West Coast Homeopathic Society  

2003 Annual General Meeting

Friday, September 19, 2003

WCHS Annual General Meeting
September 19, 2003


Topics:
A.  Report from the President
B.  Treasurer's Report
C.  Election of Officers


A.  Report From the President

During the past 15 months since the election of this Board in June 2002, our Society has become re-focused and re-vitalized.  Many new projects have become reality and the outgoing Board is as proud of those changes as of the fact that we have managed to accomplish them while still maintaining affordable membership fees.

This Board has overseen substantial changes in areas of finances, membership, and Public Education, all of which will be discussed separately.  The result has been to make the Board more fiscally responsible, more consistent, and more streamlined, with increased delegation to committees.  As a result, this Board has had more freedom to look forward to investigate and develop future projects.

Some of the major achievements of the 2002 - 2003 Board are:

·    The What is Homeopathy? brochure was revised about a year ago with input from over a dozen homeopaths.  Since the release of the new version, 15,000 copies have been printed, over 10,000 of which have been distributed to members across the country.

·    The Directory of Member Practitioners is being updated twice a year – in February and September – so that the public has access to up-to-date information on homeopathic treatment available in their communities.

·    A printed version of our newsletter – now named Homeopathy Now – has been revived.  The Board responded to member interest for a hardcopy newsletter by developing a creative way to fund the production costs and to reduce postage rates.

·    A new website was brought online a year ago, as the previous service provider had become too expensive.  January 2003 saw the most number of page hits ever, but it is interesting to note that the number of individual visits continues to steadily increase.

·    Regular e-mail bulletins have kept members up-to-date with news and announcements concerning the homeopathic community in Canada.

·    The range and number of Membership benefits and Retail Supporters has increased considerably in the past year.

·    Public exposure to homeopathy has increased dramatically through public talks and lectures and participation in health-related shows and conferences.

·    A Scholarship Fund <Click here> has been established, which will ease the burden on future students preparing for a career in homeopathy.  We encourage all members to contribute to this fund.  We also need input from a broad range of members about how the fund’s capital will be managed and how its proceeds will be distributed.

·    For the first time in nearly 3 years, the Society undertook two ambitious fundraising projects <Click here>:  one is the raffle to be held later tonight and the other is a silent auction in conjunction with the HANP’s annual conference to be held in Vancouver at the end of October.


A less positive development to report has been the withdrawal of WCHS from the Canadian Coalition for Homeopathic Medicine (CCHM) <Click here>.  The reasons were several but primarily it was due to the fact that there did not appear to be any future for the CCHM under its current leadership.  The Board still believes that an economic sector study would be beneficial for the credibility of homeopathy, but the circumstances would have to be substantially different to justify further involvement.

This Board has also set in motion several projects that we hope will come to fruition in the next year:

1.  Charitable Status
For the last 6 or 7 years, successive Boards have promised to re-apply for charitable status.  This involves much more than simply filling out the application forms.  A great deal of supporting documentation and a re-examination of our Constitution and By-laws will be required before this process is concluded.  The end result, though, will be a tax break to our members and donors, which we expect will result in an increase of contributions and gifts in kind.

2.  Homeopathy Awareness Week
WCHS plans to celebrate a week-long public and media awareness blitz in communities across the country next June.  We invite all members to participate in some way: