A big thank you to the over 200 people who attended our Annual General Meeting on Saturday! It was a wonderful day celebrating our newest acquisitions, our 30th anniversary, hearing from our guest speaker, and so much more!
Re-cap:
- Lisa Neville read highlights from the 2023 Annual General Meeting minutes.
- President of the Board, Kathy Hunt, shared some highlights from 2023 activities, and recognized departing board member, Lisa Neville.
- Jack Booth, Treasurer, reviewed the financial statements.
- Increase in both revenue and expenses mainly from property and easement acquisitions. The large increase is partly due to $286,000 in easement donations delayed from 2022.
- Net result was an income of $103,400 for the year – $92,000 of this amount was contributed to the Stewardship Endowment Fund as required.
- Couchiching Conservancy (CC) continues to be in a strong financial position with no long-term debt and just under $1,800,000 in the reserves and endowment funds.
- Presentation from Michael Gordon, Chair of the Board/President of The Community Foundation of Orillia and Area, a public foundation that invests charitable donations and manages endowment funds for donors and charities.
- Net of fees, CC has earned 6.1% on its investments since inception. Returns are posted quarterly on The Foundation’s website. Investments are mostly from the Conservancy’s legacy endowment, the Heartwood Fund. Investment income is already supporting the core of the organization.
- A new Board of Directors was voted in.
- Executive Director Dorthea Hangaard shared the Executive Director report
- After hard work by staff, taking years in some cases, six new properties were permanently protected in 2023; slides of each property and their donors presented: Frantzke-Williamson Easement, Hancock Hermitage Easement, Turnbull Ranch Nature Reserve Road Allowance Addition, Deverell-Morton Nature Reserve, Mitchell Bruce Nature Reserve, Cedar Grove Nature Reserve. Total of 608 acres (246 hectares) protected thanks to generous land and financial donations.
- In honour of CC’s 30th Anniversary: Founders Adam Thomson, Shirley Thomson, Peter Gill, Ken Thomson, Janet Grand, Ron Reid, Si Lowry and Gord Ball (absent) recognized for their outstanding volunteer contributions over the past 30 years. The founders of CC sought to reverse the commodification of the land by buying back the best habitats to protect them forever. They identified 10 areas around Lake Couchiching in need of protection. Their success inspired a network Land Trusts across the province.
- As of 2023, CC stewards 57 nature reserves and easements totalling 14,934 acres (6044 hectares).
- We heard from guest speaker Waubgeshig Rice, author and journalist from Wasauksing First Nation
- Award winning and best-selling author of the novels Moon of the Crusted Snow and Moon of the Turning Leaves. Waubgeshig gave an inspiring talk about the motivations behind writing the books, the importance of language revitalization, and the connections to land and conservation.
- He finished by reading a passage from his latest novel, Moon of the Turning Leaves, as well as answering questions from the audience.
- Everyone was welcomed to enjoy the 30th anniversary cake, thanks to the generous donation from Mariposa Market.
- Attendees welcomed to purchase Waubgeshig’s books and get them signed at the merchandise table
