DNC board minutes - April 16, 2011

DNC board minutes
April 16, 2011
Earl, Dave M., Ann, Richard, Fraser, Ping, Dave H, Paul, Ron, Ivan, Wendy
(missing someone?)
Guest: Martha

Discussed acknowledgement practice that was trashed by chinatown leader at
the hearing and Fraser read constitution.

1. Ann gave street market report. The SM is now giving out honorariums to
volunteers. $150/week plus $60/week for food. The SM committee is working
on governance structure and will make a motion to this end at the next board
meeting. The idea is to have a SM and Wendy on it so far. Maybe adding a
few more vendors to it? Also to have a volunteer and vendor committee.
Current funds will last for 14 weeks to cover the cost of a
fundraiser/coordinator, honorariums, food, insurance, 10% to VANDU for
admin. Hoping to get another $20K from Central City Foundation. Will know
early May.

2. Ivan reported on his meeting with Ann to plan Board development day. Sid
and Paul unable to make that meeting. Goals will be to outline what we do,
how to do it, gaps in terms of what is not happening, improving democracy
and accountability in the structure. Also want to 1. review the
constitution and bylaws; 2. Figure out what positions of responsibility
need to be created 3. How to make complaints 4. How to train or skill share
so everyone is able to have power and avoid the "meritocracy" which means
those who can do the jobs the best have the most power. Martha is willing
to facilitate for us. Her interest is participatory democratic processes.
She asked: why did we want a facilitator? What issues made you want to do
this? 
Dave: meritocracy
Richard: need to elect executive
Ping: opposed to top down bureaucracy; committees can best address issues
Ivan: wants to know about different voting models; the one we use right now
is a strange modifying of roberts rules and consensus; seek consensus first
and if disagreement, we put it aside for more discussion.
Harold: we're overwhelmed right now and how decisions get made can be
murky; wants to know how to solve conflicts in better ways;
Paul: ways to deal with interpersonal conflicts and new leaders to learn
how to do things;
Ron: concurs with Paul
Dave H: we need things worked out because people observing us from the
outside now; wants accountability; very proud of everyone; wants to fine
tune what's working now
Nathan: clarity for differences between decisions made at board, exec and
GM
Wendy: wants neutral facilitator; executive vs designating roles without
label of President etc; wants transparent and accountable to grassroots and
like Dave H, to observers on outside;
Earl: we are elected by our peers because we make things happen; how to
deal with our issues that aren't new; development a movement in how we deal
with stuff; supports electing executive
Martha: heard 1. Legal structure; 2. Executive board and need for
leadership to not be organic; 3. Leadership roles; 4. How to deal with
conflict (productive and destructive). Is it personal or political.any
group with mixed marginalized and non marg. people will always have these
issues. 
Martha interested to do mostly democratic decision making, skills
development and conflict resolution.
Ann, Ivan, Sid and Paul to meet with Martha one more time before Sat board
devel.
Wendy to book room
Wendy to send constitution and bylaws to Martha and copy final pkgs to board
members. 
Ann to do food?

3. Set a separate meeting for honorariums evaluation: Ann, Wendy, Paul,
Sid, Harold, Dave H and who will set a separate meeting and report to GM. 

4. Chinatown Towers debrief: Someone should make a video of the bad
questions of Jang and Louie. Decision to have a celebration, with open mic,
invite seniors and everyone who participated; No decision about who will
work on this. Suggestion to hire Kim and Lily Tang as organizers for the
Chinatown residents committee. Suggestion to work out a proposal at the
action committee. Jean is drafting a letter to respond to councillors'
personal attacks. Wendy to talk to Jean about making it a DNC letter. 


5. Shelters: Earl doing lots of organizing to keep PHS shelter open with
letters etc. Richard concerned about other shelters closing too. Meet on
Sunday at 5:45 to go to shelters and start organizing with residents to keep
them open. CCAP taking this on. Come to next Friday 11:30 ccap meeting to
plan action.

6. New natural community member: Phoenix Winter requests membership.
Fraser reads out her letter. Fraser: Motion to recommend Phoenix as a
natural community member. Paul: second. Carried. Fraser to present this
at the GM.

