Prospective Agenda Items
DT East Newspaper Bank Account - The possibly dangerous precedent of a group forming a bank account without board approval and keeping details of bank account secret from the board and from the treasurer. - not discussed
First United - new rules, women being given end of stay letters, threatened with discharge, crying that they are being shoved out on to the street. One woman lived at First United for a year and a half and now is at Triage with a 7 day stay. - how DNC differs with CCAP on this issue and the larger issue of CCAP and DNC
The wish of some members to cancel all meetings for the month of August.
Proposed Agenda
Committee Reports
LAPP - 2min
Street Market - 2min
Cop Watch - 2min
Shelter Committee - 2min
Discussion
August Meeting discussion
Herb - Harold booked a doctor's appointment since he didn't think we
were going to have a meeting
Herb - Tami is out of town until next tuesday
Ann - we could have a W2 general meeting and report back
Shelter Committee Discussion
------------------------------
Attendees - Ann, Kelvin, Herb, Richard, Roland, Jacek, Dave H, Dave
M.- Jamie Richardson (later)
Start
Kelvin does opening
Dave H - can we move the Aug. cancellation motion to the front
Motion to adopt agenda - Roland, Seconded by Kelvin - motion passed to
accept the agenda as is
Herb - we have a potential for 4 more meetings this month alone
Ann - Let’s not do one the day after welfare - the 30th
Jacek - meetings are important, should we just cancel the meetings? We
have lots of important
things to discuss
Herb - I can agree to continue some of the meetings
Jacek - Why not just have the meetings and not worry out quorum. If no
one shows up,
it can be a short meeting.
Herb - can we continue feeding people?
Jacek - we could cut down to 15 bucks or so like the shelter committee
Ann - I'm away on 23rd
Dave M - I'll be around in the summer, but as long as the record
keeper is here - Roland
Roland - I can be here, I've committed to the Street Market already
Richard C - Another thing is Cop Watch
Dave M - Does everyone know that the BEAT tv show is out on Season 2 now
Herb - How about for the month of August - meetings will be informal,
but if we do need quorum, I will get people together for important decisions
Jacek - how about we just cut down on the food budget
Ann - how much?
Dave M - I'd be willing to buy the pop for August
Jacek - I can bring the tea
Herb - no motion is necessary, we all agree in principle that the food
budget is zero for August
Note: Dave H leaves, we no longer have quorum
LAPP Report
Herb - I am the only DNC co-chair left. Nothing much to report
Herb - Aboriginal issues sub-committee. Not only for aboriginal people. Will be
mostly focussed on the place-based concept. We have never discussed
it, never had
an explanation of it.
Kelvin - Was this by the City
Herb - No it was by Scott
Kelvin - He is cold hearted. He plays the naive. This is why I have
not been attending
because of these issues. I will be there to make sure he knows that he
is not speaking
for all native people. So that he knows that AFD is there too.
Herb - we need to get word out to Tracy and Kevin
Ann - How can we get information so that we can properly analyze what
is going on
Herb - Galery Gachet - our places workshop 6pm Tuesday 7th of August.
Meaningful places in the DTES
Jamie Richardson joins meeting - we have quorum again
Herb - if we talk about places, then the Shelter Committee experience
with First United
Street Market
Roland - We are still running out of money. 6 weeks left
Ann - Brenda is saying that they are going to give us monthly permits
Roland - its a mexican stand off
Jacek - we have votes, and Dave H is not showing up. We also find out
that we make more money
on rents because previously there has been a lot of money taken and
not reported. Other than
that, everything is working well, except that we forgot the banner last Sunday
Herb - so we are running out of money - 6 weeks. What can we do?
Jacek - just come to the market and show your support, or if you want
- call your city gov't people
Ann - I would make an announcement that there is a meeting with PIVOT
about the tickets
Wednesday, August 8th at PIVOT 3:45-4:15pm
Ann - Dave H ticket got dropped, and now we need a new strategy
Herb - how about increasing the fair aspect. If we could get a street performer.
Jacek - actually we try and try, the only thing that worked was the
Hastings Urban Farm -they sold veggies last week
Cop Watch
Ann - working with Will Damon - doing paper on conditional sentences,
may get grant to do
a full day of 'safe streets' training
Herb - When?
Ann - don't know, we'll find out. Austin TX was the model
DNFD
Richard - Today they built a new fence, I phoned to find out if they
had a permit
Herb - Ivan went to the court house to find out what is going on with
Mark Williams - went
into forclosure again. City promised it would be clean
Richard - they just built a fence
Herb - I say its time to dump some rubble on city hall
Herb - I have not been physically at DNFD meetings, but
Ann - are the DNFD meetings cancelled for August?
Herb - no they are not, Dave D is doing them
Shelter Committee
Jacek - Details about first united - 60 people, 40 men, 20 women. 8
women lost their beds, 3 of them
were pushed into different shelters. BC HOusing broke their promise to
house these people.
We are talking over ideas on how to oppose what was done
Extended Discussion - Conflict between DNC and CCAP
Jacek - I mentioned this a couple of meetings ago. When Dave H
mentioned at the general meeting that there was a 'victory', and I
also mentioned that there was a conflict with CCAP on this subject. It
is a delicate subject. There is no other way to deal with it except
telling the story.
We came out with our resolution to stop First United from closing. The
board vote at DNC
was unanimous. I went the next day to CCAP meeting, and CCAP refused
to support the resolution.
Wendy said that she talked to people at First United, BC Housing, and
Police, etc... We have
a question about whether she talked on behalf of CCAP or DNC because
the view on the issue was different. What is the expectation of board
members when they talk on subjects with other
organizations? Can we expect them to say what the DNC believes.
Jacek - Wendy never told us what the discussions were with Harsha, or
BC Housing or with First United
Jacek - when Dave H described it as a "victory" this was seen as
hurtful after all the work
that we did. We do not consider it a victory. We don't know why Ivan
wrote this without
talking to us. The DTES lost over 200 beds. Women are now being forced
into the shelter
shuffle.
Roland - it is a very dangerous situation when CCAP has different
views than the DNC on a
subject since CCAP is non-democratic, and it should not be able to
control the DNC. CCAP
has the two most capable people and together it is too easy for them
to dominate the agenda.
If they do not respect the work of the committees, then this is a
serious issue because they
have such a monopoly on the access to government officials, etc...
If a non-democratic organization can override the democratic opinion
of the DNC, then the
DNC loses integrity. It is a very serious issue.
Herb - it is dangerous, and I've seen this before. It is tough. We
need to be very clear
when we are speaking on behalf of DNC or when it is our personal
beliefs. But how do we
force anyone to tell us when they talk to people. The organizer
community in Vancouver is
small, so many people sit on many boards, so this issue does come up a lot.
Ann - I was talking to Aiyanas - and we should do it as a process, and
do it in writing.
We should be clear about when people should stand aside. I will begin
the process of
examining how to begin to approach the subject. We need to be able to
do it in a way that
does not become personal, and people's feelings don't get hurt. We
also need to ask people
to step aside
Roland - it would be too easy for someone to just say "I'm meeting as
part of a separate
organization, I am not speaking as a DNC board member". Did Ivan or
Wendy talk to Harsha, BC Housing, or the city about First United in
the past 6 months? My bet is yes. Did we get a report on this? I don’t
recall getting one.
Jacek - And if information is withheld on important issues, then this
should upset the DNC.
Herb - OK, we see that this is a serious issue. What can we do about it?
Jacek - I don’t know, but this is why we are bringing it to the board.
Herb - OK, shall we adjourn?
The meeting ends.
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