News

Presidents Annual Report

Glen Pine 50plus Society

March 5, 2025

I want to start this report by thanking the members of the Board for their significant contribution to the Society activities over the past year.  We have been engaged in a number of activities and have supplied the City with advice on several topics. 

I would also like to thank Heidi Tsui who is retiring as a Board member. Heidi has contributed so much to the Society and Glen Pine by organizing events, helping and participating in activity groups and contributing to making Glen Pine a welcome and inclusive place to enjoy our seniors.

Thanks also to the City of Coquitlam staff at Glen Pine.  Your friendly and helpful manner in always welcoming people makes this truly a special place.  In working with the City, we continue to seek ways to make Glen Pine a better community.  We have recently agreed with the City to sponsor the many movies shown at Glen Pine.  By purchasing the movies to be shown, we help this much appreciated activity at Glen Pine and ensure that we have good quality movies available for viewing.  We also provide advice to the City on new building locations and on a review of the food program offered at Glen Pine and Dogwood.  In addition, we participate in Joint City Society Management committee where we discuss issues of importance to the Seniors in Coquitlam.  A joint marketing meeting process has recently been established to help with overall marketing strategy for the two centres and the City of Coquitlam.

This year, we embarked on a sponsorship for the BC Association of Community Response networks which provides programs to bring awareness of elder abuse in the community.  Thanks to Agnes Lim for taking on the role of CRN North Coquitlam Coordinator to help Seniors in our community. 

Along these same lines the Society has recently embarked on plans to host a health fair at Glen Pine.  This exciting event, to assist seniors in the community, will take place in early October so stay tuned for additional information.

In June we made a $1000 donation to Share to help them with Seniors in our community. We also purchased four new sewing machines for the craft group.  This donation and purchase were made possible by the significant help that the Gift Shop plays in our fund-raising activities and in the sale of raffle tickets.  Our volunteers in the gift shop do a great job in supporting the centre and our organization.

Some of the other activities supported by the Society this year include gift baskets for Canada Day, the annual carpet bowling tournament, the Meeting of the Melodies, the Christmas Bazaar, Glen Pine variety show and a fashion show.  Your Society members organized and helped out in making these events truly memorable. 

As in past years, we continue to support those who volunteer at Glen Pine.  We are happy to cosponsor the annual recognition luncheon by paying for the meal, a special gift and a glass of wine.  It is our privilege to thank them for their continuing support to our community centre.  The volunteer luncheon for this year is coming up on May 1.

This year we expanded our use of the Glen Pine Bulletin Board located in the downstairs hallway by including information about the Society including our Board minutes and upcoming activities.  Our display case in the lobby also showcases some of our upcoming and recently completed activities.  Thanks to Elizabeth Deas-Dawlish who takes such good care of organizing and keeping both areas up to date. We encourage the members to look at these two displays for information about the Society. 

Our webpage is always an excellent source of information with thanks to Adela Chen who is quietly working in the background as a volunteer for us.  During 2024, we had 12,849 views by 4,786 visitors with particular focus on our homepage – Glen Pine 50plus Society, a list of scheduled events for Glen Pine, information on the City bus trips and special events.  These interactive webpages allow for visitors, after seeing some information, to be redirected to the relevant City website or telephone number.

During the meeting last year, I recommended that the Society undertake a restructuring to meet the demands of the new agreement with the City of Coquitlam.  I am happy to report that this process has worked out quite well with the Board members taking on specific tasks rather than having director specific responsibilities for the various activity group.  We have had a few hiccups along the way as the City and Board have had some growing pains understanding each others’ responsibilities.  To allow us to continue with this direction, the Board has asked that the Society continue with this method for Board Director activities for the upcoming year.  The Board is recommending that a new special resolution be put before the Society today to keep this policy in place for another year.  We will then look at making changes to the by-laws to make this action permanent.

In closing, I would like to pay special note of one of our retiring Board members – Lil Cumberbirch our long term Culture Director.  To recognize and celebrate Lil’s contribution to Glen Pine, the Society sponsored a special “retirement luncheon” for Lil.  It was truly a memorable time with performances by our Glen Pine Singers and several other singing groups.  A highlight was a very special song by her daughter.  

Thanks again to all of you for your support of the Glen Pine 50plus Society.  We are always interested in welcoming new members to the Board.  If you want to volunteer or know someone who would be a good team player, please encourage them to join us.  All of our meetings are open to the public and drop ins are always welcome on the first Wednesday of each month.

Bill Wray

President

Glen Pine 50plus Society