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The Elderberries Annual General Meeting February 9,2025 Here is my summary of what I recall and notes I took (scribbled) during our AGM.Thank you Lynn for your helpful synopsis of events we were engaged in in 2024 and some of 2025.I've attached scans of those two sheets below. This information was gleaned from pages for Board purposes only in gay.hfx.org. I apologise for any imperfections. Please correct any errors or omissions.
Dan MacKay activated the Zoom connection. 1 person Chris ? attended 7 Elderberries members attended. (Not counting our guest presenter, Katerina Bakolias who spoke at the salon after the AGM.)
Board members present: Lynn Murphy, Dan MacKay, Barend Kamperman
Absent:- Kaitlin Drury, Allison Brewer, Renee Clark, Nathan Elling and Pauline Federick(?) Non Board attendees:-Chris Teriack, Stephanie Brown, Dave LeBlanc, Kirby Geddes and guest speaker, Katerina B(?)
Barend Kamperman, Chair gave opening remarks and Mi'kmaq land declaration
Approval of last Board meeting's minutes (?)
Kaitlin Drury's 2024 Treasurer's Report was given by Dan. Specific incomes were noted with their purposes and expenditures that were needed to achieve them. See the attached scan of the Treasurer's spreadsheet. Barend Kamperman motioned for the Treasurer's Report to be approved. Kirby Geddes seconded the motion. Discussion then followed. One member urged that we advertise how to bequeath money in wills to the Elderberries, in our newsletter. Lynn requested that we clarify our policy about honorariums. Kirby urged us to sell Elderberries mugs at our events/salons. Dave LeBlanc said he'd take that on. A vote was called and the Treasurer's report was approved. Lynn Murphy abstained because the honorarium question had not yet been settled.
Chair's Report of highlights of some of our doings in 2024. Some free discussion followed adding details such as the March 15th Rainbow flag raising ceremony at City Hall spearheaded by Lynn Murphy, past Chair.
January 11 (Salon) Advocates for Care of the Elderly.
January 14 Healing the Queer Community with presenter Robert Wright
February 12 Bob Millar read from and discussed the writing of a book he's writing, "Our German POW." Followed by the Elderberries AGM. (I was away in the US at that time.)
March 10 Coming out stories (recorded) with the Dal U InvestiGaytors providing food (as they had on Feb 12th.)
March 15 Members participated in ???
March 21 Nathan and Dan attended a seniors dance at Shannex and were interviewed.
April 14 Our speaker canceled. We did a round robin on "What advice would you give to your younger self?"
April 24 Stephanie Brown and (another) spoke at a GSA event at King's Central Rural High
May 12 Barend gave a presentation, with a slideshow set up by Dan, about living and teaching fulltime in 1990s Osaka, Japan.
June 9 We held a celebration of the life of Raymond Taavel who would have been 60 on that date. About 60 people came. There was plenty of food. Tributes to Raymond were given by individuals (all recorded.) Adam Reid from Pride Halifax dropped by. He presented us with his cheque for $50.00 and one from Pride Hfx for $100.00. June 13 Allison Brewer was interviewed by Global News about the wider community's more positive view of the queer community.
June 23 (Salon) Jaimie (sp) Burnet read from and discussed her book "Crocuses Bloom in Snow." In July 5 the Board sent a signed letter composed by the Board challenging a lopsided view of the crisis in Gaza. We offered to help write a more balanced declaration.
July 13 We had a Storytelling Session with the MacPhee Centre in Dartmouth. Bob Frederickson, Jenn nearing, Stephanie Brown, Dan, Lynn and Barend spoke.
July 23 We hosted an Elders Hangout during Pride, at the Unitarian Universalist Church on Inglis St. Dan hosted a slideshow of queer community events and doings from the 70s, 80s and 90s. 2 ASL interpreters signed for the audience. People identified some of these shots and stories were told, all recorded. Nathan Elling prepared a high tea feast of finger foods. Three researchers did surveys with folks about various topics.
August 11 we had a picnic by Black Rock Beach. September's picnic became an indoor event at Northwood.
September 18 Lisa LaChance, an MLA of the NDP party rose in the Nova Scotia Legislature to acknowledge the work of the deceased activist, Raymond Taavel. She also honored the work of the Elderberries to honour his legacy. She asked Lynn Murphy, Howard Heywood and Barend Kamperman to stand in the gallery as the organisation's representatives. They were applauded by the house. Later an official certificate marking the occasion was mailed to us.
September 25 A "Death Cafe" at the North End library on Gottingen Street.
October 27 A casual drop by event was held at Open Book Coffee in Halifax's north end.
November 17 "Pharmacy 101" for rainbow elders. Our presenter from the Dalhousie College of Pharmacy (person?) outlined improvements in ready access to care and a move to use more inclusive language make for respectful interactions.
November 20 Dan and Allison held a Storytelling Circle at Spencer House on Morris St.
November 27 We hosted an "Important Places" workshop at the UUC on Inglis St.Dan had a list of (20?) significant meeting places in local queer community history from bars to parks and more in the 60s and 70s. These stories were all recorded. Delicious food was provided.
December 8 A White Elephant gift exchange and Yuletide party was held with merriment and festive food for all
The Membership Report was given by our secretary, Dan MacKay. Our facebook group has (?) members but no direct interactions with us so far. Usually folks from a core of 15 attend our events and salons. There was some inconclusive discussion about increasing member involvement.
Speakers Bureau Report Barend and Dan both work on this but no one person is in charge of it. Our speaking engagements in and outside the metro area are well received.
The Board for 2025-26 The following have offered or reoffered to be on the "new" Board. Allison Brewer, Barend K, Dan MacK, Kaitlin Drury,Nathan Elling, Pauline Federick and Renee Clark. Stephanie Brown motioned that the entire slate of the new Board be approved. Kirby Geddes seconded the motion. The call for any objections to any or all of the candidates be accepted was repeated three times. A vote was held with 100% approval without abstentions. The new Board was approved. The AGM ended.
To Do Before
Agenda
By Dan
Again the last year we’ve had several references of members from social workers and therapists which is extremely gratifying - it means that a) we’re known to them and b) they consider us a healthy place for their members to be referred to.
We added 38 members in 2024; about the same as in 2024 where we had 45 new members; during covid we had 25 new members per year. 2018: 55 new; 2017: 23.
As of end of year we had 375 emails on our list and 8 people who we call every month, thank you Kaitlin.
We don’t know how much overlap there is between the Facebook membership and the email membership. I know that we get very VERY little engagement from our Facebook members, I don't know why. The statisitics are: 732 people, 50 more than last year, 58% women, 42% men, 33% from Halifax, 7% from Dartmouth. 98% from Canada.
Out of these possibly eleven hundred people, we get fifteen, the same fifteen, coming to most of our meetings. That’s pretty normal and totally OK. Still it would be good to work on expanding that range.
As of