RBCSS Annual General Meeting Agenda
March 27th, 2025
Minutes
In attendance: Rose Merrick, Sharon Chilvers, Kathy Groves, Mar LeRue, Connie Stewart, Wayne Bona, Tom Bona, Donna Babin, Marc Touesnard, Doreen Boudreau, Carolyn Fougere
Guest/s:
Absent with regrets:
Absent:
Call to order: President Rose Merrick called the meeting to order at 6:26 pm
Approval of agenda: Doreen Boudreau moved the agenda, seconded by Carolyn Fougere, motion carried
Approval of minutes: Donna Babin read and moved the AGM Minutes from March 28th, 2024, seconded by Sharon Chilvers, motion carried.
Business arising: No business arising
Correspondence: A letter was sent by Rose Merrick to the Municipality of the County of Richmond regarding a request that the Municipality of the County of Richmond provide funding in their yearly budget for the power/base lights at the River Bourgeois accessed near 61 Levesconte Rd.
Treasurer’s Report:
Treasurer’s Report for March 27, 2025
The Seniors Club has paid their rent for the Anne Sampson Building ($1382.00) which covers the insurance.
Our new insurance payments for 2025 will be up a bit to $1032.42/month for 11 months.
Nova Scotia Power rates have gone up and a cooler than average winter has made for power bills to add up to almost as much as we paid for the whole of 2024. We will have to be careful with our power usage, and keep up with repairs to the water system and toilets.
Not much else to report until things start to get going in spring.
In the mail we received a letter regarding some service outages upcoming for the East Coast Credit Union. They are upgrading their system, and Etransfers and online banking will have some restrictions from April 3rd to April 7th. So keep that in mind for that weekend.
Year End Report
2024 was a good year overall for work on the properties and income for events and Chase the Ace.
Kathy Groves
Treasurer’s financial report attached.
Kathy Groves moved her report, seconded by Mary LeRue, motion carried
Committee Reports: (Annual summary)
Festival/Events:
Fundraising, Festival and Events for 2024
We started the year with Chase the Ace and it only lasted 17 weeks, with a profit of $5701.80 following the purchase of tickets which should last us most of 2025.
Cafe’ Luncheon netted a profit of $6,256.59 and Thanks to Dana and her 4H for taking care of the canteen/food sales. We were very pleased with all the volunteers for the Cafe’.
Chase the Ace and Cafe’ were done in conjunction with the July 1st Holiday and we had a great turnout.
Festival ran from August 24th to September 1st and we took in $22/531.80 with a net profit of $12,324.50. We had two new events this year. The adult dance which we had not had for several years, participation was low and so were the profits. Lots of effort went into this and we thank Robyn for all her hard work. This year we invested in the duck race, knowing that the profits would be very low because of the initial cost of the ducks but in the future the cost would be very minimal with very good profits. The rest of the events went very well except for the concert which was cancelled due to Covid 19.
The Community Christmas Celebration was well attended.
Our biggest accomplishment this year was the start of the Christmas Trail around the ball field. So many creativity volunteers helped out and it was a much bigger success than we ever anticipated. Thanks to the leaders Mary, Doreen and Rose. Big plans for next year.
Overall a great year.
Sharon and Rose
Sharon Chilvers moved her report, seconded by Kathy Groves, motion carried
Property Services/Visitation Parlour:
Annual maintenance report for 24/25
Since our last annual meeting, we had no major projects at the hall. We carried out our basic
maintenance, i.e. water testing and inspections. Both the health, inspections and fire
inspection passed as well as water test passing. The only issue we had was the plumbing
issue in the store room and kitchen sink. Landry brothers came and cleared the clog, but
recommended replacing the drain pipe as they were too small. We’ve had them give us an
estimate for the work needed, as well as replacing all the toilets and have applied for a grant to help with the cost. The door was replaced in the storage. The tennis courts were well used For both tennis and pickleball. The nets were installed In May. I’m taking it down in October.
The summer student stayed busy mowing and painting . We did have to have our mower
repaired so we borrow the mower from the visitation parlour to use during this time.
The canteen’s water was turned back on in May with the start of the baseball season. Canteen and barbecues were utilized many times over the summer. The bathrooms were open whenever The student was working as well by request on weekends. Closed down the canteen, turned off the water supply and drain the lines in October at the end of the season.
We attempted , with the help of Tom, to repair some of the bleachers at the baseball field but
two of them were hopeless so we demoed them and Tom took them to the dump. Burke
brothers moved the good ones around for us, and we repaired benches to be used for seating. Also we repaired 2 of the picnic tables.
It was a quiet winter with no major problems. We only had to have snow removal and
shovelling done a couple of times.
Doreen Boudreau moved her report, seconded by
Youth Development:
Heidi and Holly will be dissolving the Youth Development Committee.
They will turn over the funds to RBCSS, but have one request, they want benches and tables put in the trail and the playground/park area, the flat area is there already. They were missing parts for the tables and benches but they are now here. March 13, 2025.
Sharon has written them a Thank-you letter, thanking them for all of their work.
Letter sent from Heidi LeRoux & Holly Burke
Dear River Bourgeois Community Services Society,
On behalf of the Youth Development Committee, we are writing to formally notify you that the committee has made the difficult decision to dissolve. Due to increasing family and extra-curricular commitments, we find it challenging to continue our involvement at the necessary level. We want to highlight that there remains a balance of approximately $10,000 owed to Arkson Fence for the completion of the smaller playground. The invoice for this amount will be issued upon project completion.
With the remaining funds in our account, we propose the purchase of benches to be placed around the playground and walking trail. Additionally, we would like to allocate funds for any necessary maintenance on the walking track. Any surplus funds remaining after these expenditures will be donated to the River Bourgeois Community Services Society to support the continued upkeep of community spaces.
We grant full permission to Sharon Chilvers and other group members to move forward with the purchasing of benches and any additional services required for the completion of these projects.
We would like to take this opportunity to extend our deepest gratitude to all volunteers who have contributed their time and effort to the Youth Development Committee over the years. A special thank you to the community members for their unwavering support and generosity.
Kind regards,
Heidi LeRoux
Holly Burke
Youth Development Committee
Donna Babin read Heidi Le Roux report, seconded by Marc Touesnard, motion carried
President’s Report:
2025 was a really good year.
A lot of volunteers throughout the year.
Chase the Ace and the Festival, it takes a lot to make it work.
Everyone is truly appreciated
Thank you
Rose Merrick
Nominating committee – Election of officers and Board members for 2025
Executive committee:
President: Doreen Boudreau has accepted
Vice President: Interim Vice President Wayne Bona
Treasurer: Kathy Groves will be returning
Secretary: Donna Babin will be returning
Past President: Rose Merrick
Board members at large:
Carolyn Fougere
Connie Stewart
Mary LeRue
Marc Touesnard
Sharon Chilvers
Tom Bona
New Member Nominations: no one at this moment in time
New Business:
In regards to the letter from Heidi LeRoux and Holly Burke, Wayne Bona put forth a motion as follows:
Motion: Wayne Bona motioned that we allocate $20,000. to be used for new benches, tables, and maintenance on the walking trail and grounds, as requested by Heidi Leroux. Seconded by Dana Touesnard
Tracey will no longer be returning to the RBCSS board
We want to thank Heidi and Holly for their fantastic work as the Youth Development Committee. A letter was sent to Heidi in recognition.
Rose Merrick has stepped down from President of RBCSS but will still be on the Board.
Sharon Chilvers noted that this will be her last with RBCSS.
Next AGM Meeting will be: Thursday, March 26th, 2026
Adjournment: Rose Merrick adjourned the meeting at 7:26 pm