The Thetis Island Residents’ & Ratepayers’ Association

What We Do


The following "Snippets" were posted on eSpokes during February 2025, as a lead-up to the Annual General Meeting where some key elections are/were to be held.  The text of TIRRA's article in the 2025 spring issue of the Thetis Island Quarterly is also appended.
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TIRRA On Parade
As you may have read in earlier posts, the Thetis Island Community Association will no longer be managing the collection of membership funds and data for TIRRA.  The joint request for membership went on for many years, and it was nice and simple for the recipients, but the task at the collection end, with our increasing population, had become just too onerous.  We can well imagine.  So the TIRRA Board thanks TICA very much for their many years in supporting us with this work.  It was above and beyond.
Now - apart from setting up a separate membership dues collection which Ernie just let you know about, TIRRA has also been gradually running out of long-time volunteers, so we need to poke our heads into your attention span, and let you know who we are and what we do and what help we need.  Look for some snippets in espokes, focussing on all the specific jobs that TIRRA does.  A lot of it is way under the radar!  There will be an article in the Quarterly, pulling it all together.  Then there will be our Annual General Meeting and election.  Please do hear us, and join us!  We hope to convince you...
(from espokes Feb. 2, 2025)
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St. Margaret’s Cemetery
Did you know that St. Margaret’s Cemetery is over a hundred years old?  The oldest part of the cemetery is located on the original homestead of the Burchell family and contains the remains of some of the earliest settlers on the island.
With a land donation made later in the century, the cemetery operated under the auspices of the Anglican Church until the late 1980s when the Church turned over title to TIRRA - the Thetis Island Residents' and Ratepayers' Association (or TIRA as it was then, the Ratepayers' Association).
TIRRA holds title to the cemetery lands and pays all insurance needed in order for the cemetery to safely carry out its duties.  As a service to the community under TIRRA the costs for burial in the cemetery have remained affordable for all residents on the island.  Operations and the grounds are maintained by volunteers.
As a place of interment, the cemetery reports to the Provincial Government under Consumer Protection for Licencing every year.
(This is one of a series of short notes on what TIRRA does for us all, and why we need it.)
Thank you,
TIRRA Executive Board
(from espokes Feb. 6, 2025)
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The TIRRA Transportation Committee
Why do we need this?
The BC Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure (MOTI) are responsible for, and arrange contracts for, the maintenance of all highways in BC.   Their priorities are the main most used roads in the province.  So the roads on Thetis tend to get ignored until something major happens.  The TIRRA Transportation committee can establish good relations with the local MOTI manager and maintain a dialog with him/her that results in them taking a greater interest in the needs on Thetis Island, with positive results regarding yellow line painting, verge mowing, repairs and resurfacing.
The Transportation committee also embraces relations with BC Ferries, and now that BCFerries have disbanded the Ferry Advisory Committees, this continuing liaison/advocacy through TIRRA is more important than ever.
Again - imagine life on Thetis without anyone to keep an eye on these basic needs?
(Another in the series of short notes on what TIRRA does for us all, and why we need it.)
Thank you for reading,
TIRRA Executive Board
(from espokes Feb. 8, 2025)
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Espokes
This must be one of the most used and appreciated services TIRRA provides.  WHAT a brilliant idea it was.  Long-time islanders will remember back to the days of the phone wheel.  If you needed everyone to know about something, you would call the chair of that committee.  They would have a list of, say, 10 people to call, who would each have their own list to call, so that eventually, maybe, as many people who were there to answer the phone would know that something was happening.  It was a way of turning out help quickly or reaching part-timers.  The alternative was to type something up and put it in all the mailboxes.  As the internet became more widely used, former islander Lon Wood came up with the idea of an electronic version.  eSpokes was the name because it was “spokes” of the original phone “wheel”.
The newsletter is such an integral part of Thetis Island life that losing it is almost unthinkable!  At the moment there are three people doing the job, each taking a month “on” and two months “off”, but trading with each other when needed.  New volunteers are always welcome - it just spreads the joy around.
(another in the series of short notes on what TIRRA does for us all, and why we need it.)
TIRRA executive board
(from espokes Feb. 10, 2025)
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The Phone Book
