DNC Board Meeting – June 8/2011 – 1pm
Present: Fraser, Harold, Paul, Wendy, Tami, Ivan, Richard, Ron, Dave M
Acknowledgement: Tami
Constitution: Paul
Agenda:
1) Board issues
a) Meeting time & meeting space
b) Board seats
c) Board cell phones
d) Board development
2) Reports from other committees
a. Pantages
b. Street Market
c. Prohobition
3) Organizational Issues
a) Honorarium
b) Natural Community Members
4) New Business
a) DTES proposal
b) Chinatown Party
c) LAPP TOWN HALL
5) Work with others
A) Shelter arrest letter.
B) CCAP housing meeting
C) Meeting with H.A.M.P (Hogans Alley Memorial Project))
D) Guardian Angels
1) BOARD ISSUES
a. Meeting time
DECISION: Changing the time and day of our board meting meeting to
Mondays at 6:30pm
Location – Ivan will look for a consistent space to have committee
meetings that is accessible, and also will try to negotiate consistent
use of the Carnegie Theatre for general meetings
b. Board seats
- Gladys & Vanessa are confirmed resigned. We have to find out where
others are at
- Ivan will talk to Robert R, Richard will talk to Nikki, Wendy will
call Ping and Eileen
c. Board members cell phones
- Fraser to check in with board members to find out who needs one.
- Fraser to investigate the minimum cost of providing cell phones for
board members
d. Board development
- Already decided we will do a conflict resolution and anti oppression
workshop
DECISION: To postpone until vacant board seats are filled. (hope
fully mid July)
2) REPORTS FROM OTHER COMMITTEES
a. Pantages
- Seeking feedback and edits to the statement. See package or
attachment online and send edits to Ivan before the coalition meeting
Thursday night.
b. Street Market & Fair
Some police are determinted to stick to the letter of our permit when
it is common knowledge that we need and get an extra hour before and
after. Brand new power washer has been purchased. Communicarte back to
Lynne about the closing ALL OF THE STREET – which includes the bicycle
lane. Paint in at 334 Carrall St. (Across from Pigeon Park)
c. Prohibition project (Tabled)
3) ORGANIZATIONAL ISSUES
a. Honorarium evaluation
- See written report sent over email and distributed at the meeting.
MOTION: To extend the evalutation for 2 months: Paul motions, Tami seconds.
Harold: report back to the membership is set for next month.
Ivan: similar survey for people who do not come to our meetings.
Community survey team: Tami & Ivan, with Wendy– Tami will bottom line
it with some directional help from Ivan.
b. Natural community members
- David Beattie submitted an application (attached at end of minutes)
- After discussion of our experience with him, and reviewing photos
and captions he posted on facebook, we concluded that he has not
demonstrated enough care in his activist participation.
- Some felt that, although he is hard to work with, he has some good ideas
- Others felt that he does not qualify for natural community
membership status because the two qualifications are: to have your
heart in the community, and to demonstrate a loyalty to low-income
residents, to work to increase the capacity of residents.
- Ivan argued that David does not demonstrate this commitment and that
he needs to demonstrate more listening ability.
MOTION: To recommend David Beattie for natural community member. Not
passed, unanimous vote against
DECISION: Ivan to draft a letter explaining (gently) that we feel he
doesn’t qualify for natural community status. State our experiences
and his facebook pictures as reason. Mention he has the right to
appeal directly to the membership
4) NEW BUSINESS
a. DT East newspaper
- Ivan distributed a draft mission statement and rules for publishing
a monthly DNC newspaper (attached at end of minutes)
- The board supported the continued development of this project.
b. DNC LAPP town hall meeting.
- Phone tree call outs and postering being done.
- Paul & Wendy met at the Aborginal Front Door board members to
discuss where we are at. Will continue to do organizational outreach
5) WORK WITH OTHERS
a. Letter from the Fraser Street shelter action and arrests.
- Harold: we are unclear on who this is from and how we can respond.
- Paul: person/s need to come forward for clarity.
DECISION: Write a letter in response saying:
- We appreciate your sentiment
- We feel that our response to you has to be limited because you have
written anonymously so we don’t know who we’re writing to, but
- In the future we look forward to working together with allies like
you throughout the city through direct communications. Please contact
us by email at dtescouncil@gmail.com or by phone, you can contact our
presidents: Paul Martin: 604-364-2397 and Tami Starlight: 604-790-9943
b. Joint meeting with Power of Women
- Will discuss community issues sharing the work in our community.
- Agenda: Discussion on each group’s perceptions on what’s happening
in the DTES / Mutual support (LAPP, Honorariums, 10 sites and housing
struggles, and stuff from POW – maybe discuss Portland issues?)
