DNC Board meeting - September 27, 2012

DNC Board meeting
September 27, 2012

Present: Kelvin, Jen, Harold, Richard, Ivan, Dave M
Guests: Jacek, Aiyanas, Rob M, John Sk

Opening: Kelvin

POLICE DEMO
Jen
 Ivan is doing the poster for the event
 We will start at district 1. Ivan will speak about the lack of accountability for police brutality. At city hall Aiyanas will speak with a VANDU member about the ticketing. Rob will speak about his assault and complaint against the police.
 We want to start recording the police destroying peoples drugs
Ivan
 Is it going to be good or bad for us if the police start processing drug seizures?
Dave M
 Could be good or bad. If they start pressing charges then we could clog up the court system.
Rob
 I was assaulted last month by the police. They bruised by wrists and ribs with an attack by beat police. A month earlier it was the same two cops who cleared all Aboriginal people from Pigeon Park. I approached those two cops and said, On whose authority did you kick all the natives out of Pigeon Park. It was the same cops who assaulted me. I think they're targeting me.
 These days there's a real heavy police presence up by the bottle depot.
 I think the cops are following me and harassing me. I keep seeing Constable Ballantyne near me. I'm asking for DNC support because I don't have VANDU support anymore.
Aiyanas
 Challenging the police practice of seizing and crushing drugs needs to be discussed some more, I hope it's referred to the VANDU board and Tuesday group for more discussion.
 The other thing is that I'm uncomfortable with Rob bringing up his treatment by the VANDU board, which is unprincipled. Should not be talking about VANDU business with other groups.
Jen
 The police are more concerned about what Copwatch says about the police than how the police act. We need to have a discussion about whether to meet with the VPD professional standards unit or not.
AGREED: To have a report from Jen at the next board meeting to discuss Copwatch's experience with meeting with the VPD.

RIGHT TO RESIST CONFERENCE
Aiyanas
 I'm here as a member of the Alliance for Peoples' Health, part of the International League of Peoples' Struggles, which is a grouping of more than 300 mass organizations from around the world.
 We are organizing a major conference in November. Last year we launched a Canada chapter of the ILPS and started a campaign for the right to resist.
 The conference will have four themes: The war on resistance, the war on working people, the war on communities, and the war on land defenders and the environment.
 I'm coordinating the track, War on communities. I'm calling it the emerging police state, about how poor and working class communities in Canada are now facing police state tactics.
 The Vancouver Renters Union is interested in putting forward an analysis on social control and gentrification.
 We are approaching the DNC because we would like to ask you to be involved as a model of a representative community based resistance group. Unfortunately we don't have funding for the conference. But if the DNC is interested in participating there are a few ways to participate. Could read, give feedback on the conference paper. Could meet with the preparatory committee for comment. And, if you can, we would like to have you present in the third section of the conference.
Jen
 I'm going as a representative of Copwatch.
Harold
 I don't think it's appropriate for DNC to provide money to send someone to participate, but I don't think it's realistic. We have demands on our time and resources right now. But if someone will kick in money then maybe they could go.
Ivan
 Maybe we can think about it when we are assessing our work for the AGM we can consider some lessons from DNC that we can communicate over to this conference.
AGREED: We should stay in communication with this effort.

