President’s Report

Over the last year, our agency saw many changes.  We continued to strengthen our relationship with other Big Brother Big Sister Agencies in the region and have continued our commitment to the sharing of information and best practices, all in an effort to work together for the good of the movement in the Niagara Region. Together with Fort Erie, we hired a contract employee to oversee the Go Girls and In school Mentoring projects in schools in our service areas which saw tremendous success.  This year, we have teamed up with both the Fort Erie and Niagara Falls agencies to continue and expand these programs.

Without doubt, the biggest change came with the replacement of our Executive Director.  Greg Whelan, after almost 20 years with our Agency, announced his resignation to pursue an opportunity with another Agency outside of the Region. While we were sad to see him go, we are happy to see him focus on what he loves and we look forward to a new era for our Agency.

We hired Barbara Van Der Heyden as our new leader.   Barb comes to us with the set of skills and experience that we were looking for in order to achieve the continued growth and success of this wonderful organization.  Barb served as Executive Director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of North Simcoe and Big Sisters Association of Huronia, so she is very familiar with the role.  She has extensive experience in the volunteer and not-for-profit sector and understands the challenges of running our Agency.  I know I speak on behalf of all of the Board of Directors when I say that we are excited about the future of the Agency and the new direction that we will be taking.  I want to welcome Barb to our Big Brothers Big Sisters family.

And of course, I want to take this opportunity to thank Greg, Lorrie, Ashley, Betty and Terrilee, our staff this past year, for all of their hard work and dedication to the Agency.  I know that we say how important they are but I cannot emphasize how true that is in our case.  Without the dedication of these individuals, our Agency could not have survived and flourished the way it has, nor would we have been able to serve so many children. 

The other very important group that deserves thanks, is all of our volunteers – the “Bigs”, the In School Mentors and those who come out to support our various events.  It is our “Bigs” and Mentors, however, who have the greatest impact on the lives of the children that we serve and their contributions should be applauded by all of us!  I feel that while everything that the rest of us do contributes to the effort, it is those individuals who spend one on one time with our “littles” are the ones that make the most important contribution!

Lastly, I wish to thank my fellow Board members for their dedication to the Agency and all of the extra time and effort that they put in this past year.  Being a Board member is a voluntary position and there is no remuneration paid to any of our volunteers.  This past year required an unprecedented time commitment from all of us on the Board and everyone stepped up.  There is only one reason to get involved in a not for profit agency and that is to help the cause and ensure its survival in our community so that children who need a mentor are provide with one.

Respectfully submitted

Mary Iannazzo

President

Over the past year, our agency undertook many initiatives, as we continued to focus our efforts on fulfilling the goals of our Strategic Plan that was developed back in October 2007. 

Last June 2008, after our agency successfully attained recertification, we used the feedback received during the accreditation process as part of the review of some of our bylaws and processes.  Refinements were made to policies with the focus on enhancing the diversity of our Board and streamlining our communication efforts. 

The overarching and foundational goal always remains serving more children!

We need to thank the local residents for their continued support and another successful year.  I’d also like to acknowledge a couple of groups in particular:    

Niagara College: Not only is the college a great source of many of  our volunteers, it also serves as a valuable outlet to promote the Agency.

Osprey News: Osprey continuously donates free print ads for our fundraising events and provides us with great press coverage which helps build greater awareness.

Local School Boards and Teachers: In-school mentoring could not exist and succeed without the help and support of our local schools and we thank them for their continued efforts in helping children find mentors.

The group, however, that I would like to extend my greatest thanks to is the staff of Big Brothers Big Sisters of South Niagara.  Not only do they work hard recruiting new volunteers, they also volunteer their own personal time at every Agency event.  This year, their contributions were even more impressive considering the absence of an Executive Director throughout the month August.  During this time, our agency had 3 major events to prepare for (GFKS, Road Rally, AGM), and without the dedication and hard work of our staff, our Agency could not have succeeded. 

Over this last term, several Board and Staff member changes have taken place. With the addition of a new Executive Director and a new Board member, who both bring diverse and unique talents, we are well prepared to enter into a new term.

To close, I wish to thank Lisa Roepke and Jim Larouche, my colleagues on this committee, and the other board members for their support and efforts in promoting our Agency.