7. LAPP: will make a report at the next board meeting to prepare for next
GM. Has been rocky. Tons of hours. Wendy, Harold, Paul, Ivan, Dave H,
Fraser are the board members on the DNC planning committee. 

8. Ginseng: possibly could be used for LAPP and city to pay for rent; Ann -
lets ask city to pay for it regardless because we are homeless; available
2nd week of May; no GM there in May; decision: ask Atira to have the space
for meetings but not to be open all the time; is it more important to do
our outreach and go to where people are or expect them to come to us in a
space and maybe better to work in other people's spaces; committee should
meet to plan the space: Ann, Richard, Ivan, Paul, Dave H, Wendy.

9. Justice committee - Ping will help Dave H with tickets. Maybe work on
forming a bigger committee.

10. Arts committee meeting today at Gallery Gachet. Needs board reps there:
ivan, Fraser and Harold to go.

11. Need to talk about volunteer supports like phone minutes in the future.
Could do that in context of taking on responsibilities at board development
meeting.

Moment of silence - adjourned. 

Wendy
CCAP/604-839-0379

DNC Board Meeting – Mar26, 2011

DNC Board Meeting – Mar26/2011

Present: Earl, Fraser, Dave M, Harold, Ping!, Wendy, Ann, Tami, Paul M., Sid on Scype.

Minutes: Tami

Acknowledgement: Tami

Chair: Ann/Wendy

Constitution: Fraser

1)     Street Market – Dave M: Job posting has gone out to the community. Ann/Paul/Dave met with Doug Bain & Dana Walker. Rev Barry complained about bike locked to the gate over his window. Ice cream store girl complained about church feeders in her way. Dealt with – solution found.  Doug Bain complained about “stolen goods”. Dave explained that we do not police our community and certainly have no control over people shop lifting and where they sell it. Ann: we recommend that we have 1 or 2 regular officers of experience to liaison with. Wendy: someone needs to draft a letter to the city and public about evils of ticketing and purpose of the street market.  TO DO:  Dave & Ann to draft letter.

2)     General Meeting: Saturday, April 2.  

a.       TO DO:  Wendy to make poster

b.      TO DO:  Fraser & Tami – arrange printing & postering.

c.       TO DO:  Harold to glean past minutes to see if board needs to take important recommendations to the board.

d.      TO DO:  Wendy & Harold to draft GM agenda:  Include current DNC issues:  Library housing; Street market job posting; shelter closures and women’s shelter statement; LAPP update; Chinatown towers hearing; recommendations from board like LAPP liaison to the city; agreed to not bring up letter from board to absent board members at this GM – wait until next GM;

e.       TO DO:  Food – Fraser/Britta/Craig. Aids Test investigation.

f.        TO DO:  Phone Tree: Tami.

g.       TO DO:  Wendy to ask Stacey & Beth to help with membership list/sign in.

h.      Discussion about Honorariums (see below):

i.         TO DO:  Tami to organize daycare

j.         Co-chairs: Tami & Wendy (or Harold). 

3)     Board Development:

a.       TO DO:  Ann to draft letter to absent board members as passed at last board meeting.  Not done yet.  Ping feels conflict and stress with the board meetings.  Happened over the past 6 months.  Everyone agrees General Members will make final decision about board turnover.   

b.      Board Development workshop Saturday, April 9 1 pm at 118 Alexander Street Buzzer #100

                                                               i.      Decision to add conflict resolution to board development workshop and something on team building.

                                                             ii.      Decision to include honorarium evaluation discussion

                                                           iii.      TO DO:  Tami: print off photo copies of constitution with Wendy’s help so we can discuss this at the workshop.

