Attachment # 6 – CEGN – Nov. 4-15th Board Meeting

Memo:

To:CEGN Board

From:Pegi

Date:October 27, 2015

Re:Board Nomination Process

Overview:

According to our ByLaws, CEGN is able to have up to 15 Board members. We currently have 11 members (as Lara Ellis and Andrew Stegemann stepped off the Board this summer when they left their Foundation positions).

As of the June AGM in 2016, we will be losing the following Board members whose terms will have been completed: Pat Letizia; Beth Hunter; and Megan Tate. While Andre’s term also ends in 2016, he will stay on the Board for one more year in the position of Past-Chair.

CEGN – Existing Board following the 2016 AGM– / Type of funder / Province / Full-Term Ends – must step off the Board
Andre Vallillee / Private / ON / May, 2017
Jack Wong / Public / BC / May, 2018 (includes one year as past-Chair)
Dave Secord / Private / BC / May, 2017
Burkhard Mausberg / Public / ON / May, 2018
Wanda Brascoupé Peters / Affinity group / ON (Ottawa/national) / May, 2019
Cameron Miller / Corporate / ON / May, 2019
Thea Silver / Public / ON / May, 2019
Wendy Vanasselt / Private / US (Seattle,WA) / May, 2019

We have a maximum of 7 vacancies that we could fill in 2016. We should add at least 4 new Board members (if not the full 7) to bring us up to 12.

Overview of Board recruitment considerations and some potential candidates:

Geographical: We need to address geographical gaps. As of the AGM in 2016, we won’t have representation in:

Quebec Possible candidates include Nicolina Farella at McConnell; Kevin Leonard at ECHO (although he has declined in the past); de Gaspe Beaubien Foundation (Dominique Monchamp has declined in the past but Sandro Di Cori is the new Director of Operations and is taking on a lot of the leadership and he might be interested.)

Atlantic Canada: Our only two members right now are Sandy Thurber of the Fundy Community Foundation (NB) and Graham Smith of the Sage Environmental Program (NS). Having Sandy on the Board would give us a community foundation representative which we will be missing once Megan leaves the Board.

Alberta: We will be without representation in Alberta. Potential candidates include: Karen Wilkie, Carthy Foundation and Cheryl dePaoli, Alberta Real Estate Foundation. (We have approached Dan Thorburn of the Calgary Foundation in the past, but he has declined.)

Manitoba: We will be without representation in Manitoba. Greg Stevens ofEnvironment Canada is based in Manitoba and has been an active member of the Water Funders’ Group. He is on health leave this year. So, he may not be available to come on the Board in 2016. Karen Warren of Manitoba Conservation and Water Stewardship Fund might be a candidate. She helped with the CEGN conference in Winnipeg. Hugh Arklie of the Thomas Sill Fund is a past Board member and may be retiring, but he knows CEGN well.

Other Geographical Considerations:

BC:We have Jack and Dave but could use another Board member here, given the strong funder representation in BC. We also have some new members in BC (Coast Opportunity Funds and likely Tula Foundation). Having representation from the Vancouver Foundation would be helpful and help build community foundation representation on the Board. Terra from the Vancouver Foundation has joined our Conference Committee and attended the conference and might be a possibility.

Ontario: Ontario is not a gap now (we will have OTF; RBC; Greenbelt Fdn. and Metcalf going into 2016. Wanda is also based in Ontario but as an affinity group has a national orientation). But the highest proportion of our membership is in Ontario. Two candidates are: Valerie Lemieux, Catherine Donnelly Foundation (ON) and Andrea Moffat, Ivey Foundation (ON)

Saskatchewan: No Members

The North: No members with the exception that Steve Ellis of the Tides Canada Foundation is based in Yellowknife.

  • Ensuring good coverage in terms of type of funders:As noted above, we are low on community foundation repsand currently have only 1 corporate member (Cameron/ RBC). Having said this, private foundation representation is critical for CEGN. Private foundations have traditionally provided the financial and leadership backbone for CEGN. The Board will have only three private foundation members as of the 2016 AGM (Metcalf, Tides Canada and Wilburforce). We need to shore this up – perhaps by a Board member/s from McConnell and/or ECHO/ de Gaspe Beaubien / Carthy/Ivey or other funders.
  • Seniority and Going Back to Past Members: Having Board members who are at a senior leadership level in their organization helps on a number of fronts. The Executive Directors/Presidents of most of the private foundations engaged in environmental philanthropy have been on our Board in previous years and we could start to go back to them to come on board again. But they are also very busy. I raised this with Bruce Lourie and his advice was not to be concerned with the seniority of Board members – just focus on a good program and let that speak for itself. But I do feel that we are losing the engagement of some of these senior leaders (Ivey, Max Bell, Carthy, Metcalf, McConnell). Thoughts on whether this is a problem/ how to address it are welcome. (This comment was on last year’s update but have left it as the concern still stands.)
  1. Next Steps:
  • Confirm optimum size for 2016 Board
  • Identification of candidates that we might approach
  • Plan for tapping their interest over the next few months