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BACKGROUND:
We became a Bingo sponsor on Feb. 1989 through the great effort of Mrs. Elizabeth Burgie who saw the potential of Bingo as
a major source of raising funds for the future Pilipino Canadian Association Community Centre. At the same time the 1989-1991PCA
Board of Directors struck up a task force to form a committee to look into procuring a community Centre. While the task force
was being organised, PCA applied and was granted a lottery (bingo) license from the Ministry of Consumer and Commercial Relations
through City Hall as their local agent using PCA registration number, PCA bingo bank account number, PCA officers and PCA
list of membership.
The Bingo continued while the task force was still deliberating how to address the organizational structure. The first plan
was to have the Community Centre under the PCA ownership. This option was not possible because we would like the Community
Centre to be a charitable institution to benefit from the government assistance such as non-payment of taxes including property
taxes. Also, to have the benefit of the members using their contribution as income tax deductible. PCA had already enquired
from revenue Canada years ago about getting a charitable status and received a negative reply because of non-compliance of
its constitution and by law. The recommendation of our legal counsel was to form another organization with new constitution
and by law that will meet the requirement of Revenue Canada. This was the birth of the Hamilton Filipino
Community Centre. We received our letter patent on June 1992.
The Bingo fund raising kept going and our bank account kept on getting bigger. On April 1993, the PCA bingo account was frozen
because we thought we would withdraw the whole amount when we made an offer to buy a building (the Church
of Christ at Fennell Ave. East). Finally, the license was turned over to HFCC and a new bank account number was established
effective April 18, 1993. The PCA bingo account will be only drawn out for the use of HFCC to buy a building or a property.
At Princess Bingo Hall, we are the only sponsor among the 22 other charitable sponsors that attract many volunteers.
The HFCC is very proud of having such strong support from the community and we hope to keep it this way until we reach our
main goal of having our own Community Centre. We have so much support that sometimes we tripped among
each other just to volunteer our time for this noble dream. Sometimes minor misunderstanding does occur that could upset others.
The intent of this memorandum is to clarify things that some of our community members might ask and this will also serve as
guide when we serve our volunteered time to HFCC bingo. Staying away is not a solution to any problems no matter how minor,
understanding is the key that will prevent small conflict before it gets bigger.
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