Chilliwack Fraser Canyon EDA Meeting

If you eliminate your EDA, all of the money will have to go back to the central party and your candidate cannot raise or hold money outside of elections until their candidacy is approved by elections Canada.    

You are better off to maintain a nominal EDA with a CEO (could be the candidate) and a FA.  

I know a number of EDAs that keep the minimal financial reporting status for the sake of raising funds for their candidates.

I had a hell of a struggle getting people to meetings after 2004, but prior to 2005-6 campaign. I kept in touch though, and continued to promote the pub night downtown. We ended up with a contest, and the candidate who won had a number of small social wine & cheeses, and cocktail party's. A few people would show up and they were good fun, but we kept on plugging. When the writ was dropped, we had a campaign meeting, and all of a sudden, about 25 people showed up. It was because we kept on plugging. They supported us, and were certain that things were in good hands, and when the crunch came, they came to the plate. By the end of the campaign we had over 40 volunteers.

Try to inject some fun into it, and connect on a personal level.

I'm not sure what you expect out of monthly EDA meetings, or what you wish to accomplish at them.

In our riding, we have a monthly meeting just of the EDA executive to keep up wiht our official business (we're pretty busy with events and activities) but we do a lot by email in between. Although we now have an "open" exec meeting every other month which any member can attend, we don't expect many (or any) to do so. Instead, we contact them regularly through email newsletters and then directly (email or phone) when there is an event coming up, especially if we need volunteers.

We also have a monthly social meeting - usually a pub night, sometimes a coffee house - on the 17th each month. That's open to members and anyone interested from the public and has no goal or agenda, just a chance to chat and socialize with other greens and green-curious.

In general, if we want the membership to attend a meeting, we give them a reason to be there - refreshments, a special speaker, etc. Other than that, we're happy if they can make it out to volunteer at events or go canvassing or whatever. We don't put too much emphasis on meeting just for the sake of meeting. Those who want to help organize the riding are on the exec - the rest have other interests, and we're happy for whatever they can put forward.

I would agree with Matt Day above that it would be inadvisable to deregister an EDA simply due to a period of low attendance. Just the hassle of closing bank accounts and other such wrap-up, only to have to open new ones and start all over again later, would be a waste. The amount of money you have on hand is enough to promote and host a suitable event to try and get more people involved. In general, an EDA should try to spend some of its money on events or activities to generate growth in the riding instead of hoarding it all for a future election. Treat it like seed money, plant it, harvest what grows.