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HVRA Annual General Meeting
Tuesday, October 18, 7 to 9 p.m.
Online - registration required

Join us for our 2022 Annual General Meeting! We are pleased to announce our guest speaker will be Adam Vaughan, former MP (2014-2021) and former Ward 20 Councillor (2006 - 2014).  Adam will be speaking on civic engagement at the municipal level, as we head towards this year’s elections.

We will also conduct regular business, have board elections, and hear from MPP Jessica Bell.  There will be breakout rooms for Area Reps to lead discussion of issues important to each area of Harbord Village. Finally, we will honour our most recent Community Builder Award winners.

This is a great way to meet your neighbours, find out what is happening in your community, contribute and be involved.  All are welcome to attend but only paid up HVRA members will be able to vote – so be sure to renew before the meeting! (Check your membership status here – and invite your neighbours to join!)

You can read bios of those standing for the board below.  You can find links for the meeting agenda plus minutes from the Fall 2021 and Spring 2022 General Meetings and files for the financial statements on the HVRA website  here. Check back as this page gets updated.


Here are the bios for those standing for election to the HVRA Board.  Voting will take place at the 2022 AGM. Those marked with an asterisk are new to the board.
 
CHAIR: Anne Fleming has lived on Borden with her family since 1997. She is a communications consultant and writes for or edits many community newsletters and blogs, including the HVRA eblast.  She is current Chair of the Fall Fair committee and has also volunteered at Pumpkinfest. Anne dedicated 14 years to the School Council at King Edward, including three as Chair.  She is a is a certified fitness instructor and recovering lawyer. Anne is finishing her first two-year term as HVRA Chair and is seeking a second and final term.

VICE-CHAIR: Position Open for 2022-23
 
SECRETARY: Karen Laurence moved to Major St. in 2017 and was delighted to discover a residents' association that was very active and committed to making the neighbourhood a better place for all. She is just finishing her first term as secretary and is excited about what year two may bring. Karen is a retired writer/editor, an avid reader and passionate gardener with an interest in neighbourhood greening and community relations. She led the HVRA's Coldest-Night-Of-The-Year fundraising campaign for the Fort York Food Bank earlier this year and is hoping to do so again in February 2023.
 
TREASURER: Lena Mortensen has been a resident of Harbord Village for 13 years.  She and her family first moved to Robert Street as renters and then became homeowners of the house next door. Lena is an anthropologist and teaches at the University of Toronto (based at Scarborough campus). She served on the Board for three years as an Area Representative for the Southeast, was the co-coordinator of the Pumpkinfest in 2018, and has been Treasurer since 2018.
 
WEBMASTER: Nicholas Provart has lived in Harbord Village since 2016, when he and his wife Marika Cooper purchased the house that his father-in-law’s family owned from 1942-1959 on Sussex Ave. He’s a professor of biology at the University of Toronto and has been interested in local issues since campaigning for bike lanes on the Spadina Avenue redesign in 1992.  Nick has been a North East Area Rep since 2018, and as such, has been actively involved in the park design of the Sussex-Spadina U of T residence project.
 
MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY: Elizabeth Chen joined Brunswick Avenue in 2004 and has been a member of HVRA since then. She is now also volunteering as membership secretary and at the Borden Farmers' Market. Elizabeth recently completed a degree in social work, in her ongoing quest to determine who/what she will be when she grows up. 
 
U OF T LIAISON: Sue Dexter moved from a career in print and TV journalism to study Botany at U of T. She has long fought climate change, reduction in fossil fuel use, protecting and enhancing the tree canopy. After working on the HVRA NetZero committee, she successfully replaced a gas furnace and stove with an electric cold weather heat pump and induction stove.  She has long studied piano and music structure and analysis. Her responsibilities as Liaison include membership on the University of Toronto Area Liaison Committee, collaboration with adjacent residents’ associations on planning matters, including heritage issues, environmental protection, and rehabilitation.
 
