder:  Moka Dawkins

 

Treasurer Report

Treasurer Update


Changes to budget affecting bottom line.

Increase cost in budget line: accessibility, stage and production, security, HR.


Some costs can be recouped by increasing some revenues through small increases for Parade and StreetFair participation for businesses, political parties specifically. This will help to offset some of the budget changes.


Production and security budget increasing.

Accessibility budget increasing both for Festival weekend and for the Board (to have appropriate ASL for Board Meetings and Board events).


Administration: coming out of pandemic, our Festival insurance has gone up by over $200K. We cannot have a Festival without Festival Insurance. Increase in cost is that there is a greater perception of risks for festivals post-pandemic. This is happening across the Board and other Prides are facing this as well.


HR costs: adding more into the budget for staff meals during the Festival, since they are working very long hours. 

Development funds for 2S artist (for Two-Spirit Toronto), funds for additional Indigenous headliner, and Indigenous programming


Other changes include an increase for smaller Prides, supporting International Prides and Indigenous Prides.


How we’re meeting additional costs: tapping into our organizational surplus. 

Moving forward: staff team will need to plan how to offset these costs long term.


21-22 fiscal year: we’re still waiting for funds to come in from some sponsors.


Internal audit: ongoing. Audits for specific grants will begin in the New Year. 

Government audit: still ongoing. No timeline has been provided


Maher: inquiry of Administration and insurance costs.


Moka: note about increase in security for Parade, security at Blocko. Importance of having the right security at the right places, so they are deployed appropriately.

D!XON: echoes sentiment that safety is paramount. 

leZlie: security on footprint. Importance of providing a short training video so security knows how to interact with Festival participants.

Sherwin: we use five different security companies for Festival Weekend. There are over 400 security personnel on the footprint. There is a thorough RFP process used to select security companies we work with. During pandemic, lot of groups have noted that they have lost staff (security guards). All security guard supervisors are required to go through training with us. Feedback of any security incidents are taken very seriously. We have debriefs with all security companies and provide them with feedback.

Action item: Sherwin – commitment to safety plan so the Board knows how security is deployed.

Treasurer




































Motion: To approve the new, adjusted budget for 2022-2023 (Approved).

Mover: Deidre ‘D-lishus’ Walton

Seconder: Samantha Fraser

AGM/Board Recruitment 

  • GetQuorum
  • AGM/SGM MInutes (For Review) 
  • Recommended Director Slate 
  • Select AGM Chair and  Q&A Panelists
  • Board Director Q&A (Jan 19)

Co-Chair Update


GetQuorum – we have a good working relationship with them. They understand the nuances and needs of our specific meetings.


AGM/SGM Minutes from 2022. 

Action item: Nipuni to send to the Board after the meeting. Board to take a look and edit as needed. Deadline for January 2, 2023 at noon for Board to provide feedback.


AGM Chair

No Board Members came forward to chair AGM. Co-Chair Grant nominated themselves to chair the AGM.


Q&A Panelists volunteers:

Samantha, Maher (second half), Courage


Samantha: always a discussion of the length of time of AGM. Need to consider how to make ourselves available to answer Members’ questions.


Moka: is training on ASL communication with Toronto Sign Language Interpretation Services still happening. 

Sherwin: this will be after the new Board is formed in the new year.


Grant led discussion on new voting procedure for the AGM



Sam and Jad offline for Board Director Slate. 


leZlie: the Board Recruitment Committee has undergone a thorough process of reviewing applications and interviewing candidates. D-lishus: Board Recruitment Committee recommends following four candidates for the Board slate: Samantha Fraser, 

Nirmalan Vijeyakumar, Osmel Maynes, Troy Dunn


The new candidates have high level/ calibre or experience and expertise such as, board governance experience. They are ready to work, have past Pride experience, have community and governance experience, and add various types of diversity and representation (age, ethnic background etc.) to the Board.   


Maher: seeing resumes ahead of time of the Board slate would be beneficial to voting on them.


Action: Board recruitment committee to send resumes of the candidates to Board Members.

 

Motion: To hold the Annual General Meeting virtually on GetQuorum (Approved). 

Mover: leZlie lee kam

Seconder: Samantha Fraser








Motion: To approve Grant as the chair for the upcoming 2022 AGM to be held in January 2023 (Approved).

Mover: lezlie lee kam

Seconder: Samantha Fraser














Motion: To approve the new voting procedure when voting on the new Board candidates at the upcoming AGM.

Mover: Samantha Fraser

Seconder: Deidre ‘D-lishus’ Walton
















Motion: To approve the Board Recruitment Committee’s Board of Directors slate (Approved).

Mover: lezlie lee kam

Seconder: Deidre ‘D-lishus’ Walton

Opposed: D!XON

Abstain: Maher Sinno

Membership Approval

  • Director Slate Appointments 
  • 2-Year Term Renewal 

Co-Chair Update


Grant: November Membership list – still being circulated via email; ask for Board Members to approve as soon as possible.


New December Member list will also be circulated via email; please be efficient in reviewing by Jan 3rd, 2023.


Maher: The anti-racism question of the application form should be updated to include anti-Arab racism & Islamophobia mentioned in parenthesis alongside the other examples, as a part of the question.


Jad: when asking sensitive questions, we can maintain a positive tone.


Sam: can look into optional/voluntary Membership Questionnaire, so we can better understand demographics of our Membership.


leZlie, Sam, Moka are on the Membership Committee. Request for other Board Members to bring recommendations to them as the look at reviewing the application form.

Discussed

Board Meeting Principles and Expectations

For reference. 

Please follow prompt from Chair when speaking, especially for ASL interpreters


Grant – we need as much as floor attendance as possible at Board Meetings.


leZlie: we as Board Members  must hold each other accountable. Check emails from Pride Toronto on a regular basis (once a day) and in a timely manner). This helps to enable staff to do their jobs; so they can action items once we approve or provide feedback.

Whatsapp group for Board is meant for informal communication only. Board attendance at meetings is crucial.


Grant: if Board Members are going to be late or can’t attend, please advise a few days advance. Emergencies happen of course, but shouldn’t be the norm to notify a few minutes before a scheduled Board Meeting, which are in our calendars already.


Jad: framework of empathy is beyond level of accountability.  Whatsapp group is good to be able to connect with each other on a human level. At our meetings, we can be emotionally charged and the work is heavy/emotional labour. Individual conversations are important.


Maher: echo ideas of compassion that are needed. Need to be comfortable in balance of how we talk to each other and how we call each other in.

Discussed































Motion: To extend this Board Meeting to 9:30pm (Approved).

Mover: Deidre ‘D-lishus’ Walton

Seconder: Moka Dawkins

Other Business / Extra Time

None mentioned.

Co-Chair

In Camera Session 

Board Members and Executive Director

Motion: To move in

camera (Approved). 

  • Mover: Moka Dawkins
  • Seconder: Samantha Fraser

Motion: To move out of in camera session (included in In Camera minutes).

Adjournment

Board Members

Motion: To adjourn the meeting (Approved). 

  • Mover: Deidre ‘D-lishus’ Walton
  • Seconder: Moka Dawkins



Board Meeting Minutes 2021

Date: January 6th 2021
Time: 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Location: Online/teleconference
Attendance:
Board Members: Ande Clumpus, Brian De Matos, Sheldon Dixon, Samantha Fraser, Grant Gonzales, David Lewis, Christin Milloy, Maher Sinno.
Staff: Sherwin Modeste, Bobby MacPherson (staff portion only), Dami Okunade (bookkeeper)
External: Ed Scheck (auditor), Kevin Thomas (auditor)
Regrets/Absent: Jad Jaber



Agenda Item 

Notes

Motions/Action Items

Approval of Agenda

Approving the Order of Business: Agenda  

Approved 

Declaration of Conflict of Interest 

Interim Board members standing for election declared a conflict with respect to the Selection Committee’s Board slate recommendations.

Declared

AGM Agenda Review

Overview of AGM agenda provided, including:

  • Grant will serve as AGM Chair and Samantha as the alternate (for the Board election portion of the meeting). They will  participate in the GetQuorum training. 
  • Two members will be asked to serve as Scrutineers for any votes (open call). 
  • Brian/Bobby to finalize previous AGM minutes. 
  • Key messages document to be developed.
  • The AGM will not be recorded. 

Received

Annual Report

The first draft will be finalized on January 7th and shared with the board.

Received 

Memberships

Membership Items:

  1. New Membership Approved 
  2. Member request for renewal voucher approved. Staff to provide new code.    

Approved

Audited Financial Statements

Pride Toronto’s auditor provided a line-by-line overview of the financial statements and answered Board questions. 

Audited Financial Statements were accepted by the Board. 

Approved

Moved: Ande

Seconded: Christin 

Board Only Meeting

Selection Committee Report

1. Michael Erickson Resignation

Resignation letter was received. Michael’s requests for information will be addressed offline. 

2. Selection Committee Recommendations

The Committee interviewed 16 people over two days and have selected Tika Simone and Lezlie Lee Kam.

The recommended Board slate is:

  • Sheldon Dixon
  • Grant Gonzales
  • Yuri Hernandez
  • Lezlie Lee Kam
  • David Lewis 
  • Tika Simone
  • Maher Sinno

The Committee noted that candidates not selected will still be invited to participate in other ways (e.g. committee work). 

3. Voting Process

If Board slate only, a two-step process – 

  • Motion to approve the Board slate recommendations (as a whole)
  • If the initial motion fails, the vote will proceed to yes/no voting for each individual. Winning candidates must receive at least 50% yes votes. 

If Board slate and additional candidates – 

Members may vote for up to 7 candidates

4. Candidate Presentation and Q&A

All candidates will be provided two minutes to make remarks (Chair to record time). Q&A to follow – all candidates will respond to each question. 

5. Board Slate Package (for formal notice)

Candidates will be asked to provide a headshot and 150-word biography. 

Approved (Selection Committee Recommendations)

Moved: Sam

Seconded: Ande

 

Yes: 3 (Ande, Sam, Christin)

No: 0

Abstain: 5 (Sheldon, Grant, Yuri, David, Maher)

 

Approved (Voting Process) 

Motions

By-Law Amendments

  • A revision was made to the proposed by-laws amendments with respect to membership approvals within 30 days of a Membership Meeting. 
  • The amendment clarifies that membership applications received within 30 days will not be approved (subject to notice being given). 

Member Proposal

  • Yuri has communicated in good faith with the member to address concerns. The member has expressed that Pride Toronto is addressing concerns.
  • Yuri has followed up noting that unless there are any further issues, the proposal will not be included as an AGM item. The member has not communicated further, and Yuri will attempt to call the member to close the loop

Approved (By-Law Amendments)

Formal AGM Notice

List of items to be included in the formal AGM notice provided as an FYI. 

For Information

Other (Board Management)

The Board discussed the importance of check-ins with each other for mental health purposes. 

The Board discussed improvements to ensure all Board members have the opportunity for their voice to be heard (e.g. sticking to a speakers list only). 

For Information

Next Meeting  

Next meeting is January 26. Board Officers will be elected at this meeting.

Received

Date: January 26th 2021
Time: 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Location: Online/teleconference
Attendance:
Board Members: Ande Clumpus, Brian De Matos, Sheldon Dixon, Samantha Fraser, Grant Gonzales, David Lewis, Christin Milloy, Maher Sinno.Jad Jaber, TiKA Simone, LeZlie Lee kam
Staff: Sherwin Modeste, Bobby MacPherson, Amber Moyle (staff portion only)
Regrets/Absent: 



Agenda Item 

Notes

Motions/Action Items

Approval of Agenda

Approving the Order of Business: Agenda  

Approved 

Approval of Minutes

December, 15th 2020 & January 6, 2021

Approved 

Reaffirming Decisions 

Board Motions, Resolutions and Decisions between Board Meetings

Adopted 

Roundtable Introductions

We all introduced ourselves and welcomed new board members to the team. 

Completed 

AGM Debrief 

We are all debriefing the AGM, Staff and Board. Some members have reached out. WE have discussed better practices on running online AGMs. 

Completed

Treasurer’s Update and Expense Policy

Treasure has updated the board on finances. Item has been deffered. 

Action Item: 

  • Board Members review expense policy. 

Board and Senior Leadership Training (discussion)

Item has been deffered. 

Deferred 

WFH Policy and Membership Approval

 

Deferred 

Budget quick review

We reviewed the draft budget and will vote to approve it next meeting. 

Deferred 

Strategic Planning

We have reviewed and discussed what would work best regarding development. Suggested making a short term strat plan and longer term strategy plan. 

Action Item: 

  • Contact Grant If you would like to be included in the Strat planning committee.

9 Committees Outreach

 

Deferred 

Board Only Meeting

Accessibility and Compensation

Items have been discussed and conversations will continue. 

To be continued

Board Officer Elections

 

Deferred 

Signing Authorities

 

Deferred 

Next Meeting  

February 9th. 

Adopted 

Date: February 9th 2021
Time: 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Location: Online/teleconference
Attendance:
Board Members: Ande Clumpus, Brian De Matos, Sheldon Dixon, Samantha Fraser, Grant Gonzales, David Lewis, Christin Milloy, Maher Sinno.Jad Jaber, TiKA Simone
Staff: Sherwin Modeste
Regrets/Absent: LeZlie Lee kam 



Agenda Item 

Notes

Motions/Action Items

Approval of Agenda

Approving the Order of Business: Agenda  

Approved 

Approval of Minutes

Board Minutes: January 26, 2021

Approved 

AGM Debrief 

Board and Staff have debriefed on the AGM, better practices for our first online AGM. 

We have left over questions from the AGM and we are looking for ways to engage to answer it. 

Action Item: 

  • We will be receiving a report from Quorum and will be reviewing the questions.

ED Report 

Sherwin has sent us an ED report and we are reviewing it. 

Received 

Board Training (discussion) 

The board is having onboard training. We will be having this on February 27th. The time is 2 to 6 pm. Orientation for new board members 2-3pm. 

Action Item: 

  • New board members to review the orientation packages. 

TeamBuilding/Orientation

We are planning a team building meeting, therefore we can work better with each other and focus on anti-oppression approaches to decision making.  

Action item: 

  • Brian will create a doodle for a date to have this after board training. 
  • Contact TiKa if you like to be part of the organising. 

Membership Approval

The Board has approved this membership list. 19 new members. (2 year membership). 

Approved

Treasurer’s Update, and Board Technology 

Candidates for the finance position have been interviewed and a candidate has been hired. 

Accessibility issues have come up regarding technology. 

