Peterborough Independent Podcasters Association Third Annual General Meeting To be held, November 2, 2019, 3:00 P.M. Sadleir House Lecture Hall 751 George St. North, Peterborough, Ontario Agenda: 1. Call to order: President’s opening remarks and setting of the agenda. 2. Approve minutes from previous Annual General Meeting. 3. Presentation of Reports • Managing Director Ayesha Barmania • President of the Board Robert Hailman • Webmaster Jeffrey Moore If the members see fit: MOTION to accept the reports as presented and/or amended. 4. Presentation of Financial Statement by Treasurer of the Board Valentina Kibedi. If the members see fit: a MOTION to accept the Financial Statement as presented. 5. Presentation of the Three-Year Strategic Plan. 6. Presentation of new Board Members. If the members see fit: MOTION to elect new Board Members. 7. Any other business 8. MOTION to adjourn Minutes of 2nd PIP Annual General Meeting – November 17, 2018 Present: Kemi Akapo, Ayesha Barmania, Angelica Cooper, Rob Hailman, Mauricio Interiano, Valentina Kibedi, Jeffrey Moore, Will Pearson, Larry Saidman, Zara Syed (by telephone), Bill Templeman, Devon Wilkins 1. Call to Order at 5:19pm • After the call to order, Mauricio Interiano delivered opening remarks. 
2. Approval of Agenda • Jeff Moore moved to approve the agenda, seconded by Rob Hailman and carried. 3. Minutes of Last Meeting • Kemi Akapo moved to approve the minutes of previous last annual general meeting, seconded by Zara Syed and carried. 4. Presentation of reports • Ayesha Barmania delivered the Managing Director's Report. • Mauricio Interiano delivered the President's Report. • Jeff Moore delivered the Webmaster's Report. • Devon Wilkins moved to accept these reports, seconded by Will Pearson and carried. 5. Presentation of financial statements • Will Pearson presented the financial statements for the year ending August 31, 2018. • Rob Hailman moved accept the financial statemetns, with an amendment to note the financial statements were prepared on a cash accounting basis, seconded by Ayesha Barmania and carried. 6. Election of board members • The following individuals were nominated for the board of directors: • Angelica Cooper, Rob Hailman, Mauricio Interiano, Valentina Kibedi, Zara Syed, Devon Wilkins • On a motion made by Jeff Moore, seconded by Will Pearson, and carried, all the nominees were elected to the board of directors until the next Annual General Meeting. 7. Any Other Business • No other business was raised 8. Adjournment • There being no other business, the meeting was adjourned at 7:02pm. Peterborough Independent Podcasters Managing Director’s Report on September 2018 – August 2019 Prepared by Ayesha Barmania for the third annual meeting of the membership on November 2, 2019. Introduction Since founding PIP, we have been on a trajectory of maintaining and expanding our core operations and building capacity for future functionality. This past year represents great strides towards both of these goals. In the 2018-2019 fiscal year, PIP offered an expanded range of weekly programs to support podcasters. And we were able to engage in strategic planning to determine a focused course forward. Member Programs Thanks to a partnership with Trent Radio, in September 2018 we launched two new initiatives to support members. The first is the Peterborough Independent Podcasters’ Showcase a radio program that airs on Sunday afternoons that highlights content created by PIP members. The second initiative is Production Studio Booking Time during which time we make production studio space available to PIP members at Trent Radio on Sunday afternoons. These initiatives ran during the Trent Radio 2018 Fall and 2019 Spring broadcast seasons (September – April) and I’m happy to say that we have renewed the relationship with Trent Radio offer these programs again for the 2019 Fall and 2020 Spring broadcast seasons. In February 2019, I initiated a new program called the Podcast Accessibility Drop-In (suggestions for catchier names welcome). This time is an opportunity for podcasters to gain assistance with their program, particularly for folks who identify a barrier due to a disability, but open to all. This program has supported the creation of three new podcasts on the PIP network, and is generating word-of-mouth promotion among folks living with disabilities. Office Hours continued to be available this year for folks to drop in, ask questions, and become members at our office on the third floor of Sadleir House. This past year office hours were also an opportunity for volunteers to meet with me, do their work and socialize. In November 2018, I began a call-out for an expanded range of volunteer positions with PIP, including Marketing Assistant, Board Member, Event Helper and the honorary title of Highlander. These positions are designed to help me in the management of PIP and provide experience in a range of tasks. Workshops Public Workshops In September 2018, and February 2019, I ran two very successful Podcasting 101 workshops. Our introduction to podcasting remains our top engagement tool and bestselling workshop. In October 2018, we tried our Social Media for Creative Projects workshop, taught by PIP member Mauricio Interiano, again with limited success. In March and June 2019, we revamped this workshop with a new one-on-one approach for PIP members to receive a 20-minute consultation with Mauricio who reviewed their social media, offered feedback and worked on sketching out a path forward. In March 2019, we ran a successful Audio Editing in Audacity workshop taught by PIP member Jeffrey Moore. This workshop demonstrated the basic skills for editing a podcast in the free software Audacity. In July 2019, we continued the audio editing series with Audio Editing in Reaper, taught by PIP member Rob Hailman. This workshop was less well-attended than the Audacity workshop, but participants expressed how valuable the knowledge was for them. Reaper is a more advanced, paid software that is less popular on the podcasting scene. Commissioned workshops This past fiscal year, we conducted two private Podcasting 101 workshops for corporate clients in the Peterborough area. The first took place in September 2018 for the New Canadian Center, teaching staff, volunteers and NCC members the basics of podcasting. This workshop was conducted by myself and Rob Hailman. The second took place in March 2019 for the Catholic District School Board, teaching students how to create podcasts for a media and computers class. This was taught by Jeffrey Moore. Strategic Planning Following the last AGM, there was an interest in deepening the organization’s governance capacity – chiefly developing policies and procedures for our practices. The board engaged me in a short-term contract to develop some identified items. Through the course of this development, I and the board recognized a need for a level of planning a step back from the day-to-day practices. For instance, before determining a plan for which grants to apply to, I wanted direction on where the organization was supposed to grow. We decided to engage in a process of strategic planning to determine three directions where we should focus our energies for the next three years. To begin this process, we conducted a Stakeholder Engagement Survey to poll our membership, donors, organizational partners, and others on a number of different topics pertaining to PIP’s services, past and future. The survey was distributed between March and April 2019, and received 38 responses. Next, I conducted research and prepared a report for the board on the environment in which we are operating. This report and the aggregated stakeholder engagement survey results are attached to this report as an appendix. Following this research, the board engaged a consultant to lead us in a retreat where we devised three new strategic directions, which we are proud to present at this meeting. Over the course of the day we discussed the philosophical and practical ramifications for our mandate, and came up with three excellent priorities for the future. These strategic directions continue the work we have already begun and show a clear path forward for our priorities into the next three years. The strategic planning also revealed that we needed to devise some larger organizational strategies, leading to our new Mission, Vision and Values statements, included in the President’s Report. I am very proud of what we have been able to achieve. This introspection and planning have set us up with a clear and productive Three-Year Strategic Plan that sets us up well for success. Currently, I am engaged in developing an annual operations plan which represents the next step from this visioning. Our incoming board of directors will get to see this document soon. Conclusion In addition to maintaining and expanding our core services with new programs and workshops, we made great progress towards establishing ourselves as a responsible organization. I’d like to thank the Rob, Mauricio, Valentina, Devon, Zara and Angelica for their incredible support as the board of directors for this past year. It’s been a delight working with you as a team. Your dedication and support have made for a productive, fun and inspiring year. I am excited to see what the future of PIP holds. Thank you! I owe a debt of gratitude to Jeffrey Moore for being our stalwart webmaster, saving us from a few unexpected outages over the past year, and for stepping up as Deputy Managing Director while I was away. President’s Report Prepared 2019/10/30 Rob Hailman This AGM marks the end of PIP’s second year as a not-for-profit corporation, and from my perspective was a huge success. While our first year was largely spent getting comfortable with the basics of operating on a not-for-profit model, this year the board has been able to turn our focus on what PIP can become in the future rather than the day-to-day operations. Strategic Planning: The single largest undertaking of the board was a strategic planning process, beginning in January and continuing through the summer, including a membership engagement survey and a day-long planning retreat in June. Working closely with Ayesha, we took a look at our own perspectives, the feedback of our membership, and broader trends in podcasting as well as media and the non-profit sector in general, to define PIP’s mission, vision, and values, and identify three strategic directions to orient PIP’s activities over the next three years. Mission: We exist to support and empower our members to create podcasts and develop their skills. We do this by providing accessible education, professional resources, and advocacy for the medium. Vision: We envision a world where podcasting is inclusive, accessible, and celebrated. Values: Accessibility, Collaboration, Creativity, Empathy, Inclusivity. Strategic directions: Building a sustainable and resilient organization, serving the local podcast community, & fostering strong relationships. The next step for this process is to develop operational plans on a year-by-year basis, in order to focus on taking concrete steps in these directions. Relationship with Trent Radio: PIP’s relationship with Trent Radio continues to be valuable & beneficial to both organizations and our members. Many PIP members are also Trent Radio programmers who distribute their Trent Radio programs as podcasts through PIP’s web hosting. At the same time, through the PIP Showcase hosted by Ayesha on Sundays, podcasts made by PIP members are broadcast through the facilities of Trent Radio, and PIP members have access to Trent Radio’s production facilities on Sunday afternoons. Office hours & accessibility drop in: While Ayesha was away in the summer, I had the opportunity to host PIP’s office hours & accessibility drop-in hours in their absence. This was a very valuable opportunity for me to learn more about what PIP members get up to and how we can better serve them. 