LAPP
Ivan
 The What we are hearing event tomorrow is going alright. The good thing is that we have low-income committee members working on all the presentations.
 The other thing is the co-chairs issue. Penny Ballem is pushing hard to get Ivan off the committee.
 I think this is becoming a diversion and we should try to get rid of this problem. I want board support to ask Herb to take over as primary co-chair and me as his assistant.
Harold
 We need to send a letter to the city saying that this treatment is not acceptable and that we have the right to determine our own representative.
 We have never voted for anyone to represent DNC except Wendy and I would support Herb as the new representative.
 We should meet with him and find out of he's willing to take it on.
Kelvin
 If the city attacks Ivan then how do we know that they will not attack our next replacement. They might attack the next person with his specific issues. We all have our vulnerabilities and our reps should not be vulnerable.
 I agree that we should send a letter to the city, not just the chair but the city council. They keep on rehashing something that happened months ago. It's not acceptable.
 We should send a harsh letter to the city. They are holding us back.
Rob
 I worry that if they attack Ivan then if we go and speak our minds and do what we have to do to be heard then when will they attack us?
 When this first happened months ago I sent a letter to Penny complaining about her conduct and saying I thought it wasn't acceptable. She never responded. That shows her lack of respect for the low-income community. She didn't respond to me because she thinks she's better. Three times I asked Tom from the city to get her to respond and she never did.
 We should get our group of low-income committee members together and talk about this. We need to discuss it and have agreement on how we should respond to this.
Richard
 They don't like Ivan because he's a good leader in the community and they want to shut him up. I don't think we should back down from this.
Jacek
 If you decide to do something like give the co-chair position to Herb then you should negotiate something first. They should give us something in exchange.
Harold
 I agree that we should push for concessions as much as possible.
AGREED: The board supports Herb as chair and Ivan as alternate but any agreement must come back to the board first. And will discuss it at the anti-gentrification caucus.
AGREED: To write and send a letter to the city protesting their aggressive move against DNC and our co-chair rep.

GENERAL MEETING
Harold
 We need a theme for the meeting, at least in general.
Rob
 The police are really being aggressive these days.
James
 The police are really sweeping the bottle depot block.
Harold
 Other agenda points:
 AGM and the preparatory meeting
 DTES Not for Developers public meeting about 955 E Hastings. We should also present on the 955 E Hastings project.
 Update on the Save Social Housing Coalition
Ivan
 I think we should do a discussion on the social housing coalition in December or so.
Harold
 The coalition has a research committee that has started working on the numbers of units we need, how to talk about ending homelessness, etc. We are trying to come up with some solid demands based on research.
AGREED: To focus the meeting on police sweeps on Hastings St.

STREET MARKET
Jacek
 We have an agreement with the city. They released the first $10,000 to the market. We are going to buy some tents and tables.
Jen
 Are there any rules about the conduct of leaders of the market?
Jacek
 There are two rules; don't do anything to hurt the market and don't do anything to hurt the market.
Jen
 How do you receive complaints?
Jacek
 I can bring you the form.
Rob
 Who receives the form?
Jacek
 The committee.
Richard
 How can you join the committee? I wanted to join it and I never heard about.
Jacek
 We announced the committee meeting at the volunteers meeting and two people came.
 The city asked for Vandu and DNC support for the agreement before they released the money but they released it anyway.

CONFLICT RESOLUTION
Ivan
 I'm frustrated that Roland has not come to the board meetings two weeks in a row when we had agreement to deal with the next step of resolving board conflict here in our meetings. Instead he went to my employer and criticized me there.
Harold
 It's not productive to have rants. We need a process to resolve this.
Jacek
 The problem is the process. Ann was supposed to set it up with Aiyanas and Ivan took over.
Harold
 We should not have a back and forth
Kelvin
 We need a safe space to have this resolution. We can use AFD as this space, I am willing to help facilitate this discussion.
Jacek
 This is an example. Ivan can criticize Roland but I can't criticize him.
Harold
 I like Kelvin's suggestion for direct resolution.
Jacek
 Ivan is a good speaker and he is controlling all of you now. He knows how to speak last in a meeting and control the meeting. An example is at the end of the meeting when Aiyanas was here. Ivan was the last to speak at that meeting and he said that he didn't know about something from the treasurer report and I know that's not true.

MOTION: For Kelvin to attempt to set up a conflict resolution meeting between Ivan and Roland. AGREED, by board members present, but we didn't have quorum.

DNC Monthly General Meeting Minutes, September 8th, 2012

DNC Monthly General Meeting Minutes, September 8^th, 2012 held at 111 West Hastings

Chair: Ann Livingston,  Minutes: Jada Martinson

Opening by John Skulch

Ann apologizes about the glitches with the venue. We are getting the meeting started late because a rumor went out that the meeting was cancelled. People may have been turned away. DNC was told we can no longer use the Dodson Hall at the Dodson Hotel on Hastings for our meetings. We appreciate if anyone had ideas for venue space that can fit about 100 people. Please get in touch with DNC

Irwin Oostindie welcomed DNC members to W2 Media Café. W2 is people-powered, mostly run by volunteers who care about making positive change happen. 

