Community Development

If your not-for-profit organization is looking for volunteers, submit a request through the Richmond Hill Volunteer Program and it will be posted on the volunteer database.

Here's how: 

Complete and submit the Volunteer Request Form. Your request will be sent to volunteers in our database and interested volunteers will contact you directly.

We welcome feedback about your experience with using this service to recruit volunteers. Complete the post-event questionnaire included in the Volunteer Request Form.

To help you run efficient group meetings, please use the following:

What is an Annual General Meeting?

An Annual General Meeting (A.G.M.) is held once a year and enables the Executive or the Board of Directors to report to the membership on the group’s activities within the last year and to hear from the general membership of the organization. Frequently A.G.M.’s are handled awkwardly and with some uncertainty as to procedures. The confusion tends to detract from the importance of the meeting. The guidelines in this document will help your group to run an efficient and professional meeting.

Is an election of a Board of Directors always included in an A.G.M.?

Unless the constitution, bylaws or letters patent (if applicable) state otherwise, the election of directors shall take place yearly. All directors are deemed to have retired after one year of service. However, if they are qualified, they can be eligible for re-election. If an election of directors is not held at the scheduled time, the directors continue in office until their successors are elected. The constitution, successors are elected. The constitution, bylaws or letter patent may require the election of directors in rotation. If so, no director should be elected for a term of more than five years and at least three directors should retire in each year.

What about the election of officers?

Officers (President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer) can be elected in two ways as required by the constitution or bylaws: 1. The Board of Directors may elect the officers from among themselves; or 2. The officers may be elected directly at the A.G.M.

What can be achieved from the information aspect of an A.G.M.?

As shown, the A.G.M. has a formal side required to conduct official business but its informal side should not be ignored. A review of the organization’s commitment to its mission can direct its focus to the original purpose of the group. New and old members can benefit from the emphasis allocated to the initial purposes and aims. This focal point will enable the group to determine if they are off or on fine with their viewpoints. A review of the past year gives the membership a feeling of accomplishment which will promote their involvement for the next year’s work.

Other subjects that will add variety to the A.G.M. and may appear on the agenda include:

• New business
• Awards ceremony
• Guest speakers
• Social period
• Special presentation
• Debates

There is financial support for participants of community group programs or activities who need help paying for registration fees or equipment. Learn about our fee assistance program.

Richmond Hill's Community Group Affiliation Policy applies to not-for-profit groups interested in working with us to offer residents a variety of recreational, art, cultural, social and sports programs.

The Recreation and Culture Division of the Community Services department offers support to these volunteer-based, affiliated community groups through fair and balanced sharing of facilities and resources.

Complete the Community Group Application online.

Richmond Hill offers training sessions and workshops for community groups. We review the needs of not-for-profit organizations and other community groups to decide which topics to cover. Some of the topics we have covered include networking, fundraising, volunteer recruitment and retention, grant writing and business planning. Email us your ideas for training and workshop topics. 

Learn about other training sessions or workshops organized by the Small Business Enterprise Centre (SBEC) or the York Region Arts Council(YRAC).

The Recreation and Culture Division may partner with local service providers to offer recreational programs.

If you have a program idea or would like to partner with Richmond Hill to deliver a program, please email the Community Development Coordinator. 

Some outside resources we recommend for community groups include:

• Charity Village - additional resources for not-for-profit community organizations
• Leisure Information Network (LIN) - a resource sharing website for recreation, leisure, sport and healthy living information
• Tamarack Institute - a charity that develops and supports learning communities that work together to solve community issues