Thank yous: PIP owes a huge debt of gratitude to Ayesha Barmania for their vision & tireless efforts sustaining our organization, and to Jeffrey Moore for being the tech guru that keeps the “podcast” part of PIP possible. Also, I’d like to extend my personal thanks to the rest of the board of directors for sharing their time and passion - and in particular, Mauricio Interiano, who left us this summer to attend graduate school in Switzerland, and Zara Syed and Angelica Cooper whose tenure on the board of directors is ending with this meeting. I wish you every success in your future adventures! Webmaster’s Report for PIP’s 2019 AGM Status Our service has been fairly stable over the past year, and we have experienced very few outages. Due to some confusion with a previous web host, we briefly lost access to our domain name, but that was resolved promptly. We also briefly lost our SSL certificate when our current host failed to automatically renew it, but, again, that was sorted out within 24 hours. Our web host continues to increase the level of service they provide as they upgrade their hardware, so our website works better in general, and we have had significantly fewer service requests from our members this year than in previous years. Recommendations An item to consider regarding security on the website: the URL for the login page is currently set to the default – wp-login.php. This leaves the page at the mercy of automated brute force attacks. These attacks are mitigated somewhat by the captcha on the login page, but it would be better if the URL were simply non-standard to make it harder for the bots to find. However, many of our users may find it troublesome to migrate over to the new URL, and we haven’t experienced any issues with it so far (other than our security software complaining about the constant barrage of bad logins). I personally would recommend making the change and inconveniencing our users somewhat to increase our security a fair bit, but I’ll leave that to the discretion of the board and membership. Other than that, I have no suggestions to improve our service at the moment. Introduction The following is a report to the membership of the Peterborough Independent Podcasters (PIP) from its Treasurer, detailing the organization’s financial activity for the the organization’s third fiscal year, September 1, 2018 to August 31, 2019. Assurance This report is based on PIP’s internal financial records kept by PIP’s managing director, Ayesha Barmania. The records are unaudited, but have been reviewed for consistency by the Board Treasurer. 2018/2019 Income Statement Revenue Ind. Memberships $622.50 Org. Memberships $250.00 Commissions $0 Grants $0 Fundraising $473.40 Custom Workshops $300.00 Reg. Workshops $515.00 Total Revenue $2160.90 Expenses Rent $678.00 Licenses & $113.00
Memberships Sponsorships $25.00 Workshops $999.16 Office $1165.85 Bank fees $95.50 Equipment $0 Events $0 Total Expenses $3076.51 2018/2019 Fiscal Year Opening and Closing Balances Opening Balance (September 1, 2018) $3,629.95 Closing Balance (August 31, 2019) $2,714.34 PIP Balance Sheet (September 1, 2019) Assets Bank balance $2703.76 Cash float -$18.40 Accounts receivable -$60.00 Liabilities Unearned revenue $700.00 Total equity $1925.36 Conclusion This past year has been a year of investment in PIP’s foundation and future sustainability. PIP went through a robust strategic planning process for the first time in its history in 2019. As such, much of PIP’s capacity was directed at supporting the planning process to ensure a successful outcome, which we achieved. PIP had a net negative cash flow of $915.61 in the 18/19 fiscal year, bringing our total assets to $1,925.36. The primary factors that contributed to PIP’s increased operating expenses this past year were rent for our office, staffing contract, and investment in strategic planning. Furthermore, membership recruitment and renewals were not the core focus, which affected overall revenue. However, as PIP engaged in long-term planning throughout the year, we continued to offer programs and services, such as public and private workshops, which were well attended. We also continued discussions and development of financial policies based on the recommendations from the previous year’s Board Treasurer. Moving forward, I offer the following recommendations for consideration: • That the board continue developing and enhancing our financial policies; • Adopting an industry-standard accounting format, such as a ledger account format; • Exploring accounting software alternatives to our current software, Google Sheets; • Consider engaging a bookkeeper or accountant to assist with PIP’s accounting on a quarterly or bi-annual basis. Thank you to Ayesha Barmania for their diligent record keeping and management of PIP, and to the PIP Board of Directors for their ongoing leadership and commitment to the stewardship of the organization. • Valentina Kibedi Peterborough Independent Podcasters’ 2019-2022 Strategic Directions The Peterborough Independent Podcasters (PIP) board of directors met on Saturday, June 8, 2019 for a strategic planning session. The board reviewed the results of the stakeholder engagement process, analyzed the current media landscape and context in which PIP operates, identified PIP’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, and ultimately reached consensus on the key areas of strategic focus moving forward. The board has committed to moving the organization in three strategic directions: Building a sustainable and resilient organization We are committed to developing PIP as a community establishment with the fiscal management and governance to last. This includes: • Strengthening our overall staff, volunteer, and governance operations; • Creating a strategy to build and diversify revenues; • Developing a strategy for engaging our membership; and • Building and enhancing partnerships to support our sustainability. Serving the local podcast community We are committed to providing value to the community of podcasters based in the Peterborough area. This includes: • Reviewing and defining our member services; • Establishing an accessibility framework; • Developing, implementing, and monitoring a programming strategy; • Conducting an annual evaluation process; • Becoming a more member-driven organization; and • Exploring the feasibility of a local podcast resource hub idea. Fostering strong relationships As a nimble but small organization, we must foster the relationships that allow us to do our mandated work. We are committed to: • Developing a communications plan; • Exploring and developing strategic partnerships; and • Advocating for creative space and accessible podcast resources.