May 4th, 2006 - Minutes of the BIA's annual meeting, held at the Rendez-Vous restaurant on May 4th, 2006.

Were present : Mike Wilson (President), Marcel Dillon, Pitch-In Campaign, Fanny Joanis, CCEJ, Gérald Gaudreau (Vice-President), Sylvie Otis, Sylvie Leroux, Marc Dufresne, Patricia Marin-Carrier, Colette Fortin, Daniel Larochelle, André Plourde, Teri Brunet, Raymond Brunet, Brenda Rosevear, Isabelle Boulanger, Rejean Gagnon, Mona Habel, Michel Habel, Eric Plourde, Nancy Plourde, Estelle Mignault, Claude Brochu (counsillor), Daniel Lemaire (counsillor), Francis Bouchard, Denise Doyon, Mona Matco, Diane Bernier et Thérèse Lachance (secretary).

Subjects discussed :

- The President, Mike Wilson, welcomed everyone as well as business owners and special guests.  He resumed all the activities and projects done in 2005 and presented Board Members specifying that there were two seats vacant on the Board for those that were interested.

- Proposed by:  Sylvie Otis, Seconded by:  Patricia Marin-Carrier

THAT the order of business be hereby accepted, with the addition of the following item: "Relay for life", presentation by Estelle Mignault.

- Mike asked members if they had the chance to read the minutes from the last annual meeting and resumed what was discussed during this meeting.  He then asked members if they had questions.  No one had questions.

- Proposed by:  Estelle Mignault, Seconded by:  Colette Fortin

THAT the minutes of the 2005 Annual Meeting be hereby approved.

- None.

- The President welcomed new building owners and businesses.  During the last year, Pure Esthétique, Pit Chip Stand, Sports Equip., Lehoux and Couture Lawyers and Symphonie Florale opened their doors in the downtown area.  New building owners were Mario Villeneuve and René Charette. Some businesses also closed their doors or moved out of the downtown area, such as Nord-Est Printing, Manon's Chip Stand, La Boutique à Hélène.

- The President informed members that a lot of promotion was done in 2005, such as a brochure that was given to members at the beginning of the meeting.  3,000 copies of this brochure were printed to promote the downtown area.  Brochures were distributed to the tourist center, motels and other tourism organizations.
 

- The Secretary presented the financial statements for 2005 and resumed revenues and expenses compared to budget for the same year.  Revenues for 2005 were $38,247, of which $6,377 was a contribution from the Municipality for capital projects and maintenance downtown.  Expenses for 2005 were $41,818.  In these expenses, we have meetings and conferences at $3,031, maintenance at $9,781, capital expenses at $2,533, Christmas activities and promotion at $6,117, Summer Festival at $8,569 and the remaining amount for various expenses and promotion.  The BIA had a deficit of $3,571 for 2005, which now brings the accumulated deficit to $7,019.  The Secretary informed members that this deficit should be completely recovered in 2006 with constraint measures that were applied to the 2006 budget.

- The President then presented the budget for 2006, which was already submitted to the Municipality and approved.  The total budget for 2006 was $41,300 (of which $7,019 will be used to recover the accumulated deficit).  In order to recover the deficit, it was necessary to cut on some of the expenses.  The main amounts that were reduced were meetings and conferences, reduced to $1,155, professional fees, reduced to $50, promotion, reduced to $600 and summer festival, reduced to $3,440.  The BIA has also asked the Municipality to contribute 100% of the cost to install Christmas decorations in exchange for free parking days in December.  Request that was accepted, therefore the BIA will no longer pay for the installation of Christmas Decorations.

- Mike asked members' opinion on the possibility of increasing the budget in 2007.  One member asked if this increase was justified, because if we could operate with $7,019 less this year, why increase it?   The Secretary responded by saying that, in 2006, no activities will be organized to increase sales and that expenses were reduced to the maximum, but that we could not operate like this for many years as expenses are always increasing year after year.  One member asked what this increase would represent in terms of tax increase.  The Secretary responded that the increase will be divided between all members and that the amount of increase will depend on their building valuation, but she could not confirm an exact percentage.  One member said that, if she recalls the last increase, it represented approximately $50 tax increase per member.  One member then suggested to increase the 2007 budget by 10%.

Proposed by:  André Plourde, Seconded by:  Teri Brunet

THAT Financial Statements for 2005 be hereby approved as presented, and

THAT the 2006 Budget be hereby approved as presented, and

THAT the 2007 Budget be increased by 10% and that BIA members be invoiced with the new amounts as of January 2007. (All members agreed except one).

 - One member asked if it was really worth going to the OBIAA conference.  Gérald Gaudreau responded that, for him, it was worth assisting to it once in a while to have new ideas, learn about new products and have other BIA's opinions and experiences.  Another member suggested to bring the OBIAA conference to Hearst, this would decrease the expense for us and would boost Hearst economy.  Gérald responded that we did not have the necessary infrastructure to hold such an event here in Hearst.