Action Item: 

  • Sherwin will look into accessibility needs and how Pride can accommodate that. 

Expense Policy Approval

The board has approved the expense policy. 

Approved 

2021 Budget Approval 

The board has reviewed the budget and has been approved. 

Motion: To approve the budget for 2020/2021. 

Vote: Unanimous 

Motion Approved 

9 Committees/Consult Outreach

The Board had a conversation regarding consultation and the need for better outreach. 

Completed 

Board Only Meeting

Board Officer Elections


The elections on Co-chair, we have elected Yuri and Grant to be our new Co-chairs. 

Results: 

  • Co-Chairs: Yuri and Grant have won the elections. 

Signing Authorities

Motion: To make Yurien Matamoros Hernandez (Co-chair), Grant Gonzales (Co-Chair), Andrew Clumpus (Treasure), Sherwin Modeste, Bobby MacPherson have signing authority for Pride Toronto. 

Mover: Dave 

Seconder: Maher 

Vote: Motion has passed. 

Motion: To make Yurien Matamoros Hernandez (Co-chair), Grant Gonzales (Co-Chair), Andrew Clumpus (Treasure), Sherwin Modeste, Bobby MacPherson have signing authority for Pride Toronto. 

Mover: Dave 

Seconder: Maher 

Vote: Motion has passed. 

Next Meeting  

February 23rd 2021  

Adopted 

Date: February 23rd 2021
Time: 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Location: Online/teleconference
Attendance:
Board Members: Ande Clumpus, Brian De Matos, Sheldon Dixon, Samantha Fraser, Grant Gonzales, David Lewis, Christin Milloy, Maher Sinno. Jad Jaber, 
Staff: Sherwin Modeste, Bobby MacPherson, Amber Moyle (Staff Portion)
Regrets/Absent: LeZlie Lee kam, TiKA Simone 



Agenda Item 

Notes

Motions/Action Items

Approval of Agenda

Approving the Order of Business: Agenda  

Motion to approve the agenda. 

Mover: Dave 

Seconder: Maher

Motion: Approved

Approval of Minutes

Board Minutes: February, 9th 2020. 

Motion to approve the minutes. 

Mover: Dave 

Seconder: Maher

Motion: Approved

Executive Director Report

Board members have reviewed and received the report. 

Received 

Policy Approvals

  • Human Resources Policies (9)
  • Finance Policies (6)
  • Sponsorship Policy 

HR Policies: A edit will be made to include changing to add stipend upon availability regarding funding for student interns. 

There will be an edit to the finance policy, Any expenditures that surpass above the total approved budget that enters a deficit. will be reported to the Finance Committee and Board of Directors. 

Motion: Approving Sponsorship Policy, 

Mover: Ande 

Seconder: David 

Motion: Passed 

Motion: Approving Human Resource Policy  

Moved: LeZlie 

Seconder: David

Motion: Passed 

Motion: Approving Finance Policies 

Mover: Dave

Seconder: Andy 

Motion: Passed 

Board Governance

  • Co-Chair Elections (Discussion) 
  • Board Meetings Expectations
  • Committee Restructure

We discussed best process on electing co-chairs and possibly a better process. 

 

Board Meetings Expectations: We are discussing 

ways we can conduct ourselves. 

 

Committee restructure we are restructuring 

Motion: To approve the committee restructure. 

Mover: Maher

Seconder: LeZlie 

Motion Approved

Drop the Charges Against Pride Defenders Campaign (see email)

We have received a request from Pride Defender’s Upcoming Trial for support. The board has agreed to support this. 

Info: In 2019 Pride was attacked by alt-right movements and community grassroots members organised to defend pride. 

Motion: Approved the statement and promote it and 500$

Motioner: Christin 

Seconder: Sam

Motion: Passed

Action Item: 

  • Sherwin will put that out on Social Media. 
  • Grant: will respond to the email of Pride Defenders. 

Elected Officials Discussion 

Sherwin is bringing up a discussion strategically regarding election officials to Pride.  

TBC 

Board Only Meeting

Board Expenses and Meal Reimbursement 

We are reviewing best practices on board accessibility and meal expenses.  We have agreed to best practices regarding Board expenses and accessibility. 

Motion: Board members are able to spend up to $20 for board meeting meals. with the expectation you must be in attendance of that board meeting the meal of that day and this will expire when we can meet in person. For Board accessibility, the secretary will coordinate with board members to accommodate and for tek use Pride will loan it when needed but remain the property of Pride Toronto. 

Mover: Sam 

Seconder: Jad 

Motion: Approved 

Upcoming Meetings

  1. March 6: Board Orientation (2-3 pm), Governance Training Part 1 (3-6 pm)
  2. March 9: Board Meeting (6-9 pm)
  3. March 17: Anti-Black Racism Workshop Part 1 (6-8 pm)
  4. March 23: Governance Training Part 2 (6-9:30 pm)  
  5. March 24: Anti-Black Racism Workshop Part 2 (6-8 pm) 
  6. To Be Confirmed: Team Building 

Action item: 

  • Brian will reach out to TiKa to coordinate the team building. 

Next Meeting  

March 9th 2021  

Adopted 

Date: March 9rd 2021
Time: 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Location: Online/teleconference
Attendance:
Board Members: Ande Clumpus, Brian De Matos, Samantha Fraser, Grant Gonzales, David Lewis, Christin Milloy, Maher Sinno.Jad Jaber, ,LeZlie Lee kam, Sheldon Dixon.
Staff: Sherwin Modeste, Bobby MacPherson, Amber Moyle, Leanna, Laura,Primeau,Lee (Staff Portion)
Regrets/Absent: TiKA Simone 



Agenda Item 

Notes

Motions/Action Items

Approval of Agenda

Approving the Order of Business: Agenda  

Motion to approve the Agenda. 

Mover: Grant

Seconder: Sam

Motion: Approved

Approval of Minutes

Board Minutes: February, 23rd 2020. 

Motion to approve the minutes. 

Mover: Sam

Seconder: Grant 

Motion: Approved

Board Decision Tracker 

One item: Support Hamilton Pride Defenders 

Reaffirmed 

Executive Director/Staff Report: Festival Overview 

  • 6:05-6:10 – Virtual Festival Recap + 2021 Festival Planning 
  • 6:10-6:15 – Programming 
  • 6:15-6:20 – Parade 
  • 6:20-6:25 – Operations 
  • 6:25-6:30 – Creative Direction
  • Everyone went around and introduced themselves as we have new staff joining us. 
  • Staff is presenting an overview on Virtual festival programming 2021. 
  • We are working on a five year strategic plan. the five areas. 2slgbtq Creativity, women in music, anti-black racism indingeous solidarity. 
  • An overview of the physical festival, we will be having live performances, LED screens, art installation and available harm reduction. 
  • Production, we are trying to elevate this by an LED set where they will be recording it on a different set. 
  • Pride Parade: We are making sure there are no financial barriers for community groups and nonprofits to participate.   
  • Programming our main focus will be on; BIPOC, Elderly, youth 14-18 and 30 and under, and gender diverse. 
  • We have developed a policy that the minimum payment for artists will be $200. additional we will be focusing on making programing diverse, making sure women, trans and non-binary artists. 
  • The Board is having a Q&A session with staff. 

Presentation Received 

 

Local Artist and Performance Programming 

We are having a discussion regarding having a Programing Committee. There is an Advisory Program Committee which Leanna is heading. 

 

Secretary Items

  • Membership Approvals
  • Committees Update 

Membership has been approved. 

An email was sent out regarding committees, Board members, please choose two committees you are interested in and take the lead on it by creating.

Motion to approve four new members. 

Mover: Sam 

Secounder: Ande 

Motion: Approved

Policy Committee Update 

  • Upcoming Policies for Review (April 6 Board Meeting) 
  • By-Law and Membership Policy Update    

The Policy Committee is working on quite a few policies which will be sent to the board by March 31. for approval April 6th meeting. 

Received 

Board Only Meeting

Community Safety / Harm Reduction

The board is reviewing a harm reduction. 

Received 

Police Discussion (Costs, Harm Reduction) 

We have discussed ways to lessen the impact Police have on the festival footprint and lower their obligated fee that comes for permits. 

TBC

Meal Reimbursement Clarification 

Upcoming Meetings

  • March 17: Anti-Black Racism Workshop Part 1 (6-8 pm)
  • March 23: Governance Training Part 2 (6-9:30 pm)  
  • March 24: Anti-Black Racism Workshop Part 2 (6-8 pm) 
  • April 6: Next Board Meeting
  • TBC: Team Building (Brian to connect with TiKa) 
 

Board Participation 

TiKa and D!XON will be performing at pride as they would have been regardless of being on the board and an agency Jad is involved with. Steps were taken to make sure there was no conflict of interest and none of these board members were part of any decisions regarding this. The board has found no conflict of interest. 

Received. 

Legal Update (In Camera)

The Board has entered in Camera session 

Motion: To move in camera session

Mover: Christin 

Seconder: Grant

Motion: Approved

Meal Reimbursement Clarification 

The Board has entered in Camera session 

 

ED Performance Review (In Camera)

  

Next Board Meeting 

March 23rd 2021

 

The meeting slot for the Board Meeting on March 23, 2021 was used for a Governance training, so no Board Meeting took place.

Date: April 6th 2021
Time: 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM (Meeting extended to 9:30 PM)
Location: Online/teleconference
Attendance:
Board Members: Ande Clumpus, Brian De Matos, Samantha Fraser, Grant Gonzales, Christin Milloy, Maher Sinno, Jad Jaber, LeZlie Lee Kam, D!XON, TiKA Simone, Yuri Hernandez
Staff: Sherwin Modeste, Nipuni Dhanawardana
Regrets/Absent: TiKA Simone 



Agenda Item 

Notes

Motions/Action Items

Approval of Agenda

Approving the Order of Business: Agenda


 

Motion to approve the agenda. 

Mover: Grant

Seconder: LeZlie 

Motion: Approved

Approval of Minutes

Board Minutes: March 9th, 2021 

Motion to approve the minutes. 

Mover: Sam

Seconder: Maher

Motion: Approved

Board Decision Tracker 

One item: Declaration of Support: Justice for Migrant Sex Workers 

Ratified

Membership Approvals

Six members up for approval.

Motion to approve six new members.

Mover: Grant

Seconder: D!XON

Motion: Approved

ED-SLT Board Report

Board members have reviewed and received the report. 

Board members can add Ooma phone extension to their email signatures and use it for outgoing calls.

Received 

Treasurer Report

All levels of government funding are down ($200K), so we will have to cut the budget. 

  • Bobby and Sherwin will create a new budget and bring to Finance Committee.
  • Team is working on 3 different grants to help offset these.  

Most of sponsorships help keep Pride Toronto float throughout the year. Government grant funding is mostly tied to the festival. 

  • Sherwin is hoping to secure multi-year (3 year, around 1.5 mill), for operational funding.
  • Board discussed need to look at diversifying funding.

Completed.

Reminder: submit receipts to Ande in next 24 hrs for reimbursements

Policy Approvals

Communications Policy:

  • Media Contact Policy

Governance Policies:

  • In Camera Meeting Policy
  • Board Evaluation Policy
  • Board Orientation Policy
  • Executive Director Succession Planning

Human Resources Policies:

  • Disciplinary Policy
  • Discontinuing Employment Policy
  • Personnel Records Policy
  • Registered Savings Plan Policy
  • Staff Performance Reviews Policy
  • Workplace Violence, Harassment and Sexual Harassment Policy
  • Anti-Discrimination and Harassment Policy
  • Incident Report Form
  • Employee Performance Review Form

Risk Management Policies:

  • Emergency Lockdown Policy
  • Evacuation Policy

Upholding Values Policies:

  • Joint Health and Safety Committee Policy
  • Gender Identity and Gender Expression Policy
  • Incident Reports Policy
  • Mandatory Use of Mask or Face Covering Policy
  • Right to Refuse Work Policy
  • Staff Feedback Policy
  • Whistleblower Policy

Policy Committee Update from Brian.

Action items/edits to the following policies to be made:

Evacuation Policy

  • Sherwin to look at creating separate Evacuation Policy around staff with accessibility needs.

Fire Policy (to be drafted)

  • Include that fire alarm needs to be both a visual and auditory alarm.

Disciplinary Policy

  • Add “the time frame varies depending on the nature of the incident and will be determined by the Executive Director” for how long a warning will be kept in an employees’ file. 

Anti Discrimination Policy

  • Add “bring a witness to be present” as a suggestion when confronting a harasser. 

Gender Expression Policy

  • Add pronouns to policy

Motion: Approving All Policies.

Mover: Christin

Seconder: LeZlie

Motion: Approved

Committees Update

  • Confirm Top 2 Choices 
  • Strategic Planning Update















 

Board Members to choose joining two committees: Policy and Governance, Sponsorship and Fundraising Advocacy Equity and Human Rights (AEHR), Finance and Audit. 


Yuri: Governance and Sponsorship

LeZlie: AEHR and Governance

Grant: Finance and Governance

Ande (1): Finance

Christin: Governance and AEHR (optional). Programming (staff committee) 

Samantha: Sponsorship and AEHR

Jad: AEHR and Sponsorship

Maher: Finance and Governance

D!XON: Governance and AEHR.

Brian: AEHR, Governance, and Finance

TiKA: AEHR and Sponsorship

Completed

Elected Official Invitations

Strategy: focus on support for Pride from Elected Officials from Davenport and Church/Wellesley area because of Pride Office location and parade route. Met with 95% of councillors and next election, we will follow up with them on their promises.

Board feels like that the three identified priority groups (18-24 youth, 2Spirit and Queer Seniors) should have more priority/visibility over elected officials at Pride. More grassroots involvement is needed for community unification.

Board has differing opinions on the level of involvement they should have with selecting Politicians. Ultimately, they are trusting staff to do the initial round of politician vetting, but want to know who is on the list of politicians (in case there are major flags with certain politicians) and want to approve an accountability plan for holding politicians accountable for their past actions, current support and future promises.

Action items: 

  • Sherwin will reach out to community groups to include Pride messages/greetings from Youth, Senior and Trans folx.
    • Include greeting from: 2Spirit, indigenous, and potentially Metis representation.
    • Include Jill Andrew who has been a strong supporter of the community. 
    • They can potentially come together as a group (if COVID-safe) or individual.
  • Need: formalize what accountability looks like for politicians (ie. signing a letter drafted by Pride Toronto saying X issues are what they support and agree to).

For Approval:


Sherwin’s Strategy: Strategy to invite Elected Officials to Pride.