Bios for those standing for election from the Area Caucuses (2 representatives to be elected by each area caucus):
 
NORTHEAST AREA REPRESENTATIVES
  • Nicholas Provart (see above)
  • Frank Davis, a native of Newfoundland, has lived in Toronto for 15 years and on Major Street since 2018.  Frank is a real estate, corporate and energy development lawyer by trade and he runs the Canadian business of Pattern Energy, a leading renewable energy company.  He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Public Health Ontario and the Canadian Renewable Energy Association. Frank is an active musician and barbeque aficionado, and recently spent a year residing in Amsterdam on a work assignment with his wife, Sarah.
 
NORTHWEST AREA REPRESENTATIVES
  • Christian Mueller has lived on Brunswick Avenue since 1986 and has been Northwest Area Rep as well as a principal HV Fall Fair organizer since 2012.  After graduating with a doctorate in Cognitive Psychology, he became a gainfully employed marketing researcher until his retirement in 2014. He and his wife Mary have been fairly active in the community since they retired. Favourite homes-away-from-home include The Tranzac Club, Hot Docs Cinema, Koerner Hall, Toronto Public Library, U of T (Hart House, Innis College, Sid Smith, etc.). Like a lot of his neighbours, he feels privileged and fortunate to be living in the Harbord Village.
  • Kerry Clare has lived in Harbord Village since 2008, renting an apartment in a house on Sussex Avenue that she shares with her husband and two children who attend Huron Street JPS and Horizon Alternative. She’s a novelist, editor of the Canadian books website 49thShelf.com, and teaches online blogging courses. She’s previously been board chair at Huron Playschool and Huron Street JPS’s school council. She loves bike lanes, farmers’ markets, public pools and libraries, as well as the ever-changing, uncontainable nature of city life—even though it’s a lot.
 
SOUTHEAST AREA REPRESENTATIVES
  • Cathy Merkley and her family have been residents in Harbord Village for over 12 years. Always seeking to add more beautiful plants and trees to the area, Cathy oversaw the installation of a green roof on top of the building adjacent to their home.  She has served on the board as an Area Representative for the Southeast for four years.
  • Jody Salomon* has been a resident of Harbord Village since 2002 moving first to Borden Street and then a couple of years later to Spadina Crescent. Having moved from Aurora she was not sure what kind of community the “big city” would be. But when Halloween came around and she heard and saw the bagpipes kicking off the trick or treating, she knew it was the best choice her family could have made! Recently retired, she joined the Net Zero Committee which has and is doing an amazing job in helping the neighbourhood get off natural gas.
 
SOUTH CENTRAL AREA REPRESENTATIVES
  • Susan MacDonald has lived in Harbord Village for over 30 years.  She retired after working as a Senior Administrator at the University of Toronto for 35 years. She is interested in architecture, urbanism and environmental issues.  Susan joined the Board in 2019 and has attended to local issues such as a disruptive Air BnB. She is an active member of the HVRA NetZero Committee.
  • SC Area Rep Position open for 2022-23
 
SOUTHWEST AREA REPRESENTATIVES
  • Jane Perdue has lived in the neighbourhood for nearly 30 years – mostly on Lippincott, but first on Croft Street. She recently retired from the City of Toronto where she oversaw City Planning’s Percent for Public Art Program. She is a registered planner and advises on public art policies and masterplans for cities across Canada. Jane was a participant in the Croft Greening initiatives; is an avid gardener;  and, is interested in improving our open space and tree canopy, and through some of the measures in HVRA’s Green Plan, as adopted by the City in 2015. And many neighbours know our cute schnoodle named Bonnie.
  • Bob Stambula, a South West Area Rep, is a home-grown member of the Board… born at the former Doctors’ Hospital… but on Lippincott for 20 years.  Bob’s been active on the Planning & Development Committee and with pedestrian/patio issues. He has championed sidewalk snow clearing and has worked closely with King Edward Public School and the TDSB to secure community access to their outdoor facilities.

photo by Merrill Swain

- Message prepared by Anne Fleming
Good Neighbours Making a Great Neighbourhood
 
You can join or renew your membership here:
Be sure to encourage your neighbours to join HVRA!
Copyright © 2022 Harbord Village Residents' Association. All rights reserved. Visit the HVRA website at harbordvillage.com and follow HVRA on Twitter @HarbordVillage.


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