BurnT Board of Directors Records of Decisions/Discussions

October – December 2014

  • TComp: TComp planned for November 28th at Centre of Gravity West. Postponed due to venue issues securing permits.
  • Consent Posters: BurnT to pay $65 for giant consent posters that we will keep on hand for various events, to debut at TComp.
  • AGM: We will hold this year’s BurnT AGM on April 12, 2015.
  • Elections: Will begin early February 2015 and end early March 2015.
  • Community Property: Bylaw proposal – Projector, Radios, Button Maker, Tents, Extension Cords. They need deposits, contracts for replacement value and return dates. They can only be lent to orgs (1) within the community for events open to community and (2) are non­profit or fundraisers for community events or projects.

September 2014

  • BRAF Donation: Donate 10% of the profits from MooseMan + donations collected to BRAF ($478.92).

July 2014

  • Damage Expense: Pay $90 to cover a weed whacker that died during prep of the property.
  • Asset: A good deal was sourced for radios that’s only a little more than the cost to rent them for Mooseman. The board to cover the difference and keep them as board property for future events. The cost to rent was $344.65, total cost to purchase is $466.53.

April – June 2014

  • Mooseman: Franklin Call chosen to run Mooseman, date set for August 1st-4th in Minden, Ontario.
  • Site Update: Web Guru Draw to handle the transfer of BurnT domains to the board’s ownership.
  • By-Election: Dave McKay elected in By-Election held to replace the empty board seat after Dan Muirhead’s resignation.
  • Taxes: 2014 corporate taxes have been filed.
  • Sketch Donation (BWB): Donation of $1350 to Sketch has been postponed temporarily as the organization has asked us to hold off on the donation until September.
  • Communications: Priya and Chriz are working on a newsletter to standardize communications from the board to the community.

January – February 2014

  • New Grants  – Board approved new grants totaling $2000. 
    2 x $500 are for community development initiatives, which are to be used in and for the benefit of Toronto. These grants are meant to support projects such as art gardens or other projects, in which our community makes a positive contribution to the city.
    2 x $500 are for art grants. These grants are to support artists creating projects for events like burningman, lakes of fire, figment, and Mooseman. These grants are awarded outside of the event specific timeline, so that artists may get some early seed funding.
    Priya will work with AGOs on committee to determine criteria and awards.
  • Trailer: Board agrees in principle with purchasing a trailer to store burnT property in such a manner that it is easily accessible for events as opposed to renting a locker. Franklin is looking into cost.
  • Financials: The accountant still has not finalized the financials and taxes. Cory and Franklin to follow up with him. We want both years to be complete for the AGM. Board to confirm with accountant that both this year and last year can be ready in time.
  • AGM: to be held at the end of March so that financials, election results and officer announcements can be made all at once. Accountant agreed that this can be done.
  • Burnal Equinox Event Proposal: Board considered a proposal by Seth Hardy to hold a Burnal Equinox event at hart house farm on March 8, 2014 (in 5 weeks) for up to 70 participants. He has requested from the Board: funding, insurance, assistance with sanctioning and appointment of a lead. While Board  liked the idea of something new, it determined that this would constitute an event for which it would be legally and financially responsible (like TComp and Mooseman) and therefore would  oblige the board to undertake an amount of responsibility and oversight in a very short time frame that it would be unable to do responsibly. Board needs to focus first on getting elections, AGM and officers sorted out.   The Board considered whether to offer seed funding, loans or grants but determined  that there were other projects that people had created in the community without benefit of the entity’s support and that there should be an open transparent way to allocate the funds for these kinds of initiatives if the Board were to do so. This issue should be raised at a town hall or the AGM.

December 2013

  • Decomp debrief –> agreed that the reports from these events should effectively form the foundation of a manual for future leads
  • Agreed to hire a book keeper to ensure that financials are prepared properly. Agreed to look first within the community.
  • Agreed to hire an accountant to deal with taxes as certain issues are beyond our expertise.
  • Will consider whether or not to look into renting a permanent storage space.
  • Approval to create two new types of grants from profits of decomp. Details and exact amounts need to be flushed out at our next meeting.
  • Date for Annual General Meeting has to be determined. Pursuant to by-laws it needs to be held by the end of February 2014. In future years we would like the AGM to be synched up with the year end so that members can review year end financial statements.

November 2013

  • review and discussion re: annual financials and filing of tax return
  • review and approval of town crier description
  • resolution of last minute issues and requests for decomp i.e. security, garbage, media presence and camera policy
  • re: burner friendly media request: everyone must buy tickets, strongly encouraged to wear a costume, must obtain permission before taking photos of anyone, photos must not be sold, images must be reviewed and approved by the board before publication, and prefer a photo booth style set up –> the board will develop a full media policy prior to the next event
  • On determination that event organizers bear liabilty, the Board approved compensation to decomp attendee whose coat went missing from coat check; approved compensation to volunteer whose car was damaged while taking care of event business; approved payment of other expenses related to event for which members should not be out of pocket

October 2013

  • Contract for decomp signed after negotiating various points with COG
  • Several officer terms have expired. Board had a lengthy discussion about what officer positions we really need and determined to re-structure the existing positions.
  • The positions of Archivist, Communications Officer and Event Coordinator will cease to exist going forwards. We will add the Officers roles of Land & Venue Scouts, Web Guru, and Town Crier. We will also do a community call-out for all soon to be available roles  (i.e. Art Grants and Quartermaster + the new roles). Goal is to have role descriptions ready for a call out in January. Existing officers can put their names in the hat again if they would like but agreed that on expiry of term new members should have an opportunity to get involved.

September 2013

  • Daniel Girard and Brian Penhale were selected as Leads for this year’s T-COMP event to take place in late November – yay and welcome!
  • A brand new art grant has been created by the Board – more details to come from the officers!
  • Would like to continue to have a presence on burnon.ca which is really functions as the website for the province- will co-ordinate with Jamie Oastler to make this happen.
  • Sanctioning for decomp obtained in late September after meeting with regional representatives, obtaining insurance for event and satisfying health and safety criteria in planning

August 19, 2013

  • Mooseman de-brief re what worked and what didn’t, finalizing report and financials, and outstanding items such as removal of items from land and payment of outstanding expenses.
  • Applications for decomp lead received. Considered requests from people to run for decomp lead  after the deadline. Voted against this but will ask if those individuals would like to volunteer for other lead positions

July 15, 2013

  • Board is evaluating how to communicate with the community more effectively – a team is working on a strategy – want to have a central location for everyone to obtain information or way to update all sites simultaneously; Board will begin using the facebook group to announce information as well
  • Mooseman planning continues and art grants decided

June 2013

  • The new Board met for the first time on June 10, 2013 and voted on the positions that each director would hold for each of their terms
  • A new corporate head office was designated and corporate filings updating this information were completed
  • Dave McKay has agreed to take on the role of OmBuddy

March 2013
• Mmmmike was chosen as the Event Lead for Mooseman 2013. We fully endorse his running of the event, and are excited to see what his leadership produces!
• We are firming up the dates for our upcoming elections. We are aiming for an announcement of the results in early June.
• We have decided that the OmBuddy, as an impartial party who does not answer to the Board, will run the upcoming election.

February 2013
• Officers on the Executive committee (Treasurer, Secretary, President) from now on will be limited to Board members. This action is being taken to facilitate the central functioning of Board activities.