Motion: Passed


Brian moved the Motion: split the vote for voting for politicians individually.

Motion: Failed.


Maher’s amendment to Sherwin’s Strategy: Bring list of Officials and Accountability Plan to the Board in three months.

Opposing: None.

Motion: Approved.



Community Advisor Group Meetings (Outreach and Comms)

Christin update: Board does not have enough outreach and community consultations; should be invited to events.

Sherwin: Will be inviting Board to community meetings/ consultations (have to be posted 2 weeks in advance). Staff to be reminded to acknowledge high level staff and Board Members at meetings.

Action Item: Nipuni to send calendar invites to Board as *optional* to all community groups that are meeting.

Board Approvals (Past Practices) / Membership Motions 

  • Honoured Group, Charities of Choice, etc. 

Executive Director 

Deferred

Board IT

  • Email Infrastructure
  • Slack Upgrade









Brian (Email infrastructure):

Currently two emails. Should switch directors@pridetoronto.com (costing us money) → board@pridetoronto.com

Ande (Slack Upgrade):

Currently have free version of Slack. Board okay to have premium Slack for $100 to have access to historical messages.

Board concerns: Privacy (admin would have access to private messages).

Motion to eliminate: directors@pridetoronto.com

Mover: Christin

Seconder: Sam

Motion: Approved 


Motion: to Upgrade Slack.

Motion: Failed

Training

  • Anti-Black Racism / Governance Training Debrief
  • Team Building Workshop



All

Maher 

Brian/TiKA

Workshops to be spread out over the year: May, August and Fall

Action item: Maher to email survey on board orientation.

Discussion deferred.

Other Items








Sherwin: Anti-Racism Session March 24, 2021 (with Dr. ABC) action item.

LeZlie: Email contact for Dionne and Dr. ABC.

Action Item 1: Board Members to email Nipuni their action item if they haven’t yet.

Action item 2: Sherwin to send info to LeZlie

Standing Item: In Camera Session

  • Board Matters
  • General Discussion   

Board and Sherwin only.

Completed

Upcoming Meetings

  1. April 20: Next Board Meeting
  2. May 4: Board Meeting

Next Meeting: April 20th (regrets LeZlie) 

Adopted

Date: April 20th 2021
Time: 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Location: Online/teleconference
Attendance:
Board Members: Ande Clumpus, Brian De Matos, Samantha Fraser, Grant Gonzales, Christin Milloy, Jad Jaber, D!XON, Yuri Hernandez, TiKA Simone
Staff: Sherwin Modeste, Nipuni Dhanawardana
Regrets/Absent: leZlie Lee Kam, Maher Sinno



Agenda Item 

Notes

Motions/Action Items

Approval of Agenda

Approving the Order of Business: Agenda

Motion to approve the agenda. 

Mover: Christin

Seconder: Samantha

Motion: Approved

Approval of Minutes 

Board Minutes: April 6th, 2021  

Motion to approve the minutes. 

Mover: Yuri

Seconder: Samantha

Motion: Approved

Board Decision Tracker 

No items/decisions made between last meeting and today.

Discussed.

Board Meeting Principles and Expectations

For Reference from the Chair.

This document is meant to create a safer space for all on the Board.

This will always be an item in the agenda to help set expectations and encourage respectful conversations.

Discussed.

Standing Item: 

ED-SLT Report 

Board members have reviewed and received the report. 

Marketing Launch update: hotel component is cancelled as per Public Health guidelines. Board Participation remains the same. 

Four grants have been submitted. We will receive 1 of the 2 Reconnect Grants (from Province). Based on 2021 Festival, so will impact this year’s budget.

  • Federal grant will be for 2022 (Fall/Winter) spending.

New role for the Grant & Fund Development Manager posted on the website and Charity Village..

Nipuni to send calendar invites for upcoming Community Advisory meetings.

New health restrictions prevent us from offering the studio space to artists until Mid May. All Festival recording will be done by the artists themselves. We will not be paying artists extra for filming. Our Production Team that will put together the videos.

Processes will be put in place for safety. Equipment (such as Google Phones and other tech) going out to artists to use will be sanitized and left for 3 days at the office, before going to another artist.

 

Received

Standing Item: Treasurer Report

Internal Pride Toronto Fiscal 2021 budget document:

  • Decrease in revenue is about $250K. However, we are ultimately projecting surplus because of two new grants.
  • Previous provincial grant was cancelled; new grant is Connect Ontario (new application process).
  • Budget vs. Actuals document: The Board, please familiarize with these documents. Moving forward, you will receive this once a month in the Board Package email (after the Finance Committee Meeting).
  • Anticipating that we will see a huge increase in spending in May/June, as we usually do around Festival time.
  • Board discussion on potentially increasing spending on ‘artists and events’. New grants we are looking at focus on Ontario artists specifically. We also need to be careful with our budget. We are on the higher end in comparison to other festivals, but there is always room for improvement. This can be further discussed at a later date.
  • Sherwin and Grant to connect further on securing commitment from the Feds, given that new budget announced included $200 million for major festivals.

Received

ED Performance Management Process (PMP) 

  • Short-Term Check-In 
  • Long-Term Goals Setting

Board would have received Workplan on Monday.

Reflective of two year plan. It is a work in progress and will be a live document (change based on community advice, strategy, Membership advice etc). Any major changes need to be approved by the Board. Opportunity for full approval, after Strategic Plan is set in place. If Board has notes for Sherwin later on, please send to him. 

All permanent, full time staff (except Nipuni because she just started) have PMP to have processes in place for raises. Need to figure out a process for contract staff (because their contract ends in July).

Motion to approve in principle as a working document, while acknowledging it is a live document that may be changed from time to time. 

Mover: Brian

Seconder: Samantha

Motion: Approved

Committees

  • AEHR Terms of Reference

No questions for Brian.

Motion to approve. 

Mover: Brian

Seconder: Yuri

Motion: Approved

Board Meeting Accommodation

Request from Maher for alternate Board Meeting dates because they are enrolled in a new program Tuesdays (6-9) and a later start during Ramadan.

No consensus on alternative dates/times with everyone’s schedules. Topic to be revisited in August.

Action Items: 

  • Grant and Yuri to discuss alternatives with Mahar, including keeping them up to date on Board meeting topics and bringing forward input on their behalf.

Discussed and unable to find consensus.

Board Approvals (Past Practices) / Membership Motions 

  • Honoured Group, Charities of Choice, etc.

Link in the ED Report to: Honoured Positions Selection Process 

This will be implemented in 2022 and moving forward. Sherwin will be part of the selection panel. Decisions will be captured in the meeting minutes. We will have this document to avoid any miscommunication. 

Selection of Honoured Positions and Charities of Choice: moving forward will not just be choice of Board and Staff, but also will include Community members.

Positions will not be open every year, for example an International Grand Marshal can be expensive every year.

Some positions are yearly, some are every other year.

This year: only have charity of choice and not other groups because it is not a physical festival year.

Discussed.

Training

  • Anti-Black Racism / Governance Training Debrief
  • Team Building Workshop

 

Update from TiKA and Brian:

Teambuilding based on anti-racism and decolonization. 

Workshop details sent to the Board. 

Three workshops in total spread out in: May, August, September. 2 hours per session and includes homework.

Workshops will include getting to know each other, but very different from meet and greet. Need to create a safer space and build trust, which is why it is a three 3 part process. 

Board expressed the need to also have a fun meet and greet, which will take place after the first workshop.

Action Items:

  • Jad to connect with TiKA, Brian and the workshop facilitator.
  • Sherwin and Nipuni can support on the survey if Maher unable to, and plan fun activity for Board

For Discussion and Approval.

Motion to approve. 

Mover: Brian

Seconder: Ande

Motion: Approved.

Standing Item: In Camera Session / Discussion Flex Time

Sherwin and Board

Motion to move in-camera: 

Mover: Brian

Seconder:  Yuri

Motion: Approved

Motion to Move Out of In Camera

Mover: Sam

Seconder: Yuri

Motion: Approved

Upcoming Meetings

  1. May 4: Next Board Meeting
  2. May 18: Board Meeting

Co-Chairs and Secretary

Motion to Adjourn

Mover: Sam 

Seconder: Christin

Motion: Approved

Date: May 18th 2021
Time: 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Location: Online/teleconference
Attendance:
Board Members: Ande Clumpus, Brian De Matos, Samantha Fraser, Grant Gonzales, D!XON, Yuri Hernandez, TiKA Simone, leZlie Lee Kam,
Staff: Sherwin Modeste, Nipuni Dhanawardana
Regrets/Absent: Maher Sinno, Christin Milloy, Dave Lewis, Jad Jaber



Agenda Item 

Notes

Motions/Action Items

Approval of Agenda

Approving the Order of Business: May 18th Agenda

Motion to approve the agenda. 

Mover: Yuri

Seconder: Brian

Motion: Approved

Land Acknowledgment

Recognition of traditional Indegenous land.

Yuri

Approval of Minutes 

Approval of Minutes: April 20 Meeting Minutes 

Motion to approve. 

Mover: Sam

Seconder: Ande

Motion: Approved

Declaration of Conflict of Interest

New addition to agenda, but will keep as a standing item because it is best practise to keep us accountable.

No conflicts declared.

Discussed

Board Decision Tracker (FYI) 

No items/decisions made between last meeting and today.

Standing item: petition (Maggie’s and Butterfly (www.butterflysw.org ) – please see email).

Discussed

Board Meeting Principles and Expectations

For Reference from the Chair.

Discussed.

Standing Item: 

  • ED-SLT Board Report
  • Phygital Festival Presentation (10 mins) by Amber and Bobby (followed by 5 mins for Q&A)

Board members have reviewed and received the report. 

Festival Update from Sherwin re. the activation of LED Screens at High Park: They pulled out (due to uncertain covid regulations) and the Senior Leadership Team made the decision to pull out of Ontario Place (ROI is not there). We are also in limbo – Ontario Place can’t confirm with us until they get the greenlight.

We haven’t lost any funds in deposits. The associated $75K can be better used to elevate the 2022 festival.

ED-SLT report:

  • Yuri (for Freya): volunteer numbers look good!
  • leZlie: thank you to staff for organizing Committee pride updates
  • ASL Survey
  • Discuss why/when.
  • Brian had recommended BIPOC ASL service person.

Action item: Bobby/Nipuni to follow up with Nicoy.

leZlie (Bricks and Glitter) contacts BIPOC.

Action item: Sherwin to follow up with leZlie.

Festival Update from Bobby and Amber:

  • LED Screens and Opening launch party at Cabana cancelled.
  • New press release going to  partners tmrw and live on Thursday.
  • We have secured closer to 130 artists, working with 14 party collectives.
  • June 1st – art installations starting.
  • Community Connect – over 16,000 bags (going to put assembling next week)
  • Virtual Streetfair – similar to Pride Guide.

Action item: Nipuni to send over Amber’s presentation.

Brian – 2Spirit Tales: official update meeting tmrw; they are launching website tmrw.

Streetfair

  • (will go live on June 1st). Map of Church Street, but labelled as different zones (which will take visitors to a directory that goes to a vendor’s website. Hope to keep it up permanently.
  • Summer students working to get Ward on business (streetfair) – letting councilors know queer businesses in their areas.
  • The businesses are not paying to be on streetfair (since businesses are struggling).

Newsletter Board Member Spotlight:

  • D!XON for July Newsletter
  • TiKA for August Newsletter

Received

Standing Item: Treasurer Report

Things look good. We will have $480,000 in the bank and will have a lot of money coming in.

By end of year, we should be sticking to our budget.

Going to pay off CRA debt -we should be debt free soon.

Going forward: build up surplus little by little.

Standard contingency fund for pride?: 25% of our annual operating budget in a reserve (1.5 million). This will be 5-10% net income every year. This will be a 3 year goal.

Received.

Governance and Policy Committee

  • Mileage Policy
  • Committee Terms of Reference
  • RFP: Strategic Planning

Mileage Policy:

  • We need to have guidelines for reimbursement. Not restricted to mileage. 0.51 cents/km because most non profits pay between .50-52 cents/km.
  • Inclusive of TTC, Uber, Lyft, Taxi. To put in place approval process.

Ande: 

  • Blanket approval for transit for Board Meetings (automatic approval).
  • Public transit and mileage are given (any other means need to be pre-approved).
  • Parking can be reimbursed.
  • Staff must take the shortest route possible.

For Mileage Policy: add in a comments section.

Committee Terms of Reference

  • Policy Committee is Changing to the Governance and Policy Committee.

RFP:

  • Change based on Sherwin’s contacts. Pride Toronto’s budget for this project was up to a maximum of $25,000. To change to maximum of $15K.
  • 3 year is better than 5 years  (because of the pandemic).
  • Hiring Committee: Sherwin and Members from the Governance Committee, also include Amber (and one unsuccessful person that applied to the Board but didn’t get on).
  • Framework regarding community consultations (volunteers, artists and community groups will be consulted) – framework.
  • Can Membership consult? They can through General Public, but no specific process in place.
  • Grant: may need to hold email confirmations for the RFP.

Motion to approve Mileage (with the changes). 

Mover: Yuri

Seconder: Sam

Motion: Approved

Motion to approve Committee Terms of Reference. 

Mover: Sam

Seconder: Brian

Motion: Approved

Motion to approve RFP. 

Mover: Sam

Seconder: Ande

Motion: Approved

Board Communications

  • Board Meeting Principles and Expectations 
  • Board-Staff Communications Policy
  • Elimination of Slack

Board-Staff Communications Policy

ED Board Communications:

If you’re unsure about who to go to: your go to is Sherwin (issues, feedback about staff etc, ).

Working with staff/Board working on specific projects together include:

  • Bobby and Ande (finance)
  • Bobby and Grant (AGM)
  • Leanna and Yuri (Trans Pride)

Specific Committee issues can go to staff that you are working with.

Any concerns in general or related to committees go to Sherwin.

Board Members Feedback doesn’t have to go through Co-Chairs to give Sherwin feedback.

Slack (Yuri)
We have outgrown use of Slack.

Sam: Slack was put in place when the Board was more operational. Not as effective anymore; okay to cancel. Frequent level of communication is not as needed anymore.

Action Items:

  • Grant and Yuri to coordinate with Christin (Slack Admin) to cancel.

Action Item:

  • Sherwin to have individual conversations with Board Members who have admin access to different areas (website, facebook, etc).

For discussion and approval.

Motion: Grant put forward to eliminate Board use of slack

Mover: lezlie

Seconder: Sam

Motion: Approved.

Brian abstained from voting.

