Letter from the Chief Commander: a review of the 2020 virtual AGM and Conference

Nov 5, 2020

CPS-ECP AGM and Conference 2020
This year is the first time since our beginnings in 1938 that CPS-ECP has held its National Conference and AGM with all our members participating virtually from the comfort and safety of their homes. I know we would have liked to have visited Windsor, but it was not meant to be.

Highlights
Friday Fun Night and Awards – Hosted by the Western Ontario District/Windsor 2020. Team Bert terHart, Gabriola Island Squadron “Around Alone” Presentation.

Education, Environment, Membership, IT and Marketing Presentations.

Who to thank?
NXO Yves Dauphinais who was in charge of things, Valentin Bacalu in the National Office whose skill and knowledge of video production made it work, and Bert terHart our “Around Alone” sailor gave us such a superb presentation. NED Mimma Spagnolo, Vanessa Schmidt and the entire team of National Office Staff and the many volunteers who prepared and rehearsed (and rehearsed again) their presentations and reports. Special thanks to the Windsor 2020 Conference Team who adjusted to the changes and came up with creative ideas for the Friday night fun. There were a few minor hiccups, but we learned a lot and I can count this as an outstanding success. CPS-ECP had a challenge, we adapted to it and it worked.

Financial News
CPS-ECP is at a crossroads. We are a volunteer, membership-run organization that is supported by two pillars – membership dues and course sales.

Obviously, our membership dues revenue depends on the number of members and those have nearly halved since the last raise in 2012: course sales, which had been going down before Covid-19 and have now “fallen off a cliff”. Our 2020 audited financial statements show a deficit of just under $500k. We are not going out of business yet, but we cannot afford to continue like this.

Special Resolution 1 – the motion to members to approve a raise of National Dues from $37 to $55 after an eight plus years hiatus was driven by the state of our finances. The proposed raise was agreed to by your Board of Directors on 30th September 2020 and was not communicated well enough to our members and I take full responsibility for this. Explaining the reasons behind the request during the AGM was of little use when (we found out afterwards) that most members had already voted – most had made up their minds already. Members have said to me that I must be disappointed – and yes, I am, although the resolution did not pass because we are required to achieve a two-thirds to one third majority vote. We only achieved a 60.5% yes vote compared to a 39.5% no vote, so we were short by 6%. The bar is set high. Still, it is behind us and “we will keep calm and carry on”.

The Board of Directors met on Sunday morning 25th October 2020 and discussed the future of CPS-ECP. We still have the deficit to deal with, it hasn’t gone away. We have been discussing options and inevitably price rises have to be in the picture. The Board will be deciding on a new business model – although we are primarily a membership-based organization we have to operate as a business, and we will do that.

CPS-ECP is not a two-tier system where “national” drains the squadron’s hard-earned cash. There are National-level activities such as our educational programs and marketing/ advertising that must continue as we run the national organization and they do not run cost free. These programs, although they are run by volunteers, are needed to keep our materials and media image up to date – and this costs money and volunteer time. These volunteers are regular squadron members who volunteer at national as well as local squadron level. In addition, the National Office provides services to members and squadrons and costs money to run – our Staff have families to support and they have to be paid pandemic or no pandemic. The building needs heating, lighting, telephone, internet connections and municipal taxes, pandemic or no pandemic. These bills have got to be paid. We asked some of the squadrons earlier this year if they would be willing to contribute towards the running of this organization but nearly all declined – and the few that were willing wanted a detailed list of what the cash would be used for – operating expenses are not good enough.

We, as members, all belong to our national organization. If we are all interested and committed to the core mission and mandate of CPS-ECP as boaters teaching other boaters about safe boating, then we all have a stake in ensuring it has a future. I will write to you further as plans are developed and decisions have been made.

Peter Bolton, SN
Chief Commander – Commandant en chef
Chairman of the Board – Président du Conseil
Canadian Power and Sail Squadrons
Escadrilles canadiennes de plaisance