- Marcel Dillon, Pitch-In Campaign: 

Marcel Dillon began by speaking about the history of the Pitch-In Campaign.  He said: “Pitch-In Canada was established in 1967 in British Columbia and they are celebrating their 40th anniversary this year.  Hearst is participating since 1987.  This campaign is the largest in improvement of the environment and cleaning in Canada.  It's a partnership between governments, the media, the industries, the businesses and the public.  The Municipal Council agreed to form a local committee and municipal departments all work jointly in this program.  To participate in the campaign, we have to register to Pitch-In online at Pitch-In.ca.  Benefits to join such an organization are that we are part of a program of greater scale and a sense of membership.  In 2005, 1,212 coordinators and 3,290,332 volunteers participated in 5,709 projects which took place in 516 Canadian communities.

This year's theme is OPERATION CLEAN SWEEP and the official date is April 24-30.  The official date for Hearst is May 1 to 7, but the weather does not always cooperate and/or people don't always have time to complete their cleaning during this week, therefore the Town council declares May the Pitch-In month.  The Town Council gives out certificates of recognition to participating industries, businesses, institutions and citizens, during a regular meeting televised on Channel 6.  This campaign is addressed to all citizens, at all levels, industries, businesses and institutions.  The campaign does not only consist in picking-up papers, it's a program in which all improvement projects are included; painting or improvement to your fence and/or house; planting flowers and trees; beautification of businesses and/or industries; keeping our downtown area clean. 

Since the campaign was implemented, we have seen several improvements concerning cleanliness in our community, such as:

 -  collection of waste in the streets and private properties;
 -  street washing by volunteer firefighters;
 -  Tim Horton's day with the Hearst Phoenix swimming club;
 -  hiring of an employee to clean the downtown area on a daily basis;
 -  recycling of cellular phones at the public library;
 -  tree planting in our parks, sponsored by industries;
 -  awareness campaign for dog owners, to pick-up excrements;
 -  awareness campaign for citizens to cover their truck bed when bringing waste to the municipal dump;
 -  municipal dump: hours are extended one hour during May;
 -  municipal dump; a special tank was installed to collect motor oil in small quantities;
 -  a maintenance program for road signs is made every year;
 -  accent is put on placing garbage on the side of the street at 7:00 a.m. and to use clean and secure containers;
 -  we improved the look of our garbage bins in public places;
 -  education is done on reduce, re-use and recycle;

To register, we have to call Marcel at the Town Hall at 372-2823.

The last message that I would like to give members present is:  We have to combine our efforts in order to promote our local pride and encourage ourselves to embellish our community.”

Fanny Joanis, Employment Councilor, Job Connect Employer Services:

- Mrs. Joanis resumed the Job Connect program offered to all employers.  She also gave details on the Job Fair 2006 that will take place on Tuesday May 16, 2006 from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. and invited BIA members to participate and install an information booth.  She suggested grouping several businesses under the same booth where all available jobs downtown would be posted.  This way, people taking care of the booth could rotate more often.  She said that the purpose of the Job Fair was to support networking and exchanges between employers and people seeking work, to make it possible for students in search of summer employment to meet potential employers, to promote assistance services in employment available in the community and to promote the necessary skills and abilities required on the local labor market.  She also said that the Job Fair was an excellent opportunity for businesses of meeting and discussing with possible candidates, to contribute to the development and planning of the career of people without work, to give the opportunity to people seeking work to present themselves and give out their résumé.  Mrs. Joanis gave all members a brochure on the Job Fair including a registration sheet for businesses that are interested to participate.  She also explained that the Job Connect program was still available this year.

Mike Wilson thanked Mr. Dillon and Mrs. Joanis for their presentation.

- Estelle Mignault informed members that someone will go through all businesses downtown to sell flowers symbolizing the walk Relay for Life.  All profits will go to the Cancer Society.   She asked members to encourage this initiative which serves to help several people in need.

- Mike asked everyone present if they were interested in becoming a Board Member, as there were two vacant seats.  Brenda Rosevear is interested as well as Isabelle Boulanger.  Mike invited them to the next Board meeting at the beginning of June and informed them that their names will be submitted to the Municipality for approval.

- Mike asked Daniel Lemaire, representative for the Hwy 11 Development Committee, if there were any changes since the last meeting.  Daniel said that the project was still ongoing, but that no progress was made.  Procedures take time and they are only working on preliminary studies at the moment.

- Estelle Mignault informed members that the Flower Festival will take place on June 15 and invited all business owners to install flowers in front of their store in order to embellish the downtown area.

- Some members gave out ideas for the Summer Festival, such as choosing a theme for the festival and outdoor shows.  Members also would like the dance to be held downtown, like before.  Mike suggested to maybe come back to the old format where the dance was held directly on the street and was organized by bars.  Merchants on 9th street have appreciated that 9th Street was closed last year and would like it repeated this year.  Florists on George Street said that they were having problems with their deliveries when the streets were closed and asked that a solution be found to accommodate them during these days of activities.

- Some members said that benches were installed at the right moment this year.  Others think that dogs should not be permitted in the downtown area as they were creating problems of cleanliness.

- The President thanked everyone present for their participation, their ideas, suggestions and questions.

Proposed by:  Estelle Mignault, Seconded by:  Patricia Marin-Carrier

THAT this 2006 Annual Meeting be hereby closed at 8:55.