Respectfully submitted

Stephanie Leheta

Vice President, Board of Directors

Public Relations & Recruitment Committee Chair

 
Administration Committee Report

The Administration Committee was involved in the ongoing oversight of current policies and the development of new policies in order to address a national standards obligation for local agencies. We have continued to identify areas of our operations where oversight may be better placed within other Committees of the Board of Directors.

The Administration Committee continued to look to the staff for their due diligence in screening and approving all new volunteers.

The changes to our original Letters Patent to reflect the necessary amendments made to our objects as approved at our last annual meeting were formally approved by the Ministry.

I wish to express my sincere thanks to Peter Grivich, my colleague on the Committee, who assisted in the work done in 2008/2009, and especially the Executive Director, Greg Whelan, for all the work he has done in the development of these various policies. It is with regret that I also acknowledge that both have left Big Brothers Big Sisters.

Respectfully submitted

R. Bruce Smith

Administration Committee Chair

Fundraising and Sustainability Committee Report

The Fundraising and Sustainability Committee’s goal is to support the achievement of BBBSofSN Strategic Plan.  Namely, to achieve “the matching of 16 additional children each year over the next 5 years” in order to reduce our gap of 80 children in South Niagara currently unmatched. 

This can be accomplished both through revenue generation and cost reduction.  The Committee is committed to looking for opportunities in both of these categories to help in the fulfilment of our goals.

The following summarizes our performance relative to our goals established last year:

Accomplishments for 2008-2009

During this past fiscal year fundraising has helped support achieving an increase of 31 additional matches and reducing the children wait list by 16.

Goals for 2009-2010

As the local economy recovers the fundraising goal for the upcoming fiscal year is to increase our goal by 10% to $97,100 and launch at least one new annual fundraising event.

Respectfully submitted

Lisa Roepke

Fundraising and Sustainability Committee Chair

Executive Directors Report

In retrospect, the 2008-2009 fiscal year ended in positive territory and no more so evident than by our increased service delivery numbers. Emerging site-based mentoring programs (In-School Mentoring and Go-Girls Healthy Minds Healthy Bodies) were fueled by Ministry of Education funding from the Province of Ontario and distributed by Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada. By November of 2008, the agency had a 100% increase in the number of children matched over the same period in 2007.

Our success was due to a great team of Casework staff Lorrie Poehlman and our newest member Ashley Rollo. Once we heard of a successful grant application, the agency offered the Site-Based Mentoring Coordinator position to Terilee Shisler, who had been filling in for Tanya Lamarre while she was on leave. Terilee began to do her thing and the volunteers started to pour into the offices and subsequent match relationships.  You will find a synopsis of our case related stats on the following page.

The agency continued to grow financially in some areas with the wonderful guidance of our Fund Raising Committee and the Board Members who have raised the bar in this area of our operations. The flip side to the successes the organization has experienced over the last few years came with a devastating United Way Campaign and news at the end of our fiscal year that we will be entering our current one with 20% less funding than we require for our programs. Due to prudent use of resources over the years and stellar fund raising, the agency has been able to build a small reserve fund that will see us through the 2009-2010 fiscal year, however, we are concerned about 2010-2011. Looking forward, I am sure the fiscal wizards on the Board of Directors will be looking at alternative avenues for funding to ensure the continuation of services in South Niagara.

All of our success requires the efforts of a skilled and engaged Board of Directors, some of who have been with us for over 17 years and staff members like Lorrie, Terilee, Ashley and Betty who celebrated 24 years of service last November. I thank both Board and Staff for their dedication.

My resignation notice in June of this year was a difficult decision but it was the right decision for me at this time of my life. I have had a wonderful time and met some interesting folks along the way. I am proud of the successes we have achieved over the years on an administrative level and so very thankful to the volunteer Big Brothers, Big Sisters, In-School Mentors and those who gave their time to assist for an hour or a day in some capacity. To the countless financial supporters, I applaud you and hope you will continue your support. When I announced my departure, the most common questions have been what I will miss and what I will remember most. It is really very simple to answer, as I will miss everything about this agency except fund raising and remember most the gift I received in 1992 when matched for the last time to my Little Brother Michael as he has become more than a Little Brother over the years…he is a member of the family.