Training Update 

  • d’bi.young anitafrika Workshop

– July 13, August 10, September 7 

Brian/TiKA 

Tika had a call with the trainer recently regarding creation.

  • Dates provided are not going to work. Need to take 3 saturdays (d’bi is in London (5 hours ahead). 
  • Each session is 2 hours long.
  • July 17, August 14, September 11.
  • Earlier in the day is better (10am – noon).
  • Board is okay with this time and date.

Action Item:

  • Brian to send email confirming to Board.

Discussed

Board “Get To Know You” Session

All.

Get to know you games led by Yuri.

Discussed

Standing Item: In Camera Session / Discussion Flex Time

All 

No In Camera Session

Upcoming Meetings

  1. June 1: Board Meeting (propose cancellation)
  2. June 15: Board Meeting
  3. June 29: Board Meeting (propose cancellation)

Co-Chairs

Secretary

Next meetings will be on June 15th, July 27th and August 24th.

All other meetings in between are cancelled.

Discussed and All On Board

Date: June 15th 2021
Time: 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Location: Online/teleconference
Attendance:
Board Members: Ande Clumpus, Brian De Matos, Samantha Fraser, Grant Gonzales, D!XON, TiKA Simone, leZlie Lee Kam, Christin Milloy, Dave Lewis
Staff: Sherwin Modeste, Nipuni Dhanawardana
Regrets/Absent:  Maher Sinno, Yuri Hernandez, Jad Jaber



Agenda Item 

Notes

Motions/Action Items

Approval of Agenda

Approving the Order of Business: June 15th, 2021 Agenda

Motion to approve the agenda. 

Mover: Brian

Seconder: leZlie

Motion: Approved

Land Acknowledgment

Recognition of traditional Indigenous land.

Moment of silence for 215 Indigenous children.

Grant

Approval of Minutes 

Approval of Minutes: May 18th Meeting Minutes  

Motion to approve. 

Mover: Christin

Seconder: Ande

Motion: Approved

Declaration of Conflict of Interest

Standing item for accountability.

  • No conflicts declared.
  • Brian: ASL Interpretation for No Pride in Policing and Queer in Ontario. Brian was part of their group before joining Pride. Abstaining from voting because it is a perceived conflict of interest.
  • Christin also had a prior relationship to No Pride in Policing and stayed on the mailing list. Will also abstain from voting.

Discussed.

Board Decision Tracker (FYI) 

No items/decisions made between last meeting and today.

Standing item:

  • petition (Maggie’s and Butterfly (www.butterflysw.org ) – please see email).
  • ASL funding for No Pride in Policing Event.

Discussed

Ratify these two items:

Mover: Dave

Seconder: Sam

Ratification: Approved

Board Meeting Principles and Expectations

For Reference from the Chair.

Discussed

Standing Item: 

Executive Director Report

Board members have reviewed and received the report. 

Q&A on Sherwin’s report:

Sam:

  • Social Media: John Wamsley left, Ajay has started. Social media posts have been great
  • Newsletter Board Member Highlights
  • August, September, October, November reserved for Board Members that are leaving.

Action item Sherwin/Nipun: send job postings to Board Members.

Sherwin:

  • Exploring celebration in the fall where Wellsely stage is (first weekend in October).
  • Halloween Party close to the office location.
  • World Pride in 2022 Copenhagen – two Executive Directors and two Directors will attend World Pride. Also coincides with Human Rights Panel. Sherwin looking at budget for this.
  • Looking at 2021/2022 budget – which will focus on promotion for staff and board members to attend October, November, December, January, February to attend. Great Marketing opportunity and representation.
  • Pride Ambassadors (Board and staff as well) – for this budget.

Dave: Permanent location for Pride festival? That is being decided.

Parade Day 27th. Immediately after the land acknowledgement, there will be a moment of silence.

Toronto Police Service – New recruits will go through a one hour session with us as part of their training. 

  • Christin: we should be covering more topics (like speaking about the community) other than Festival, experiences that the community has had with police.
  • Grant: community safety should be prioritized.
  • Sherwin: harm reduction approach (rather than over policing)
  • Action item: huddle to plan what exactly will be provided in the 1 hour presentation to the recruits.
  • Does this violate our Membership?
  • We are not training, we are not bringing police back to the parade; this is more of an information session.
  • Harm reduction: we are having harm reduction workers on the Festival Footprint (so won’t need as many police) 
  • If aim is to reduce police harm and police presence, then we need to be very clear with our stakeholders.
  • Action Item: Sherwin/Nipuni to invite Board Members for feedback.

Received

Standing Item: Treasurer Report

Our bank account looks good, can pay all vendors, artists etc.

$360K coming in from the City, and Federal govt. 

Next year’s budget 2021/2022: Sherwin/Bobby/Ande will work on the process for that. Once the Finance Committee reviews at the meeting on July 20, Board will review the budget at the next meeting. 

Received

Governance and Policy Committee

  • Conflict of Interest + Declaration Form
  • Incident Report
  • Partnership Policy
  • Dealing with Disrespectful, Disruptive and Dangerous Behaviour Policy + Responses 
  • Evacuation Policy
  • Fire Safety Policy
  • Volunteer Policies (Master Policy Binder)
  • Executive Director Performance Review Policy

Questions and Answers:

Volunteer Policy Training (Accessibility Training):

  • make it clear that it is the AODA Accessibility Standards.

Anti-Opression training and Anti-Racism training (already mandatory training) 

Volunteer Discipline and Termination Policy (does it apply to Board Members) No → it is in the By-laws (which supercedes policies)

Action item: Sherwin to get hard copy bylaws to leZlie.

Motion to approve. 

Mover: Sam

Seconder: Brian

Motion: Approved

Membership Approval

Brian to present new Membership requests for approval.

Brian June 15th – list of Member Applications for Approval.

Motion to approve. 

Mover: Dave

Seconder: Sam

Motion: Approved

Strategic Planning Update

Grant:

RFP to secure a facilitator for Strategic Plan. 11 applications received.

Who is on the strategic planning committee: 

  • 4 Board members (yuri, grant, samantha, brian)
  • 2 staff members (Sherwin and Amber) 
  • 1 Members  (Ian Royer)

Action item: Brian to send a thank you to Bobby (for policy work) and to welcome Amber to Strategic planning.

Discussed

New Business

To be a new standing item (media policy confirms – Dave is okay)

 

Standing Item: In Camera Session / Discussion Flex Time

All

Discussed

Upcoming Meetings

  1. July 5: Governance and Policy Committee
  2. July 13: d’bi.young anitafrika Workshop (#1) 
  3. July 20: Finance and Audit Committee
  4. July 27: Next Board Meeting

All

Mover: Dave

Seconder: Ande 

Date: July 27th 2021
Time: 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Location: Online/teleconference
Attendance:
Board Members: Ande Clumpus, Brian De Matos, Christin Milloy, Dave Lewis, D!XON, Grant Gonzales, Jad Jaber, TiKA Simone, Yuri Hernandez
Staff: Sherwin Modeste, Nipuni Dhanawardana
Regrets/Absent: Samantha Fraser, leZlie Lee Kam, Maher Sinno



Agenda Item 

Notes

Motions/Action Items

Approval of Agenda

Approving the Order of Business: July 27, 2021 Agenda

Motion to approve the agenda. 

Mover: Dave

Seconder: TiKA

Motion: Approved

Land Acknowledgment

Recognition of traditional Indigenous land.

Received.



Approval of Minutes 

Approval of Minutes: June 15, 2021 Meeting Minutes

Motion to approve. 

Mover: Brian

Seconder: Dave

Motion: Approved

Declaration of Conflict of Interest

Standing item for accountability.

Discussed.

Board Decision Tracker (FYI) 

New item: Submission to Senate to support a Federal Ban on Conversion Therapy

Action item: please look at the statement on encampment and approve; so that we can post.

Discussed

Ratify item:

Mover: Brian

Seconder: Grant

Ratification: Approved

Board Meeting Principles and Expectations

For Reference from the Chair.

Discussed

Standing Item: 

Executive Director Report

Board members have reviewed and received the report. 


  • Leanna’s (Programming & Events Manager) role will be finished officially on Friday and then she will be on a short term contract in August and September.
  • New Program Manager starts in September, so there will be a handover between Leanna and a new person.
  • Need to celebrate Leanna in some way.

Grant that we did not receive (because we don’t hold charitable status) was too small for us to reach out to other orgs. for support.

Brian – does not want to participate in October highlight.

Recommendation: donate extra Pride bags to Moss Park encampment. 

Sherwin’s new update:

  • Early conversations with Global Black Pride to host their festival in Toronto. They are considering Canada and South Africa. Their third year festival; first time they are holding a physical festival and first year outside of the US. Global Black Pride has already reached out to Canadian Heritage.
  • Will take place in July 2022.
  • Best to keep Global Black Pride and Pride Toronto celebrations separate. 

Staff Festival 2021 feedback session: two parts: in person at the office and online. 

September 7: next ED community meeting to be held (where general community able to ask questions, talk about strategic plan etc).

Received

Standing Item: Treasurer Report

Ande’s update.

  • Moving forward with the audit. Once the audit is done, we can then think about AGM.

Accounts: we are using an external Accounting firm (for the past 3 years).

  • Ande’s role as Treasurer will need to be replaced when Ande’s term on the Board is finished.

2021-22 Annual Budget

  • Sherwin: plan is to look at the budget on a quarterly basis and review with the Board.
  • Dave: new revenue streams. Exploring new sponsorships.
  • Sherwin: need a signature event that is bringing in money ($100,000).

Received

Vote on the budget.

Mover: Dave

Second: Grant.

Approved!

Board Travel

Perceptions and Expectations 


Grant

  • Very supportive in being present at other Pride festivals:
  • 1. to market our festival 
  • 2. to see how other festivals are approaching their programs, learning etc).

Need to be aware about risks about travel, will have a work plan/itinerary and then free time.

Christin: publish work plan in newsletter to let people know we’re going.

D!XON: good to have mixture of Board and staff, networking. 

TiKA: we can also register for other festivals like SXSW, music festivals. Create alignments and partnerships – perhaps have our own performances, showcase Pride Toronto talent (Pride Toronto stage) and have more visibility.

Dave: willing to sponsor a Board member.

Jad: cautious of networking because it is hard to measure. Need to describe how it benefits sustainability of the organization  and how it benefits the community. 

Yuri: deliverables, goals, activations, how to measure. Need to come back with something tangible for the community.

Sherwin: intention is to get the biggest bang for buck (use via rail to get there, have Ops team scope out st) in Montreal.

  • Texas is coming up too soon to travel safely.
  • Vegas (only 25,00 attendance  – not big enough to send people).
  • Atlanta – looking at this one (can we get a booth, be in the Parade etc).

Can look to invite other people from Toronto who are attending other Prides to come march with us.

D!XON: Atlanta is great place to start (from an anti-black lens. Music festivals are also great to look at (how they organize their artists, stages etc.).

  • Dave, Jad, TiKA will be going to Montreal.
  • Staff lead will be Primeau for Montreal.

Brian: framework of how we decide to go to different places (Atlanta, reserves etc),

inter-Pride. 



Discussed

Governance and Policy Committee 

  • Strategic Planning: Facilitator Recommendation
    • Proposal: Elevate Equity and REFLEX Urbanism
    • Appendix: Elevate Equity and REFLEX Urbanism 
  • Board Recruitment: 2022-2025 Term 

Strategic Planning: Facilitator Recommendation


Grant

  • Only decision point today is to secure facilitator for strategic plan. Recommend: Elevate (Karibu) and REFLEX (Darian).
  • Community engagement: full trust that they will be able to do this.
  • Concerns: technical writing, strategic plan clear and key metric,

Committee: recommends flexibility around bringing in additional expertise if needed.

Late August – planning to move ahead with strat planning.

Board Recruitment – not discussed.



Motion to approve Elevate Equity and REFLEX Urbanism as facilitators, (clause to bring in anyone for technical aspects) 

Mover: Dave

Seconder: Grant

Motion: Approved










Membership Approval

Brian to present new Membership requests for approval.

List of Member Applications for Approval sent in Board Package email by Nipuni on Thursday, July 22nd. 

Motion to approve. 

Mover:  Grant

Seconder: Brian

Motion: Approved

New Business

Standing Item

Gay Zombies Cannabis Consumers Association came to Pride Parade in 2016 under false pretenses; to pass out homophobic materials. 

  • They are facing lawsuit; Pride Toronto is named as a victim. It’s at the Supreme Court (delayed because police think an in person trial is better).

Sherwin: as ED will need to have some involvement in case. 

Dave: need to be aware as a Board.

Brian: our role is to get that report on what is going to be presented in court, and review it as well as possibly an victim impact statement. This conversation is around safety and hate crime, that we need to take part of.

Grant: generally, it is an obligation for the Board to be aware/involved with legal matters.


Motion to approve getting briefing about the report from Toronto (seperate from Board Meeting and Optional for Board). Police:   

Mover: Christin 

Seconder: Dave

Motion: Approved

None opposed.

Standing Item: In Camera Session 

Board of Directors and Sherwin

Discussed

Upcoming Meetings

  1. August 14: d’bi.young anitafrika Workshop (#2) 
  2. August 17: Finance and Audit Committee 
  3. TBC: Next Board Meeting 

All

Next Board Meeting: August 31, 2021 

Completed

 

Date: August 31st 2021
Time: 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Location: Online/teleconference
Attendance:
Board Members: Brian De Matos, Christin Milloy, Dave Lewis, Grant Gonzales, Yuri Hernandez, Samantha Fraser, Ande Clumpus, D!XON (left during ED report discussion due to emergency)
Staff: Sherwin Modeste, Nipuni Dhanawardana
Regrets/Absent: leZlie Lee Kam, TiKA Simone, Jad Jaber, Maher Sinno



Agenda Item 

Notes

Motions/Action Items

Approval of Agenda

Approving the Order of Business: August 31, 2021 Agenda

Amendments:

  • Christin: remove ‘Buck Angel’ as topic discussion, and to talk about the letter itself.

Sam: add ‘next training session’ as the last item before upcoming meetings.

Motion to approve the agenda. 

Mover: Yuri

Seconder: Dave

Motion: Approved

Land Acknowledgment

Recognition of traditional Indigenous land.

Yuri 

Approval of Minutes 

Approval of Minutes: July 27, 2021 Meeting Minutes

Motion to approve. 

Mover: Dave

Seconder: Yuri

Motion: Approved

Declaration of Conflict of Interest

Standing item for accountability.

Board Members who are complainants and respondents of investigation not to be in the in camera session, as per legal counsel. 

