The CAFES Ottawa 2026 Annual General Meeting was held on Tuesday, March 24 at 6:30pm. We had an unforgettable evening with Keynote speaker Katharine Hayhoe, joined by over 290 participants on Zoom for a powerful and engaging conversation on climate science and communication! We are deeply grateful to Katharine Hayhoe for her inspiring talk, motivating us to change the way we communicate about climate change in ways that lead to action, and for reminding us how to move from our heads (information and worry), to our hearts (personal connection to issue), and to our hands (individual and community action opportunities). Her message left many feeling not only informed, but motivated and hopeful.
You can find the recording of the Keynote Event portion of the AGM with Katharine Hayhoe here.
Our AGM Business meeting continued right after the Keynote event, where we celebrated a year of growth and impact for CAFES. Executive Director Angela Keller-Herzog shared the 2025 Impact Report and highlighted the high impact advocacy that CAFES undertook in 2025, which was received very positively. Chaired by Jennifer Gautreau the chair of the CAFES board of directors, the meeting minutes for the last meeting were approved, the reviewed 2025 financial statements were presented by treasurer Johan Hamels, and several governance motions were presented, discussed, and passed including one where the membership instructed the board to pursue and assess benefits of charitable organization status for CAFES. Finally, the slate of candidates for the CAFES Board of Directors was presented. We are pleased to welcome all the newly elected and the returning Board members.
Read about our 2026 Board of Directors here.
Thank you to our members, board, and everyone who joined us. We are looking forward to another impactful year for CAFES!
P.S. – Want to see what our members considered the biggest environmental issues facing Ottawa in 2026? Check out the word cloud from the AGM below!
