Report on the OCCPEHR Annual General Meeting
Thursday, May 27th, 2010
Oakville Community Centre
for Peace, Ecology and Human Rights (OCCPEHR)
P.O. Box 52007, Oakville, ON L6J 7N5
Tel/Fax: (905) 849-5501
E-mail: info@oakvillepeacecentre.org
Website: www.oakvillepeacecentre.org
REPORT ON THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING HELD ON MAY 17, 2010
Dear supporters,
The annual general meeting for the Oakville Community Centre for Peace, Ecology and Human Rights was held on Monday, May 17, 2010 in a committee room at the Oakville Town Hall.
The thirty-five people in attendance listened to a keynote presentation from Rod Jerred (Editor of The Oakville Beaver) and to reports provided by Chairperson Mervyn Russell and Executive Director Stephen Dankowich.
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Rod Jerred has been the Managing Editor of The Oakville Beaver for the past ten years; during that time, The Beaver was named Ontario’s top community newspaper by the Ontario Community Newspapers Association for four years in a row between 2005 and 2008.
Mr. Jerred spoke on our proposed topic of “Activism in Oakville: Perceptions and Suggestions” and he delivered a very interesting overview and made many very valuable suggestions for activists in Oakville.
The Beaver Editor expressed his admiration for activists in general and noted that they should be applauded for trying to affect positive change and for their commitment to improving the lives of others for the better in their communities.
He provided an historical overview of the various major social movements that have emerged since the 1950s including peace, civil rights, women’s, student power, environmental and the new kid power movement as exemplified by Me To We (a sponsor of the 2009 Halton Eco Festival) and other similar groups.
Mr. Jerred also provided an overview of community activism in Oakville beginning with the 1834 Temperance Society which had its headquarters at Trafalgar and Randall. Oakville is affluent but its citizens are deserving of this being highly educated and knowledgeable about other countries affairs and other important matters in his opinion.
There are seventeen ratepayer groups in Oakville and Mr. Jerred would agree that Oakville residents are more active than other communities.
In Oakville, it was the women’s movement that first succeeded in the late 1970s and early 1980s when WHAM was formed; the Women of Halton Action Movement was formed from the impetus of 1,300 women across Canada who marched on Ottawa to win equality rights. It was wonderful to hear Mr. Jerred applaud the longstanding efforts of WHAM founder Bev Lefrancois who also was a founding member of our organization, the Oakville Community Centre for Peace, Ecology and Human Rights in 1992 and who was in attendance at our annual general meeting. Bev was pivotal to the establishment of the Halton Rape Crisis Centre in the 1980s and served as its executive director until her recent retirement by which time this organization had changed its name to SAVIS or the Sexual Assault and Violence Intervention Services of Halton. The local women’s movement also finds expression today in the annual Take Back The Night march, Canadians in Solidarity with Afghan Women, and OOMA Halton who are grandmothers helping African grandmothers.
Oakville has an active Historical Society and the Halton Multicultural Council has been functioning since 1979. Since the 1970s, there has existed a chapter of Amnesty International in Oakville.
Oakville has also seen a lot of activism recently around the issues of land development in north Oakville which led to the creation of Oakvillegreen which regularly speaks out at Town Council meetings, school closures, and the power plant in southeast Oakville which led to the establishment of Citizens for Clean Air or C4CA (of which OCCPEHR is a supporter).
Mr. Jerred highlighted some of the many local activists who have made a difference in our community including Vivienne Lang (Pencils for Kids in Niger), Hilda Rossie (relief in Guatemala), Joan Gibbon (Relay for Life), the Polar Bear Dip in support of World Vision Canada, Liz Benniean of Oakvillegreen, Ann Mulvale (who attended Ontario Municipal Board meeting in the 1970s on behalf of the College Park Residents Association before becoming Mayor and recently headed up the local United Way fundraising campaigns), and Rob Burton (the current Mayor who protested the recently shelved Sithe power plant and advocated for clean air). It also was wonderful that he acknowledged both Mervyn Russell and Stephen Dankowich of OCCPEHR too.
