The annual general meeting for the Ottawa Vanier Greens took place last night and I believe was a very successful turning point for a riding with tons of potential but that has been spinning it's wheels for years.

Before I get into what took place I just wanted to thank a few people. First off thanks to Nicole Parker who took on the task of organizing the meeting at the last minute and pulled it off wonderfully. Thanks to James Weisener who stepped up and took on the roll of meeting chair even though I think he was expecting a calmer meeting than what transpired. Thanks to Caroline Rioux, Ottawa Vanier's excellent GPC candidate, for taking on the role of secretary for the meeting. Last but certainly not least, thanks to Rob Brooks who even though he doesn't live in the riding always comes out to these things. Rob served as our vary capable returning officer.

Things got a little heated during the reports from last year's CA/EDA executive members and a only more so during the constitutional motions. However we needed to get rid of the old Ottawa Vanier Greens constitution. It was broken, confusing and quite frankly undemocratic. The new separate constitutions for the CA and EDA are far more clear, bring us into compliance with both the GPC and GPO and most of all they give far more people a vote on the executive.

The motions to adopt the new constitutions were carried and we were off to a good start.

As a quick aside, it was pouring rain but the turn-out for the meeting was still good (just under 30 would be my guess) but what was evening better was how many more people wanted to get involved.

Last year Akbar ran unopposed for EDA CEO. I ran unopposed for CA President and the FC and CFO were unopposed as well and had to be cajoled into running in the first place.

This year it was a different story with the following people running for executive positions:

After the votes were tallied our new executive was:

A member who was waiting to see the election results before stepping forward has offered to be the Fundraising Chair.

Thanks to everyone who attended and participated in the votes and discussions, thanks to the out going exec members and thanks to everyone who stepped forward. It looks like we're in for a great year!