MINUTES OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING HELD AT THE OLYMPIC STADIUM HOCHELAGA HALL ON WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2014, AT 4:00 PM Present Absent Employees Opening Agenda Minutes Marcel-Paul Raymond, François Gagnon, Rémi Bouchard, Nancy Spineti Delle Donne, Daniel Langevin, Denis Loiselle, Ève Gaudet, Jacques Bédard (by conference call), Marie-France Morand (by conference call), Martin Ducharme (by conference call). Lynn Bellocq, Robert Bissonnette, Marc Tremblay. Jean-Pierre Beaulieu, Guylaine Sirois. Marcel-Paul Raymond confirms that we have quorum. On a proposal made by Nancy Spineti Delle Donne, seconded by Denis Loiselle, the agenda is unanimously adopted. Even if an automatic search replaced all references to July 28, 2014, in the information kit sent to all members of the Board of Directors, by e-mail, the actual minutes were not affected by the mistake. On a proposal made by François Gagnon, seconded by Nancy Spineti Delle Donne, the minutes are unanimously adopted. Business arising (list of action items to be undertaken) The list of club membership declarations was not sent to all Jean-Pierre Beaulieu will ask Gladys Iodio to take care of it as soon as he gets back to the office. This list can be used to verify membership and identify potential under-declaration but, most of all, it should be used to avoid soliciting a non-member club to be host of tournaments. The possibility of hiring a person to help our regions in 2015 is considered we are currently in the planning process of our budget.
Golf Québec was duly represented in the last national tournaments held in the province. For 2014, Golf Canada cannot demand that GGGolf disables the manual entry functions in its handicap management system. We are reviewing the possibility of doing so next year, but everything depends on the national process to update the main database. At the moment, GGGolf does not receive any updates for other provinces when course ratings change. Operational and governance reports The information kit was sent to all by e-mail on September 18. The following items are additional information. Management and operational reports (J.P. Beaulieu) Tournaments As participation is decreasing in our women s tournaments, we have met with Debbie Savoy Morel and Jocelyne Bourassa to review the structure of the Series. It was decided that the Debbie Savoy Morel Cup will be brought back over 2 days and presented in rotation between the Ki-8-Eb and Golf Le Mirage. The Players Cup will be postponed in the fall as it was done with the men s championship. As for the Provincial Amateur and Senior Championships, their structure and schedule will remain as they are. In addition, the Women s Provincial Match Play Championship will be amalgamated with the men s tournament, at the Summerlea Golf and Country Club. Handicap Nancy Spineti Delle Donne explains that, even if participation levels were low for the handicap seminars that were supposed to be held in the spring, we are still receiving individual requests from golf clubs. If this is the solution to ensure that information is properly transmitted and that club handicap committees remain certified, she is willing and able to promote individual training sessions. Course ratings As the fall season is coming in, many clubs are starting to ask for their course rating to be reviewed as they will reprint their scorecards during the winter. This creates an increased workload for the course rating team. Membership As of September 24, we have a total of 46,286 member golfers out of the 50,200 that we had originally budgeted. We will add the public golfers to this number and should reach approximately 47,000 members for this year; a loss of 6 to 8 % compared to last year. In accounts receivable: Alpin and Le Sorcier have paid, Gatineau has mailed out their cheque, Heritage and Royal Papineau are probably going to resign. Concerning Roxton Pond, Martin Ducharme spoke with them and he expects that everything will be settled. Nancy Spineti Delle Donne suggests that we block their access to the Score Centre earlier into the golf season to force them to react faster. Jean-Pierre Beaulieu explains that he manages every file individually. For example, a new Executive Director was recently hired at St-Jean and he is currently sorting and cleaning up everything. Page 2
