A Big Thank You to the Organizers of the Social!

BCTRA

• Inspiring excellence and enthusiasm in practitioners through consistent and high quality education and professional development, access to resources, membership engagement and mentoring opportunities
• Advocating for and maintaining standards of practice, code of ethics, membership and continued competency criteria, for the benefit of our members, partners, the public and key stakeholders

• Providing leadership to advance and grow the field through strategic planning, advocacy and increasing public awareness

Agenda Items

1)TR Month

• A big thank you to the organizers of the social!
• Feedback: needs to be fully accessible, ice breaker would be beneficial to help professionals mix with students.
• Marita Kloseck presentation feedback: would have been nice to have handouts prior to, videoconference did not turn on on time. Future sessions: LCM with children, Sunnyhill to be a trial site.

2)Strategic Planning

a)Agenda:

• Sheila, Jasmine, Brenda and Jen had meeting to work out agenda. Jasmine will send out. Getting together early Saturday march 22. Day will include “getting to know you”, steering committee report update and history, regulation, regulation task group. Afternoon will include information on paid positions across the country, how we think this may help us to move forward. Followed by dinner. Sunday is breakfast and AGM planning started.

b)Accommodations:

• Donna has reserved us accommodation at the Fairmont Vancouver Waterfront. We will have the boardroom for Saturday all day and Sunday morning. Currently, 8 people will be staying over. The Presidents Club offered many savings to keep costs down such as: breakfast, unlimited beverages and snacks, hor d'eurves, evening desserts, board room for 1.5 days, early check in and late check-out, free parking.

c)Social:

• Donna will look into dinner options for Saturday night for 7:30-8pm (after cocktails and appies)

3)Communications

a)Website:

• Many requests from members re website, however, current director of communications unable to meet the workload of position due to inconsistent work schedule. Member at large has been helping with emails. Craig has been helping with the website. Sheila has asked a couple education committee members to post items to the webpage.
• Has asked if a broadcast be put out to recruit someone able and willing to help her. Has also suggested asking Craig to pick up a couple extra tasks.
• Options include: Robin sends out broadcast to membership to see if there is anyone willing and able to assist her (willing to train someone); Board queried if Director of Communications would consider resigning if unable to continue to be at board meetings and to fulfill duties of role, duties of Director will be absorbed by all members in the meantime.
• All board members are in agreement that the president will discuss this with the director of communications and will report back to the board members.
• President will inform director of communications that their suggestions were brought forward

b)Feedback from BCTRA member:

• click on “contact” sends you to set up a google account. Click on and it puts in the presidents email. The contact information on homepage should be bigger and brighter. Meghan will email these items to Craig to fix.

c)We have the certification tab back!

4)Membership Update

• We need to broadcast a reminder on the website to members that membership is coming up. April 1st is the deadline for renewal.
• Brenda will send out broadcast to Craig to have posted to website (including criteria for membership).
• Queried how student membership works. For example students graduating this year will get student membership for one more year.

5)Education Updates (Sheila)

a)TR Journal

• $339 a year to subscribe to TR journal, you get combined online and print option. Queried where we donate print articles to? A random BCTRA member will be chosen to have the article sent to
• We cannot expect the publishing company to contact us to renew. We must ensure we are aware of when the membership deadline is near, so that we don’t let the membership lapse. We have an online subscription but because we are an organization we must provide an IT address (Craig). We email the info person of the publishing company to inform them that we have paid. Craig will download the website quarterly to the BCTRA website.
• All board members need to agree to doing the TR journal for members this way.

b)Lou Scheffler memorial

• Prominent member in the TR field, has recently passed away. Brenda will be attending memorial for Lou and will present card from BCTRA board of directors to family of Lou.
• Queried creating a memorial award to award at AGM. Or perhaps different ideas of honouring Lou within the field and BCTRA.
• Brenda will get in contact with Kate who was a close colleague of Lous to see if it is ok (from the family) for the board to broadcast Lous passing on the website, as well as if they have any ideas for ways of honouring Lou (such as a bursary or award)

c)Education Committee

• Sheila has been working on recruiting Alison Koci for Director of Education, Alison has agreed!
• Jalna Rossi will be trained in posting and broadcasting education items to the website
• Sheila would like to broadcast in the future about recruiting another education committee member

6)Regulations Director Updates

a)Task Group

• First meeting was held in February. 7 participants. Jen has minutes from the task group meeting, will report a summary at each monthly board meeting from the minutes. Committee asked for more history behind what had been done so far re regulations, Jen presented information from steering committee. Wanted to know what tasks the board had in mind for the task group (board will put preliminary ideas in place, task group will carry forward with ideas). Jen will continue to work on terms of reference with task group

b)Issue of Misrepresentation

• Jen contacted NCTRC re what their action will be in the matter; Jen has written a letter directed to Stenberg College and will send this week.
• Brenda has contacted BCTRA Lawyer Anders re this matter. Some of the health professions act has not yet been approved in parliament. National Association holds rights to titled trademark. Anders recommended contacting NCTRC (Jen has already done this). No effective legal means that BCTRA can take against the individual. (Individual has title of ‘registered recreation therapist’ on Stenberg College website).
• Brenda will forward Anders’ email to Board of directors for their review.

7)Director at Large Updates (Melanie)

a)Promotions Committee Update

• Currently 5 members on committee. First meeting to take place in a couple of weeks. Will brainstorm ideas for posters to promote BCTRA.
• Mail out items to BCTRA members for TR month (?)

b)Member concerns

• Wondered how health authorities could do more to promote BCTRA membership

8)Treasurers Report (Donna)

• January 31, 2014 balance is Chequing $72934.56 Savings $30341.55
• We will be filing income tax this year.
• Insurance bill has been paid ($1403).
• Looking into more efficient way of balancing books. “Quickbooks” program is a program that balances books and produces reports. Treasurer would like approval from members to go ahead with $9 monthly fee to register for “Quickbooks” program. Would like to have program running by end of March. Would like to hire accountant to assist with submitting numbers/audit to get program set up properly

9)CTRA Awards

• Suggests we look into people in British Columbia to nominate for awards for CTRA as not many people from BC get awarded due to low nominations. Award information online on CTRA website.
• Meghan will put CTRA Awards at the top of Aprils agenda items.

Action Items:

• Meghan to update mission statement on January and February minutes
• Meghan to update “Kloseck” spelling on February meeting minutes
• Meghan to post January and February meeting minutes on website
• Meghan to get passwords from members for email accounts
• Donna to reserve rooms for Retreat
• Donna to look into dinner options for retreat social
• Meghan to put CTRA awards at top of agenda for April minutes
• Meghan to email Craig to correct errors on website as brought forward by BCTRA member
• Donna to register for “Quickbooks” program for accounting
• Brenda to forward Anders’ email to board of directors re: Misrepresentation item
• President will discuss resignation with the director of communications and will report back to the board members

Next meeting:

April 3, 2014 (Thursday)