Meeting Minutes June 5, 2025

1.     The winner of FireSmart Draw for May was Ella van Dinther.  Gord and David will coordinate distribution of the $100 Nester’s Gift Card.   Laura will update online platform.

2.     Membership

a.     Approved motion to update the online platform to allow member communications and for viewers to “follow” our posts. Laura to coordinate.

b.     Discussed fall AGM – potential to have members RSVP for the AGM and pre-register.  This will speed up the process on the day of the AGM, as well as allow us to control meeting room costs if numbers are not large to warrant the ballroom at the Four Points.  Will develop bylaw to allow for online voting and will present to membership for approval at AGM.

3.     Financial – Discussed financial positions for September 30, 2024 to date.  Set budget on summer projects based on what was submitted to the City of Kelowna for grant funding over the past 2 years.

4.     Community Engagement – approved plan to survey membership and the larger community as to what they want us to be working on in the future.  The results could be a good discussion session at the AGM.  Laura will also contact the Parks department person that the Strong Neighbourhoods department had suggested because it is anticipated that many of the projects will fall under the Parks department’s purview.   

5.     Projects for 2025

a)     Garage Sale and FireSmart Chipping Program Survey Results - 10 responses that represent a 5.32% sampling, so the findings are statistically significant.  As well, the distribution of respondents was evenly split between the Quail Run and Capistrano areas.

• Community chipping - 30% of respondents had no interest in a chipping offering; however, the other 70% respondents were very impressed with the program and Action Trees (the service provider).  These respondents were evenly split between April and May being a good time to run the service.   Board agreed that another questionnaire would be sent out to determine if there is interest in a fall chipping event.

• Garage sale - 90% of the respondents wanted a future garage sale (10% said no). These respondents commented on the increased number of buyers this year and the use of the handouts that were given out at the entrance of the community. There was a concern expressed by 1 individual that the garage sale created a risk in that there were too many people simply checking out peoples’ homes. 

• Also discussed the future use of the business coupons on the back of the map given out to interested buyers.  Very very few coupons actually used by businesses.  Plus, this part of the set up is extremely time consuming.  Will create a standardized reusable map showing the locations of the local businesses for the second page of the handout to support our businesses in the future.

  
  

b)     Trail cleanup and “firesmarting” – discussed project to clean up the trail that runs from Capistrano down to Country Club Drive.  Laura and Jackie will work on this.

c)     Evacuation Route - Laura trying to set up meeting with Dennis Craig, Assistant Fire Chief.  He will be back from up North after June 13th and he wants to include the Regional Emergency Planning Coordinator on the meeting.   Question sent in to Strategic Transportation Planning Group to find out if the use of the service road that runs in between Quail Ridge and UBCO as the community’s emergency route is included in the Gateway Transportation Plan.

d)     UBCO FireSmart team – Laura and Jackie working to set up a meeting with UBCO’s new FireSmart team.