A presentation will be made in October on the Golf Canada Synergy project as well as on developments that were made at the national level where the dues collection model is being reviewed. Strategic planning Jean-Pierre Beaulieu explains that, when he tried to launch the review of our strategic planning, it triggered the creation of the new Golf Industry Standing Committee. This project is very good and contributes to revitalizing our industry at large. However, Golf Québec still needs a strategic plan to support its operational plan. A new Strategic Planning Committee was formed and their first meeting should take place on October 7, 2014, at 4 pm. They will take this opportunity to complete the revision of our mission statement, vision and values that François Roy had begun this summer. Financial support As part of a new financial support program presented in collaboration with the Fondation de l athlète de l excellence, a group of 25 golfers were selected to receive scholarships. From this group, 10 are in a sports-études program and 9 others are affiliated with the AGFC. Their selection was based on their federated ranking and on their affiliation with a recognized training structure. As few exception don t have a personal coach (like Sun Kim). They had to be interviewed and were given a list of specific criteria that they will need to comply with if they want to receive the full amount of the scholarship they are eligible for (that money cannot be used only to pay tournament entries). Daniel Langevin highlights the quality of this new program which was extremely well set up. The money distributed by the Fondation de l athlète de l excellence comes from sponsors who have committed to the program for a 5-year period. This year, we wre able to confirm that $68,000 will be awarded every year, but we are still looking for more sponsors as we are aiming for a guaranteed yearly budget of $125,000. Governance The first meeting of the governance committee should take place on October 15. A report will be presented at the next Board of Directors meeting. Taskforce 2 We are planning for a meeting of the Taskforce 2 (date to be confirmed) in which activities of February 2015 and the Industry Gala would be discussed. Finance and investments (F. Gagnon) The committee met twice to review the financial statements of July 31 and August 31. They also looked at the potential results to be expected at the end of the fiscal year. In the financial statement, account receivables are high because pending items that were written in July were mostly paid in August. Altogether, from the $72,000 to be collected as of July 31, there was only $49,000 left as of August 31. Furthermore, some of these items were paid since then. As a result, to this date, Jean-Pierre Beaulieu informs us that there are only $3,518 left to collect in dues from our clubs and that approximately $30,000 was invoiced to those who have purchased foursomes in the Benefit Golf Tournament. Page 3
All payable accounts have been paid. We only have the $40,000 left to pay to the PGA of Québec for their sports-études program and this amount is covered by a government grant (PSDE). Concerning government grants, we received a letter indicating that the PSDE and PSFSQ payments would be delayed as the Treasury Board will meet on October 1 to review all files that were left by the out-going party. We believe that risks of seeing these grant programs abolished are close to inexistent as every single sport federation significantly depends on this money to operate. Salaries are slightly lower than budgeted; the maximum difference will be of $16,000. Dues paid back to Golf Canada decreased by approximately $35,000 as they are directly proportional to our membership declarations. Grants paid to our regions were not as affected by this decrease as most of them receive a minimum of $11,000 in financial support instead of a cash return based on the actual membership dues paid in their regions. Altogether, we expect that the current deficit will keep on decreasing and that it will reach approximately $30,000 at the end of the year. In the worst case scenario, we can expect a deficit of $40,000. A first draft of next year s budget will be presented by Jean-Pierre Beaulieu at the next Board meeting on October 19. Regional Association Council (J. Bédard) In the information kit submitted to the Board members, it is frequent that we do not have a report for some regional associations (often the same ones). At the October meeting to be held at Le Blainvillier, we will remind everyone of the importance to submit these reports. All regions are finalizing 2014 and planning for 2015. Their main challenge is to find host clubs. They also experience difficulties in recruiting new volunteers. Regional associations are wondering if the minimum of $11,000 in provincial grant will be reviewed. Jean-Pierre Beaulieu confirms that this program will not change in 2015. The cost of the Golf Canada regular membership will not change either. As agreed in our Memorandum of Understanding, we would have been informed of such a dues increase before June 1 st if anything was to affect 2015. However, the public golfer and Category 3 dues could be reviewed as Golf Canada feels that their share is not equitable. As for Golf Québec, should we review the possibility of increasing our provincial dues, we would have to make a decision between June 1 and 30 to apply it to the following year. The Inter-District competition will take place at Victoriaville on Sunday, September 28. Synchro Sports is planning for a volunteer recognition day to thank everyone for their contribution in the success of the Québec City Championship held at La Tempête. We will contact the Synchro Sports team and see if we could thank all the local volunteers in our e-golf Québec. Page 4