Our Mission is: “Enriching the lives of children through positive mentoring relationships”.

Respectfully submitted

Gregory Whelan

Executive Director

November 1989 – August 2009

32                                      Traditional  matches made in 2008

80                                      In-School Mentoring matches made in 2008

84                                      Go-Girl Mentoring matches made in 2008

42                                      Children on wait list for Big Brother or Big Sister as of December 31^st

2                                      Children on wait list for In-School Mentor as of December 31^st

 Total Matches During Period

96                      Traditional Big Brother / Sister matches

103                                        In-School Mentoring matches

84                                          Go-Girl matches

Additions and Closures of Children

44                    Closed From  Match of Wait List         

25                  Additions to wait list for Traditional Program

Inquiries for Service

203                  Total inquiries for service in all programs in 2008

Fiscal year ended March 31, 2009 was another successful year financially for our agency, with a surplus of $8,843 in the general fund.  In September 2008 we received a $35,000 grant from the Ministry of Education, shared with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Fort Erie, to support the growth of our Site Based Mentoring programs, such as In-School Mentoring and GoGirls!  Through the receipt of these funds, we were provided the means to more than double the number of children that we service in these programs.  Also, through the hard work of our Fundraising Committee, agency staff and the Board we were able to sustain our level of fundraising revenues that we achieved in the previous year resulting in more children serviced in all programs overall.  We should be proud of these results, as it shows that strong fiscal responsibility directly impacts the number of children that we are able to reach!

Fiscal 2010 has already proven itself to be a more challenging year, with our United Way funding cut by 15% and organizations all throughout our Region cutting back on sponsorship budgets in order to stay afloat.  Big Brothers Big Sisters of South Niagara has already developed and implemented plans to remain financially stable through these tough economic times, and to sustain and even grow our current programs.  These plans include both internal and external measures, such as administrative cost-cutting, applying for available grants, and continued focus on our major fundraising events such as Bowl for Kids Sake and Golf for Kids Sake.  So far in fiscal 2010 we have applied for another Ministry of Education grant to support further growth in our Site Based Mentoring Programs, in collaboration with Niagara Falls Big Brothers Big Sisters and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Fort Erie.  Thanks to these agencies for their assistance with this application.  We have also concluded another successful Golf Tournament and are looking forward to the remainder of our fundraising events this year.

As of March 31, 2009, the agency is in compliance with its Reserve Policy which requires the maintenance of reserve funds as backup for any unforeseen future events which may cause the loss of a major revenue source.  Given our reduced United Way funding for fiscal 2010, we will be carefully monitoring our reserves to ensure that they continue to be adequate should it be necessary to use some of these funds to support our programs.

During fiscal 2009 the Board appointed a new audit firm, Popoli Del Monaco, as our new auditor for the year ended March 31, 2009 and forward.  The Board would like to thank Silvana Del Monaco and her team for their services provided, and their willingness to go that extra mile.  The Board would also like to thank Bob Nori, our previous auditor, for his long-time service to the agency.

Overall, the agency had a successful year; however, there are significant challenges facing us in the years to come.  Our new Executive Director Barb Van Der Heyden definitely has her work cut out for her, following up on a solid foundation laid by Greg Whelan.  I look forward to another positive report at next year’s Annual General Meeting!

Respectfully submitted

Kelly Schwartz, CA

Treasurer

 Members Motions

Motion # 1

·         To extend the eligibility of Bruce Smith and Trevor Marsh to serve on the Board of Directors for an additional year.

Rationale: Currently the By-laws of the organization only allow a Director to sit on the board a maximum of five years unless the Director is sitting on the Executive of the organization. This motion allows for continued service on a year-by-year basis.

Election of Directors

·         To elect the following to the Board of Directors of Big Brothers Big Sisters of South Niagara Inc. For 2009-2010

Tina Goodfellow          Grimsby

Mary Iannazzo             Welland

Jim Larouche              Welland

Stephanie Leheta        Fonthill

Trevor Marsh               Fenwick

Ron Mills                     Binbrook

Lisa Roepke                Welland

Kelly Schwartz            Welland

Bruce Smith                Welland

*Financial Statements available upon request.