Brian: recuse himself for the in camera session.  

Discussed.

Board Decision Tracker (FYI) 

2 New items: Electing David Lewis to the ED Performance Review Committee and Political Activity Policy

Discussed

Ratify item: Motion to approve two items

Mover: Dave

Seconder: Brian

Ratification: Approved

Board Meeting Principles and Expectations

For Reference from the Chair.

Received

Standing Item: 

Executive Director Report

Board members have reviewed and received the report. 

Sam: volunteer for October Newsletter highlight.

Sept 7: ED Community meeting; Board Members asked to attend.

Action item: Nipuni to send the Board a calendar invite for the ED Community meeting.

Sept 17: Board invited to attend staff retreat for Friday evening session.

Sherwin: Two volunteers from the Board needed for the Honoured Positions Committee, to select International Grand Marshall.

Action Item: Sherwin to send email to the Board about this.

Received

Standing Item: Treasurer Report

Ande’s update.

Financial summary sent in ED Report for fiscal year 2021.

In the next two or three, the audit will be completed. Finances look good, no flags.

Received

Governance and Policy Committee 

Governance and Policy Committee 

  • Board Recruitment: 2022-2025 Term
    • Board Recruitment Policy 
    • Next Steps/Timeline 
  • Strategic Planning Update

Grant: No decision points to be made.

Trying to work well ahead of time to plan around recruitment, and AGM planning, so it’s not a rush. Some initial timelines, key dates have been set (and are to be confirmed).

Board Recruitment:

  • The Governance and Policy Committee needs to review and approve the Board Recruitment Policy. In September, in the coming weeks, there will be updates for review and approval.
  • Mid October – late October: Board candidate review. 
  • Late October – early November: complete interviews.
  • From a skills perspective: we need a treasurer (Financial CPA background).
  • From a representation perspective: trans women and indigenous people (specific call out for certain communities will be in Board position posting)

Questions for the Board:

  1. For those whose term is up, please advise your intention to run again or not. This is critical to knowing how many Board spots there are to fill.
  2. For those whose term is not up, please advise if you wish to continue as a Board Member.
  3. Please advise if you would like to join the selection committee?

Timeline: Board Members need to advise before the next Board Meeting (before the end of September).

Strategic Planning Update:

  • Worked on a draft workback plan and key deliverables. Consultants have requested key documents from staff (annual reports, organizational policies).
  • Planning on community consultations to be  virtual, survey and in person (pending on  Public Health guidelines re. covid-19).

Next steps: walk through the work plan.

Chair of Strategic Planning is Grant. Grant Planning is more on the planning side, while Sherwin will be more on the implementation.

Christin: What kind of committee is the Strategic Planning Committee?

Sherwin: it is a Board-led Committee/ responsibility, but staff are needed for administrative purposes and to operationalize.

Received

AGM Planning

Grant:

Already discussed AGM planning a bit during the Governance and Policy Committee 

Staff have done some initial work on setting 

some key dates; AGM to be held in late January.

Must hold AGM 6 months after the end of fiscal year in July: August 1st – end of January 31. 

December is not a good time to hold AGM (with people being out of office, away on holidays etc).

 

Discussed

Board Participation in Operational Committees

Sherwin:

  • A decision was made previously to include Board Members in operations/programs committees. This wasn’t as successful as we had hoped, and so the request is to remove Board Member participation in Operations committees, like the Programs committee and others.
  • Advisory groups are community gathering meetings. Sherwin wants to provide training to Board Members on how to engage as community members. 
  • Sherwin is working with a facilitator around separation of duties.

Brian: can be another appropriate platform/mechanism for Board Members to provide input on programming.

Grant: for example to the above, have staff present their plans at Board Meetings at Board Members can provide feedback (that may or may not be used).

Dave: Conflict of Interest when discussing items with community members (because of power imbalance as Board of Directors)

Christin: in agreement with this and endorses a motion to withdraw board members from Operations committees.

Action item: Grant, Yuri and Sherwin to send email to Board Members to let them know motion has passed.

Brian: request to state what constitutes an Operational committee in the email.

Grant: confirmed it will be written that approved motion is not applicable to advisory committees.

Motion: To have the Board withdraw from participating in any Operational Committees and develop a mechanism where Board feedback on Operations can be provided at a Board meeting. 

Mover: Christin

Seconder: Ande

Motion: Approved

Pride Response to Transphobic Open Letter 

  • Christin: Harmful, transphobic letter, endorsed by some well-known trans men, is being widely circulated. Discussion on Pride Toronto response.
  • Brian: At the heart of it, the letter villainizes, and devalues particularly trans women who are attracted to other women. The letter supports conversion therapy and is trans mysoginistic.
  • Christin: focus of the letter is from Blanchard’s early 1980s, theories on gender and sexuality, which have been widely discredited.
  • Samantha: officially wants to show support. Many of the people from her community (people who she knows through her conference), have seen and are speaking out against this letter.
  • Dave: appreciates the learnings he is receiving about this issue and wishes to show support 
  • Christin: the letter also erases trans men, biplus, nonbinary people. Co-signatories of the letter have social media clout.
  • Brian: Opposition/response letter also circulating on the transphobic letter: https://openletter.earth/trans-men-speak-ad9cf9b8 Sherwin: can retweet and/or create short post format (working with Christin and Brian) sharing factual information around trans people
  • Dave/Sherwin: With newsletters moving forward, as a standing item, include information on how to apply for Membership.
  • Grant: letter to be endorsed (either our own or signing off on another, followed by an educational series, like others staff have done for accessibility.
  • Yuri: in agreement and able to join meetings to discuss educational series.

Action Item: Christin to review opposition/response letter, and send the Board a recommendation if we as Pride Toronto should endorse the letter, retweet the letter or write our own response letter. 

Action item: Nipuni to create a meeting invite with Primeau, Ajay, Sherwin, Christin, Yuri, Brian and Sam for Wed, Sept 7th to discuss a Transphobia Series on social media for the last two weeks of September.

Discussed

Membership Approval

Brian to present new Membership requests for approval.

List of Member Applications for Approval sent in Board Package email by Nipuni on Thursday, August 26, 2021. 

Two members to approve.

*Break and then move to in-camera session* 

Motion to approve. 

Mover: Brian

Seconder: Dave

None opposed

Motion: Approved

Standing Item: In Camera Session 

  • Approval of In Camera Minutes
  • Staff Report and Next Steps
  • Board Report and Next Steps 
  • ED Performance Review Update

Board of Directors and Sherwin

Discussed

New Business / Extra Time

 

Discussed

Upcoming Meetings

  1. TBC: Next Board Meeting 

All

Next Board Meeting: 

Motion to Adjourn.

Mover: Yuri

Seconder: Ande 

Approved

Date: September 21st 2021
Time: 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Location: Online/teleconference
Attendance:
Board Members: Brian De Matos, Christin Milloy, Dave Lewis, Grant Gonzales, Yuri Hernandez, Samantha Fraser, Ande Clumpus, Maher Sinno
Staff: Sherwin Modeste, Nipuni Dhanawardana
Regrets/Absent: Jad Jaber, D!XON (on leave), TiKA Simone (on leave), leZlie Lee Kam



Agenda Item 

Notes

Motions/Action Items

Approval of Agenda

Approving the Order of Business: September 21, 2021 Agenda

Brian: update calendar with Dave’s announcement in-camera

Motion to approve the agenda. 

Mover: Dave

Seconder: Maher

Motion: Approved

Land Acknowledgment

Recognition of traditional Indigenous land.

Grant

In-Camera Announcement

Dave announcement to All Board Members and Sherwin

Motion to move to in-camera:

Mover: Dave

Seconder: Sam

Motion to move out of in- camera:

Mover: Dave

Seconder: Ande

Approval of Minutes 

Approval of Minutes: August 31, 2021 Meeting Minutes 

Christin: Revise adjournment names

Motion to approve. 

Mover: Dave. 

Seconder: Christin,

Motion: Approved

Declaration of Conflict of Interest

Standing item for accountability.

Discussed. 

Board Decision Tracker (FYI) 

2 New items: 

Motion to ratify tracker

Mover: Dave

Seconder: Ande

Motion: Approved

Board Meeting Principles and Expectations

For Reference from the Chair.

Received

Standing Item: 

Executive Director Report 

  • Staff Retreat Debrief
  • Global Black Pride

Board members have reviewed and received the report. 

New Program Manager, Vernon, will be joining the team on Monday. Leanna will be leaving her role as current Program Manager to go back to school.

ED Meet and Greet: 40 people registered, but just a handful showed up (we discussed that moving forward, we will need to send out a reminder the day before.)

Global Black Pride is joining us this weekend. Please confirm by the end of tonight if you are coming to the Welcome Dinner on Friday – RSVP to Nipuni.

GBP Itinerary: 

  • Saturday Morning: brunch with Black, Queer local leaders.
  • Saturday Evening: artist networking event.
  • Sunday Morning: outdoor meeting with Blackness Yes! team 
  • Sunday Afternoon: tour of the Pride Toronto festival locations in Toronto
  • Monday Morning: virtual meeting at Pride Office with Black Healthcare Providers Network 
  • Monday Afternoon: virtual meeting at Pride Office with Arts and Culture Services, City of Toronto

Board Speaking Roles at GBP events:

Friday night: Grant 

Saturday brunch: Dave

Saturday evening artist event: TiKA 

Grant: motion needs to be put forward to approving accommodation expenses for TiKA.

Yuri joined the Board Meeting.

Sherwin:

  • Staff Retreat held last week; thank you to the Board Members who were able to attend.
  • Looking forward to GBP. When Pat Tobin from the City of Toronto heard about this from us, he helped connect us to the Ministry of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture Industries.

Motion to support cover of expenses of TiKA’s accomodation for attending Global Black Pride; to be managed by the Executive Director. 

Mover: Dave

Seconder: Christin.

Approved.

Standing Item: Treasurer Report

Ande’s update.

  • We’re finishing the year with a strong surplus, expenses are manageable.
  • Auditor’s are working with Bobby and Sherwin.

Sherwin: Two interim audits: Province and Federal

Brian – what are office renovations in cash flow document?

Sherwin: all for setting up the new office (desks, shelves, art etc).

Received

Sponsorship and Fund Development Committee

  • Terms of Reference

Yuri

  • This committee will be working with Kat from staff. Currently the committee is just Yuri and Kat.
  • New members who will join the team: Samantha.

Action item: Yuri will send out an email to the Board Members, so those who wish to join the committee can advise there.

 

Terms of Reference:

  • Grant: reference the Sponsorship Policy because it is going to be a big part of the committee
  • Yuri: Yes, will add that in.

Samantha: Committee reviewing the Sponsorship applications. In busier times (Pride Month), it would be hard for staff to wait for the committee to approve

Dave: are we looking to operationalize?

Yuri: Board Members won’t have finite decision making power, so Kat will be there to voice staff concerns.

Sherwin: two staff will be on the Committee. Amber will represent Sponsorships, in addition to Kat.

Kat (Grant and Fund Development Manager) – more hands on role (for exp a gala or a dance, an annual event)

Grant: Amber is the first person that looks to review.

Dave: how does the appeal process work?

Yuri: committee is very new, so a lot of the items will be discussed at the Committee Meetings.

Sherwin: pause this discussion and chat with the staff and committee. We will work on the process, and bring it back to the Board.

Yuri: going to look over the Terms of Reference, and will like to move forward with motion. Then others can join the committee to work on details.

Motion to approve Terms of Reference. 

Mover: Yuri

Seconder: Dave

Motion: Approved

Governance and Policy Committee 

  • Board Recruitment: 2022-2025 Term
    • Board Recruitment Policy 
    • Board Recruitment Process
  • Strategic Planning Update
    • Work Plan
    • Engagement Activities

Strategic Planning consultants (Karibu and Darian) came to the staff retreat on Thursday to touch base with staff. They will also be coming to the Board Meetings to give updates. 

  • After consultations we will be working with them heavily to develop a plan.
  • In January, we will have a draft version of the strategic plan.
  • We may need to hold a special meeting to approve the strategic plan.

Maher question: what’s the Board’s involvement in strat planning?

  • Grant: Board more heavily involved in the latter stages of the process. Board will have their own sessions with Darian and Karibu.
  • January: reviewing, approving. 
  • After January: staff will operationalize.

Dave: Project timeline document for the Board to see?

  • Grant: Yes – that is the work plan attached in the Agenda (line by line document). Lot of the details are based on consultations.
  • Grant: Board approves the final strategic plan.

 

Board Recruitment: Review Policy

  • Grant: high level run through of policy and motion to approve needed.

Maher: use community engagement/outreach more than ‘advertisement’. Add advertisement and outreach in the title. 

Board Recruitment Process

  • we’ve identified gaps (Board) this on the high level, but it would be up to the Recruitment Committee to identify .
  • Dave Policies: for accessibility process, can we have access to all approved policies?
  • Nipuni: staff are working on the Masterlist, so this is in progress.
  • Christin and Brian: On the website, consider having policies. 

Brian – Meeting Minutes on the website.

Sherwin: in order for us to do a good analysis, if there are people are not running again, it would be best for people to declare their intention.

Oct 28 is 90 days before January 26, 2021 (AGM tentative date)

Grant: there is at a minimum 3 Board Member vacancies, so we can put the vacancies up and highlight considerations.

Christin: We can be deliberately vague about the number of positions in the early stages of the recruitment process, so we can see what are candidates.

Sam: might be good to make a call out for some experiences, so racialized women in particular can see themselves represented in the job posting.

Received

Motion to Approve Board Recruitment Policy: 

Mover: Yuri

Seconder: Christin.

Approved.

 

Working Groups

  • AGM Planning Working Group (3-5) 
  • Board Recruitment Working Group (5)   
  • Honoured Groups Selection Committee (2)

AGM Planning Working Group (3-5) 

  • Brian, Grant, support staff

Board Recruitment Working Group (5): 

  • Dave, Sam, Maher, Ande, Grant
  • Sherwin

Honoured Groups Selection Committee (2)

  • Yuri and Christin

Brian: If anyone wants to move into the Secretary role, please connect with me. It would be good for someone who is already on the Board to take over as secretary, as this is a better practise, rather than a new Board Member taking on this responsibility.

  • Grant: new Secretary role could also have a project on Member Recruitment (creating a plan around Membership. Because they manage the Membership Registry.
  • Dave: Interested in Secretary role. What is the policy for new Board Members’ onboarding?

Maher: Orientation Policy recovers this. This is why we also sent out the Board Orientation survey.

