2024 Year in Review

Over the last year, the Seasonal Residents of Prince Edward Island Association (SRPEI) continued to mature as a non-profit organization and provide value to our members. We have a stronger focus on community building, information sharing, and growing our membership base, although the Board is also focused on identifying areas where proactive advocacy may be required. 

Membership

We continue to build our membership base, with a goal to represent the majority of Seasonal Resident households island-wide. As this review was finalized, there are over 2,000 members in the seasonal Facebook group, which continues to be a pipeline for new Association members and a key community building mechanism. 

Our biggest effort to date has been the manual capture of PEI municipal tax roll information, which we have leveraged for a direct mail postcard campaign going to seasonals in the United States who aren't already members. We have seen good results from this campaign, and are looking at ways that we can will continue to leverage this method.

We are also building a database of Cottage / Homeowners Associations across the Island as another source of new members and to make connections with those organizations. Thank you to those of you who have sent us your information! Most importantly we recognize that our current satisfied members are in fact our best spokespeople and have deep connections in the seasonal resident community. We have begun to look at ways that we leverage those connections to generate new members. 

Community Building 

One of our priorities is providing opportunities to socialize and build community. Last year we hosted and promoted a number of social networking events in a variety of settings across the island. We continue to get great feedback on these events and it will be a focus again in 2025 and we will be looking to also leverage them as a way to encourage new members to join. If you are interested in helping coordinate and support these events, please get in touch!

In August, we held our Annual General Meeting (AGM) virtually as well as our annual social gathering. Thanks to all of you who attended and provided us with feedback and input on our priorities for this year. At that time we welcomed Mike Inglis, BettyAnne Younker, Ted Chadderton and Kathy Howe to the Board. And lets not forget to acknowledge the contributions of our outgoing board members. Tom Brodnick and Kandy Simpson were valuable contributors to the association and we thank them for their efforts! 

Information & Services

Based on member feedback, we continue to adjust the information available our website, recognizing not all of our members are active on the SR PEI Facebook group. We continue to maintain a listing of available cottage rentals and businesses on the island that are owned by our members as well as the buy and sell marketplace that can be used to advertise items members have available for sale or that are interested in purchasing. We continue to maintain our new contractor review page for those that want to share their experience with specific tradespeople on the island that can in turn be beneficial to others looking for similar services.  

Throughout the year, we maintained a steady stream of communication on topics relevant to members through the Fresh Island Fare newsletter. This newsletter has been an important source of information and updates related to seasonal residency on Prince Edward Island. Past editions can be found on our website. 

We invited Island law firm McInnes Cooper to host two information sessions on Estate planning for Seasonal Residents Both sessions were well attended and this year we have followed that up with a property ownership webinar on February 6th and a new property insurance for seasonal residents of PEI webinar on February 27th. You can find the recordings of these session on our 'Resources' web page. 

The 'dog import regulations' that the US implemented on August 1st of this past year quickly became a major focus for us less than a year ago. Thankfully the scope of the regulations that are now in place were drastically curtailed just before the launch date but it was clear that our members were informed and ready thanks to the information that we were able to provide to them during the spring. This is also a great example of how quickly issues that have a direct impact on seasonal residents can manifest themselves and the value that SRPEI can provide to our members. Please know that with the growing uncertainties and anxieties in todays world we are prepared to help our members navigate the next 'unknown'.  

Advocacy

Advocacy and government relations continue to be a key focus of our organization, with a goal to each year deepen our relationships with municipal and provincial representatives and represent our members on key issues. The better relationships we have with PEI governments, the better we can be at advocating when we need to.

The UHT is a good example of the benefit of an active Facebook Group as an extension of the Association, allowing for fast dissemination of information (along with our monthly newsletter) and reacting to questions and concerns. We’ve developed a relationship with the PEI Tax Commissioner, and leveraged their contacts to assist with the issues some of you face with the Canada Post address lookup / validation process. 

Conclusion

We are tremendously proud of all we have achieved for a Board and Association who are still maturing as an organization. Thank you to all of our members for your continued support, and to those of you who have volunteered your time. As always, we encourage you to spread the word and encourage your seasonal friends and neighbors to join us and please get in touch if you are interested in volunteering.