As October is wrapping up and cottagers are closing for the season, we have been fortunate to have such a lovely autumn. Here are a few highlights of what has been going on at the SMLCA board.

SMLCA AGM

Once again, we held a successful annual general meeting on the evening of October 29^th. A special thanks to all of the volunteers who helped to plan and run the event. Turnout was lower than anticipated, despite a reasonable number of registrants. However, we enjoyed those who came out, shared their opinions, and voted.

Our president highlighted some of this year’s achievements, as well as pointed forward to some areas we intend to focus on in the next term. Namely:

• Boating courtesy and safety. We really can’t do enough to enhance safety on our lake. While we aren’t the police, perhaps there is a role for us to play in educating people and pointing out areas of concern, such as the blind corner south of the Cook Out islands.
• Natural shore lines and environment. Septic systems, no matter how good they are, do not remove phosphorus! Phosphorus promotes the growth of algae and plant life in our waters, which depletes oxygen. One thing we can do to mitigate the runoff of phosphorus into the water is focus on rebuilding shorelines with deep rooting plants and shrubs instead of lawns. We will be establishing a lake environment stewardship committee to coordinate information and help with education on the environment. We have several ideas on how to promote and celebrate great natural shorelines and the committee will explore and implement ideas for how to do this. If you’re interested in participating, let us know.
• Joint meetings with the RA. There are so many things that we can do together to enhance this community that we love. We’ve already made progress in this venture, and to move that ball further down the line, both associations appointed a board member to resume talks on how we can work more closely together.
• Wild Apricot and our website. It’s time for us to once again take a look at our current website to see how it can become more user-friendly and further integrate it with our Wild Apricot platform. We have already moved information pertinent to members only, such as board meeting minutes, to our Wild Apricot site.

Roles that we need to fill:

• Communications Officer. We’re still looking for someone to coordinate our communications. We’ve come a long way with our monthly email campaigns and our Facebook page, but there’s still much that can be done.
• Bookkeeper. Rick Jocsak could really use some help to assist him with bookkeeping duties. This involves basic bookkeeping, such as writing cheques, billing, bank deposits, and preparation of financial statements.

Our guest speaker Dr. Patricia Chow Fraser of McMaster University delivered a fascinating talk on the impacts of phosphorus in our lake water. This address was based on a report she and her team published last spring. The full report can be found on our website at: https://sixmilelake.net/pub/water/WQ_2023_Report.pdf

We also enjoyed updates from township councillors Kristian Graziano and Brian Bochek, as well as Mayor Peter Koetsier who were on hand to field questions from our members. We thank them for giving us their time.

Elections

We are well represented with an acclaimed board of 7 returning directors from last year and one new director. Below is the list of volunteers that were elected to the 2024/2025 Board of Directors:

1. Harold Toiviainen
2. Rick Jocsak
3. Ted MacKay
4. Craig Cameron
5. Lib Gibson
6. Pat Mitchell
7. Laura Evangelista
8. Brandon MacMillan (New Director)

The results of the Officers election saw the following individuals acclaimed to their roles:

• Harold Toiviainen (President)
• Rick Jocsak (Vice-President, Treasurer)
• Ted MacKay (Secretary)

There were no member motions at the AGM.

Recording:

Here’s a link to the recording of the 2024 SMLCA AGM which will be live for 30 days. ­­­https://us06web.zoom.us/rec/share/uSee1vDZF92CtqgH-WS8LxgKFY9tFjpZ16Pm5l46wg9WfpdPQf7t82BAaODtbmbz.99EoM9iF8IA_-LrJ

The password is: ?6aGGV2i

(Please note due to technical difficulties, the first 5 minutes of the recording is missing).

If you need to contact any of our directors, their contact information is on our Executive page here: http://sixmilelake.net/about/executive/.

Thank you to everyone that came to the AGM this year. The feedback from our members is invaluable.