Action item: Maher to recirculate the survey.

Also to include in onboarding:

Grant: incorporate Freya’s volunteer trainings for new Board Members.

Sam: Introduction to staff and roles.

Discussed

Membership Approval

Brian to present new Membership requests for approval.

List of Member Applications for Approval sent in Board Package email by Nipuni on Friday, September 17, 2021. 

Two members to approve.

*Break and then move to in-camera session* 

Motion to approve. 

Mover: Dave

Seconder: Brian

None opposed

Motion: Approved

Standing Item: In Camera Session 

  • Approval of In Camera Minutes
  • Federal Grants Update 
  • Board Investigation Update
  • ED Performance Review Update

Secretary

Executive Director

Dave

Grant 

Discussed

New Business / Extra Time

All

Discussed

Adjournment/Upcoming Meetings

  1. Sept. 24-27 : Global Black Pride
  2. October 4: Governance and Policy Committee
  3. October 19: Next Board Meeting 

Co-Chairs

Motion to Adjourn.

Mover: David 

Seconder: Christin 

Approved

Signed off By Secretary of the board 

Brian De Matos 

Date: October 19th 2021
Time: 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Location: Online/teleconference
Attendance:
Board Members: Brian De Matos, Christin Milloy, Grant Gonzales, Samantha Fraser, Ande Clumpus, Maher Sinno
Staff: Sherwin Modeste, Nipuni Dhanawardana, Katherina Symes
Regrets/Absent:  Dave Lewis, Jad Jaber, D!XON (on leave), TiKA Simone (on leave), leZlie Lee Kam, Yuri Hernandez



Agenda Item 

Notes

Motions/Action Items

Approval of Agenda

Approving the Order of Business: 

  • October 19, 2021 Agenda 

Motion to approve the agenda. 

Mover: Sam

Seconder: Maher

Motion: Approved

Land Acknowledgment

Recognition of traditional Indigenous land.

Grant 

Approval of Minutes 

Approval of Minutes: 

  • September 21, 2021 Meeting Minutes

Motion to approve the agenda. 

Mover: Sam 

Seconder: Maher

Motion: Approved

Declaration of Conflict of Interest

Chair: Standing item for accountability.

Discussed

Board Decision Tracker (FYI) 

Secretary, Brian.

Motion to ratify tracker.

Mover: Sam

Seconder: Christin 

Motion: Approved

Board Meeting Principles and Expectations

For Reference from the Chair.

Received

Strategic Planning Update

Consultant: Darian.

  • Internal organizational review (needs assessment) underway. Some Board Members have been interviewed on Strategic Planning. Karibu has been doing interviews with staff.
  • Now: we’re getting into community engagement (emphasizing diversity, and accessibility). Activities coming up soon (town hall), focus groups chosen by soliciting feedback from staff and our own knowledge. Focus on intergenerational perspective (youth and Elders), front line workers, volunteers, advisory committee, sponsors, art collectives. Ask: getting the word out to everyone in your networks.
  • Strategy sessions (seperate for staff and Board) 3 hours each, to be held in December.
  • End in January: Report
  • Action item: Darian send digital assets, graphics

Sherwin: posts will be promoted on social media and targeted towards queer and trans community in Toronto.

Darian: working with contacts from Indigenous, 2spirit, Black, Elders, queer, newcomer organizing people, so that we engage with groups that may not have not feel heard in the past.

  • Representative outreach is one of the main areas of importance from staff and the Strat Planning Committee.
  • Low response, performance review – quality vs. quantity, Darian is okay to change as needed.

Harm reduction has been taken into account; data will be analyzed personally by Darian, Karibu and Strat Planning committee, so we’d be able to see if any one filled out the survey in bad faith. 

Strat Planning Committee: to look at metrics.

Discussed

Grants and Fund Development Update and Brainstorm 

Grant and Fund Development Manager, Katherina Symes.

Initial discussion about the Board hosting a signature event in 2022. 

Action item: Kat to create a brainstorming document for the Board based on discussion notes from Nipuni; Board to input their ideas and suggestions.

Discussed

Standing Item: Executive Director Report

  • Historical Issues – Next Steps 
  • Crime Prevention Action Fund Grant

Executive Director, Sherwin

  • Declare conflict: Sherwin worked with the United Nations Association in the past.
  • New staffing model document sent to the Board based on UNA positions; staff would come in November, rather than January, which will enable us to work ahead of schedule.
  • Other position: Volunteer Curator (we get a lot of requests for training). So with this role,  the Volunteer Coordinator will have more time to focus on Trainings, help in revenue generation etc.

More community engagement: Thanksgiving dinner was successful; looking at holiday dinner.

Operations and Sponsorship months ahead of where they usually are in previous years.

GBP weekend dates for 2022 – up to the Community on what weekend we will end up going with.

Discussed

Standing Item: Treasurer Report:

  • Budget vs Actuals Summary 
  • Budget vs Actuals Expanded 

Treasurer, Ande:

  • We are in a good position financially.
  • 1st report approved. Funding from the province has been approved. 

Discussed

Governance and Policy Committee 

  • Board Recruitment Update

Grant  & Christin 

Board Recruitment update:

  • Update: 1 week into Board recruitment, 6 applications so far.
  • Upcoming Board Q&A session: going to be online.  Flex time (can extend by 1 week if needed).

Motion: To support legal review of By Law No.1 to ensure compliance with Ontario Not-for-Profit Act, 2010. 

Mover: Sam

Seconder: Christin 

Motion: Approved

Membership Approvals 

Secretary, Brian:

8 people have applied to join Membership.

*Break and then Governance discussion continued*

Motion to approve new Membership Applications. 

Mover: Sam

Seconder: Brian

Motion: Approved

Governance and Policy Committee (continued)

  • Membership Policy
  • By-Law No. 1: General Discussion re: Areas of Focus 
    • Accessibility / Safe Spaces 
    • Designated Board Positions 
    • Director Eligibility for Staff Roles
    • Membership Termination
  • Revisiting the Board & Staff Communications Policy

Grant

Membership Policy:

Membership has been free since January, but it hasn’t been updated in Policy and it hasn’t been updated in general in a while.

Board to seek legal advice on requiring an affidavit for any requests to access Membership list contact information. Need clarity on requirements around sharing Member personal information.

To post Membership Policy, make it explicitly clear to potential Members about what personal info we are collecting and give them options:

  • what information will and will not be shared. 
  • provide an option for supporter class membership for those who do not want to share addresses (all Membership benefits except voting at AGM)
  • change contact info: reach out to XX.

General discussion to amend ByLaws:

1) All future Pride spaces to be accessible in various aspects: gendered washrooms), flashing lights for smoke alarms) etc. 

2) Holding ourselves accountable to making spaces where we hold events more accessible.

Pride staff will do everything in their power to ensure accessibility, i.e. require Pride affiliated events to have gendered facilities (they must for the time of the event offer a non gendered facility).

2) Hold seats on the Board for racialized people. Designated board seats are not an Officer role, or any guarantee of an officer role. It just ensures that in order to get quorum, the future board must have at the minimum, good diversity represented (if we engineer the roles properly).

Grant and Christin to work on the amendment ByLaws.

Not for profit act, established in 2010 wasn’t in effect until it was proclaimed recently, so coming into effect soon. Our ByLaws currently do reference the Not for Profit Act.

ByLaw amendments look at how long do Board Members have to wait until they can apply for a position at Pride Toronto. Membership Termination; to look at compliance with the Not for Profit Act.

Board Staff Communication Policy

Intention: Board Management role vs. ED role.

Finances – go to Treasurer, Ande.

Requests for Board should go to Grant, Yuri; not Sherwin.

Be mindful of any personal conversations that you may have with each other, cause we are coworkers and have professional responsibilities.

No policy change – just want to reiterate. Sherwin also responsible for ccing the Board when going to one Board Member. This will be an ongoing conversation. Action item: Grant to put this on email.

Defer any motions around Membership Policy until the next Board Meeting so the Board has time to seek legal advice around compliance of the newly proclaimed Ontario Not-for-Profit Corporations Act (ONCA).

Standing Item: In Camera Session 

  • Approval of In Camera Minutes
    • Sept 21, 2021
    • Oct 12, 2021
  • Board Investigation Update
  • ED Performance Review Update 

Secretary, Brian 

Maher

Motion to move in camera:

Mover: Sam

Seconder: Maher

Motion: Approved

Other Business / Extra Time 

All

Motion to Move Out of In Camera Session included in In Camera minutes

Adjournment / Upcoming Meetings

  • Nov 1: Governance and Policy Committee
  • Nov 23: BOD 

Co-Chairs

Motion to Adjourn.

Moved: Sam

Seconded: Maher

Motion: Approved

Date: Tuesday, November 23rd, 2021
Time: 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Location: Online/teleconference
Attendance:
Board Members: Brian De Matos, Christin Milloy, Grant Gonzales, Ande Clumpus, Jad Jaber, Yuri Hernandez
Staff: Sherwin Modeste, Nipuni Dhanawardana
Regrets/Absent:  leZlie Lee Kam, Samantha Fraser, Maher Sinno, D!XON (on leave)

Agenda Item 

Notes

Motions/Action Items

Approval of Agenda

Approving the Order of Business

Motion to approve the agenda. 

Mover: Ande
Seconder: Christin
Motion: Approved

Land Acknowledgment

Recognition of traditional Indigenous land.

Yuri

Approval of Minutes 

Approval of Minutes: 

  • October 19, 2021 Meeting Minutes

Motion to approve the agenda. 
Mover: Yuri
Seconder: Ande
Motion: Approved

Declaration of Conflict of Interest

Chair: Standing item for accountability.

Discussed

Board Decision Tracker (FYI) 

Secretary, Brian.



No updates to Board Decision Tracker since last meeting

Board Meeting Principles and Expectations

For Reference from the Chair.

Received

Standing Item: Executive Director Report

Executive Director, Sherwin
KPMG report: we’re continuing to work with them on the audit.
Moving forward; the Board will get a copy of grants for viewing (but please do not share out).
Met with Sponsorship team and close to 1 million confirmed in funding.
Programming press release: Spice. Big hit and sparked a lot of important discussions. 
Sherwin and Yuri’s meeting with Fierte Montreal went really well. Really good start of more conversations to come.
Board Members needed for Dispute Resolution Committee, Signature Event and Newsletter highlight.
Media picked up the environmental sustainability (reducing size of flatbed trucks) and not gas powered.
Blood ban: Had a meeting with the Minister of Justice Office; which was very productive. Conversations continuing to happen. Legislation on conversion is going to be tabled very soon and when it does a note to MPs going to be send out (conversion therapy). 
leZlie received prestigious award at the CGLCC award night for her community activism.

Discussed

Standing Item: Treasurer Report

Treasurer, Ande:
Financial reports were sent in the ED report. No big updates – things still look good. Funds in the bank are being used for plans for next year.

Discussed

Annual General Meeting Update

Grant and Nipuni
ByLaw review is still underway with the lawyers right now.
Laureen Elder Blu Waters confirmed for land acknowledgement.

Harm Reduction – Freya is doing this via chat monitor. 

Get Quorum is being used again.

AGM Planning Working Group will meet to discuss chat feature this year (Members last year wanted more clarity on chat function) and voting process.

Discussed

Governance and Policy Committee 

  • Board Recruitment: Board Slate Recommendations
    • Overview 
    • Questionnaire Responses
  • By-Law No. 1 Amendments (Update Only)
  • Membership Policy (Update Only) 
  • Strategic Planning Update 

Grant  
Board Recruitment: interviewed 7 candidates. Majority of candidates were women-identified. Narrowed it down to 4 candidates to approve for the AGM. They are running as a slate. 
ByLaw and Membership Policy:  still with lawyer.

Strategic Planning: Consultants have met with Strategic Planning Committee to review insights from community consultations. Currently on pause as committee is reflecting on next steps. 

Motion to approve the slate of Board Member candidates.

Mover: Ande

Seconder: Christin

Motion: Approved

Membership Approvals 

Secretary, Brian:

8 people have applied to join Membership.

Motion to approve new Membership Applications. 
Mover: Brian
Seconder: Christin
Motion: Approved

Standing Item: In Camera Session 

  • Minutes (see email from Brian
    • September 21 Minutes
    • October 12 Minutes
    • October 19 Minutes
  • ED Performance Review 

Grant, Secretary (Brian)

Motion to move in camera:
Mover: Brian
Seconder: Ande

Motion: Approved





Other Business / Extra Time 



All

Motion to Move Out of In Camera Session included in In Camera minutes

Adjournment / Upcoming Meetings

  • November 29: Board of Directors (Special) 
  • December 6: Governance and Policy Committee  
  • December 7: Board Strategic Planning Session 
  • December 14: Board of Directors

Co-Chairs

Motion to Adjourn.

Moved: Ande 

Seconded: Yuri 

Motion: Approved






Date: Tuesday, December 14th, 2021
Time: 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Location: Online/teleconference
Attendance:
Board Members: Brian De Matos, Grant Gonzales, Ande Clumpus, Jad Jaber, Yuri Hernandez, Samantha Fraser, D!XON, TiKA Simone, Maher Sinno
Staff: Sherwin Modeste, Nipuni Dhanawardana, Bobby MacPherson
Regrets/Absent:  leZlie Lee Kam

Agenda Item 

Notes

Motions/Action Items

Approval of Agenda

Approving the Order of Business: 

  • December 14, 2021 Agenda

Motion to approve the agenda. 

Mover: Sam

Seconder: Jad

Motion: Approved

Land Acknowledgment

Recognition of traditional Indigenous land.

Yuri

Approval of Minutes 

Approval of Minutes

Motion to approve the agenda. 

Mover:  Brian

Seconder: Jad

Motion: Approved

Declaration of Conflict of Interest

Chair: Standing item for accountability.

Brian: on the list of Membership Approvals, so will not be a part of that discussion.

Discussed

Board Decision Tracker (FYI) 

Secretary, Brian.

One Item: Strategic Planning contract with Elevate Equity and REFLEX Urbanism

Motion to ratify tracker.

Mover: Yuri

Seconder: Jad

Motion: Approved

Board Meeting Principles and Expectations

For Reference from the Chair.

Received

Standing Item: Executive Director Report

Executive Director, Sherwin

Operations update: new staff have started.

KPMG – Bobby and Sherwin meeting with Auditors on Dec 22nd to go over Board recommendations.

