Meeting called to order at 6:39 pm
In attendance: Laura Peacock, David Naples, Jackie Venter, Gord Walter, Bruce Warran, Ralph Wegner.
Regrets: Alan Sherbinin, Laura Vigar
Note: Some of these initiatives are made possible with the financial support of the City of Kelowna.
1. Membership
a. Status update on payments method. Changed e transfer bank email to qrraexec (rather than qrramembership). Will include instructions in renewal letter.
b. 2024 renewals / membership report out. 134 renewals. Need 2 people at desk at AGM.
2. Finance – discussion about current investment of funds and financial statements for presentation at AGM.
3. Neighbourhood Association Affiliation Pilot Program
a. Report out on meeting on June 17th with City of Kelowna. Details of the program resolved.
b. Report out on first “required” meeting on June 12th. Great meeting. 3 presentations: FireSmart, Central Okanagan Regional District emergency planning, Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design.
4. Directors’ and Officers’ Insurance – quotes will be solicited. Will also ask about volunteer insurance riders.
5. Administration – discussed use of Google Drive and Google Meet.
6. Annual General Meeting – have 3 presenters potentially set up. Need to confirm location. Four Points will not book us until 30 days before hand. Gord to follow up. Ralph to contact KF Aerospace to get a cost quote for their facility.
7. Projects for 2024
a) Gord: Realtor Kit – a letter explaining who the residents’ association is and how to join will be sent to local realtors as something they could consider providing to new purchasers in the area. Will review success in 3 months.
b) FireSmart: Laura and Jackie to report out on meeting with:
Golf Course June 11th - Meeting with Okanagan Golf Course went well. Discussed fall clean up and running a community BBQ. Timing would be after the course closes in October. Idea of inviting fire department.
FireSmart meeting with other residents’ associations and stratas run by Captain Dennis Craig on June 18th - Interesting meeting. Dennis Craig discussed how fires’ behavior has changed since 2017 due to drought conditions. Fires are fuel driven and contingent on health of forest. The long lasting drought has resulted in tree root balls shrinking in … essentially sucked dry of moisture. Embers are the big concern – 80% of all forest fires started by embers.
UBCO meeting with Dr. Mathieu Bourbonnais, from the Centre for Wildfire Coexistence, City of Kelowna’s Urban Forests and Captain Stantic – discussed placement locations for sensors.
b) FireSmart Plan –the Plan submitted to Peter Stantic for his input. Discussed how community hours calculated. For Quail Ridge, we need to provide the equivalent of $2000 man hours to qualify. Rough estimates suggests we are about half way there. Discussed ideas around the Spring clean-up. The goal is to establish a set time in April for annual clean ups so that residents can plan. As well, want a simple straight forward process so future QRRA council can easily set the event up. Discussed use of chipper from Captain Stantic. Urban Forests may have a solution for removing the yard waste to the landfill.
c) Grant money. We have $1500 from the NAAPP and $750 from FireSmart Canada. Recommendation: carry over NAAPP amount for April clean up. The $750 grant could be used to cover the cost of the volunteer insurance for the Fall Clean up on the golf course. Or we could run a contest encouraging residents to send in their names and proof that they took out a confer within 1.5 meters of the home or had their gutters clean etc. Do draws for $50 Nesters Gift Cards? Laura to write up the contest rules and circulate for discussion.
d) Evacuation Route review – will set a meeting with UBCO and GolfBC and GEID to discuss evacuation route upgrade. Have $500 to fund this event.
e) FireSmart Updates – discussed topics for biweekly updates.
f) Signage to market QRRA / FireSmart – discussed a variety of ideas.
5. Next meeting: TBD
6. Terminate meeting at 8:35.
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