ICANSA FIRST AGM - June 11, 2021

1. Conference Introduction and Overview

The ICAN Seniors Association has held the 2020-2021 Annual General Meeting from 7 pm to 8 pm on June 11, 2021 (Friday). A total of 77 members participated in the conference. In the meeting, ICANSA's operated activites, services and financial status were summarized and reported. After that, members of the board of directors for next year were elected, and some volunteers were invited to share their experience. Finally, it was decided to set the annual conference date as the second Friday of June in the future years.

The ICAN Seniors Association was founded by Ms. Jane Cheng in August 2017 and officially registered as a non-profit organization in January 2020. It aims to help the elderly overcome multiple obstacles such as preventing loneliness, and better integrating into Canadian life, having a higher quality of immigrant pension life.

2. Council Members' Report and Election

2.1 President’s Report - Rachel Pu

2020 is a remarkable milestone for ICAN Seniors Association (ICANSA). This year, we acquired non-profit organization status, set up a very dedicated board team, got our first federal grant approved, and continued to provide English and life skills training for all members, and developed a series of urgent projects to serve the elderly with well-known organizations cross the city. Our 264 members are from different locations of Alberta, with the majority of them residing in Edmonton and Calgary areas. They joined us as immigrant seniors and we are blessed to be growing with them on the journey to explore new potentials and celebrate the ageing years by mastering new skills through playing and learning.

2.2 Executive Director’s Report - Jane Cheng

ICANSA is my second family with many talented members and passionate volunteers. Their courage to explore new potential, wisdom to integrate two cultures and optimism to identify the beauty of life in the most challenging situations motivate me everyday with my work.

Thanks to the trust and confidence from all of you on our new initiatives, partnered projects and ongoing programs, ICANSA has witnessed impressive progress in just one year after obtaining its non-profit organization status. In the year of 2021-2022, we will offer more resources offline including free bus tickets, recreation facility visiting and trips with the pandemic easing off.

WeChat ESL: 3 groups/824 participants
Online ESL: 6 classes/250 students
Online Workshops: 24 sessions/648 cumulative participants
Online Activities: 288 sessions/ 5,760 cumulative participants
PPEs Delivery: 8,000 masks and 200 bottles of sanitizers to 400 ICANSA members
Christmas Gifts Delivery: 520
Telephone Services 192; Home Visits 32
Free Tax Clinic: 14; Tax Clinic Community Services Referrals: 68
Ear Savers donated to Medical Workers: 680
12 Days of Giveaway: 7 volunteers prepared food for 7 medical workers during one week
Volunteer Training & Workshops: 36 sessions with 720 cumulative participants

2.3 Treasurer’s Report - Thomas Zheng

The main income of ICANSA last year is from membership fee, donations, and some programs income, which support the main courses and the expenses of the materials that program activities needed. In general, the association's capital flow is trending positively.

2.4 Directors and Officers Nomination

- President: Rachel Pu

- Vice President: Malcolm Fast

- Secretary: Grace Li

- Treasurer: Thomas Zheng

- Director: Susan Tian

The members mentioned above have all passed the unanimous vote of the participating members from meeting, and will hold their corresponding posts for the time until the 2022 annual general meeting.

2.5 Pointed Officers

- Executive Director: Jane Cheng

- Advisor: Haidong Liang

3. Members' Stories Sharing

The Program part is the last but important part of the AGM. Firstly, our director Ms. Cheng shared the story of Bruce Pickett, who is a Canadian. He was in absence because of personal reasons. Ms. Cheng talked about his support to ICANSA and other partner associations. Especially he would provide many stuff animals as the gifts for senior people in the Christmas of each year. Bruce really enjoyed the time he worked in Chinese community because he made many Chinese friends and knew some Chinese cultures as well.

As a member and volunteer in our association, Ms. Zhang Linsheng is the instructor of the Qi Gong class, and she was so excited to share her story to us. She said, ICANSA improved her life so much. She intended to join our association for learning English in the beginning, but what the ICANSA brought to her was more than the knowledge of English. By participating many activities organized by Ms. Cheng, she could able to know the Canadian culture and living style better, for that, her family members also appreciated ICANSA. She also mentioned about the online activities that the association initiated during the pandemic, the activities provided a platform for seniors to learn new knowledge and to communicate with each other, so they wouldn’t feel lonely and lost during the depressing atmosphere.

The last person to share his experience for us is Dr. Liang Haidong, who is very popular in ICANSA, and he is the Executive Director of Westend Seniors Activity Center. He is well experienced in running activity organization and also provided us generous help. He affirmed the result the ICANSA achieved in last year, especially during the pandemic, ICANSA cooperated with other two organizations and helped around 3,500 seniors in Edmonton and Calgary. He really appreciated the board team of ICANSA which made the association grow in a fast pace. In the end, he emphasized the importance of enhancing the cooperation among different organizations, because the positive collaboration could maintain the true and sustainable partnership and reach Win-Win results.

In the end of the meeting, ICANSA confirmed the second Friday in June, (June 10 th) 2022 is our next annual meeting date and wish our members could witness the development of ICANSA together.

At the last moment, Ms. Du Lijuan, who is in charge of the online meeting program, took the group photo for memorizing this special moment. Then, the annual general concluded successfully.