Minutes of the West Shore Parks and Recreation Society Board of Directors Meeting

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Minutes of the West Shore Parks and Recreation Society Board of Directors Meeting Thursday, January 20th, 2022, via Microsoft Teams

PRESENT: Directors Kyara Kahakauwila (chair), Stewart Parkinson, Leslie Anderson, Damian Kowalewich

ABSENT: Roger Wade

STAFF PRESENT: Grant Brown, administrator Wei Wu, manager of finance and administration Wade Davies, manager of operations Geoff Welham, manager of recreation April Luchinski, manager of human resources Teresa Janisch, recorder

PUBLIC PRESENT: N/A

CALL TO ORDER

1. The chair called the meeting to order at 5:31PM.

ELECTION OF OFFICERS

2. Grant Brown, administrator, started the election of officers.

a) Chair

Nominations were called for chair. Director, Stewart Parkinson nominated Director, Kyara Kahakauwila (seconded by Director, Leslie Anderson). Director, Kyara Kahakauwila accepted the nomination.

The administrator called three times for further nominations and hearing none, Director, Kyara Kahakauwila was elected as chair.

Director, Kyara Kahakauwila assumed the chair at this time.

b) Vice-Chair

Nominations were called for vice-chair. Director, Stewart Parkinson nominated Director, Damian Kowalewich (seconded by Director, Leslie Anderson). Director, Damian Kowalewich accepted the nomination.

The chair called three times for further nominations and hearing none, Director, Damian Kowalewich was elected as vice-chair.

c) Finance Chair

Nominations were called for finance chair. Director, Damian Kowalewich nominated Director, Stewart Parkinson (seconded by Director, Leslie Anderson). Director, Stewart Parkinson accepted the nomination.

The chair called three times for further nominations and hearing none, Director, Stewart Parkinson was elected as finance chair.

APPOINTMENTS

3. a) GVLRA Representative and Alternate

Nominations were called for the Greater Victoria Labour Relations Association Representative.

Director, Leslie Anderson nominated Director and Chair, Kyara Kahakauwila (seconded by Director, Stewart Parkinson). Director and Chair, Kyara Kahakauwila accepted the nomination.

Nominations were called for the Greater Victoria Labour Relations Association Representative Alternate.

Director, Stewart Parkinson nominated Director, Leslie Anderson (seconded by Director, Damian Kowalewich). Director, Leslie Anderson accepted the nomination.

APPROVAL OF AGENDA

4. MOVED/SECONDED BY PARKINSON AND ANDERSON THAT THE AGENDA BE APPROVED AS PRESENTED. CARRIED

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

3. MOVED/SECONDED BY DIRECTORS KOWALEWICH AND ANDERSON THAT THE MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING HELD DECEMBER 9TH, 2021, BE APPROVED AS PRESENTED. NO ERRORS, NO OMMISIONS. CARRIED

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

4. N/A

CHAIR’S REMARKS

5. Kyara Kahakauwila commented on the following:

• Thank you all for your continued support as chair. I appreciate working with everyone.

STANDING COMMITTEES

6. N/A

OLD BUSINESS

7. N/A

NEW BUSINESS

8. N/A

FOR INFORMATION

9. a) Administrator’s Report

Grant Brown, administrator, highlighted the following:

Administration/Human Resources

The finance team continues to prepare for year end and excitedly welcomed Wei Wu as the new Manager of Finance and Administration on January 5th.

The new recreation software Intelligenz launched for programs with the winter registration dates of December 9th and 16th. Some challenges due to extremely high online traffic were experienced, however, staff worked with the vendor to develop suitable solutions and a plan is in place with the IT services contractor to rectify the issues prior to the Spring/Summer registration days in April. Day-to-day use of the new software has gone well and staff are getting more comfortable with it each day.

Human Resources continues to implement the new collective agreement (CA) and associated changes. The CA resides with the Union for review and copies will be made available to staff once completed. The 1.5% 2022 wage increase was implemented for January 1st 2022 and all retro pay for 2021 was completed prior to the final pay period of 2021. Preparations are underway for a career event with Royal Bay secondary school in March. Final preparations are being made for an arbitration taking place in February. The new respectful workplace policy and training plan was distributed in December. This includes an online questionnaire that staff complete to ensure their understanding. The first draft of the flex time program has been completed and will be reviewed in January to share with the union. A joint meeting with the union will be scheduled for those who qualify and are interested in participating, with the scheduled roll out of March 2022.

