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QRRA

Meeting Minutes June 6, 2024

Updated: Jul 15

Call to Order: 6:35pm


In attendance:  Gord Walter, David Naples, Laura Peacock, Alan Sherbinin, Jackie Venter, Laura Vigar,  Ralph Wegner 


Regrets:  Bruce Warren


Note: Some of these initiatives are made possible with the financial support of the City of Kelowna.


1. Membership 


a. David and Alan. Status update on what had been discussed at the last meeting about changing the bank email to qrraexec (rather than qrramembership) and that once changed, will update we’d website to reflect membership to be paid there.  David contacted bank and can switch email over. Needs to go through the bank. Laura P to go into website to fix on that end once change is made. 


When should we send out the 2024 renewals? How many should be renewing?  134 to renew in September. keep membership fee the same. 


b. Some new temporary signage? Gord suggested that this might help drive people to join.  Alan can help with this.  


c. Website.  Some technical issues.  Ralph might have a resource that can help.


2. Financial - David. Report out on GICs. 


a. David. Report out on Reimagine Today April 6 event.  Of interest:  there is an association called do gooders and they can help with grant writing at a cost. requirement for next year.


b. Gord. Report out on Block Connector event.  Met Mandy Pollard, part of Kelowna community safety advisory, fire department had a firesmart booth, Dennis Craig who now is the fire mitigation officer - willing to come out and speak at AGM.


Plus, Gord reported to the City about the issues with having the variance of classifications across various jurisdictions of the Myrtle spurge.  Some see it as an an invasive species, others do not.   City Council responded and they have discussed issue with Parks will bring this forward as well as the RDCO.


Discussion around bringing forward this type of news and accomplishments to membership. 


c. Laura P and Gord. Brief discussion around the administrative side of the program along with previous issues will be discussed on June 17th meeting.  We need to discuss with the City that the administration is time consuming for small group of volunteers. 


4. Annual General Meeting - set a date so Gord can start planning. - Tentative:  Thursday September 12 - TBC


5. Projects for 2023/24


a) Garage Sale 2024 post mortum – what worked? What didn’t? good - check list worked well. bad - flyer situation didn’t work, not good location - 4 way stop; should have set up at the 3 way stop (Laura P misread checklist); but volume is way down - houses participating and people showing up; 30 homes participated; need to move the date forward; in the past we had 60; give more notice by signs out ahead of time.  Gord suggest to do one more with changes run it on earlier in May and if higher turn out keep going, if not, reconsider. Gord to ask neighbors when his strata is doing it.


b) FireSmart 


a)QRRA did not win the Wawanessa grant in the minutes.


b) Laura P. Discuss FireSmart Canada website and what is a “Neighbourhood FireSmart Champion”. Idea is that it really is QRRA, not Laura P. Simply a site for submitting information for renewal.  Need to set up excel spreadsheet for time tracking (for the renewal).


c) FireSmart Champion Training. Discussed pdf that was sent out and think about what might be incorporated into our existing FireSmart Plan.


d) FireSmart Assessment. Discuss assessment and think about what might be incorporated into our existing plan.  Will send out assessment to the members.  


e) FireSmart Plan – once we are clear, the Plan can be submitted to Peter Stantic for his input.  


The Goal:  Set firesmart clean up earlier in April and do it twice a year in collaboration with the golf course - 2 areas, chipping and yard waste.  Maybe run a competition in the neighbourhood like the green bin challenge. Scoped out a few service providers to go around and pick up; the cost is high so we would need addresses and amount, cubic meter.  Ralph to get quote for flat bed truck.  Golf course meeting next week (June 11) Laura P and Jackie. So, 2024/25 plan:fall clean up of pine needles with the course, the fire sensors, and maybe the evacuation route on way to UBCO and a spring 2025 clean up (April 12?) (not to impact timing with garage sale May 4th ish).  Work with City to figure out how to control cost to transport fire debris out of community.  Maybe a 3-5 day chipper plan for our area (uptake on current chipper day not bad…had 2 people that dropped off debris and 5 people got on list to have chipper come on June 4th).   Need to integrateIssues with fire on slopes…and we are a sloped community.  We have NAAPP grant for this and bbq. We could apply for a neighbourhood grant to top up for a Fall clean up with the golf course (done before).


Plus we’d discussed cost of volunteer insurance for firesmart. This is where we’d need to think about it and/or have volunteers sign a waiver instead. (Laura P has some examples the City uses).


f) May 4 th FireSmart Neighbourhood Day post mortum – what worked? What didn’t?  Needed a sign that says free information (that we aren’t trying to sell anything).


g) Discussion about Laura Gord and David attending the UBCO Future-Proofing the Okanagan event:


1. Met Dr. Mathieu Bourbonnais, with UBCO’s Centre for Wildfire Coexistence. We’d planned on discussing using the NAAPP grant funds with Board to purchase Dr Bourbonnais sensors $600 each BUT Dr. Bourbonnais has offered Quail Ridge the sensors for free! The sensors are being developed to predict fire risk (collect data on moisture levels and other elements).Working to set a date to walk about area to decide on best locations.  Invited Peter Stantic (FireSmart) and wil invite Okanagan Golf Course. 


2. Also met Lesley Cormack, Principal and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (the senior administrator) who is also very invested in improving Pine trail access for students coming from Quail Ridge. Plan is for a fall meeting and getting   UBCO, the golf course and the city in 1 room so we can discuss.  Have $500 from NAAPP to host event properly at Four Points.


j) FireSmart Update: Under the theme of coexisting with wildfire, time for annual review of emergency plans.  Include list about what to put away if evacuation order issued (straw mats, pillows, propane tanks). Plus bookmark Map | Central Okanagan Emergency Operations (cordemergency.ca).


k) NEW:  discussed issue to more people write in to request weekend bus service.


Meeting Adjourned: 8:40pm

Next meeting: Monday July 8th at Jackie’s house



 

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