Action Items:  

  • Nipuni to reach out to the Board for any potential sponsorship opportunities/recommendations.
  • Board to sign up for Indigenous Competency Training and let us know if you want Pride Toronto to follow you on social media as Board Members.
  • Sherwin to look into Pride Toronto’s sources for pronouns training.
  • 1 more Board Member needed for Honoured Positions Committee

Directors Liability Insurance – went out after the recent case/verdict.

Grant: New legislation on communicating staff after hours. 

Sherwin: we’re going to create a policy around this legislation that speaks directly to the uniqueness of Pride Toronto (events held after work hours).

D!XON: Do artists have to register every year or just once? 

Sherwin: Artists have to register every year (to show that they are still interested in participating year after year).

TiKA: GBP artists: is the talent going to be separate. Do artists register separately?

Sherwin: artists will be managed separately, so yes they will have to register separately. Board can support by sending out applications/encouraging artists to apply.

Discussed

Standing Item: Treasurer Report:

  • Budget vs Actuals (Aug- Nov, 2021) Short.pdf
  • FULL Budget Vs. Actual -November 2021.xlsx – Budget vs. Actuals.pdf
  • Audited Financial Statements: 202107 Pride Toronto Financial Statements Draft December 2 2021.pdf

Treasurer, Ande, joined by Ed Scheck and Kevin Thomas from KPMG, Bobby. 

 

Review of Financial Statements

 

**In-Camera Session with auditors and only Board held**

 

Ande: Budget vs. Actuals review.

 

Brian: Other POS systems other than PayPal for donations?

Sherwin: people can write cheques and send etransfers; donation app is sent out closer to the Festival season (donate app).

Discussed

 

Motion to approve audited financial statements.

Mover: Ande

Seconder: Sam

Membership Approvals

Grant:

32 people have applied to join Membership.

 

Brian on list of Membership Approval (given his role on the Board is coming to an end) abstain from discussion and approval.

 

Any new Memberships that come in between December 14th and December 27th, will need to be approved on December 27th by Board so that they can have a vote at the AGM.

Action Items:

  • Nipuni to send a calendar hold as a reminder and send Board new Memberships on December 27th.
  • Board to approve new Memberships through online vote.

Motion to approve new Membership Applications. 

Mover: Ande 

Seconder: Jad

Motion: Approved

Annual General Meeting Update

  • General Update / Voting Method

Grant and Nipuni

 

Needed: 2 Board Members to monitor Questions.

 

Initial notice to go out later in December and then full package to be sent in January.

 

Meet the Board Candidates Q&A TownHall taking place.

Board Q&A Document being developed for AGM.

 

Voting Method for Board Directors: Four Open Position

Up for Discussion. Same method as last year.

Motion to approve Voting Method:

Mover: Ande

Seconder: Jad

Opposed: Brian

Motion: Passes

Governance and Policy Committee 

  • By-Law No. 1 Amendments (Update Only) 
  • Membership Policy

Grant  

 

ByLaw Update: Ontario Not For Profit Act (we have 3 years to comply). We’re going to meet with the legal team in December that has been going over our ByLaws to go over specifics. 

Special Board Meeting in the first/second week of January to be held to go over AGM Items that need to be approved).

 

Membership Policy: As part of new legislation. We need individuals’ legal name (if different from the name they use), and home address. In particular, if any Members request Membership Registry access, we would need to provide address/contact info (need to build processes around this).

Discussed 

 

Motion to approve Membership Policy.

Mover: Sam

Seconder: Yuri 

Motion: Approved

Standing Item: In Camera Session 

  • Minutes (see email from Brian
    • November 23 Minutes
    • November 29 Minutes
  • ED Performance Review (see email

Grant, Secretary (Brian)

Motion to move in camera:

Mover: Ande

Seconder: Jad

Motion: Approved

 

Other Business / Extra Time 

All

Motion to Move Out of In Camera Session included in In Camera minutes

Adjournment

Co-Chairs

Motion to Adjourn.

Mover: Sam 

Seconded: Grant

Motion: Approved

2020

Annual General Meeting 2020

Board Meeting Minutes 2020

Date: June 9th 2020
Time: 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Location: Online/teleconference
Notetaker: Brian De Matos
Attendance:
Board Members: Alyssa Mohabir, Shakir Rahim, Christin Milloy, Jad Jaber, Samantha Fraser, Ande Clumpus, Brian De Matos.
Staff: Bobby & Amber, Nicoy, Brandon, Leanna, Mykle
Regrets/Absent: Michael Erickson



Anti Black Racism Strategy:

Currently reviewing Edna’s proposal on Ally Training.

Communicating with BLMTO – The board prepared a communication to BLMTO and will reach out to them for input for our statement but we will work in the statement

  • Organization Donations: 10k divided by 4.
  • Toronto Kiki Ball Alliance
  • Black CAP
  • BLMTO Freedom School.
  • (One more will be discussed)

Artist: We are asking the black artist for paintings to decorate the office.

Motion: To increase the budget amount by $5000 to Pride Toronto Anti-black Racism Initiatives to a full 20K.

Motion: Passed

A strategy that PT will take regarding our statement: 

We are ready to release the motion approved the statement and wait for input from BLMTO and or the Black Queer and Trans Identified community members. 

Action Items: Reaching out to BLMTO by tomorrow. 

The statement membership approved (?) 

Virtual Pride Update:

Amber has updated the board on virtual pride programming.

  • Politician appearances at Pride

Action items: The prime minister will not have involvement in the virtual parade.

The board will have a meeting with Tory and discuss participation.

Blood Ban:

Blood Ban coalition update: PT is supporting this.

Board Only Section:

Announcement:

  • Shakir is stepping down as Co-Chair effective immediately and will step down as a board member after Pride month because of personal health reasons.
  • Alyssa is stepping down as a board member and chair at the end of June.

Finance update. 

  • Andy will be presenting to the ON finance tourism committee.

Action Item: 

  • Alyssa will email BLMTO and CC the board. 
  • Christin will start developing the draft statement

Date: June 23rd 2020
Time: 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Location: Online/teleconference 
Notetaker: Brian De Matos
Attendance:
Board Members: Alyssa Mohabir, Shakir Rahim, Christin Milloy, Jad Jaber, Samantha Fraser, Ande Clumpus, Brian De Matos.
Staff: Bobby & Amber
Regrets/Absent: Michael Erickson, Jad Jaber



Declaring Conflict of interest: Agenda Item Supporting NPPC Event. Shakir, Christin and Brian have declared a conflict of interest as being old and current or inactive members of NPPC. and all three board members have excused themselves from the conversation and voting of this item. 

Board next steps needed. Shakir and Alyssa are both stepping down and we are reviewing the exit strategy. An email will be sent out to membership and we will be reviewing next steps on board recruitment. 

Action item: Shakir will be drafting a membership email for approval. 

Potential Indigenous larger statement (post-Sunday’s small social post) (Written by staff) 

We have release a blur on social media regarding indginous programing and issues that arose. Bobby will be writing a sull statement regarding the issues and our next steps on creating a framework for addressing anti-indginous racism at Pride Toronto. 

Action item: Bobby will draft a statement and send it to the board for review. (This is due before the end of July) 

Defunding Police Statement: We will be releasing this member motion statement in July 

Support for NPPC event: NPPC has requested funding from PT for their event on defunding the police/Teach in. (Shakir, Christin and Brian excused themselves from this agenda item)

Action item: The board approves to fund ASL for there event up to $1500 

Date: July 7th 2020
Time: 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Location: Online/teleconference 
Notetaker: Brian De Matos
Attendance:
Christin Milloy, Jad Jaber, Samantha Fraser, Ande Clumpus, Brian De Matos.
Regrets/Absent: Michael Erickson

Approval of Agenda: Approved 
Approved Approval of Minutes: Approved



Staff Request/Human Resources  

The Board has received a request from staff 

We are discussing best practices regarding staff compensations and ways to go forward to make sure there is no pay description regarding identities and power imbalances and best practices to HR 

Action Item:  

HR Strategy 

Samantha will create a questionnaire on HR issues, send it to the whole board for input and send it to staff for next steps

Action Item: 

  • Christin will seek out third party HR consultant 
  • An HR committee will be created to oversee this work.

Strategy follow up: we are discussing the strategy on going forward with the strat plan.

Action Item: Samantha will contact Amber and will be emailing Amber on sending the current strat plan and what they’re working on.

Blackness Yes!

Action Item: Brian will create a working document on their directives and send it to the board.

Anti-Black Racism Strategy 

Action Item: Samantha will create a working document on next steps and send it to the board.

Personnel Issues:

Action: These issues will be transferred to the HR strategy

Budget/Financial Report

Andy gave us a financial overview.

Membership Budget Survey

Action Item:

  • Ande Clumpus will develop a survey and send it to board for review
  • Christin will reach out to Vancouver pride for their ethical fundraising on Corporate Sponsorship.

Appointed Board Member: 

We will be finalising the questionnaire by July 8th and send out to staff and membership. 

Harassment Policy: Deferred to policy committee
Co-chair elections: Deferred to another Board Meeting.
LGBTQ2+ Advisory Body at City Hall: Deferred to next board meeting

Harm Reduction proposal:

Action Item: Samantha will send an email response.

Email Logistics: The Board Email will be public.

 

Date: August 11th 2020
Time: 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Location: Online/teleconference 
Attendance:
Board Members: Christin Milloy, Samantha Fraser, Ande Clumpus, Brian De Matos.
Staff: Bobby MacPherson, Amber Moyle
Regrets/Absent: Michael Erickson,Jad Jaber



Volunteer Program Plan Update

Staff have updated the board on the new volunteer structure. We will be meeting with team leads to get feedback on this new program. 

Blast Emails issue

We have discussed the issues that have been brought by and due to email protocols. 

Action Item: 

Samantha and Christin will reach out to Leanna and Nicoy and discuss concerns that are in their email. 

Blackness Yes! Directives 

We will be meeting with BY! On August 18th to go through progress reports on their Directives. 

Action Item: 

Ande will be arranging the logistics of this meeting with Blackness Yes! 

Financial Update

The board was given an update on PT finances. 

ED Search Update 

Christin and Samantha have updated the board on the ED Search. 

Policy Committee Update

The board has been updated on the work of the policy committee. 

Motion: To communicate with our memberships to take input on Board agreement and also a call out to those who may want to join the committee. 

Passed 

Press Release 

We are paying 40k to artists due to many artists having a burden of finances due to 

COVID-19 and will announce it shortly. 

Anti-Black Racism Training Status Update. 

We had a meeting with a facilitator and have a tentative training session schedule in late september. 

Indiginoues Training for the Board

Bobby will be sending out the details emails on this training we are looking 

Nov 14-15 to Nov 21-22. 

Motion: Attendance for this training is mandatory for all board members. 

Motion: Passed 

Board Only Items: 

$5k Accessibility Grant 

We are discussing a new granting program that delivers scholarships to BIPOC QT ASL interpreters. We have allocated 5k of funds to initiate the program proposal. 

Action Item: 

Amber will reach out to colleges and universities to gather information and what partnership will look like for this grant/scholarships. 

PT will be organising a consultation with ASL/Deaf BIPOC QT community members to discuss the development of this project proposal. 

Board Candidate Recruitment Status

Actions Item: ALL Board: We will be reviewing applications next week. 

LGBTQ2+ Advisory Body at City Hall 

Christin has advised us that she will not be applying to this committee. 

Board Meetings and Burnout 

We all did a check in with each other regarding workload etc.

Date: September, 22, 2020
Time: 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Location: Online/teleconference 
Attendance:
Board Members: Christin Milloy, Jad Jaber, Samantha Fraser, Ande Clumpus, Brian De Matos.
Staff: Amber Moyle & Bobby MacPherson
Regrets/Absent: Michael Erickson,



Agenda Item 

Notes

Motions/Action Items

Approval of Agenda

Approving the agenda 

Approved 

Approval of Minutes 

Approval of Minutes: September 15 2020 

Approved 

Grant Updates 

The board received an update on the grants from staff.  

Received 

HR Committee Edits Approval

The Board has edited and reviewed the ToR for the HR committee. 

Motion: Approving the ToR for the HR committee. 

Vote: Adopted 

ED Search update

The board and staff were updated on the search committee. 

Received 

Volunteer program update

Staff have updated the board on the volunteer program and will be meeting with volunteers old and new to do a review. 

Received 

New board members next steps

We are appointing 4 new board members 

Grant Gonzales, Yuri Hernandez, Maher Sinno and Sheldon Dixon 

Motion: To appoint 4 new board members; Grant Gonzales, Yuri Hernandez, Maher Sinno and Sheldon Dixon

Vote: Approved 

Member approvals

The board is approving 9 new members. 

Motion: To approved new members. 

Vote: Approved

Complaint update

The board has been updated on a complaint. 

Received 

Legal Consolidation re: firm

We discuss consolidating legal service and Bobby will be looking into firms. 

Action items: 

Bobby will be doing research on legal firms. 

Board Only Meeting

External Discussion

We have discussed issues that have been brought forth to our attention and we will be discussing the best way to go forward. 

Action Items: 

  • The board will be getting in contact with a consulting firm.

Approval of board contract

The board has approved this sign on document for Board members. 

Motion: To approved this on-boarding document 

Blocko ED question response

We got an email from Blocko and will be responding. 

Action Item: 

  • Andy will edit a draft email and send them a reply. 

Staff Reviews Update

The HR Committee has given the board an update. 

Received 

Anti-Black Racism Training DECIDE TONIGHT

We have reviewed a slate proposal and approved one. 

Motion: Approving training from CFAC

Vote Approved. 

Action Item: 

  • Samantha will contact CFAC for future steps. 

Board Member Onboarding (different than next steps)

Documents and Training have synced for on boarding. We will be meeting with new board members at our next meeting. 

Action Item: 

  • Samantha will send the list to the board for input. 

Date: October 6th, 2020
Time: 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Location: Online/teleconference 
Attendance:
Board Members: Christin Milloy, Jad Jaber, Samantha Fraser, Maher Sinno,David Lewis, Grant Gonzales, Sheldon Dixon, Yuri Hernandez, Ande Clumpus, Brian De Matos.
Staff: Amber Moyle (staff portion of meeting), Bobby MacPherson (staff portion of meeting)
Regrets/Absent: Michael Erickson.



Agenda Item 

Notes

Motions/Action Items

Approval of Agenda

Approving the agenda 

Approved 

Approval of Minutes 

Approval of Minutes: September 22 2020   

Approved 

Director of Operations 

Full report has been sent to the board by email. Legal Iler Campbell LLP Letter of Engagement  is in the process of being retained. Dates for the weekend festival June 25th-27th 2021. The Festival footprint, if not digital, will be proposed and will be sent to the board. We will review how COVID-19 will impact this as it develops. 

