Event Recap: Annual General Meeting 2025
Outdoor seating at The Forks in Winnipeg, MB (photo by: Nicole Roach)
Women in Urbanism Canada (WIUC) hosted it’s second Annual General Meeting (AGM) on April 24, 2025. Here is a high-level summary of the meeting, including recaps of organization updates, the facilitated strategic planning session, and voting results.
Audience
Our audience included guests from Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Ontario, and the Northwest Territories! With 40+ registrations, we were able to reach a quorum of members and welcome non-members to learn more about the organization.
Map of current WIUC members (Members Directory).
Organization Updates
For organization updates, the Chair presented the Chairs Report, covering key organization activities and accomplishments from January to December 2024, touching on topics related to personnel, governance, communications, outreach, and policy. The Treasurer also presented the Financial Report, which included an overview of expenditures, along with assets and liabilities.
In 2024, a major accomplishment was receiving a $235,000 grant from the Women’s Capacity Fund to deliver the Scale-Up Project. This funding has supported the organization to focus on significant capacity building activities, such as hiring staff, developing organizational strategies and policies, updating the website, conducting internal team training, and much more.
Accordingly, the activities undertaken in 2024 were largely focused internally, doing the behind-the-scenes work to set the organization up for success during the Scale-Up Project and beyond.
Personnel:
With funding from the Women’s Capacity Fund, WIUC was able to grow from a 100% volunteer-led organization to hiring several part-time staff members. To support new staff, we developed a comprehensive list of personnel policies and procedures
Key Accomplishments:
Hired first paid staff
Developed personnel policies and onboarding procedures
Governance:
We welcomed new Directors to our Board, including Bita Jamalpour as Vice-Chair, Sonali Praharaj as Secretary, Vinaya Mani as Treasurer, and Akanksha Bhatnagar as a Director at Large. We also said goodbye to founding Board members, including Lilit Houlder who served as Vice-Chair and Co-Chair, Varvara Belenko who was previously the Treasurer, and Holly Hixson who was a Director at Large.
On April 23, 2024, we held our first AGM, where the members confirmed By-Laws No. 1 and elected a full slate of Directors to the Board.
Key Accomplishments:
Welcomed 4 new Directors
Held first Annual General Meeting
Confirmed By-Laws No. 1
Welcomed 21 new Members
Finance:
The 2024 fiscal year (January 1 - December 31) focused on improving internal financial controls to successfully manage the grant funds, contractor payments, and payroll for staff.
Key Accomplishments:
Received Women’s Capacity Fund grant
Secured General Liability Insurance
Established Quickbooks Online and Payroll
Communications:
Our website saw 14,000 visits and 19,000 page views. We also had 2 blogs reach over 1,000 views, and more than 10 reach 250 views, with several past blogs continuing to perform well year over year. Our top performing new blogs were: How to Design Public Seating for Women, Gender Issues at the Intersection of Portage and Main, and Car-Free Streets Benefit Everyone.
We distributed a monthly newsletter to the public, a quarterly members newsletter, and sent select e-blasts.
WIUC also posted regularly across social media channels, including LinkedIn, Twitter (x), Bluesky, and Instagram. At the end of 2024, the LinkedIn channel had the most followers, followed by Twitter (x) and Instagram, with LinkedIn and Instagram showing consistent monthly growth.
Key Accomplishments:
14,000+ website visits
19,000+ website page views
2 blogs reached 1,000+ views and 11 blogs reached 250+ views
600+ newsletter subscribers
6,000+ followers across social media channels
Outreach & Policy:
For outreach, we launched our formal Service offerings, which include presentations on key topics, participation on panels, and involvement in special projects. Finally, for policy, key focus areas included rallying against the proposed Bill 212 Legislation in Ontario and supporting advocacy efforts related to improving public washrooms in Toronto.
Key Accomplishments:
Launched Services
Published open letter to Ontario’s Minister of Transportation in opposition to Bill 212
Signed onto Toronto Public Space Committee’s letter to the City of Toronto
Presentation & Engagement Session
This presentation, delivered by Cheryll Case from CP Planning, highlighted how women continue to make powerful contributions to urbanism, both visible and behind the scenes. With care-based planning at its core, WIUC’s mission recognizes the often unpaid and under-acknowledged labour of women in city-building. Leaders like Jennifer Keesmaat and inspirations like Jane Jacobs were spotlighted as reminders of the critical role women have played, and continue to play, in making cities more humane and equitable.
Cheryll shared updates from WIUC’s ongoing strategic planning process, which includes an environmental scan, stakeholder interviews, and a positioning workshop. These efforts aim to align the organization’s future with its values and expand its reach. Research conducted thus far has demonstrated that WIUC’s engagement metrics are strong, with excellent open rates for blogs and newsletters, and growing interest across the country, especially in Winnipeg and Toronto.
After the presentation, participants were split into breakout rooms with a facilitator to help guide a group discussion around 3 key questions:
First, what are the most pressing issues within the urbanism/gender sectors of today? This question focused on broad themes within the sector.
Next, what are the most impactful initiatives that WIUC is well-positioned to lead/support on? This question focused on types of programs or initiatives.
Lastly, what actions could WIUC take that would make a real difference in your day-to-day life and/or community? This question dove deeper into specifics, such as policies, projects, campaigns, pilots, etc.
The breakout sessions sparked lively discussions and presented fresh ideas:
Group 1 explored gender in political discourse, policing, affordable housing, and the need for more public and immigrant-friendly spaces.
Group 2 focused on networking, cycling advocacy in northern communities, and the power of collective voice.
Group 3 discussed how local governments can better support democratic participation and build stronger member networks.
These sessions underscored members’ desire for deeper engagement, such as more workshops, in-person events, virtual cafés, and topic-specific forums.
A screenshot from Breakout Room 2’s interactive discussion surrounding the most important issues within the gender and/or urbanism sector.
Election of Directors
During the meeting, all Directors seeking election were introduced and briefly shared why they are seeking election. The members voted unanimously to confirm the following three Directors for a two-year term:
Aman Chandi - Director at Large
Sanjana Mada - Director at Large
Sahara Shrestha - Director at Large
WIUC’s newly elected Directors.
Visit The Team to learn more about the board and submit a general interest application to be considered for future openings.
Conclusion
As WIUC continues to grow, this organization remains a powerful example of what happens when women lead urban change with care, purpose, and community at the centre. Now equipped with the creative, visionary input of our members and supporters, we are excited to continue our strategic planning process and put more ideas into action. Stay tuned!
Thank you again to everyone who came out, our members, and to the staff and directors who make this organization run! We wish you all a great spring, and hope to see you next year at AGM 2026!