Atlantic Vegetation Management Association

Annual Meeting Minutes

Best Western Glengarry, Truro, Nova Scotia

October 25, 2013

The Meeting was called to order by President Rob Thomson at 10:30. Joe Calder, Past President agreed to act as Secretary and take minutes in absence of Jeremy How (regrets).

1. Rob reviewed the circulated Agenda. There were no additions.
2. The minutes of the 2012 Annual Meeting in St. John”s were circulated and read. Moved by Rick D./Gilles minutes be approved. MC.
3. There was no business arising from the minutes.
4. Mike Boucher, Treasurer, reviewed the financial statement on projection screen.  Fourteen hundred dollars was the amount raised through the 2012 Howard Wellman-Randy Ralph Silent  Auction in support of the Childrens”  Wish Foundation. There were a couple of general questions re. the financial statement and  the Association remains stable in this regard. Moved by R. Young/A. Chase  the financial statement be approved. MC.
5. Rob Thomson commented on his, and the activities of the Association Executive during the past year and that the main focus remains to be the organization of the Annual Conference and Business Meeting. Rob encouraged all members to discuss meeting ideas and issues with the Executive members. It was agreed it would be beneficial to have conference organized earlier in the year and advertised to draw more attendance and membership. The issue of having speaker abstracts put on the AVMA website,  along with the  possibly of  only members attending the meeting having access to was discussed, as was the potential of it distracting from people attending the Conference. It was suggested the Executive take a closer look at this over the coming year and report back to the membership.
6. 7. Joe Calder presented the Nomination Report  following the request for nominations from the floor. Vacancies existed for Treasurer (two year term), Secretary ( 2 year term),  First and Second Year Directors, following the vacancy created by nonparticipation of the 2012  Third Year Director.  The 2013 Executive is: President, Matt Tucker(N.B.), Past President, Rob Thomson(NS) Vice President, Craig Parsons (NL), Third Year Director, Virginia Mills (PEI), Second Year Director, Martin Noel (NB), and First Year Director, Peter Keddy (NB), Secretary ,Michael Cunningham(NB) and Treasurer Mike Boucher (NB). The nomination Committee Report was moved by J. Calder/R. Thomson. MC.

8         The location of upcoming meetings was discussed. The 2014 Annual Conference and Meeting is scheduled for New Brunswick. Having field tours with the meetings was discussed. Geoff Gordon, President of OVMA mentioned the Ontario group has a half day tour associated with their Annual Meetings and discussed its importance for networking and socializing for the group. .Saint John and Moncton were discussed as host cities and the timing for the conference was discussed with direction to Executive NOT to hold it in Nov and for Exec to decide on an October date so as not to conflict with other related conferences. Motion by R. Young/M. Tucker that Executive decide on time, NB location and the possibility of a related tour. MC.

The 2015 ROW Conference Halifax was discussed. Rob Young, NSP, provided information in his presentation yesterday and the following points arose for discussion:

-Despite the last ECVMA (AVMA, QVMA and OVMA) joint Conference being in Halifax, Rob Young had spoken with, and got approval from Quebec and Ontario groups that they once again come to Halifax to join with the ROW Conference in 2015 and to forgo the 2014 meeting. The plan is for the VMAs to be responsible for and hold their own business meetings and that the information sessions would all be tied to the ROWC-concurrent session format, with an Environmental theme,

Sunday-Wednesday time frame, none of the usual organization for ECVMAs, business meeting rooms to be provided (Delta chosen location).

Geoff Gordon mentioned Ontario”s support and that ECVMA should consider hosting an event at the conference, with member support from the meeting.

9 Other Business included discussion around AVMA website, i.e. it should be updated with current minutes and such as well as be adapted to ease/improve the registration process which would benefit the Association. Paypal, early registration discounts, late fees,  and other issues were discussed. Motion by J. Calder/R. Thomson that Executive see that website is updated with current minutes and related information as well as ways to improve online registration. MC.

 10. The Executive were thanked for organizing the 2013 Conference and the valued sponsors were gratefully thanked. Initial reports from the Howard Wellman-Randy Ralph Memorial Silent Auction for the CWF that the amount was around one thousand dollars. The meeting was then adjourned.

Minutes recorded by,

Joe Calder

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