                                                           iv.      TO DO:  Tami do an anti oppression workshop

                                                             v.      TO DO:  Committee struck at last board meeting:  Sid/Dave/Ann/Ivan to work on agenda and organize this meeting including getting a facilitator

                                                           vi.      TO DO:  Wendy to book room     

4)     Honorarium evaluation:  Motion: to extent the trial for honorariums for 2 months (May & June) and discuss the evaluation process at the April 9^th board development workshop for ½ an hour.  Passed.  Abstainers: Fraser & Ping.  Evaluation could entail:  establishing set venue; having 2 meetings in consistent space with no stipends and measuring difference; taking attendance; giving stipends for work outside of meetings rather than attendance at GM; measuring quality of meetings with and without stipends; difficulty getting quorum at GMs; measuring attendance of very poor people; measuring increase in volunteerism etc. 

5)     Chinatown towers:  Sign up to the April 5^th at shitty hall.  Jean is a good advisor for speeches if you want help.  Ivan met with 14/15 seniors for meeting entirely in Cantonese at Solhiem and they were against the towers. Consider Mr and Mrs Tang for board members of DNC.  Ryder Cooey &  Claudia Li are doing outreach with the small businesses.  We need to organize a more discussion meetings in Chinatown to get people up to city hall on the 5th. Chinatown residents committee meeting will be Carnegie Theatre / april 9/ or 16^th.  Works better for Ping on the 16th. 

TO DO:  meet at Carnegie on Monday at noon to work on next steps for Chinatown towers campaign.

TO DO:  Wendy to put together info bulletin on what happened, what needs to happen next and video of some of the speeches for GM and wider circulation

6)     (Ann: shitty hall is the great big tit in the sky)

7)     LAPP update:  Update from Wendy, Harold and Paul on progress with BCS and City.  May send joint DNC/BCS letter soon.  Will send around final copy on email to board before sending it out.  See draft in pkg.  Stalling on taking it out to low-income groups.  Need to give update on this to GM.  Paul said big stumbling block with BCS is around our need for 70% low income residents on the committee.  Fraser: resources available to do the LAPP is a big issue. Don’t believe there are major decisions to make on this at the next GM.

8)     Library:  quick update and round table pat on back for our success. 

9)     Kerry:  Harold took this on. Letter is done by lawyer and sent out.

10)Methadone clinic issue & Strathcona Rez Association opposition to it moving it their neighbourhood.  Complicated says Ann because there are so many and some pharmacies are corrupt.  Why need to expand their business from small shop on Main to big location (ex Pivot site) on Hastings?

To DO:  Ann and Dave to take the issue to BC association of people on methadone and seek feedback and possible letter to SRA and City.

11)Rickshaw:  Motion:  Oppose new liquor licence application for Rickshaw.  Passed.  One abstainer:  Paul.  Reasons:  1 liquor seat for every 2 residents; messy sidewalk never cleaned after parties; too noisy; residents complained about violence from outside drinkers in ccap vision.

TO DO:  Ping to draft a letter to the city from DNC and circulate it on board email list before sending out.

12)New issues to deal with in the future:  End Prohibition Coalition growing out of DTES activism; HIV testing; Ping’s tofu making workshop;

Wendy

CCAP/604-839-0379

Minutes March 19, 2011

Minutes March 19, 2011

Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood Council Board of Directors

CCAP Office, Carnegie Community Centre

Chair: Wendy

Noted: Nathan

Attendance: Ivan, Fraser, Earl, Wendy, Harold, Paul, Richard, Nathan, Ron, Ann.

1)     Chinatown Heights Hearing at City Hall

a.      Ivan provided report on organizing efforts to get people out to City Hall to oppose the Chinatown Re-Zoning.

                                                  i.      Overcame challenges getting more than 100 people to City Hall to speak against condo towers in Chinatown.

                                                ii.      Many bus trips, posters, door knocking occurred to get people out.

                                              iii.      Supporters of towers out in force wearing red shirts. Took up all seats in Chinatown.

                                               iv.      Penny Ballem successfully challenged to provide space for elders and DTESers.

                                                 v.      17 people had a chance to speak. 100 more people on list. Hearing scheduled for April 5^th.

b.      Harold described how supporters of towers were using sleazy tactics.

c.      Paul commented that we should write a response to what happened at City Hall.

d.      Ivan said two reports were circulated to all of the City Councillors. Petition delivered to Mayor Gregor Robinson.

e.      Fraser reported that a lot of the red shirt wearing ‘supporters’ did not know what was really going on.

f.        Wendy stated that there needs to be a strong presence on April 5.

g.      Ivan said that we set a very respectful tone. And we should continue to do that.