Meeting AGENDA

1. Opening/ welcome new members (John Skulch, Ann)
2. DNC purpose (Roland) and How to join the DNC (Ann)

Committee Reports

3. Street Market (Roland, DJ)
4. Police Committee (Ann, Rob)
5. Shelter Committee (Roland, Jacek)
6. LAPP (Rob)

Guests

7. Vancouver Renters Union

Tristan Markle, Maria Mallstam, Kim Hearty

8. Poor Man’s resource Society

Tina Marie Tomashiro

9. Discussion
10. Announcements
11. Closing

*Motion to accept agenda made by Rob Morgan and seconded by Fred. Charles abstained. Motion Carried

----------------

1. John Skulch opened the meeting.
2. Ann explains that quorum is present. The tiny stipend of $3 is to be distributed at the end of the meeting. Our meeting goal is to have a discussion about being a renter in the downtown eastside. There are a lot of issues about various renter situations in the DTES due to tenants in Special Needs Housing and SROs believing they have no tenant’s rights. We hope that the Vancouver Renters Union will help us get informed and organized. There is a table to join the DNC and VRU at the back.  

Roland read the DNC Constitution

3. Street Market Report

• Street market issues were discussed at the DNC board.  
• The City Permits expired over a year ago and the City has been bringing complaints to the Street Market Committee and we kept holding the Street Market. We now are fully legal with permits as of yesterday. Permits are for one month to be renewed each month. There are two Permits; 1 to vend in the park and another to block Carrall Street. We’ll keep renewing the permit every month
• We don’t have the resources (workers and money) to hold a Market more than one day  a week
• There has been an ongoing attempt by the City to move us to a small lot on Hastings Street. We are in ongoing negotiation. We can’t set up a viable market in that lot (empty lot right beside Pigeon Park Savings). Even the PHS garden lot on Hastings isn’t as good as Pigeon Park for a Market. Pigeon Park is perfect because it intersects and brings together Gastown, Hastings Street and Chinatown - we want to solidify it.
• We had a series of meetings with the City, there are some issues with the east side of Carrall, and we will try to resolve it. We put the signs up not to vend on the east side of Carrall, if it works great, if not we will keep working on solutions.
• We have weekly meetings to talk about the street market issues as the Street Market Committee. We also welcome street venders and volunteers to come each Saturday at Jacobs Well at 239 Main Street at 9 AM sharp to secure volunteer positions, to suggest improvements and to resolve market conflicts.

DNC Member comments that there are many DTES people who are vending there but there are outsiders setting up who aren’t from the neighbourhood and who may not need the money. It’s upsetting

Roland agrees it is a concern; we need to come up with a long term plan on how to deal with this. Venders will come from all over because it is a good market

Ann suggests we may create a street market membership that you have to have to have priority to vend as a way to ensure the spirit of market which is to protect DTES people from bylaw tickets. The Street market will not give up the social justice origin of the DTES market. To control who vends in the Pigeon Park/ Carrall Street space, the City needs to come up with some real money to help us make it a great market as it will take some properly paid staff to do this. The Market Committee the volunteers and the venders work to solve all these things. Please let us know what you think the issues are and tell the interim coordinator. The venders will have their own meeting this fall and we plan to meet before the market opens on a cold miserable Sunday.

DNC Member asks if the street market was formed for the downtown eastside?

Ann agrees and points out that the market is already very labour intensive and underfunded, so we need help from the City as in funding especially if we ensure each vender is a “member” of the street market, and then we can limit the people on site to DTESers. If these DTES vender members have some control the space then they can solve some issues together with the volunteers. Keep bringing your ideas to these meetings and to the DNC Board which meets most Thursdays from 5:30 to 8 or  9…. at 239 Main St. There is also a street market committee, talk to Dave Murray, Roland, Jacik or Ann. Wendy is ill, she’s had to step back from her work on medical leave for a number of months. She has heart issues and is to avoid all stress. It is not easy to get Wendy to take a break so please help her stay away until she is cleared to return.  

