Minutes

Solar Nova Scotia
Annual General Meeting

February 4^th, 1999
Holiday Inn, Dartmouth

The meeting brought to order at 5:45pm.

Present

Regrets: Ron Bulmer, Larry White.

Agenda

1. Welcome
2. Approve Agenda
3. Presentation: Low Cost Monitoring by Dr John Young
4. Approve Minutes from the 1998 AGM
5. Chair's Report
6. Membership Report
7. Treasurer's Report
8. Election of Officers
9. Discussion of Ideas
10. Next Meeting

Presentation

Approve Minutes from the 1998 AGM

Dan presented the Norval Balch style magnifying-glass-required minutes. Kevin moved that the minutes be approved, Keith seconded, motion passed.

Chair's Report

This was a great year for Solar Nova Scotia thanks to all the hard work by the Executive and dedicated members. We've published three newsletters, each promoting a particular event such as the home shows and solar tours. The newsletters have also let us highlight some of the work of our members, from fabulous solar homes to solar boats, thanks to Roeland Leenes, Bob Gershey, Carolyn Green, and Robert Fraser. We must also thank Thermodynamics for letting us share their booth space at the Spring Home Show, and all the wonderful hosts of the solar tours who have let us barge into their lovely homes. Thanks to Dr. John Young for his constant vigorous encouragement and his thoughtful presentation tonight, and NS Natural Resources (George Foote) for the letting us use their meeting space tonight.

The Solar Shelter Manual continues to be exceedingly popular and is available at a number of locations, including the Nova Scotia government bookstore. We also have a healthy stock of Solar Primers, thanks to the suggestion of Kevin Saunders and the work of Keith Robertson. Shawna Henderson's new baby can't really be considered an asset of Solar Nova Scotia, but she is also a welcome addition to the group in general.

Solar Nova Scotia continues to meet informally at Maxwell's Plum on Friday nights between 5 and 7 pm. Come down for a chat with the regular crew of architects, builders, researchers, techies, and other bon vivants. If anyone isn't familiar with Don Roscoe's excellent Solar Shelter Courses, make sure to check out the details of current offerings with Don.

We have an exciting project and major challenge ahead as local hosts of the SESCI 2000 Conference in partnership with the Used Building Materials Association. Funding should be available from the recently announced Climate Change Program, and we want your ideas of a Solar Nova Scotia project that will be ready for launch at the conference. Ideas so far include a web-based program to determine energy balance gains from different solar additions you can make to your house, and a dynamic web-based Passive Solar Design Contest to continue from the successful one carried out in 1994. We don't have much time so think hard.

A final welcome to all our new members. I hope to see you at the Plum over the next few months.

Membership Report

Treasurer's Report

Statement of Receipts and Expenditures for the year ended November 30, 1998.
	Expenditures	Receipts
Bank service charges / interest	5.92	0.21
Projects (Canada Trust Primer)	702.65	704.50
Operating Expenses / Memberships	2,326.87	1,156.50
Totals	3,035.44	1,861.21

Excess of receipts over expenditures	-1,174.23
Opening balance, December 1, 1997	1765.90
Closing balance, November 30, 1998	574.51

Assets		Liabilities
Cash on hand	603.26	Members' equity	3,078.26
Inventory T-Shirts (19)	160.00	Outstanding Liability	0.00
Manuals (176)	2,288.00
Total	3,078.26	Balancing total	3,078.26

Projected Yearly $ Profile
Income		Expenses
Membership 50 x $15	750.00	Telephone	390.00
Corp. Memb. 14 x $50	700.00	Postage	100.00
Manuals 50 x $6	300.00	Newsletter x 3	300.00
T-Shirts	10.00	Home Show x 2	400.00
		Society Registration	25.00
		Environment Network	25.00
	1,760.00		1,240.00

Don observed that the income figures are up from an improved membership situation, and that the difference in the closing balance and cash on hand is petty cash.

Norval moved acceptance of the report, Kevin seconded, passed.

Election of Officers

Roeland was nominated to the Board in absentia.

Kevin moved that the slate be accepted, John Ross seconded, motion passed.

Discussion of Ideas

Courses Don reported that the courses are currently running in Windsor, Chester Basin, and Halifax, and he has more than half the people needed to set up another course in Truro.

Promotional Materials Norval observed that we are almost out of the Passive Solar newsletters from '94, and it would be nice to have something to replace that that is cheap and pictorial.

Climate Change Program Norval had been talking to the director of the Outreach portion of the Climate Change program. They have 15 million dollars and are reviewing a second batch of proposals, and won't fund more than 75% of money federally, but provincial money and in-kind is OK. Norval stressed that the likelihood of them funding a project is inversely proportional to the percentage they'll be funding, and the deadline is not important as they will have several. The project must have a climate-change tie-in, be usable in other parts of the country, and be unique.

Spring Solar House Tour Shawna offered to set up a spring solar tour.

SESCI Conference

Keith has not heard from SESCI in the last couple of months, but last he heard Halifax had been approved as the location for the 2000 conference. The conference will be held the 2nd week of October in the Westin Hotel. SNS will be looking after the local end of things; we will have a significant part in putting together brochures and posters and local promotion.

Norval suggested that SNS have one or more showcase projects for the SESCI Conference. Suggested projects:

• A web-based program to help evaluate the benefits of solar design.
• Dan suggested taking over Gershey's house, instrument it for data collection, and taking people out to Peggy's Cove for a tourist visit and solar tour. Don observed that there are many more solar houses within a few minutes' drive of there.
• Shawna suggested that she has helped design several solar houses at the Head of St. Margarets which would provide variety for the tours.
• A project based on the Passive Solar Design competition and publication. Keith suggested that we could web-ify that, and continue the competition to add more to it on a regular basis.
• Shawna suggested that a graphic toolkit/reference for developers to help with solar-friendly subdivision design with Theresa Paul. As a Global Climate Change project, it has to be proposed by an NGO, and SNS would be appropriate.
• solar lobsters

Norval observed that we should collect project ideas and weigh them all before agreeing to any one.

Habitat for Humanity Robert Fraser mentioned that Keith and Don had expressed interest in on the Habitat for Humanity houses, but nothing concret has happened yet. it. He suggested that it could be a part of the SESCI showcase.

Next Meeting

The next event is the spring Home Show, 8^th to 10^th of April. Norval said the newsletter is ready to go, so there is no need for a newsletter content meeting. The next board meeting will be on March 9^th, at Norval's office at 5443 Rainnie Drive, 1930h - 2100h.

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