Saturday 22 January 2011

DNC Board - January 22, 2011

DNC Board of Directors Meeting
January 22, 2011

CHAIR: Ivan
MINUTES: Ivan
PRESENT: Sid, Paul, Fraser, Ivan, Harold, Dave H, Dave M, Vanessa,
Earl, Ann-Marie
GUESTS: Bob, Suzanne

- Bob read the constitution
- Minutes from last meeting tabled to next meeting

AGENDA:
1) Stipends process
2) Short points
a. Social Impact Assessment update
b. VanAct! meeting Sunday
3) DTES Condo Towers Plan
a. Update on the city's decision
b. Plan for the chinatown fight

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1) STIPENDS PROCESS
Ivan - We don't have a stipends process, I think we should establish
one distinct to DNC
Earl - Need a committee to deal with stipends
- There's a rumour going around that VANDU is funding the DNC
Harold - It was a problem how stipends were dealt with at the last
meeting, need a process
- If it's DNC's money then DNC needs control over it and to 
administer it
Sid - Need to cap the number of people who get stipended, maybe at 100
- The stipends should be distributed by someone who is not associated
with VANDU
Paul - We should not put a lower cap on the number of people who get
stipends, 100 is a good number
- Should not put a qualification women at the meeting
Earl - I think VANDU's method is basically good. Time tested.
Dave H - Meeting attendees who don't want the stipend can donate it
back to the DNC
Fraser - No donor should dictate where their donation should go, it
should go to the DNC as a whole
Suzanne - Stipends does not work for all organizations because it can
bind the group to funding
- Can we put part of the money towards childcare and food?
- We need to be accountable to the membership and the community
Sid - We need a funding policy more generally
Earl - We should use the word 'honorarium' instead of stipend

MOTION: That honoraria be distributed following the general 'VANDU'
process of sign-ups at the beginning of the meeting and distributing
$3 stipends at the end of the meeting to those who had signed up,
though with the following qualifications:
1) That all honoraria money go into the general DNC account, to be
dealt with like all our money
2) Honoraria to be distributed at the next DNC GM by Harold and Sid
3) Publish an explanation of our honoraria process and our discussion
around honoraria for our membership and the DTES community
PASSED: unanimous

The following discussions were inconclusive. Although the majority in
the meeting were in favour of each point (in principle) there were
significant divisions and we agreed to continue discussion at the next
BOD meeting:
1) The number of honoraria distributed per meeting should be dictated
by the amount of money we have available and other considerations like
how many people can fit in the meeting (to be decided when we have the
money in hand, next meeting)
2) To distribute honoraria following an affirmative action policy;
that a certain percentage of honoraria be reserved for women in the
community to encourage more women to get involved. Possible to make
other affirmative action considerations as well.
3) Out of recognition that cash is not the only barrier poor people
face in attending meetings, to put a portion of honoraria money aside
each meeting to cover food and childcare for each meeting

MOTION: To create an overall funding policy for DNC. Sid, Vanessa,
Paul, Dave H, Suzanne to form the initial committee and present at the
GM.
PASSED (unanimous)

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2) SHORT POINTS
a. Social Impact Assessment
- The SIA observer committee is having its first meeting this Monday
at 10am, our group in the ob ctte will meet after this meeting to
draft a strategy
b. VanAct! public meeting
- VanAct! is having a public meeting on the Athletes Village tent city
they're planning for February. We are invited to attend, 2pm Sunday
Jan 23 at 1st United Church

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3) DTES CONDO PLAN
a. Update on what happened at city hall
- Ivan gave an update on what happened. See the DNC statement here:
http://dnchome.wordpress.com/2011/01/21/posthahr/
b. Plan for the Chinatown fight
- The action ctte met on Thursday after the city hall meeting and
drafted a general plan
i. Chinatown hotel outreach: Ivan
ii. Building title searches: Jean
iii. Organizational outreach: Wendy
iv. Hold another ad hoc community coalition meeting this Thursday,
6pm at the VANDU office: Ivan, Harold, Sid, Paul, Ann-Marie will meet
Sunday, 6pm at Carnegie cafeteria to plan this meeting.

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CLOSING and meeting adjourned.