RB Seniors 50+ Club

AGM Minutes

March 25th, 2025 

Members Present: John Digout, Sharon Chilvers, Donna Babin, Laura Doney, David Doney, Cletus Wedge, Art Digout, Doreen Boudreau, Pat Nightingale, Brian Barkhouse, Kathy Groves, Marlaine Burke, Sally Bacardax Linda MacDuff, Tina Coleman, Lyann Yates, Wayne Bona, Tom Bona, Edna Casey

The meeting was called to order by: President John Digout at 1:03 pm

The League prayer was read by: Secretary Donna Babin

Approval of the agenda: Wayne Bona moved the agenda, seconded by Sharon Chilvers, motion carried

Approval of the minutes:The AGM minutes of April 16th, 2024 were read by and moved by Donna Babin, seconded by Doreen Boudreau, motion carried 

Old business: 

• Bi-law committee, Wayne Bona, Tina Coleman, John Digout, Laura Doney, and Donna Babin: The Organization, structure and bylaws for the River Bourgeois Seniors 50+ Cub. Next meeting is April 8th. 

The Bi-law committee is working on the Bi-laws line by line. Notes include: Spelling out boundaries. Changing the wording for “Dues” so as to not lock in an amount on the bi-laws that would require a change in bi-laws each time and that the amount of the dues can reflect changes in our costs etc. Membership categories separated eg; Society (voting , Board members) and Gym members etc..

• Number lock boxes on basement doors: Tom Bona will give John Digout 2 boxes directly after the meeting today.

Correspondence: None

Treasurer’s Annual Report: Treasurer Sahron Chilvers presented her annual report. Our opening balance was $5395.16 and the closing balance was $5305.02. Sharon noted a large bill from Nova Scotia power had come in for $753.00.  Sharon noted that Danny Landry and Kenneth LeBlanc are going to try to fix the weather stripping for the basement door, and we will need a fundraiser to help with the hydro cost in the fall. Tom Bona suggested we contact Nova Scotia Power for an energy efficiency evaluation, it’s free. Tom also said he would help get a contractor to come out for the evaluation.  Sharon Chilvers moved her report, seconded by Wayne Bona, motion carried.

President John Digout’s Annual Report:

“Welcome everyone

2024 started out wonderfully. In January and February we held several luncheons along with entertainment to more than 300 people. This was sponsored by Community Links Nova Scotia to help get seniors out of their homes and into a social environment. This was twice as many people that we had expected. Thanks to all who help make this a success.

2024 started out wonderfully. In January and February we held several luncheons along with entertainment to more than 300 people. This was sponsored by Community Links Nova Scotia to help get seniors out of their homes and into a social environment. This was twice as many people that we had expected. Thanks to all who help make this a success.

Gerry’s music nights continue to be successful and over $1645. Was raised for the club. Tock and Cribbage nights were also held during the year also.

Rentals from the county were down and will continue into this year. Our Yoga instructor has major health issues and will not be able to hold her classes. Please keep Katie in your prayers.

A grant application was made to New Horizon for Seniors Program for funds to replace the ramp and the purchase of a couple of pieces of equipment needed for the gym. We expect to hear any day if expected.

Thanks to Wayne and his committee for updating the policy and procedures for the club, and Laura and Dave for putting together a Board of Directors.

Thanks to everyone for your support this past year, especially our executive.”

John Digout moved his report, seconded by Wayne Bona, motion carried

Moment of Silence for our Deceased members:  

Marie McPhee

Harold Landry

Pat Bourque

Marj Digout

Sharon Digout

Stanley MacPhee

John Burke

Monica and Joe Stone

Ann Touesnard

Claire Burke

Marie Claire Richard

Let us have a moment of silence

Nominations for the 2025 Executive Committee are opened by: 

Nomination Committee: Laura and David Doney

Nominations:

President: John Digout will remain as President

Secretary: Donna Babin will remain as Secretary

Treasurer: Sharon Chilvers will remain as Treasurer

1st Vice:  Janice Touesnard will remain as Vice President

Members at large:

Brian Barkhouse

Doreen Boudreau

Pat Nightingale

Cletus Wedge

Art Digout

David Doney

Laura Doney

Wayne Bona

Marlaine Burke

Tom Bona

New Business:

• Membership increase to be addressed through the Bi-laws as noted above in the “Bi-law Committee” notes

The meeting was adjourned by : John Digout adjourned the meeting, seconded by Cletus Wedge

Time: 2:22 pm

Next AGM tol take place: March 2026 

Secondary note: Next regular board meeting: April 29th 2025 @ 1pm

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