Mr. Jerred stated that he applauded everything our group has done over the years and admitted that he found it surprising that a group like OCCPEHR’s existed in such a conservative town like Oakville. When he first arrived here from Saskatchewan, he found Oakville to be very conservative and thought that it could not be an easy task to be a radical activist in this town.
Among the many suggestions for activists that were made by Rod Jerred, he noted that The Beaver is trying to connect people with the community and let them know what they can do that weekend by publishing three days a week on Wednesday’s, Thursday’s and Friday’s.
The Beaver needs news that is local and much of it is generated by their readers who tell them about stories, interesting people and events. He argued that activists and the media have been organically connected over the years and that media attention has driven many of the issues raised by activists.
To keep an editor’s attention, activists were urged to do it properly by using “p” words such as to be passionate not phoney, to persevere, be positive, and provide reminders. Regarding letters to the editor, you should keep them short and concise, be topical, do not repeat past arguments previously published, and do not engage in name-calling in order to avoid libel and slander charges.
Mr. Jerred concluded by stating that for the newspaper industry the best way to retain readers is to remain local.
CHAIRPERSON’S REPORT
Mervyn Russell reported that we were pleased with the results of our work in the past year and he focused on highlighting the contributions made by our series of free public forums. In the past year, we have organized forums on various issues including Palestine and Israel, mining and human rights, the war in Afghanistan, the green energy act in Ontario, the case for a national children’s commissioner for Canada, and economic growth and environmental sustainability. Our annual Concert for Peace in Words and Music on January 31st featured the issues of climate change and nuclear power, and organizing for social change. We also will continue to embrace diversity and will resubmit a grant application to help us become a more diverse organization.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S REPORT
Stephen Dankowich first reported on the successes of the annual Earth Week Clean Up. There were 47 clean up coordinators who did a great job in representing our organization and in rallying their neighbourhood to participate. We estimate that 1,500 volunteers participated in cleaning up a new record thirty-nine nature sites in Oakville. A total of 5,000 kilograms of waste including 600 kilograms of metal was removed from the nature sites and it was trucked away by Halton Region Waste Management that afternoon. Thirteen community groups staffed a nature site. There were twelve sponsoring schools and 2,500 participating students at these schools. There were 94 sponsors. We received excellent media coverage in The Oakville Beaver and Oakville Today with both having editorial coverage, articles published, and a listing of the nature sites and coordinators. We printed and distributed 8,000 copies of our own Earth Week Clean Up Newspaper which acknowledged all of our sponsors for donating to this event. We are realizing our goals of promoting awareness and respect for local nature, protecting wildlife, and encouraging environmental activism. We would like to expand the Earth Week Clean Up in our 20th year to reach new neighbourhoods and connect people living along green spaces together on Saturday, April 23, 2011. We also need to gain more sponsors and have set the goal of doubling our number of sponsors in 2011 to 200 in total.
Regarding the annual Halton Eco Festival, Stephen reported that the positive energy was pulsating strongly at the event and that we succeeded in our goal of increasing environmental awareness and involvement in Halton Region through educational presentations and informational displays by environmentally-friendly businesses and organizations. There were seventy-three booths staffed by very knowledgeable and extremely dedicated exhibitors and sponsors and around 1,800 people were in attendance at the two-day event. Some of the many other features at the Halton Eco Festival included:
1. The interactive kid’s eco fun zone hosted by Trafalgar Ridge Montessori.
2. The silent auction with sixty eco-gifts to bid on.
3. Musical artists performing at the event for the first-time ever (SINVA, The Joy Band).
4. The live birds of prey shown off by sponsor Conservation Halton at a workshop on Saturday.
5. The 400 blue boxes handed out for free by sponsor Halton Region which also promoted rain barrels.
6. A fun “clothesline competition” staged by Green Pole Solutions.
7. The Town of Oakville which promoted the many initiatives of its Environmental Policy Department.
8. The fun “Eco Jeopardy” game which we created a few years ago and is now organized by students with the Peace and Social Justice Club at St. Thomas Aquinas secondary school.
