Harbord Village Residents' Association

Minutes of HVRA Board Meeting

February 20, 2007

Kensington Gardens

Present: Gus Sinclair, Sandra DeAthe, Katrina McHugh, Tim Grant, Jane Auster, Leslie Thompson, Sue Dexter, David Booz, Richard Gilbert, Stuart Schoenfeld, Richard Longley, Michael Heydon, Margaret Beare

Regrets:  John Hong,  Jane Perdue

Guest:  Jason Moore, to demo new web site  (until 8:05 p.m.)

1. Chair's Welcome: The meeting commenced at 7:08 p.m.

Jason proceeded with the demo of the website at the top of the meeting.    Jason has two goals to complete the project: 1) to get people to put material on the site to present to the public and members, and, 2) to enable membership payment on the site.  The Board was very impressed with the site overall, asked many questions, and discussed possible changes to the site before it goes live.  One suggestion was to have a drop-down of our current committees and project for members to indicate their areas of interest.  We also wondered if we should limit the site access of non-members.  There was some discussion of the membership categories and levels of payment, and how many choices should be offered. 

The official launch will be in May at the Spring Meeting (May 15th) when it will be presented to the general membership - Jason will do the presentation.  Sue Dexter called for a vote of thanks to all the sub-committee members, including Jason Moore, Mark Treleaven, Gus Sinclair, Richard Gilbert, Katrina McHugh, and Sandra DeAthe.  The sub-committee will meet again in 2-3 weeks. We are hoping to have an article in the Gleaner about the new web site.

Gus thanked Jason on behalf of the Board, and Jason left at 8:05 p.m.

2.      Agenda:  The agenda was approved, with some additions.  Gus will not be available for our next scheduled meeting on March 20th; the Board was in agreement that the meeting should be moved to March 13th.  A new regular Committee Report on the Agenda will be the Community Police, reported on by Margaret Beare.

3.      Minutes:  The minutes were approved with two changes, moved by Margaret Beare, seconded by Richard Longley, and carried.

4.      Correspondence Received:  The following correspondence was circulated to the Board and noted as received:

• Letter from U. Ernest Bucher, Executive of Heritage Toronto Awards, notifying HVRA on being awarded the Community Heritage Award for the Toronto & East York Community Council Area
• Letter from U. Ernest Bucher, Executive of Heritage Toronto Awards, notifying HVRA on being awarded the Heritage Toronto Members' Choice Award.
• Copy of letter from resident John Newton, sent to Mayor David Miller with a copy to Adam Vaughan, requesting restoration of the parkette on the north side of Sussex Street, east of Robert Street

5.      Business Arising  U of T
Sue Dexter reported that Adam Vaughan met with U of T reps, who said one thing about the Huron-Sussex issue, then did something different.  There will be a Liaison Committee meeting in March, and Adam Vaughan will be attending.  There are many issues to be discussed, including the Huron-Sussex issue and the Robert Street field.

6.      Committee Reports

a. Environment

i. Trees Tim Grant
Still waiting for the Trillium Foundation to respond; we were rejected for back-up funding.
Fraser Smith has been working on the absentee landlords report, and has found that the rate of absentee landlords is 20-30%.

ii. Solar Tim Grant
The MURB meeting is tomorrow night; they are still discussing what to do next. The Homeowners' project is more ‘feet on the ground'. An RFP is being developed, and the next meeting is Wednesday, February 28th.

iii. Graffiti
No report.

b. Membership Katrina McHugh
Katrina recommended that all members pay for one year at a time rather than multiple years, which would streamline the process. Now is it sometimes impossible to tell if someone is paying for one person for two years, or two people for one year. The situation is more defined with the software, as people can select which year or years they wish to pay for.
After some discussion, it was decided that part of the problem is that the form is ambiguous, partly due to a lack of room on the sheet. The sales pitch should be minimized, and the area for payment made clearer.
ACTION: Katrina will re-design the membership form.

c. Community Liaison Gus Sinclair
Gus will email the Board.

d. College Street
No report

e. Zoning Gus Sinclair
Diane Silver is now prepared to start entering the south inventory data in the database.

f. Communications Jane Auster
Newsletter copy is due to Jane by the end of March so the Newsletter can be out 2 weeks before the Spring Meeting (May 15th). Jane will send out a note to request input.

g. U of T Liaison
Covered in Agenda item #5.

h. Community Police Report Margaret Beare
Margaret reported that her impression of the police team is that they are very hard-nosed, and in favour of being hard on people. They are not really responsive to the community.

7.      Other Business
The issue of carbon reduction was discussed, with the question raised "what should we do as a residents' association to maintain pressure on the City and U of T to do something about the issue?' 
We might distribute to the community a carbon inventory list about each person's carbon load, and what that person can do to reduce the load.  This will be brought up in our Newsletter.
Can we figure out much we in Harbord Village emitted in 2006, and how then to reduce this amount?

The meeting adjourned at 8:50 p.m.  Next meeting March 13th, same time, same place.