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Over 30 people attended REAPs annual meeting held January 31st, 1992 at the OMAF office in Woodstock, Ontario. The Afternoon meeting, followed presentations in the morning of REAPs on-farm research program carried out in 1991. The following is a summary of the transactions of that meeting.
Roger Samson, REAPs on-farm research coordinator reported that REAP was currently in the process of wrapping up contracts on cover crop field testing and manure management. Fundraising for 1992 and beyond has concentrated in the areas of biomass production for energy use including trees in Ontario and Quebec; biomass production using warm season grasses with collaborators in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick; and on-farm combustion systems using on-farm produced biomass.
Samson remarked that REAP will try to obtain funding for additional cover crop trials but that any new funds for this type of work will most likely be announced too late to allow for proper planning for a 1992 start up date.
Hugh Maynard, managing editor of Sustainable Farming, reported that the REAP affiliate had met many of its goals set out in the previous year: a new logo had been created, the magazine layout had improved, the content is more consistent due to better writing and a greater variety of issues being addressed. The objectives of improving picture quality and meeting the 1,000 subscriber target were still being worked on. Overall, however, in what had turned out to be a tough year for many farm magazines, Sustainable Farming had been able to increase circulation.
Tomas Nimmo, advertising manager for the magazine, presented a summary of the advertising profile for Sustainable Farming over the last year, noting that planned revenues had been reached and that a similar situation could be forecast for 1992.
Roger Samson reported that REAP held a field day last summer at the farms of Vernon Ruby, Harry Wilhelm and John Van Dorp. Andrew Kenney of the University of Toronto was invited to speak on the use of trees for biomass production. As well, a conference on weed control was held at the Macdonald College campus of McGill University in Ste. Anne de Bellevue, Quebec.
The REAP plan for 1991 had been to participate in the meetings of other organizations throughout the year. Financially, this was a more manageable program than REAP organizing many activities on its own.
Jack Coulson, member of the board of directors, reported that after consulting with REAP-Cumberland in the Maritimes and several farmers in Ontario, it was felt that there was not enough local interest to set up chapters.
In the past, REAP had experienced difficulty in getting active participation from the board members, due in large part to the distance that separates board members and office staff. REAP will be looking into setting up computer modem systems and/or using conference calls to facilitate communications.
As well, it was felt that the way in which the by-laws were originally drawn up did not necessarily reflect REAPs needs. For example, the positions of secretary and treasurer were not needed as such, as the executive as a whole was responsible for reviewing financial statements, and a position such as general manager, who would be a non-voting member of the executive, would be more useful.
A resolution was adopted that the board study other organizational structures and report at the next annual meeting which one would be best suited for REAP.
Board of Directors: Of the current board members, Doug Smith, Jack Coulson, Tomas Nimmo, Henry Morf and Dr. Roger Buckland still had one more year left to serve. Dr. Buckland submitted his resignation from the board of directors. John Van Dorp, John Henning, Harro Wehrman, Adrien Willison, Ralph Martin and Kevin Rivers were elected to the board of directors to serve a two-year term.
John Van Dorp was elected president of REAP-Canada for 1992 by the new board.
Denis Lafrance, a representative from the Centre de dŽveloppement d'agrobiologie du QuŽbec (C.D.A.Q.), came to the meeting with a mandate from his board of directors to study the possibilities of collaborating with REAP on various projects. Out of the discussion that followed, the major area in which members wanted to collaborate was in the production of a bilingual version of Sustainable Farming. It was moved that REAP study the possibility of collaborating with the C.D.A.Q. in producing a bilingual publication, as well as doing research and extension.
Copyright © 1992 REAP Canada.
Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.
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