Roland explained that there has been some tension between the Sunday Street Market and the illicit drinkers in Pigeon Park. It is important that we ensure that the street market is not anti-illicit drinkers. Drinkers are welcome at the street market

DJ explained an incident about 2 weeks ago where a girl started spitting on venders, and flashing younger boys and that’s not why we’re there. We didn’t want to call the police, but we had to.

4. Police Report

Ann explained that there is a group called Vancouver Copwatch that meets at her house on Fridays. For about 5 years the DTES residents and DTES service agencies were having a tough time getting the police to even meet with the community. So the DTES has the VPD setting priorities for enforcement and deployment without input from the community. Many BEAT Enforcement Team (called the BET) VPD members will not even talk to cop watchers. Seems the VPD will only meet with agencies involved in Sisterwatch. So we have no input to VPD which is unfair and frustrating. If you have police incidents, we offer people emotional support. We also want to ensure DTES residents know that there is a certain behaviour the police should adhere to. If they do not, please approach Copwatch and Jenn Allen will help, and follow through

Rob recounted a police incident last Welfare night at 9pm. Two officers grabbed him from behind, did a 2 man take down (knee on back, knee on head) and crushed the rock he had purchased, ran his name over the registry and then let him go. He asked why they were doing this to him and they said they were told to get the Indians off Hastings Street. Jen helped him identify the police office and file a formal police brutality complaint. Rob is grateful for support from VANDU and the DNC.

5. Shelter Report

Roland explained that the shelter committee formed in January this year because people have no rights in shelters. If the staff screws with you, there is no complaints procedure and the Shelter committee formed to understand what action could be taken. Through Freedom of Information, he got the budgets for many shelter to understand just how much BC Housing money is coming into these shelters. Many are $100 per bed and BC Housing could buy you a condo for that! The shelter committee uncovered a horrible shelter system and is building a campaign against the lack of oversight, and against the “shelter shuffle” where people move from shelter to shelter for years. Seems the shelters do not publicize the fact that there are not enough social housing available for shelter residents to go and that shelters are getting 10 times  the welfare rate have people in shelters! It is unfair that shelter operators could use this information to build a good campaign and do not. If a person advocates on behalf of someone in a shelter they call the police to remove them from their property! Independent advocates should have the right to help people who are in shelters. The shelter committee is fighting for basic rights of people in homeless shelters

DNC Member - suggests we need media support to communicate these shocking facts to the public

As part of the shelter committee’s campaign, we might put together a fact sheet and get the media to take some of the bullets. Roland feels strongly that you can’t just treat people like cattle.

6. LAPP

The Local Area Planning Process has begun and many workshops have been held in August and September including Our Homes, Our Livelihoods, Our Places and Our Well-being.  Rob Morgan is working on a Racial Profiling Sub Committee which is meeting upstairs here at W4 at 9:30 AM on Tuesday Sept. 10^th 

A whole bunch of information is presented but not a lot of people are attending.

7. Vancouver Renters Union (VRU) Presentation

Tristan Markle, Maria Mallstam, Kim Hearty made a presentation with power point presentation and a skit.

(VRU’s Mission is “to organize all Metro Vancouver renters into a union capable of determining housing rights, rents, and stability through collective bargaining and political action, including petitioning, picketing, and rent strikes, as well as through conversion of the city’s housing stock to resident-controlled, not-for-profit cooperatives.” Vancouver rents are severely unaffordable. Rents continue to rise faster than incomes. Individually, there is little renters can do to get rents under control. But together, united, we can get them under our control. The renters union is a vehicle for safeguarding against unjust rent increases and for collective bargaining with landlords. Vancouver renters are in a precarious position, and are displaced by the market far too often. Through the renters union we can organize for long-term renter security. United we are strong, divided we compete against each other and are exploited. Rents will be high, and tenure security will be poor, if each renter stands on their own. But together we can gain sovereignty over rights and rents. The Renters Union recognizes that some renters are more marginalized than others, and seeks to ensure that there are no second-class renters.)

