Parks & Recreation will receive $20,000 from the Provincial Government towards creating an Age-friendly Fitness Park. Manager Carol Sheridan told the Board that the Oliver Healthy Living Coalition will be co-hosting open houses with P&R at the Community Center February 25th noon until 4 pm. and February 26th 9:00 am until noon to get feed-back from interested citizens about their ideas to improve the parks and more importantly to hear what those of us who are past retirement what equipment we would like to see in an ‘Age-Friendly’ fitness circuit.

The Coalition is also presenting the Oliver Healthy Living Fair February 28th at the Community Hall. This will include a trade show, and an opportunity to get your blood pressure and sugar levels checked. There will be demonstrations, clinics and a keynote speaker. P&R are looking for Sponsors and volunteers for this event so these dates are your opportunity to start on your New Years resolution to get fit.

Discussion on Constitution and By-Laws – some clarification of wording and correction of errors in the current document.

The Oliver Parks and Recreation Society constitution mentions that Directors may be appointed for successive terms by the RDOS and the Town without limit and when questioned whether that posed any problems with respect to ensuring that ‘new blood’ could be introduced into the Board mix, Chair Shiela Lange commented that there is, in fact, a good turnover as evidenced by three new directors. A quick count determined that Larry Clark has been on the Board for 5 years and Chair Lange has served P&R for several terms with breaks in between for an accumulative total of 15 years. She commented that long term members do provide important continuity in the Board’s over-sight of the operation.

A late agenda item was the importance of a revised Strategic Plan to replace the Master Plan produced in 1998. Manager Sheridan stressed the importance of reviewing the priorities of the Society so she will be presenting a draft Strategic Plan in April for the Directors to review and comment. This draft will also include an evaluation of the overall performance of P&R and “where ‘we’ want to be” in future years. Sheridan finally mentioned that the facilities are aging and the Society must plan for the eventuality of major repairs or replacement of facilities as well as the addition of new facilities. “We must be proactive rather than reactive”; she commented.

Report by Pat Hampson