The Seniors Association have delayed their re-opening of the centre until January 24th due the current COVID-19 situation and inclement weather. The Association and Island Health Authority have agreed to extend the shared space arrangement until the end of April 2022.

Operations

Maintenance As COVID-19 threatens to deplete our staff, we are losing certified engineers on shift. Replacing those individuals is becoming a challenge so we are reinitiating more stringent rules for staff working together and conversing between shifts. More attention to distancing and cleanliness is being stressed.

Equipment maintenance continues as some items begin to show their wear. The Q Centre Arena compressor 3 had a major motor failure and was replaced. The contactor for this motor failed as well and we are waiting for its replacement. As well, boiler #2 at the Q Centre Arena had its circulation pump fail and the motor and bearing assemblies were both replaced. Boiler #1 at the Q Centre Arena had multiple flame failures, the sensor was cleaned and the photocell inside the ignitor was replaced. The JDF Arena tunnel air handling unit had various issues and repairs are ongoing. They include: the contactor coil transformer and both exhaust fans in the changerooms had failed and the compressed air connections from the JDF basement were cut and capped somewhere during the upstairs renovations and have been repaired. The kid’s cottage heat had a failed over amp protection device and a faulty thermostat. Both issues were corrected, and the heat was set up to operate on 2 stages for better efficiency.

Centennial Centre is in annual shutdown, all rooms are undergoing annual maintenance on floors, walls and fixtures. The annual pool shutdown from December 11th to 26th has been completed and included wall and ceiling tile repair in the steamroom, slide seam repair, changeroom tile and grouting, painting, baffle and light repair and full project cleaning everywhere.

This month snow removal was a big priority as exits and entrances needed attention for public safety.

Employee evaluations are underway and training for lead hand evaluations has been started. More auxiliaries are being hired from an open posting, trying to rebuild our depleted ranks.

Parks The outside spaces experienced heavy rains and a few days of snow. Crews used this time to conduct maintenance checks of all the mobile equipment and began requesting quotes for equipment due to be replaced in 2022. The fields and golf course saw lower usage due to the inclement weather. The snowfall late in the year kept crews busy clearing lots and sidewalks, ensuring safe access for staff and public.

Programs

Community Recreation During the 2-week Christmas break, art camps were offered at Centennial Centre, MindCraft camps at Juan de Fuca Recreation Centre and Horseback riding camps at Cedar Vista Stables. The horseback riding camps were full (30 riders) with waitlists. This program is appealing to parents due to its outdoor setting.

Centennial Centre Pottery Studio was busier than ever in December 2021 with the most programs operating at full capacity and our 3 kilns running 24/7. In December, the pottery studio saw 37 adults finish up a variety of beginner pottery classes, 49 children attend holiday inspired pottery workshops and 75 potters attend various drop-in pottery and open studio time slots.

December was a month to celebrate Christmas with the children in the preschool programs and make family gifts for under the tree. Unfortunately, due to the rise in illness, we had many children off sick and getting tested (thankfully we did not have any positive cases). We hired four new staff for these programs including 1 ECEA for discovery preschool, 1 ECEA for inclusion support Monday to Friday, and 2 responsible adults for nature preschool. We said goodbye and good luck to Lindsay Kemble (ECEA) who worked in the 10-month preschool for over 10 years – she was the successful candidate for the new ASC program assistant position. 10-month preschool closed from December 18th to January 4th, 2022.

The kids and staff are all settling in nicely to our new daycare. The program is a lot of fun, and we have wonderful staff and caregivers. Alex, our childcare programmer, organized a COVID-19 friendly family Christmas concert with the daycare kids performing 2 Christmas carols. Families were then invited for a fun Winter Wonderland skate. It was the first time on skates for some kids and parents. The daycare was closed from December 24th to January 4th, 2022, over the Christmas break.

The Afterschool Care (ASC) staff worked hard to add lots of special activities and bring the joy of the holiday season to the ASC program. One driver decorated the inside of their bus with Christmas lights. Groups did Christmas tree creating and decorating contests. Lots of holiday crafts, sugar cookies were decorated, and a special holiday movie night happened.

Our Friday Night Youth-drop in numbers continued to rise seeing max capacities in the pool. We were also able to open the youth room which was a success based on the feedback the youth have provided. Next up, staff will be undergoing a process of naming the youth room. Staff are looking at ways to engage with our youth to come up with a fun name that the kids like and reflects the new space. We also offered another babysitter’s course and home alone course in December with strong registration numbers.

Aquatics, Fitness and Weights For much of December the pool was relatively quiet due to our annual pool maintenance closure and holiday season. With Westhills YMCA closed and staffing shortages elsewhere, registration day received an unprecedented level of interest. Swimming lessons filled within seconds, and our new technologies were tested.

Considering the snowy weather and the complications that the Omicron COVID-19 variant has brought, the pool was able to remain open as planned with little interruption. As we re-opened from maintenance closure, the pool was a beacon of fun during the holidays.

Until the closure of weights and fitness on December 23rd, program registration and drop-in numbers were very strong. The weightroom was seeing more than 50 participants at peak times which is nearing pre-COVID drop-in numbers. We have also seen an increase in youth weightroom orientations, with 1 group and 3 individual orientations completed. Fitness classes were also strong with all drop-in programs running at 75%-90% capacity with additional classes being added for January to accommodate the increasing demand.

We are looking forward to introducing a few new group fitness and weightroom program offerings to the schedule for the Winter/Spring 2022 in anticipation of a busy month with the start of a new year and new motivation.

Sports The snowy, wet weather in December continued to hamper our golfer’s ability to get on the course. The year finished up with 41,570 rounds which was the 7th most since 1999.

The JDF Arena was again transformed into a Winter Wonderland and all rental slots and public skates were full. Santa made a few surprise visits and as usual it was very well received by the community and staff had a great time decorating the arena.

Arena and food & beverage concession staff were busy in December training and learning the new recreation software system with the concessions going live on January 1st for the Grizzlies game.

Even with the ever-changing COVID-19 protocols, all user groups safely maintained their ice bookings over the holidays and PowerWest booked additional ice. The Grizzlies and Wolves’ schedules have had some minor changes to them due to COVID-19 protocols but are hoping to get back on track as they go through January.

Inclusion, Diversity and Equity Staff met with the 2022 National Indigenous Peoples Day Planning Committee - the committee hopes the event will be in person, however, there will also be a back-up plan to have the event virtual if required.

We currently have 4 inclusion supported children in December and an additional 2 children have registered for January 2022. We continue our contract with Island Health for the funding for staff for these positions.

Grant Brown, administrator, added the following to the report.

• Intelligenz launched on December 9th and swimming lesson registration on December 16th. 90% of all registrations were completed online. There were some challenges with the server load. New software storage will help to combat these issues in future. Currently, there is a 6-8 month wait as it is back ordered.
• The City of Kelowna also uses Intelligenz and we will be connecting our IT staff with theirs.
• The Seniors have delayed their re-opening from January 24th until after February 16th.
• We still continue to have the testing site outdoors at the 55+ Seniors Centre. VIHA and the Seniors have an agreement until April.
• Rapid testing distribution is also happening through this site. There were some traffic issues with all vehicles trying to come in off Ocean Blvd. Discussions are happening around this.
• Great job done by our parks department on the snow removal during the recent snowfall. The property was cleared and safe for all staff and patrons.
• Fitness was having a comeback through the fall and then the PHO announcement in December shut it down as of December 23rd and we’re now allowed to re-open. The weightroom will be opening tomorrow and group fitness on Monday. Online reservation opened at noon today.

There was some discussion around the asset management project and the board would like an update on where that stands. WSPRS staff will provide an update at our February meeting.

b) 2022 Budget Process Update

Grant Brown, administrator, commented on the following:

• Next Monday (January 24th) we will be virtually presenting to Colwood. On February 8th we will be going to View Royal.

Kyara Kahakauwila mentioned that Metchosin had approved theirs already at their last meeting on January 10th and we should receive notification soon.

MOVED/SECONDED BY DIRECTORS PARKINSON AND ANDERSON THAT THE REPORT for 9.A) BE RECEIVED AS PRESENTED. CARRIED

IN CAMERA

10. N/A

ADJOURNMENT

11. MOVED/SECONDED BY DIRECTORS PARKINSON AND ANDERSON THAT THE MEETING BE ADJOURNED AT 5:48PM. CARRIED