When Graeme and I purchased our property on Thetis in 1988, the “phone book” was a few sheets of paper with phone numbers.  Marge Hunter was putting it together for TIRA at that time.  The purpose was always just to make it possible to keep in touch with each other, if something important was going on, or needing to be done.  The purpose has never changed, but the numbers have, obviously, grown.  Not so much that we can't keep it compact and useful, but the sheets have become a book, and the record is there for emergency aid, and useful island information, as well as friends keeping in touch.
I've done it now for over 20 years, and do you know what I've enjoyed most about it?  Just being in touch - with so many people I might never have encountered otherwise.  The excuse is to make sure their information is still current, but then I get to say hello and find out how they're doing, if they feel like telling me.  And talking with part-timers who've had property here for generations.  Maybe the one I'm talking to is on the other side of the country, and they want to know how Thetis is doing these days.  It's a delight to have that contact. I consider it one of the nicest volunteer jobs I do.
Keeping the maps up to date can be kind of interesting too.  The rest of it is spreadsheets, layout, and a good relationship with the printer :-)
(another in the series of short notes on what TIRRA does for us all, and why we need it.)
Thank you for reading,
Veronica for the TIRRA Executive Board
(from espokes Feb. 13, 2025)
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Trails Committee
Islanders are islanders because of the extraordinary beauty of our natural environment.  But we have no public parks on the Thetis - it›s virtually all private property or nature conservancy reserve land, or in the case of Meadow Valley, part is actually owned by TIRRA.  The network of Trails on the island represent one of the most striking and unusual aspects of this wonderful community.  Every step you take through the magical forests and meadows in our trail system, is because of the generosity and trust of private owners and the management of TIRRA or ThINC.
Most of these trails would not exist without the TIRRA Trails Committee, whose dedicated volunteers negotiated licenses with the various private owners involved, and who are out there regularly monitoring and maintaining the trails for safety and accessibility.  The summer 2024 issue of the Quarterly (link here) goes into detail about the different Trails and their management.
How much poorer Thetis would be, without this wonderful service that TIRRA is able to support.  You can’t have licenses or insurance, which provides access, without that umbrella organization to stand behind them.  One more reason we need to support TIRRA, so it can support these dedicated Trails volunteers!
(another in the series of short notes on what TIRRA does for us all, and why we need it.)
Thank you for reading,
TIRRA Executive Board
(from espokes Feb. 14, 2025)
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Visitors' Guide
The Visitors' Guide was started to provide a low cost brochure where small island businesses and services could be listed and their contact information made available to visitors to the island.  It's freely distributed from island businesses like the marinas and shops, and at the Chemainus Visitors' Information Centre, and from the ferry booth.  It's a venue where, for instance, the Fire Department can put in some guidelines, and TIRRA can put in reminders about things like garbage disposal.  It's just a useful service. Doing it does require some familiarity with a layout program, but it's a pretty simple template to use.  Or you can change the template if you want to try out a new idea.  The point is just to keep it very affordable and an even playing field for the local businesses (the cost of listing is just the printing cost - an even split among all participants on a per-line basis.)  I started it after I heard a few people saying how useful something like that would be, and Grae and I had just started our B&B so we were looking for ways to advertise that would also serve other businesses like ours.  Now, after about 20 years, it seemed like a good idea to have it sit under TIRRA's umbrella, so it can carry on.
Thanks for reading!
(another in the series of short notes on what TIRRA does for us all, and why we need it.)
Veronica for the TIRRA Executive Board
(from espokes Feb. 16, 2025)
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Solid Waste Management
TIRRA has had a long history of dealing with garbage on Thetis.  At some point after we managed to get a larger ferry, TIRRA arranged to have bins available located where the returnable container is now.  This was for members use who had paid their garbage fee for the year.  It was always a significant amount of work for the treasurer to collect the funds and send out repeated notices.  Eventually the bins were moved inside the gate in conjunction with recycling.  This ended up going onto a parcel tax system with the CVRD for funding.  A bag fee was also introduced as a user pay for the garbage.  A small “free store” was added to help neighbours re-purpose.  E-spokes does a great job of assisting re-purposing.  When covid hit, the recycle section was shut down and after significant discussions and meetings a vote was held and the majority of members preferred to take their recycling to town.  This left the garbage portion to stand alone with an attendant to open and monitor the yard.  The garbage continues at a higher rate and the parcel tax is no longer charged.  TIRRA leases a portion of the provincially owned yard and is required to carry 5M liability insurance.  The garbage pick ups happen 15 times a year and are shared by 5 other stake holders.  TIRRA manages the pickup schedule.  At this point Thetis enjoys a clean island with very little random dumping.
(another in the series of short notes on what TIRRA does for us all, and why we need it.)
Thank you for reading,
TIRRA Executive Board
(from espokes Feb. 18, 2025)
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thetisisland.net
The original community website, thetisisland.net, does require someone who knows how to manage a website, so it's a very specific skill.  But it's one that more and more people have experience in, so we trust it won't die on the vine.  There are several other community sites now, but they all have slightly different focus.  thetisisland.net is where most of the information about the island and it's many organizations and services can be found, directly or via links, in one place.  And that includes minutes and reports that used to sit in overflowing filing cabinets in closets at Forbes Hall.  And it's another place where island businesses can advertise, either as a listing, a link to their own website, or actually have a low-cost page that we build for them, so they can have an appropriate URL without going to the expense of their own domain name.  We host the ferry webcam, and the businesses that advertise on the webcam page have contributed to the cost of buying and maintaining that service over the years.  We have a local real estate page, so potential islanders can see most of what's available in one place.  It's all about infrastructure again.
(another in the series of short notes on what TIRRA does for us all, and why we need it.)
Thank you for reading,
Veronica for the TIRRA Executive Board
(from espokes Feb. 20, 2025)
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TIRRA Executive
Many people are daunted by the titles, but while critically important jobs, they aren't that demanding.
The President's primary function - and it can be his or her only function if that's all they want to do - is to call and chair meetings.  Vice-President is back-up for when the President can't take a meeting.  Everything else can be done by the various committee chairs, and joint action is by consensus at the executive meetings.  And there aren't usually a lot of those - between meeting communication is pretty easy, these electronic days, and generally the different committees just get on with their own jobs.  The President can, as a member of the board, be involved in more if he or she chooses, but it's not a requirement of the office.
The secretary, likewise, has one job - keep minutes of the meetings - and there's usually a lot of help with that.  A detailed agenda (assembled from input by the board) is the outline right there, and you have everyone's help with any bit you might have missed.  And very occasionally, there might have to be a letter written.  The board as a whole helps with composing it, and the Communications Committee can help with the distribution.
The Treasurer's job does require some experience in accounting and reporting, but we don't have a huge budget, so it's manageable.
The big thing is, President and Secretary are both slots that need filling right now, so please consider putting your name forward for one of them... Thank you for reading,
TIRRA Executive Board
(from espokes Feb. 22, 2025)
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Communications Committee This is an umbrella that covers several different and independent sub-committees.  The main function of the chair of this committee is to be the one to sit on the TIRRA board.  That person can also be the one doing one or more of the other jobs if they like (many of which I've been doing, because I like! - VS), but they don't have to - they can just represent the other subcommittees when it comes to board meetings.  The Communications Chair covers, and we've already talked about, Espokes, the phone book, Visitors' Guide and the website.  The other activities that come under this umbrella are the Welcome package, and helping the secretary on the electronic side with sending out bulk emails to announce meetings.  The Welcome package collects essential information about the island, some back issues of the Quarterly, and a phone book, to present to new permanent residents on the island.
A Community that can't communicate isn't a community.  TIRRA is the underpinning of so many of the things that support our daily lives, but we don't always look deep enough to see and appreciate them.  But we'll sure notice if we lose them!  So please "think on these things", and join us...
Thank you for reading,
TIRRA Executive Board
(from espokes Feb. 24, 2025)
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From the Thetis Island Quarterly, Spring 2025 issue:

We need TIRRA, and TIRRA needs you!

Why do we need it?  What does it do?  We've had some short snippets running in espokes, but here's an overview.  (If you'd like to review the "snippets", they're posted at thetisisland.net/tirra/whatwedo.html).  As you read this, try to imagine what it would be like if we didn't have these services...

Since Thetis is "unincorporated", we don't have a mayor, councillors and staff to officially represent our interests.  If our roads deteriorate, the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure (MOTI) might think of us and get around to checking on what shape they're in and even fixing them, someday, maybe, but it's not hard to imagine how far down the priority list we are.  Not very many electors.  And they don't pay much attention to letters from individuals - they want to hear from someone they can recognize as representing the common interest over here.  So for Roads, that's what our Transportation Chair does - they are the point person for us to tell about problems with the roads, and the person that MOTI recognizes as representing Thetis.

Same with the ferry - if there's a problem with the schedule, or issues with the dock, BCF would deal with our Ferry Advisory Committee.  BCF used to support FACs in all the communities it serves, but they've stopped that now.  So we need our FAC point person even more - again, so that there's someone we can talk to about issues, and someone they can talk to as an island representative from TIRRA.

And then there's GARBAGE.  Before we had the Garbage (and formerly Recycling) Yard, people just dumped it - in ditches, in patches in someone's woods, in massive piles around the bottle collection area.  It was just horrible.  All very well to say, why should I pay for something I don't use?  Because it keeps the island livable, that's why.  And again, in order to negotiate with companies that will provide and come and empty the big bins, we need an organization that they can deal with, who can collect what it costs to pay for it.

Then there's the cemetery - that's a committee that works pretty independently, and does such a wonderful job keeping the grounds beautiful and cared for, and quick to respond when there's a new "resident".  But someone has to own the land - that's TIRRA.  And it means there's a way for the cemetery committee to communicate with the island, and for us to ask them questions, in an orderly way.

Those lovely trails through the island that so many of us use, for both our delight and convenience - not only do they take maintenance, but virtually all of it runs on private land (and a small section actually owned by TIRRA).  For insurance reasons, and to reassure the landowners who generously allow it, we need an organization to negotiate agreements with those landowners and make sure the agreements are kept, and keep the trails open and safe.  And the committee is doing ongoing research into new possible trail locations, including making use of RAAD (Remote Access to Archaeological Data) as part of their overarching commitment to reconciliation and preserving culturally sensitive lands, in consultation with Penelakut elders, as well as environmental considerations.

Then there's the one most of us use every day - ESPOKES.  That takes a committee of people who can keep ahead of the occasionally changing rules about bulk mailings online, as well as receiving and posting the messages.  And keeping it from getting too far from what the majority want to receive, it has guidelines that everyone can have a voice in, through TIRRA.

How about the phone book - that's another piece of island infrastructure that truly helps to keep us all connected.  How much community awareness would you have, if you couldn't see who's out there and how to reach them?  And that means keeping the island maps up to date as well.  But for me (having done it for more than 20 years now) the phone book is about inclusion.  Communities are about inclusion - everyone who is here is part of this community, active or not, visible or not.  You're here, and you're part of something of value.  The phone book (or at least the database) records that.  And there are even some former islanders in there, because some part of their heart is still here.  A different kind of "infrastructure", if you like.

Then there's the community website, thetisisland.net, where you can find general information about the island, minutes (including archived), records, links (like to the ferry line-up webcam, which TIRRA bought and owns), local businesses and services, real estate for sale - all the things that used to sit in filing cabinets or tacked to a bulletin board somewhere.  And the Visitors' Guide, a collaborative brochure that gives all the businesses and services on the island a common, low cost venue to be visible to our visitors, as well as reminding them of basic guidelines for living here.

And because, although independent, they are also "infrastructure", the Fire Department and the Improvement District, the Port Commission and Islands Trust will all report to TIRRA meetings.

TIRRA is about the island's infrastructure - the things we use all the time, and mostly never think about until something goes wrong.  The people who volunteer for TIRRA are practical types who can see when a job needs doing, and want to just do it or get it done - not waiting and arguing forever with a bureaucrat "over there" to get someone else to do it.

Like all organizations on Thetis, it relies on volunteers, and we've been running low on those lately.  Please consider coming out to our Annual General Meeting (date and membership request to be posted when available), and maybe having your say, and even better, volunteering to join us.  Elections will be held for all posts, but our current vacancies are:
- President (to call and chair meetings)
- Secretary (to take and keep minutes, and type the occasional letter)
- Transportation (Roads, mainly, but keeps in touch with the FAC, and the Port Commission)
- Membership (in conjunction with the Treasurer, to keep a database of who is a voting member, but also of all landowners on the island, to contact when we have an issue that involves taxation.  This can also work with, or be the same person, as does the phone book.  Spreadsheets!)

So there it is.  What TIRRA does.  It is the very essence of what makes Thetis such a special, maybe even unique, place.  We "do it ourselves".

Executive Board, The Thetis Island Residents’ & Ratepayers’ Association

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