VRU started organizing in January of this year and have done a lot. We started this union because 55% of people of Vancouver are renters. 20% of these people pay more than 30% of their income on rent. The DNC is one of the best resident organizations in the community and although we work across the City, the epicenter of the crisis is the downtown of eastside where we are seeing people evicted from their units. When people try to fight this, they don’t have the resources to fight through the legal channels. There are some organizations that will give you information about your rights but if you need someone to represent you, we do that, and there are advocates. We go building to building, door to door, working to organize unions inside their buildings. It’s kind of like a trade union, if you bargain together, you can get bargain collectively, fight rent increases together, go on strike together, and we’re working on this. We have ambitious goals; we need lots of help and have had some successes in Mount Pleasant. Maria is from Sweden and there are renters unions there. If landlords want to make renovations, they would have to consult with the tenants because they will be using tenant’s money to do the renovations. The landlords have to be accountable, because we are the ones paying the rent; they need to be accountable to us. You can also file formal disputes with the renters union. Even in Vancouver there is a long history of rent strikes. People forget, and they don’t get media attention. The (SROs) single room occupancy hotels tenants should have the same rights as any other building; even if they are publicly or privately owned and run. Guest’s fees are completely illegal in SROs and we would work with you to challenge hotels that still charge them. The precedents have been set; there have been some legal cases where people have fought the guests in building, and won. You can contact us if you wan t to organize your building. A lot of these housing providers are trying to control the tenants by saying they are special needs facilities and you can successfully dispute your tenant agreement you signed agreeing NOT to have overnight guests for instance.

DNC Member points out that we’re looking at a City with less than 1% vacancy rate

Maria and Tristan point out that when you do things as a group, you are more powerful and can win.

DNC Member states that there is organized bullying in the housing system and sometimes you get people living on the same floor as you who undermine the efforts of the tenants to get organized. They are working “with the landlords” and won’t get together to form a union

Ann thinks we should try one building because success breeds success

DNC Member points out it should be mandatory that the landlords change the locks of the units when a new person move in

DNC Member asks how many people do you need in a building to make a union? At least half?

Rob recounts organizing in the Washington Hotel where the tenants had dinners and lunches together and that started working for us until I was offered an apartment at Woodward’s which I took

Tristan says there is no framework for tenant unions right now, yet and that’s why we’re here

Ann says in rent strike, tenants put their money in a separate bank account and refuse to pay the landlord but when you’re on welfare, welfare sends the rent directly to the landlord and that makes a rent strike almost impossible. But if everyone doesn’t pick up their welfare cheque, then welly can’t pay the landlord. It is interesting that even in the social housing landlords are putting strike breaking tenants on certain floors so they can’t form a union. I live in a co op and the Co-ops are creating more rules so they can kick out subsidized members because the subsidy $ is dried up and the people on subsidy are a new burden even thought they paid for decades. Also welfare in the DTES has a policy change in January 2012, and they pay the landlord directly and NEVER pay the welfare recipient who then pays the landlord. So you are never allowed to write your own cheques to pay rent

12. Poor Man’s Resource Society

Tina Marie Tomashiro is organizing at Woodward’s to standup for the rights of people in the downtown eastside She has an Open house every Sunday, unit 608, in WWDs every

She is also putting together a survey of all downtown eastside businesses who are working with downtown eastside residents.

She is hoping to organize people who can follow through and protect people and points out “I can’t fight my own rights unless I have other people with me”

Both Tina and Roland were disappointed that Pivot did not help with legal issues for people in shelters or help tenants being certified and taken to hospital psych wards. Welfare continues to pay rent.

Tina points out the Rain city building she visits doesn’t demand picture ID to visit a friend and the workers are polite and kind.  So not all NGO’s are shitty. She also remembers that an agreement was made with the woodsquatters that tenants are allowed to form a tenants Council in Woodward’s!  But Tina has been unable to get permission to use the common room in Woodward’s on the 10^th floor to hold meetings of such a tenant’s council so uses her room.  We can start from here.

Ann instructs people to please sign up with VRU and DNC if you want to form a tenants union in your building

Rob just moved into the Woodward’s and feels confident he can build a union there.