2)     Letter to Kerry Jang.

a.      Harold explained that the process in responding to a letter complaining of harassment by City Councillor Kerry Jang.

                                                  i.      Copy of letter drafted by Pivot Legal Society letter Scott E. Bernstein.

                                                ii.      Ivan proposed a friendly amendment to letter.

3)     LAPP

a.      Wendy provided update on LAPP process.

                                                  i.      Meetings with BCS and City Manager.

                                                ii.      Letter approved by board over email sent.

                                              iii.      Discussion of how DNC will be represented.

1.      Wendy determined to be the point person to the city through the ongoing planning process. Wendy will be nominated by the Board for ratification at the next General Meeting of the Neighbourhood Council.

2.      Ivan moved motion to recommend to General Membership. Second Fraser.        

                                               iv.      Wendy reiterated that we have to win against the Chinatown Towers.

                                                 v.      Harold stated that he suspects that Vision Council will approve the towers. The LAPP may not be the only means to stop gentrification.

                                               vi.      Ron stated that once we are in negotiations we are going to go all out.

4)     Street Market

a.      $20,000 secured. Job as Street Market Coordinator will be posted. Focus will be fundraising.

b.      Ann described how the market will be organized staff wise, so that it is fair.

c.      Wendy read out job description.

d.      Ivan said that the office should be at the Ginseng Meeting. Ivan also stated that the Anti-Vending By-laws remain the problem.

e.      Harold said that the position will be a challenging one. Questioned how the job will be monitored.

f.        Earl said that their needs to be communication on the tickets and how warrants get issued.

g.      Ann reported that we are hoping for another $20,000.

h.      Earl asked about how the money will be spent. Wendy went over plan including food, and admin costs for VANDU

                                                  i.      MOTION to post Street Market Fundraiser and Coordinator Position as amend. Moved/Second/Carried.

                                                ii.      MOTION to approve hiring committee as Wendy, Paul, Ann, Irene, Marion, Earl and Richard. Moved/Second/Carried

                                              iii.      MOTION to write a public statement announcing the creation of street market is proof that vending is a positive activity and that the Anti-Vending by-law should be abolished. Moved/Second/Carried

                                               iv.      MOTION to support VANDU Street Market Action and endorsement in media release statement. Moved/Second/Carried

5)      GINSENG

a.      Ivan reported that we would be able to have space end of April.

6)     New Board

a.      Discussion of Board Members attendance at meetings.

b.      Harold said that we need to have a talk with those members and gauge their level of interest in the participating on the DNC Board.

c.      Discussion of how to reach out to absentee members.

d.      Ivan stated that our procedure is that if someone misses 3 consecutive board meetings they will be contacted their participation assessed.

e.      Ann will draft a letter.

f.        MOTION that Ann draft a letter to the 6 board members who have been missing Ping, Vanessa, Robert, Ilene, Nicole, Gladys, to clarify their status as board members and request that they contact the board before a specific date, or the board will replace them.Moved/Second/Carried

g.      Ann clarified that we can be accommodating by offering people a leave of absence.

h.      Earl stated that our original intention was to make room for homeless representatives.

7)     Community March Against Racism Announced – March 20st.   

a.      Ivan reported that DNC endorsed march. Email to be sent.

8)     Women’s March Tuesday March 22

a.      Another march scheduled to support women assaulted in shelters. Main and Hastings, 1 PM Hastings.

b.      Ivan moved motion of support.

                                                  i.      MOTION to write a public letter of support for the action of the coalition of women and women’s organization against threats of funding cuts by BC Housing. Moved/Second/Carried

9)     Board Development

a.      Meeting Scheduled for Saturday April 9^th.

                                                  i.      MOTION that we have a Board Development day from 11Am to 3PM, Saturday April 9^th, with an outside facilitator .

10)  Adjurn: 1:01 PM

Wendy

CCAP/604-839-0379