- Meeting is set for Wed, (5:30 dinner) meeting is at 6pm. Open to
board members (Harold, Fraser, Paul, Tami, Ivan confirmed... maybe
Dave or Ron to come too?)
c. Hogan’s Alley Memorial Project (HAMP)
- Paul: Met with Wayde Compton from HAMP. It’s more than an important
historical project. Wade thinks that the city thought it was a
vulnerable section of town and easily divided and conquered. Hogan’s
Alley is an important story for talking about displacement today too
DECISION: Three things we can work on from this:
1. Forum on Hogan’s Alley and the historical struggle against
displacement sometime in the summer or fall
2. Hogan’s Alley component of the 10 sites project, targetting the
site at Main and Union. See the project as (part of) racial justice
for displacement. Wayde has agreed to meet with us and Chinatown
societies. Ivan will arrange this
3. Encourage Black members of DNC to get involved in HAMP. Decided
that we should consider Black Vancouver to be naturally part of the
DTES and help Black members of DNC connect with the Black community
across Vancouver.
d. Guardian Angels
- Ivan & Fraser has a brief conversation at Carnegie with the “acting
commander,” Vespa, who asked to meet with the DNC.
- Harold: we need to meet with them and find out what they want and are about.
- Fraser: “we have changed” – she said (Vespa).
- Ivan will investigate the Guardian Angels in Vancouver and bring a
report to the next board meeting. Then we can talk about if we want to
communicate with them or set up a meeting, and what the terms of that
meeting might be.
Fraser moves we close, seconded by Tami.
Closing at 3:15pm
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DAVID BEATTIE’S NATURAL COMMUNITY MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION
- Presented at the DNC board meeting June 8, 2011
---------------------------------------------
David Beattie
5595 Dumfries Street,
Vancouver, BC, V5P 3A5
May 23, 2011
Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood Council
c/o Carnegie Community Centre
401 Main Street,
Vancouver, BC, V6A 2T7
Dear DNC,
This is an application to become a member of the DNC by way of
"naturalization."
I have been a regular visitor to the Carnegie Centre since I became a
temporary resident of the Downtown Eastside on April 18, 2010. I
stayed at the Beacon Hostel, on Cordova Street, until the end of May
last year - a period of six weeks.
Since that time I come into the DTES on an almost daily basis, to
visit the Carnegie Centre, the Quest Supermarket, the Downtown
Eastside Neighbourhood House, the Harbourlight, the First United
Church and the United Gospel Mission, and other locations.
I am currently on PPMB - Persons with Persistent and Multiple Barriers
to employment, and prior to that was on Income Assistance. I have been
unemployed on and off for two years.
For this reason, and prior to that as a newspaper journalist, I have
taken an interest in issues of social justice for about 30 years.
I have attended each of the last four or five DNC monthly meetings,
and a number of Action Committee meetings. I have also attended and
taken an interest in the activities of Raise the Rates.
I feel that I have passion and sincerity to add to the variety of
voices that make up the chorus of the DNC, and clearly have both a
direct and indirect interest in the fate of the Downtown Eastside. I
am genuinely concerned at the increasing pace of gentrification, the
continued failure of all levels of government to adequately address
homelessness in the DTES and beyond, the continued "War on Drugs" and
general "poor-bashing" that adds to the woes of many DTES residents
and others.
Although I am personally not in danger of becoming homeless (I think),
my commitment was demonstrated by my conscious decision recently to be
arrested as a sign of protest at the unnecessary closure of the Fraser
shelter and continued involvement in activities to draw attention to
the extremely negative consequences of having too few shelters and too
little social housing.
Please consider my application favourably so I may continue with my
activism and participation in the public life of the neighbourhood.
I am happy to answer any questions that any directors or others may have.
Sincerely,
David Beattie.
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DT EAST MISSION AND RULES
- Presented at the DNC board meeting June 8, 2011
---------------------------------------------
DT East Mission Statement
June 7, 2011
The DNC is an organization of 800 members united around the following
goals, as outlined in our constitution.
We seek to prioritize the voices of low-income residents speaking out
and taking action for social justice.
We support the active participation of low-income DTES residents in
decisions affecting the future of the community.
We recognize that the low-income DTES community is under threat of
displacement by gentrification.
The purpose of the DNC is to organize to make sure we are not
displaced and we can remain in a community where our basic needs are
met.
DNC holds monthly meetings where we deal with key issues affecting the
community: Providing information, taking positions, organizing actions
and campaigns and developing work with allies.
We want to develop broader outreach that engages more members of the
DTES low-income community in the process. We want to create an ongoing
interaction between the DNC and community members.
There are many different ways of communicating with our membership and
the community.
We are now discussing putting a monthly newsletter (in newspaper
format) for distribution to the low-income residents of the Downtown
Eastside.
In our predominately low-income community we need to focus on widely
accessible forms of communication.
Some aims
The DT East would be a DNC publication. We would set editorial policy
with the input of a community advisory body. We also want to create a
publication in which community members see themselves and have some
sense that it is also their voice.