Rob is a member at-large on the LAPP, I have a low-income seat on this committee and because of an incident in Pigeon Park where 2-3 cops went to Pigeon Park and kicked-out all the natives. Someone got their badge numbers and now we are asking them about racial profiling. I’m part of the LAPP; we’re going to have a racial profiling meeting on Tuesday Sept 10^th at 10am

Announcements

Irwin announces the 10^th anniversary celebration for Woodsquart is on in the Atrium at Woodward’s for 90 days

Irwin is aware that Ivan specifically wasn’t happy with DNC meeting in W2 space and will invite Ivan here to debate it so the air is cleared

Ann was instructed to announce the Sunday Annual Triage BBQ at 1:30 PM

The meeting organizers Ann Livingston, Les Murray, Roland Clark and Jacek Lorek were thanked for the making the coffee and cookies and for donating the ingredients.  

Motion to adjourn meeting.

Lorna Bird closed the meeting with a moment of silence.

DNC Board Meeting September 6th, 2012

DNC Board Meeting
September 6th, 2012

Attendees: Ivan D, Jacek L, Herb V, Kelvin B, Ann L, Roland C,
Joe L, James O, Dave M, Dave D, Jenn A

The mood is quiet, calm and suspensful.
6:12pm - We have quorum! Hurray! 8 board members and 11 people total

Tentative Agenda

1) Opening
  a - intros
  b - protocols, cleanup

2) Announcements and endorsements

3) DNC Board Business
  a - Wendy's Leave
  b - Conflict Resolution
  c - DNC and CCAP
  d - AGM

4) Committee Reports
  a - Street Market
  b - LAPP
  c - Copwatch
  d - Shelter
  e - DNFD

5) General Meeting
  a - September meeting
  b - Future meetings

At approximately 6:22pm, the oven starts squalking to let us know that
the chicken is ready.

Herb Chairs
6:37 Kelvin does the opening

Check in

Agenda adopted as read. Motion by Kelvin, seconded by Joe, motion carries

2. Announcements

Social Housing Coalition
Ivan - Starting Social Housing coalition to make social housing an
election issue
Oportunity to build coalitions outside of DTES.
First meeting is Sep 12, 7pm in Carnegie Theatre.
Ann - who will be the representative
Ivan - Harold wants to be the representative, it will be a one meeting a month
kind of thing. Jean will likely be the chair with another chair from outside the
neighbourhood
Ivan - simple demand that province build social housing, and proper
rent controls
Ann - Issue is that CCAP had put together another thing like this
called 'City Wide'.
Ann - If we don't endorse it, would it matter?
Ivan - demand is that social housing be controlled by the RTA

Motion to attend the meeting next week with Harold as representative
Joe makes motion, Kelvin seconds, motion carries

Women's Housing March
Ann - there is a better list of demands than last year
Herb - also they want to do street theatre
Ann - they have requested that DNC be on their poster
Ivan - moves to endorse the march
Motion carries

Pipelines Forum
Ivan - we got an email asking to endorse this, it is women from various
places talking about the impact of pipelines
Jenn moves to endorse, Kelvin seconds, motion carries

Drug War Stops Here
Dave D - Community dialog around drug prohibition. Panel presentations,
Debrah peterson small, sessions on impact of drug war on women, people
of color,
and theatre to get at issues of prohibition. Its in a big tent in
oppenheimer park
Ann - VANDU has good involvement, to make sure that drug users are well
represented.
Dave D - event is organized by VANDU, WAHRS and the end prohibition project

LAPP - What we are hearing event

Jamie R arrives

Herb - we are gathering so much data, but we also might get drowned out
and easy for them to cherry pick and ignore our stuff. It is important
that we show up and get our issues represented.

3) DNC Board Business

a - Wendy's Leave
Ivan - Wendy had a minor heart attack and was hospitalized. She has Syndrome X.
It occures in younger women in high stress situations. The only way to treat it
is to go into a zero stress environment. She is asking for a leave of absence
from CCAP, the LAPP, and all organizing work. Herb suggested that we get a giant
card.
Ivan - we are going to have to decide who is the primary person for the LAPP.
Ann - can't we just say it is Herb and Ivan now?
Ann - we should get something for her that deeply acknowleges the work that
she has done
Kelvin - we might be able to get some artists to do a special drawing. I bet
that something she does not expect is to have a roast. We could give her a
bon voyage that she deserves.

b - Conflict Resolution Process

Ivan - there are two conflict resolution processes that are underway. One
was between Roland and Jenn. The original committee was Ivan, Tami, and Wendy.
The process is that we create a sub-committee and try to resolve it by talking
to each of the people. If that fails then the committee comes back to the board
with recommendations. The subjects have a right to respond. The board then has
a chance to resolve it, perhaps through a vote. This would then go to
the general
membership. It begins with confidentiality, and then goes through accountability
to reduce gossip and make sure that everyone is in a safe environment. Wendy and
Tami could not participate. I did interviews with both of them. I
think that the
process has failed. That report should be given in writing. I will give notice
that the report will be delivered at the next board meeting.