University of Ottawa would like to join the RSEQ University Tour. As stressed out by Jean-Pierre Beaulieu, politically, it would be in favour of Golf Québec if this request was accepted. However, Daniel Langevin explains that New Brunswick also has submitted such a request in the past (and was turned down). The University of Ottawa golf team is recognized as a sports club by the University, not as a sports program in which athletes can be accommodated to move their exam schedule should there be any conflicts with tournaments. Many criteria are to be taken into consideration. The RSEQ decision is not limited to supporting Golf Québec. We must consider that adding new universities on the Tour means that all other teams must be smaller. Later on, if the Ottawa athletes don t show up because they must write an exam, other players who are affiliated to a recognized sports-études program could have used these spots if they had been eligible on the Tour. As a result, they will complain to their coaches. ATGQ (È. Gaudet) Altogether, this is a difficult financial year for all golf clubs. Economic factors have a direct negative impact on membership. Competition has never been this fierce in terms of lowering their prices. For its first year, Clic Golf was obviously not very profitable due to launching and implementation fees. The ATGQ is currently working on adding new clubs and products to the 2015 program. At the moment, the program is not a funding means as only 10% is coming back to the ATGQ; this is basically a tool to provide help to member clubs. When the program is more developed, it will be possible to sale advertising and make money. The ATGQ is preparing a training session to be given in the fall. The end of season tournament already took place. Finally, Martin Ducharme innovated with a tournament to be held at Domaine Château Bromont featuring 15-inch cups. PGA of Québec (D. Langevin) Jean Trudeau will be on sick leave until October 20, but operations will not be affected. This situation could delay the transfer of Martine Laparé at the Olympic Stadium, but the Association s governing structure won t change. Once the tournament season is completed, Mrs. Laparé intends on visiting the Golf Québec office once a week until Mr. Trudeau return. The Méritas Gala will take place on October 14 at the Pinegrove Country Club. The PGA is offering a foursome to Golf Québec in the pro-pro tournament (tee-off at 1pm). Jean- Pierre Beaulieu will submit the names of our representatives to Martine Laparé. Golf-études was aiming for 100 participants this year and it was almost reached with 99 students registered in the program. New athletes are also expected to join the program in January of 2015. Participation in the program is constantly growing; neither the decrease of participation in the industry at large nor the economic situation seem to have an impact on it. Daniel Langevin thanks Golf Québec for their financial contribution to the 8 recognized structures of the golf-études program. To attain sustainability, a structure needs 10 to 12 athletes. Currently, the Malartic structure, in Abitibi, only has 7. As a result, it is depending on grants to maintain its activities. Page 5
Golf Canada (R. Bouchard, M.P. Raymond) The dues collection model is currently reviewed by Golf Canada in collaboration with the provincial associations. For the handicap system, the exploitation licence must be renewed with GolfNet. A joint communication will be mailed out in the middle of October to announce the 2015 dues and explain the choices offered to golf clubs for their membership cards. All letters will be personalized, using statistics from the Score Centre. For those using GGGolf, we are trying to get the same database of statistics to complete our mailing. The Provincial Council has met, but Marcel Paul Raymond was not in attendance. A presentation of the Synergy project will be made in October to the Golf Québec Board members. Other business Correspondence Golf Canada asked for provinces to submit the names of their candidates for the 2015 Provincial Council. This function is currently filled by Marcel Paul Raymond. On a proposal made by François Gagnon, seconded by Nancy Spineti Delle Donne, it is unanimously agreed to renew his mandate. Next meeting Termination The next meeting will take place on Sunday, October 19, at Le Blainvillier beginning at 5:00 pm. We will verify if it is possible for Daniel Langevin to participate by conference call as he will be out of the city. On a proposal made by Rémi Bouchard, seconded by Nancy Spineti Delle Donne, the meeting is unanimously terminated at 6:00 pm. Marcel Paul Raymond invites employees to leave the premises as the Board members will stay for an in camera session. Signatures Marcel Paul Raymond, President François Gagnon, Secretary-Treasurer Page 6