On Saturday November 16, 2019, the Ottawa Little Theatre held its Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Social Gathering. A good crowd of approximately 50 members was present to hear updates on the events and committee work at the OLT, a report from our auditors and to vote for those running for the Board of Directors. Throughout the presentations, the OLT was often referred to as a “jewel” and we were all in agreement of that title.
The meeting began with the President’s Overview of 2018/19. We are in very good shape with respect to the course we set 3 years ago with the goal of strengthening the sustainability of the place that we affectionately “ love to complain about”. (That comment was well received by the audience). In 2017, the Board leveraged the strategic review and committed to no longer being in the red with operations, which led to an unrelenting review of expenditures and many subsequent changes . This has successfully been accomplished and in fact we have added over $275 K to our reserve. We are fulfilling our role as stewards for the generations of those members ahead of us.
The Auditor’s report confirmed that the OLT is in good shape, and Ryan Miller’s (auditor) presentation was described as the clearest presentation of any financial statements in the past 40 years( which of course is a good thing). A shout out to Joan for her tremendous dedication and excellent detail to completing this task.
Every Committee head then proceeded to provide a quick overview of their work and successes in the previous year.
Jane’s presentation of the next season’s roster as selected by the Season Planning Committee was, as always. one of the highlights. In a very enigmatic manner, she always manages to report on the upcoming season without revealing either the name of the play or that of the author. These tempting morsels always whet our appetite and we will just have to wait for the official reveal in a few months.
In terms of the election of new members of the Board, we had 7 candidates for 5 positions. All 5 incumbents were re-elected. For those of you who were not successful (this time), we thank you for putting in the time to campaign and encourage continued work with committees (if not already on some). As Geoff stated in his Presidential Message, everyone should sit on the Board at least one time during their relationship with the OLT. The Board is not just the 9 elected members but in fact a group of 18 people including all the committee heads who are all volunteers running the theatre. There is always opportunity to contribute in some capacity.
The meeting had one emotional moment when Nancy Hogan, who was scheduled to speak had relayed a message that she could not be present that day as that Jim was going in for surgery at that time. We want to pass on our best wishes and let them know that the whole OLT Community will be there for them during the lengthy recovery.
A special thank you to everyone involved in organizing the event including Albert and the Nomination Committee for their work on the election and Jeanne and her crew for providing, once again, wonderful refreshments. Of course we would be remiss if we did not congratulate all committee heads on their fine work as clearly shown in their presentations. And finally, cheers to all of our hard working and dedicated volunteers for all their invaluable contributions throughout the year. It was clear from the presentations and reflections on our little jewel that we have a lot to be proud of.
The one thing that we were glad to finally say goodbye to was our leaky roof which is now repaired.
A complete record of the proceeding will be available at a future date in the official minutes.
-Albert