Our Annual General Meeting will be held on Sunday, May 1, 2016 at 10:30 AM at the Oakridge Seniors' Centre in Vancouver. Doors open at 10:00 AM for coffee and muffins courtesy of our vice-president Gord Leslie.
At our AGM, we will elect a new Board of Directors. If you'd like to run for the board please let us know. Board members are elected for two-year terms and the board meets every two months to discuss oversee the governance and set the strategy for the organization.
We will also hear reports from our current board and from our Executive Director. We will end the meeting with a short brainstorming session to generate ideas for a plan of action for the coming year.
A copy of our constitution and by-laws and the minutes of our 2015 AGM can be found on our website.
Your membership must be current to be eligible to vote and to stand for the board.
All are welcome to attend. Join us at 10 am for BYO coffee, tea, and socializing. At 10:30 am we start our presentation and discuss topics of interest to our members.
The BC Humanist Association was formed in 1984 and we have a regular attendance of over 30 people at our Sunday meetings.
Click here for more details on how to find the Centre.
The following is a special report from our affiliates at Humanist Canada. Read their Board of Directors report for 2015.
Officiants
ON: The program has a new committee of 4 volunteers to help manage the program. The team is training 5 new Officiants April 9 with another session in the fall to grow the 42 committed members who performed over 600 ceremonies in 2015.
AB: our efforts are stalled with the Provincial requirement of 100 AB members, we have 35. We have a new Director in AB, Jamie MaCarthur whose primary role is to develop AB membership.
BC: we have not had any new developments since Lloyds efforts last year. Lloyd is attending INR6 to see if we can develop new strategies. We remain ready to support BCHA efforts.
Kasese School in Uganda
A recent BC donor not only enabled a further funding to be sent but has lead us to a request from "Brighter Brains.org", forwarded to HC from HAAM in MB, to serve as the Canadian clearing house for Canadian donations. We are just starting to get this set up.
This is an example of where participation is valuable but I am sure it is a minor piece of the overall effort. HC is proud to do what it can in Uganda
Educational Scholarships
Henry Morgenatler Scholarship for Women's health
The Henry Biessel fund at the University of Toronto
Media
The reality of media response to some "news" events are that they look for a National voice. During the "Charles Hebdo" events we were interviewed by: The National Post, The Ottawa Citizen and The Wall Street Journal. We were a guest commentator on 2 radio talk shows. Last month we participated on a talk show from Kelowna regarding "end of life" legislation. I have participated with 1 podcast, "Beyond the Trailer Park" and am working on another with "Atheist TV" for next month
Humanist Promotion
We need to appreciate that part of the role of the National Org is to promote Humanism by highlighting the work done in regional efforts. This is critical for our approach as the National membership is disparate both in geography and the items that are important to them. This applies to some International work as well where we participate but are not the sole driver of initiatives.
If there is ever a question about the depth of our involvement or the specifics, or if the message is unclear, please reach out and ask. We are ready to respond to any positive questions to help us grow.
Conferences
Part of our work is related to the promotion of Secular Conferences. The reality of advertising is that there is no obvious direct benefit for the national membership apart from knowing their ideology is being broadcast and grows with open discussion. We invest many hours of volunteer effort to help regional groups such as INR, Red Deer, Regina (April 2016), Winnipeg and Kitchener.
Local Groups
In addition to the conference events we traveled over 10,000 km, by car, in the past 12 months, to participate with local groups and have attended 3 "multi-faith" events.
infrastructure
It is also worth noting where HC has had to spend its efforts in the past 18 months. Building infrastructure for the org is not an obvious, immediate, value but it is absolutely mission critical. The web site, membership outreach, social media etc are "the price of admission" we did not have 18 months ago. Along with the technical challenges, our membership did not have an effective communication with the National team. We feel we are helping in that regard.
Volunteers
18 months ago we had 8 volunteers: 5 Board members and a 3 Person Officiant management Team.
Today, 2 of the past Board remain, Dale Jackaman and I, with 6 new Board members, total of 8 and 4 new members managing the Officiant program, a new liaison with the Provincial Registrar a volunteer to help the Board with minute taking and a new Paid part time administrator.
There are 14 active volunteers today with a "Volunteers needed" page ready to add to our web site with another 15 projects.
Blasphemy Petition
While we have been delayed with our efforts here, both having the sponsor drop out and then the federal election taking all MP's on hiatus, there is hope. Both our original petition may yet get a sponsor and CFI is attempting an electronic version which also needs an MP.
International Coalition Against Blasphemy Laws
We are but a member trying to further the international efforts. Next Global skype is on Monday