Each issue would seek to do the following:
- Publicize what the DNC is doing
- Provide useful background information
- Focus on priority campaigns (such as 10 sites)
- Communicating adopted DNC positions on key issues
- Provide space for discussion of other issues
- Provide information on organizing and activities (calendar)
- Promote all the ideas in the DNC constitution through regular coverage
- Promote alliances with others and print their relevant material
- Ally buidling work together with other to advance the goals of the
community
- Promote solidarity within the community
- Promote the voices of low-income residents through the selection
(and training) of writers
Permanent sections of the DT East
June 7, 2011
The editorial policy of the DT East will be to use cartoons and
pictures as much as possible to cater to low-literacy members of our
community.
The back page of the DT East will be in Chinese
There will be articles published in Spanish in every issue and
directed towards the Latin@ community
1) News
2) Current DNC campaigns
3) In depth (with overflow to web edition)
4) Letters to the DNC
5) Memorials for those we’ve lost
6) Calendar
7) Indigenous struggles
8) Women’s
9) Chinese community
10) Arts (text and reviews)
11) “How to” (resources section)
12) International struggles (“Around the world in 80 words”)
DT East editorial structure
June 7, 2011
The Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood Council (DNC) recognizes that DTES
residents are oppressed by multiple forces including: Poverty and
class structures, the racialization of their bodies, their gender and
sexual identities, ability, language, and the stigmas of medical,
criminal, and drug prohibitionist systems. Our editorial collective is
structured against these oppressions and is tasked to work to give
voice to the many communities in the DTES. Our basic motto is that
there is no single voice of the DTES low-income community. While the
DT East represents the campaigns and views of the DNC, which are
specific points of view, the editors will also seek to strengthen and
add complexity to these campaigns and views by opening discussions and
exposing different points of view in the community. The DT East
editorial structure consists of two major parts: an editorial
collective and an advisory group.
DT East Editorial Collective
The DT East editorial collective is responsible for establishing and
revising the composition of each issue of the DT East, deciding on
themes and content, finding, training and overseeing writers and
artists, and producing the paper from idea through to printing and
distribution.
The editorial collective has 11 members, four elected by the DNC
general membership and seven appointed by the four elected:
Positions elected by the DNC general membership:
• Editorial coordinator (1)
- Responsible for implementing editorial vision
- Assigns articles to writers
- Coordinates other editors and all sections
• Working editor (1)
- Responsible for working editing, ensuring that submissions conform
to editorial purpose, acceptable length, and are readable
- Edits for grammar, spelling, cohesion
- Works with writers to skill-share
• Production editor (1)
- Fundraising
- Arranging printing
• Distribution coordinator (1)
- Organizes distribution in hotels and on the street, and deliveries
to consistent locations
- Responsible for outreach, recruiting contacts for the paper and for
the DNC
Positions appointed by the editors:
• Designer (1)
- Layout and design of the paper
• Permanent section editors (6)
- News from Indian Country
- Women's
- Chinese community
- DTES culture (texts and reviews)
- “How to” section
- Events calendar
DT East Advisory Collective
The DT East advisory collective is made up partly of section editors
who, due to space considerations in the paper, do not have permanent
sections, but who can claim a column in the paper when they have
articles to contribute. These advisory section editors, like the other
members of the advisory committee, advocate for their points of view
to be consistently present in the DT East. The principle editorial
collective is responsible to check-in with the members of the advisory
committee at least monthly. The advisory committee is responsible for
overseeing the overall mission and work of the DT East editorial
collective and helping to ensure that the newspaper is useful for as
many different DTES low-income communities as possible.
The DT East advisory group will be appointed by the full editorial
collective and will be of fluctuating number, as needed. Examples of
advisory categories include, but are not limited to:
• Advisory section editors
- LGBTI2Q
- Seniors
- Youth
- Non-status people
- Hogan's Alley (Black community)
- Drug prohibition and drug users
- Parents, children, and families
- Survivors of the medical system (mental and physical health)
- Others?
• Advisory communities
- Aboriginal Front Door Society
- VANDU
- Pace
- Gallery Gachet
- Carnegie Community Centre Assn
- Power of Women
- ACCESS
- Women’s Memorial March Committee
DT East production process
June 7, 2011
1) Planning meeting at the beginning of the month
a. Editorial board and advisory group meet together
b. Plan the upcoming issue
c. Leave the news section for news items to be worked out later
2) Editorial meeting FIVE days before production date
a. Edit entire paper (less news section) with editorial board
b. Take edits back to writers for approval
3) Final news items circulated to editorial board by email if necessary
DT East editing rules
June 7, 2011
Material printed in DNC paper must be:
• Factual (facts have to have sources or more than one source if the
first source is iffy)
• Not libelous
• Attack policies, not individuals
• Have an overall positive, neighbourhood building tone
• No racism, classism, sexism, homophobia, no discrimination based on
drug use or physical or mental health
• Plain language
• Consistent with the DNC constitution
Editor can edit as follows:
• For above reasons
• For length
• For conciseness
• To make something that is not clear, clear
Writers will leave editor a way to contact them quickly, if possible.
If possible, given deadlines, editor will check edited material with
writers. If there are substantial edits and editor cannot contact the
writer, the article won’t be published until the writer is contacted.
