October 2nd – 3rd, 2019 Board of Directors Meeting – Ottawa – Part 2

November 6, 2019

RCMP VETERANS’ ASSOCIATION

The October 2nd – 3rd, 2019 Board of Directors Meeting – Ottawa

Dear Association Members,

The following is a summary of the BOD strategy meeting held at the Police College in Ottawa at the beginning of October. It will be broken up into a series of three messages to provide clarity regarding the discussions. This message constitutes Part 2 of the report.

The establishment of a virtual Canada Division is in development to provide a “home” for members that wish to belong through the “online world.”. Initially it is felt that this would accommodate the Civilian Members leaving the Force who wanted to join the Association but have no particular allegiance to any particular Division. Details are being developed under the existing bylaws with early thinking the division’s contributions portion of the dues would be donated to the RCMP Veterans’ Foundation and an income tax receipt provided, as the division would be entirely “online in the virtual environment.” There would be a prohibition on existing members transferring to this new Division for a multi-year period.
An important issue that has come up is how our Association is dealing with those members who are infirm or in financial difficulty and experiencing difficulty in paying their dues. A policy is under development that could consider that if the difficulty were related to health issues then a waiver could be issued for Dues and Contributions. If, on the other hand the difficulty is financial then only Contributions would be waived, enabling the continuance of voting rights. Privacy concerns will be important in the policy.

A by-law amendment is being prepared for reducing the grace period of two-years to one-year for unpaid Active membership fees.

One of our major programs is that of Advocacy. Given the success of the Advocacy workshops in Regina this, a program of regular teleconferences with all the Advocates be held in order to understand the needs of our membership and ensure that the Association is prepared to meet those needs.

The Association is also working to continue in its role of working with the RCMP Benefit Trust Fund (BTF) through updates of the terms of the grant of monies received from the RCMP and the policy parameters of the Association acting as an “agent” of the BTF Program. Discussions did include the elimination of memorial donations and an increase of the value of floral donation to $200 – $250.00, ensuring a 30-day-turnaround on decisions to grant or deny requests for monies and an annual $10,000 amount to permit the promoting of the RCMP BTF fund via the RCMPVA website.

Given the relatively new rules of conduct that have been imposed on the Association by the Not-For-Profit Corporations Act and the responsibility of the Board of Directors in managing the affairs of the Association, a Governance Manual will be developed for distribution to the Association’s Directors and Presidents providing a simplified explanation of the Act and how we can work within it. A sub-set to this Manual would be the establishment of a Governance Committee to ensure that the Association is working within the parameters of the Act.

In the interim the current version of the Association manual has been removed from the website and action is underway to update the Policy and Procedures for the Association.

Steve Walker
President
RCMP Veterans’ Association