Action Item: 

Bobby The Festival footprint if not digital, will be proposed and will be sent to the board. 

Director of Sponsorship 

General Update: 

  • Sponsorship deck 2021 Sponsorship meetings have started.
  •  Programming general events discussion:

Campaign 

  • request for donations + charities of choice – split? job postings – social media, grant manager,
  • Extend Tara – sponsorship assistant 
  • Marketing Conference – end of November 

Action Item: 

  • Board contact Amber if you have any ideas in connection to sponsors and grants. 
  • Amber will organise a brainstorming session regarding headliners, branding, programming and Charities to sponsor. 

OHRC Complaint

We have received some concerns regarding some programs that are identity specific for the BI+ programs. We are reviewing the material that was sent to us. 

Action Item: 

  • We will have a lawyer review this so we can reflect our programming development that adheres to the laws.
  • Samantha will follow up with the member who brought up the concerns.  

Committee/membership approval

The Board has approved a new member. 

The board will be reviewing the committee structure  and looking at needs and future committees needed. 

Motion: The board has approved a new member.

Vote: passed 

Action Item: 

  • Brian will develop ToR Advocacy – Human rights committee 
  • Christin will develop the committee channel section in slack. 

Training & ED update

Facilitator for Anti-Blackracsim is being booked – ED search update – final phase 

Received 

Board Only Meeting

Longer introductions

We have spent time getting to know each other. 

N/A

Board Expenses

An overview of how we adhere to accountable measures when board members  occur board expenses. 

Action Item: 

Andy will send out by email the procedure on approving board expenses. 

Date: October 20th, 2020
Time: 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Location: Online/teleconference 
Attendance:
Board Members: Christin Milloy, Jad Jaber, Samantha Fraser, Maher Sinno,David Lewis, Grant Gonzales, Sheldon Dixon, Ande Clumpus, Brian De Matos.
Staff: Amber Moyle (staff portion of meeting), Bobby MacPherson (staff portion of meeting) Freya Selander (Agenda Item Volunteer Program Update)
Regrets/Absent: Michael Erickson (On Leave) Yuri Hernandez



Agenda Item 

Notes

Motions/Action Items

Approval of Agenda

Approving the agenda 

Adopted 

Approval of Minutes 

Approval of Minutes: October 6th, 2020   

Approved 

Volunteer Program Update

Staff has updated the board on the new volunteer program. 

A working group will be formed to look at the volunteer structure: Yuri (Possible), David, Grant, Ande, Christin. 

Action Item: 

  • Freya will set up a meeting with the working group to address the volunteer. 

AGM

We are setting a date for the AGM January 21st. Grant will work with Bobby on logistics. 

Motion: AGM date will be January 21st. 

Motion: Carried 

Director of Sponsorship items

Staff has updated on new programs Marketing Conference 2020 

Received 

Committees Updates

The board has been updated on the work of the policy committee and will have proposals reported to them at a later meeting. 

The board will be working on an overview of committees board members have signed on the Committee List to develop ToR

Action Item: 

  • Board to sign up and create a ToR for a committee. 

Air Italy Motion

Deferred to a later board meeting until a report regarding all the facts.

Deferred 

Action Item: 

  • Amber to collect all the information

Board Only Meeting 

HR Correspondence Update(s)

The board is discussing HR staff and pay grades 

In Camera Motion 

ED Contract Plan

Samantha will send to the board the offer and employment and contract of ED and send it to the lawyer for review. 

Action Item: 

  • Board to review contract for feedback

Date: November 2nd, 2020
Time: 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Location: Online/teleconference 
Attendance:
Board Members: Christin Milloy, Jad Jaber, Samantha Fraser, Maher Sinno,David Lewis, Grant Gonzales, Sheldon Dixon, Ande Clumpus, Brian De Matos.
Staff: Amber Moyle (staff portion of meeting), Bobby MacPherson (staff portion of meeting)
Regrets/Absent: Michael Erickson.



Agenda Item 

Notes

Motions/Action Items

Approval of Agenda

Approving the agenda 

Approved 

Approval of Minutes 

Approval of Minutes: October 20th, 2020 

Approved 

Declaration of Conflict interest. 

The board has discussed a potential conflict issue regarding Maher and Sheldon being performers. The board has discussed this and do not believe there is one.

Motion: There is no conflict of issue regarding Sheldon and Maher being performers at pride. 

Motion: passed 

Staff Updates

Amber: has updates on programming and sponsorship and the meet and greet with Sherwin. The new ED will be part of the new hires. (Social Media). Bobby: Sent around the new renewal contract for Production Manager

Motion: to extend the production manager role for 8 weeks and to have the new ED deal with that HR issue. 

Motion: Passed 

Meltwater

Social Media monitoring and engagement software is being discussed 14k a year we are contracted for this year. 

 

Audit update

Bobby has given us an update, the audit should be done for November 21st.

 

AGM

Grant has updated us on AGM planning and recruitment. 

Received 

Budget: Board Prof.Development

The board reviewed the line item budget. 

Deferred 

Treasurer Update

We are talking about our current budget and a draft budget proposal will be sent to the board shortly. 

Action item: 

  • Ande will send out a calendar invite to be in the finance committee. 

Board Only Meeting

Correspondence Update(s)

Samantha has updated the board on hiring an investigator.

Action Item: 

  • Samantha will follow up regarding potential investigation and quality 

HR topics

We are deferring this subject until Sherwin is updated and can work with the HR committee. 

Deferred 

Date: November 17th, 2020
Time: 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Location: Online/Cyberspace
Attendance:
Board Members: Christin Milloy, Jad Jaber, Samantha Fraser, Maher Sinno, Grant Gonzales, Sheldon Dixon, Ande Clumpus, Brian De Matos, Yuri Hernandez.
Staff: Sherwin Modeste, Amber Moyle (staff portion of meeting), Bobby MacPherson (staff portion of meeting)
Regrets/Absent: Michael Erickson, David Lewis



Agenda Item 

Notes

Motions/Action Items

Approval of Agenda

Approving the agenda 

Approved 

Approval of Minutes 

Approval of Minutes: November 2nd 2020

Approved 

Staff Updates

Amber has updated us on: 

1. The Pride Toronto Creative Studio & Artist Residency Program – – Event handbook – Applicant registration -Website – Booking program – Test run – Launch event – Yohomo

  • Space use – with our new office we will be providing space use for community groups when this launch. 

2. Newsletter Nov 23 

  • Holiday campaign – The 519, Maggies TO 

3. Social media coordinator 

Bobby: 

Gave us an overview on Grants – We are in the middle of audits and Audits are going well. 

Action Item: 

  • Amber will send out the space use policy

Human Rights Update

Special Code on OHR

Report Received 

AGM Update

Grant and Bobby have updated the board on AGM planning. We are sending out applications for board recruitment and we will be sending a save the date before the official notification. A reminder of interim board members to send their intention of running at the AGM to the Secretary by november 23rd. 

A member of PT has made some concerns in the past about certain grants. 

Action Items: 

  • Amber will create talking points and FAQ regarding grants. 
  • Samantha will follow  up with Michael before the AGM. 

Staff Bios on Site – Discussion

Staff and Board are setting out Bio’s for our website. Some staff wish not to be listed on the site. 

Deferred to Sherwin 

Sherwin on-boarding

Samantha and staff are setting an onboarding plan for Sherwin. 

Received

Media strategy for ED news

Getting Sherwin ready for media inquiries. 

Action Item: 

  • Amber has developed a media plan and media planning and will send that out. 

Treasurer Update

Had a finance committee meeting. Sherwin will be briefed on financial issues. 

Received 

Community Engagement & Social Media

We spoke about our culture and social media posts,  promoting more community local artists. 

Action Item: 

  • Christin will follow up with Amber regarding the Social media Policy
  • Amber will be attending the next policy committee meeting. 

Role Reviews Next Steps

Board has done a review of roles regarding staff. Sherwin will do a review on staff, organisational structure overview. 

Action Item: 

  • Sherwin will develop a report for the board. 

Member Request

We received a request from membership. 

Action Item: 

  • Yuri and Samantha will reach out to to the member engagement 

HR Updates

Samantha updated the board on HR matters.

Action item:

  • Sherwin will be looking into HR matters. 

 

Date: December 1st, 2020
Time: 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Location: Online/teleconference 
Attendance:
Board Members: Christin Milloy, Jad Jaber, Samantha Fraser, Maher Sinno,David Lewis, Grant Gonzales, Sheldon Dixon, Ande Clumpus, Brian De Matos.
Staff: Amber Moyle (staff portion of meeting), Bobby MacPherson (staff portion of meeting)
Regrets/Absent: Michael Erickson.



Agenda Item 

Notes

Motions/Action Items

Approval of Agenda

Approving the agenda 

Approved 

Approval of Minutes 

Approval of Minutes: November 17th 2020 

Approved 

Senior Staff Updates

Amber has updated the board regarding: ED announcement, website update and social media. New staff for SM. We are also applying for a new grant for 25k to help with virtual Programing. Creative Studio & Artist Residency Program has been launched. 

Recieved 

ED Report

The board has received the ED report. 

Received 

Website Bios Positioning & Titles

We are discussing the best place where BoD bio should be and published board minutes should be on the website.  

Action Item: 

  • Amber will draft a working document regarding the leadership team section on the website.

Facebook Logo

Logo was posted on FB and we are discussing the marketing strategy and use on SM. 

Action Item: 

  • Amber will be sending out the marketing guidelines to everyone.

AGM Update

We have received an update on AGM planning. 

Motion: Approved $1,600 for agm cost. 

Motion: Approved

Board Recruitment

We strategically plan on outreach to priority communities. 

The Selection Committee is starting up on this.  

Action Item: 

  • Board and staff, if interested please email Grant to join the selections committee. 

Queer Seniors Statement/Committee

We have been in convection, with senior 2SLGBTQ networks. We are discussing setting out a statement addressing these issues. 

Action Item: 

  • Amber will be working with LeZlie and other relevant groups to make a statement. 
  • Amber will be meeting with Sherwin to discuss best practice on community participation. 

Treasurer Update

We are updated on the finance committee. 

Received 

Sherwin ED community/ Membership get to know online meeting

A meet and greet event will be organised so our  membership and community can meet Sherwin. 

Action Item: 

  • Amber to work with Sherwin and staff to create a meet and greet with the new ED and a FAQ on questions regarding PT will be produced after. 

Pending Membership Approval 

Pending members have been sent to the board for approval. 

Motion: The board has approved and membership Approved 4 new members. 

Additional ED Report Items

Sherwin has recommended HR matters. Sherwin has been empowered to make HR decisions report to the board. 

Motion: Cost of living increase to retroactive from september for volunteer coordinator. 

Date: December 1st, 2020
Time: 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Location: Online/teleconference 
Attendance:
Board Members: Christin Milloy, Jad Jaber, Samantha Fraser, Maher Sinno,David Lewis, Grant Gonzales, Sheldon Dixon, Ande Clumpus, Brian De Matos.
Staff: Amber Moyle (staff portion of meeting), Bobby MacPherson (staff portion of meeting)
Regrets/Absent: Michael Erickson.



Agenda Item 

Notes

Motions/Action Items

Approval of Agenda

Approving the order of business: Agenda  

Approved 

Approval of Minutes 

Approval of Minutes: December 1st, 2020  

Approved 

Declaration of Conflict of Interest 

No declaration of conflict of interest 

None Declared 

Decisions Tracker (Between Board Meetings)

Decisions made outside of regular board meetings 

Approved 

Senior Staff Update

Staff has updated us on the new grants they have applied to and specifically, an update to the 2S- tales funding grant, it is moving forward.

Staff have updated us on our audited finance, this is completed and a report will be delivered to the board this week. 

Received 

Branding Manual (Follow Up)

Primeau has given us an overview on the website outline. Board members have given feedback 

Received 

Executive Director Report 

The board has received the Executive Director Report and Sherwin gave us an oview on it. 

Received 

Treasurer Report

Treasure has stated a verbal report and update on a finance committee. 

Received 

Member Motion / Volunteer Restructure 

We were updated on concerns from a member and discussed the best way to go forward. 

Regarding volunteer restructure announcement we are discussing 

Action Items: 

  • Yuri will keep in contact with that member to address their concerns. Sherwin will be CCd in communication with members. 
  • Sherwin will commence a complete review of the volunteer program. 

Programming Presentation 

Staff has presented us a report and overview on Pride Toronto’s current programming. assessing issues and changes that are being made. 

The board has had a chance to make input. 

Received 

Annual General Meeting Update and Discussion 

Board Recruitment Deadline application Jan  3rd for application deadline.  We have an Interview/Selections Committee: Sheldon, Samatha, Grant, Brian, Sherwin. are on it. So far we have 6 applications. 

Community Outreach we have reached out to 200 agencies via email and staff are calling selective agencies. 

There will be a Q&A session regarding board recruitment. December 28th – 2pm.  

Action Item: 

  • Grant will set up a google doc where we can input and prep for membership questions. 

Policy Committee Report 

By-Law Amendments (Executive Summary)

By-Law Amendments, Package 1

By-Law Amendments, Package 2 

Membership Structure

Executive Director (ex officio)

Removal of Director

The Executive Committee item has been taken out of bylaw amendments. 

Sponsorship Policy has been deferred 

BoD Expenses and Reimbursement Policy item has been deferred. 

Motion: Approving Package 1 to move forward to AGM for a membership vote.

Mover: Grant 

Second: Samantha 

Motion: Passed 

Motion: The Board has put forward the membership change package that will be voted on in the next AGM.  

Mover: Grant 

Second: Samantha 

Motion: passed

Motion: to move forward Executive Director officio – by law amendment moved to the next AGM for a vote. 

Mover: Grant 

Second: Samantha

Motion: approved

Motion: Approve to move section remove the director amendment to be voted on, at the next AGM. 

Mover: Grant 

Second: Samantha 

Motion: Approved 

Sponsorship and reimbursement policy has been deferred. 

Board Only Meeting

Social Media and Local Artists

Deferred 

Deferred 

Master Services Agreement

We will be going forward with Natasha and Sherwin and Samantha will sign their contract. 

Received 

Anti-Black Racism Training & Next Steps  

Board has got input from staff and other options are being considered. 

Action Item: 

  • Sherwin and Samantha will look into other trainings 

Equitable Action for Change

Item Deferred 

Deferred 

Committee Update

Item Deferred 

Deferred 

Holiday Break and Next Meeting (January 6) 

We will meet in the new year 

Adopted

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