The Board concludes another wonderful year. We appreciate the diligent contributions of time and energy of the Board members. We acknowledge with sincere gratitude the contribution of Board member Lynne Farquharson, who passed away recently and will be deeply missed.
The Board members met in person to discuss the issues for our charitable registered program, providing urgently needed funds in many developing countries and in BC. We ensure that all donations and the yearly contribution from members is spent wisely, ensuring transparency in the granting of funds, although we had many more requests for funds than we were able to support.
Careful management of the donations are held through the Vancity Community/R.R. Smith fund with their office sending receipts promptly if donated on-line, and at year-end if donated by cheque. This year grants totaled over $40,000 which enable the continuation of programs helping registered charitable groups operating in BC and in developing countries with their diverse programs. The list of recipients was published in the earlier PostScript.
We discussed our need to use our funds using the updated criteria and application forms on the website www.rrsmith.ca Thanks especially to our treasurer Dave Carter for keeping our charitable status up to date with the government.
We continue to receive letters of appreciation from fund recipients from university students who benefit from the R. R. Smith bursaries administered through six universities, including UBC, SFU, UNBC, University of Victoria, Vancouver Island University and Thompson Rivers University. The Board discussed making contributions to the six universities R. R. Smith bursaries, but decided to instead focus on our charitable work under our criteria/application model as the bursaries were set up through a different source of funding after a strike action. Students apply directly to the universities, and the funds, through careful management, continue to grow.
The Board consults with our lawyer Anders Ourom about legal issues which could affect our charitable status, ensuring we follow the guidelines as a Canadian charitable entity. He consults with us as a pro bono initiative which is greatly appreciated. His mother was a teacher librarian in the Vancouver school district.
Thanks to each of the members of our Board for sharing their skills: Dave Carter, Gail Chaddock-Costello, Karen Kilbride, Sarah Joyce, Steve Bailey, and our BCRTA representatives Caroline Malm and Linda Watson. We appreciate Tim Anderson’s skill with the website. Special thanks to Kristi and Laurie at the BCRTA office.
Barb Mikulec, president
