9^th Annual General Meeting for the Saanichton Village Association

March 9, 2016

• Meeting called to order at 6:58pm. 12 voting members in attendance. Dan Olive as Secretary and Jim Townley, acting President of SVA, as chair for meeting. Bruce Greig from The Municipality of Central Saanich in attendance
• Motion from Jim Townley to adopt 2015 agm minutes. Approved.
• Additions to agenda under new business: presentation by Ron Spelt re: forecasting session for Saanichton core to be added as first item to new business and to move bike and ride under item B.
• Summary of past year’s accomplishments/events (Jim Townley):
  • Held the 1^st Annual Saanichton Spaghetti Super which was a big success. Looking forward to another great consecutive event for 2016.
  • Held the 5^th Annual Central Saanich Family Festival at the Saanich Fairgrounds during the Peninsular Country Market. SeaFirst, CIBC and Panorama as primary sponsors with a number of other business members contributing to the costs to run the event. Estimated 1800-2100 attendees. The Central Saanich Lions were in attendance this year to serve packages.
  • Totems update – Doug LaFortune had experienced a shoulder injury in 2015 which prevented the raising of our 4^th totem. SVA will be applying pressure to get this up soon. Hoping to have it outside the tennis courts along Wallace with approval from the municipality.
  • Held the 11^th Annual Saanichton Community Christmas with market moved over to Pioneer Village Shopping Centre. Despite brutal weather, the event raised over $2,500 for the Sidney Food Bank. Hoping for a better event in 2016.
  • Treasurer’s Report Summary from Martina with copy distributed. $2,681.62 in operating account with new account created in summer for future project fund which has $8,524,18. Of this amount, $3k is for totem #4 and $1,500 is for totem #5.
  • New business:
    • Ron Spelt brought out an overhead map of Saanichton. Open discussion commenced on ideas and thoughts about ways to improve parts of Saanichton. Ron started with a couple of crosswalks. One across from post office on East Saanich Road and the other across from Coast Capital Savings on Wallace. Another suggestion was a continuation of sidewalk on Mt. Newton along the Prairie Inn Pub property. Idea for on-street parking along East Saanich Road by getting rid of centre turning lane. Slowing down speeding traffic in village core by either reducing the speed limit or installing speed bumps. Jim Townley suggested a property traffic light at East Saanich and Mt. Newton. Ron Spelt suggested roundabouts at the 3 four-way stops in the Village. Martina Redman mentioned adding flags to the light standards in the core which could be sponsored by businesses and special interest groups in the region. Discussion commenced on turning Saanichton Green into a proper parking lot for a Park and Ride and staff parking for employees of the businesses in Saanichton as parking is a large issue. Conversation shifted by Jim Townley suggesting this discussion continue through the monthly coffee meetings that used to be hosted by Spelt’s with the SVA donating coffee for attendees.
    • Park and Ride presentation from Silvia Bonet and Ainsley Viggers from Finlayson Bonet Architecture. Two conceptual designs presented with pros and cons of each. Everyone given a slip to vote on which design they liked best. Roughly 5-1 voted in favour of the more progressive design.
    • Move to bump order of agenda for nomination of board of directors by Jim Townley due to time constraints. Seconded by Norma Seally and all in favour. Jim Townley nominated that Dan Olive, Jim Townley and Martina Redman remain in their respective roles on the board. All in favour. Lynne Parker offered to join board and all in favour. Both Vic Clive and Niall Paltiell, whom were not in attendance, to no longer be on board.
    • Discussion with members and call out for help for the website as it is out of date. All agreed that it is a good site but it needs to be audited and maintained and for the SVA to hire someone to make the changes. Lynne offered to help.
    • Grant in Aid – municipality approved our $4k request. Cheque anticipated to arrive in June.
    • Date for Central Saanich Family Day is August 20^th. Details to follow.
    • Date for 2^nd Annual Spaghetti Supper is November 2^nd. Details to follow.
    • Date for x-mas event is December 3rd. Details to follow.
    • Seasonal mixers – plan to be sorted for having a mixer at the Pioneer Society in 2016. Details to follow.
    • Community Gardens – no news to report.
    • Meeting adjourned at 9:05pm.