9. The many health and wellness exhibitors making the connections between health and the environment.
10. The activist organizations promoting dozens of critically important campaigns.
11. The organic cotton t-shirts printed by sponsor Rafa Importers and gifted to all sponsors and exhibitors.
12. The 75 volunteers who did a great job and contributed more than 700 hours of volunteer time.
13. Perhaps the best food ever served at a Halton Eco Festival by sponsor Sky Dragon who prepared an all-vegan, non-gluten based menu.
As well, there were sponsors from the non-profit sector including the Halton Environmental Network, Oakvillegreen, the Burlington Re-Use Centre and Habitat for Humanity (Halton); these sponsors highlighted their many contributions to the community and promoted their respective campaigns for solar energy, tree initiatives, and the 3R’s of reduce-reuse-recycle.
Great efforts were made to have a waste-free event and Barbara Frensch of Burlingtongreen coordinated this very important aspect of the event. Sixteen green carts, nine blue boxes, and an on-site cardboard dumpster were filled while only three bags of garbage were sent to the landfill from all of the activity generated at the Halton Eco Festival. Congratulations to all!
Many politicians were in attendance including Mayor Robert Burton of Oakville, Halton Region Chairperson Gary Carr, Oakville MP Terence Young, and Oakville MPP Kevin Flynn. Also, all four major political parties had booths and answered people’s questions about their environmental policies.
The overall evaluation we received from sponsors and exhibitors said that the event was good, very well organized, received good publicity, and had an appropriate fee schedule; they found our newspaper to be good and the volunteers to be very good. Most importantly, 81% said they would return in 2011 for a one-day-only event and so next year’s Halton Eco Festival will take place on Saturday, April 16, 2011. Stephen noted that it would be great to develop new presentations and features for the 2011 Halton Eco Festival so that we can even better inform people about sustainability.
Of greatest importance, the Halton Eco Festival promoted the theme of “sustainability and sustainable living” for Halton Region. People discovered how to improve the natural environment, their health and our community and we learned that there are solutions for environmental problems. Ultimately, the Halton Eco Festival is about hope for the future, optimism, and the belief that we can build a more sustainable community here in Halton Region and we are so pleased that so many others agree!
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Stephen also noted that we need to build a membership base and that we have just launched a new campaign to gain two hundred paid-up members by the end of June 2010. He also stated that we need more volunteers who will help organize our events and not just volunteer at the actual event. It was noted that not having an actual centre makes organizing a lot more difficult as there is nowhere for volunteers to volunteer from.
Stephen reported that we are thinking about creating a new community event to be called “The AWE Festival” with AWE being an acronym for “Air, Water and Earth”.
In conclusion, Stephen stated that in light of the recessionary economy and declining levels of volunteerism in general he thought we have done well in the past year with lots of room for improvement.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS FOR 2010 – 2011
We were very pleased that all current Board Members agreed to stay on for the next year and that one new person agreed to join the Board at the annual general meeting.
The new list of Board Members now includes past members John Barrett, Joe Di Paolo, Don Glover, Jacob Jablonski, Bruce Lofquist, Don Meade, Sina Petrovic, Mervyn Russell and Marion Schaffer who will now be joined by new member Melanie Klein.
It was announced that we want to see more people join the organization as Board Members. We look forward to receiving awareness of your interest to participate in this capacity so send us an e-mail or drop us a note. Thank you very much.
This report was written by Stephen Dankowich, founder and executive director of the Oakville Community Centre for Peace, Ecology and Human Rights (OCCPEHR)