The second conflict resolution is between Wendy and Roland. Wendy has requested
a conflict resolution with Roland. The board needs to select a
committee to resolve
this. Wendy has requested that I (Ivan) is on the committee.

Ann - I volunteer to be on the committee

Ivan - I move that there be a motion to strike the committee
Motion carries - one abstention - Roland

c - Relationship between DNC and CCAP

Jacek - we asked for this. The problem with CCAP started a few months
ago. When CCAP
talks to the City, what position does CCAP take? We passed a
resolution on First United.
If I remember, they all voted for it. The very next day when I went to
the CCAP meeting
and the motion was rejected. I talked to Wendy and she said that she
talked to BC housing
and First United, this is when we realized that she never came back to
the DNC, and we
wanted to know if CCAP is talking to people about shelters, then we
don't know what
position that they are taking.

Ann - previously it was said that it was said that just because people
at CCAP have
jobs they have more power, but it is not just that. Since CCAP and DNC
have such
similar issues and are meshed, then it is good to have it be extremely
clear what
the differences are. We need to do a process to find out how each
organization works
then we can unravel what the difficulties are. CCAP is much more
focussed on housing.

Ann - I would like us to make a motion to come back to the board to define where
DNC begins and CCAP ends.

Joe - I'm curious to find out where CCAP is going with Wendy gone.

Ivan - we are going to be doing all the same things as before, except
it is all on me.
CCAP and DNC are different organizations, and we can never prevent
other organizations
from speaking to the city

Ann - Motion to create a dispute resolution process between CCAP between the DNC

Ann - I am volunteering to be on the committee to resolve the issue

Ivan - I still don't understand the issue - it is not a specific enough motion

Ann - I will bring back a process to the next board meeting

Ann - the wording specific - it is to define the commonality between
CCAP and the DNC

Jenn moves, Jamie seconds
Motion Carries

d - Annual General Meeting

Ivan - I wanted the AGM on the Agenda and it is only two meetings away

Ivan - stike a motion to create an AGM committee
consisting of Ann, Herb, Ivan, Jamie, Kelvin volunteer to be on the
AGM committee
Jamie moves, Ann seconds, motion carries.

Committee Reports

IVan - expounds the details of board governance and throws a tantrum
about the street market
and says that Roland is trying to hyjack the process and that Roland
is anti-democratic and
is incredibly angry that Roland did not prepare a proper presentation
and throws papers and
yells and screams and walks out of the meeting.

Ann - lets go on with the agenda

Herb - we can't continue without talking about the market

Roland - I give my best pitch for reasonability.

Ivan comes back to the meeting

Ivan reads the email from Wendy in excruciating detail. He reads the
document from
the city along with each point from Wendy like it is a gothic novel.

Ann - what has happened is that Wendy has waited so long to review a
street market
meeting, and did not tell any of this to the street market committee
Ann - I would change the word "encourage" to "invite".
Ann - the strategy voiced at the street market meeting is one of
practicality. We intend
to pursue this direction with the city for convenience and for a
chance to ease the
operational problems with the market.
Ann - we are not even sure if the city is tricking us, or whether they
will give us
permits at all. 62 could act as a base, for storage, and for space for the DNC.

Motion on the floor
 - to move to remove point 3, and bullet point 4
 - also to delete point 4, and bullet point 5

Ann - is there a seconder
Kelvin seconds the motion

All in favor - three in favor
All against - two against
Three abstentions

Ann - if that trumps the street market committee, then this is a sham
Ivan - normally we don't count votes that are contentious

I stopped taking minutes at this point

Lots of meeting took place, all may end up in the ether.