Monday 29 September 2014

Minutes for the Downtown Eastside Neighborhood Council Meeting: September 16th, 2014.

Agenda
Constitution
Bottle Depot
Film
Legal Committee
New Board
Location of next meeting
Addiction Mental Health Task Force
Motion to accept Agenda – passed
Motion to accept Minutes – passed.
Bottle Depot
Atira to transfer old Bottle Depot and Ginseng building to subsidized housing. Current tenants have not received notice. Open house is 5 pm – 8 pm September 18th, 2014.
Film
X is preparing business proposal.
Legal Committee
Motion to refrain from dehumanizing language that results in objectifying some people who use some drugs. Motion passed.
Motion to add a disclaimer to all media posts that use dehumanizing language that results in objectifying some people who use some drugs. Motion passed.
X will write the disclaimer.
New Board
Discussion that nomination of new board will take place after September 23rd meeting. Motion passed to leave nominating and voting until after September 23
Location of  Next Meeting 
Carnegie – 3rd floor meeting room: 9:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.
Guest: Mayoral Candidate - Kirk LaPointe
Mayor’s Task Force on Mental Health and Addiction
Motion passed that X will go on speakers list at City Hall to present DNC position on the report.
Moment of Silence
Adjourn






Monday 15 September 2014

Minutes for the Downtown Eastside Neighborhood Council Meeting: September 9th, 2014.



Agenda
Constitution
Legal Committee
Film/DNC/Street Market
New Board
Location for next meeting

Legal Committee
We are looking at offensive policies. Drug testing is an issue. X will scan points of law at issue and send to board.

Film/DNC/Street Market
We have a meeting in two weeks with city. This concerns DNC but for reasons as yet unknown the Street Market also has been called to meeting. We want more information about the funds from filming in dtes. It’s okay to ask questions.

New Board
X motions for two new members to the board.
Motions passed.

Location for next meeting
Next board meeting will happen at #62 East Hastings at 9:45 a.m.

Moment of Silence
Adjourn

Monday 8 September 2014

Minutes for the Downtown Eastside Neighborhood Council meeting: September 2nd, 2014.



Agenda
Constitution
Minutes
Legal Committee
Conference Room
Next Election for Post-AGM
Other Business

Legal Committee
Rob will ask for a legal referral.  X makes suggestion that we will go to UBC to ask for assistance through law student program.  We will begin to draw up legal papers for complaint.  X will join legal committee. X will check with Darryl about time for next meeting. We need to have a power point presentation. We need a flow chart. Everyone must be able to understand the argument we‘re making. X suggests a moot court or some other exercise to help people understand. Goal is to take one month to create a presentation.

Conference Room
Staff at Woodward’s not helpful in booking space.  They’re not respecting our time in the room.  Cleanliness and behavior have not been an issue, so there is a question as to why we’re not being allow space. We currently have no space, nor any area to store coffee supplies.  X says E.W. says we are allowed space at Carnegie once per month.  X suggests we could use resident’s common room at Woodward’s building.  X will find a room.
Next meeting on September 9th will be at 208 East Georgia street. Go to the front door – tell the staff you are there for the DNC meeting in common room. The windows of the room overlook Main Street.

Elections
Elections will happen on September 16th.

Other Business
Website:  Needs a revamp. X will take minutes. X has forwarded video. X has not posted yet.
CCAP Open House:  Town hall meeting is September 11th, 2:30 until 4:30 pm at Carnegie.  X says we should attend and be supportive.  X says E.W. is supportive of us attending.  We will meet at #62 and go there together.  Next meeting on September 9th we will discuss particulars.
Street Market: Discussion that reps are not coming to the DNC meetings. X says this is an informal agreement.
Aboriginal Committee: X will be busy with two AGM’s for next while and then will be free to work on subcommittee.
Film Update:  Ed from group formerly called DERA is still taking money from filming in DTES for his own use. This is money that normally other resident’s associations receive. X suggests that all correspondence regarding this matter be kept professional and clean.  X suggests to list this problem on agenda for next week.

Moment of Silence
Adjourn




Monday 1 September 2014

DNC Board Meeting Minutes – August 26th, 2014.



Agenda
Constitution
Introduction of Guests
Minutes – AGM Review
Elections – Executive Postponement
Scheduling Board Retreat for New Board
Location for September 2nd Meeting and September 9th.
Other Business

Introduction of Guests
X explains guests can give input at this meeting. No votes until third meeting.

AGM Review
We gained over 60+ new members. There were 3 people who asked to be ‘at large’ members. X is on his third meeting today.
X says Sargent-at-Arms has resigned. We need a new person to fill the role. The role is to book meetings, maintain order.  X will take charge of booking room and coffee. X will donate coffee machine. X will also take care of storage of coffee machine.

Motion for X to be Sargent-at-Arms: Motion passed.

Election of New Board Members
X proposes that we wait two or three weeks for new elections. Normally we have elections during the board retreat. Two or three weeks will give us direction on which way to go. We all go to it. It will be a few hours.

Motion to postpone board elections until 3 weeks from now until retreat – motion passed.
Motion for September 16th, 2014 as date for board elections – motion passed.

Discussion of location of DNC board meeting on September 9th, 2014 is to be at The London Hotel common room. 
X will call E.W. for the Carnegie Room. 
X says has camcorder to record any disruptive behavior. E.W. supports us being there and says we are welcome to use the room at Carnegie.

Other Business
Discussion on meeting at City Hall: X was told CCAP gets no money from City Hall. CCAP does get office space. We must show proof of harassment by CCAP if this occurs when we go there to hold a meeting. E.W. will try to find office space.
X will email Brenda about W2 space.

Discussion of rules for attendance: You have to be here before 10:15 and be here for 1 hour and 30 minutes to receive stipend. Phones must be turned off or silenced.  You get one strike on this for whole board meeting. X says rules of conduct should be read before meeting.  We will do the reading of rules of conduct beforehand for 3 weeks. It’s a trial run. If this doesn’t work out we’ll add a penalty.

Motion to begin meetings with a reading of code of conduct – motion passed.

Moment of Silence
Adjourn

Quick photo 

Minutes of DNC Annual General Meeting – August 23rd, 2014.

Agenda

Call to Order
Constitution
Rules of Order
Motion to Accept Minutes of Previous AGM
Adoption of Financial Report
Adoption of Nomination Committee
Motion to Acclaim Those Nominated
Motion to Adopt Co-President’s Report
Legal Committee Report
Aboriginal Committee Report
Tenant Committee Report
Harm Reduction/Health Committee Report
Motion to Accept Agenda – Motion accepted.
Motion to Accept Minutes of Previous AGM – Motion Accepted.

Financial Report:
Treasurer explains how funds are allocated. Report handed out. We received $10,000 in January from Vancity.  We have $4500 left.  We are seeking funding from film industry as other resident’s associations receive this funding. There is a problem in that the funding in dtes goes to one individual formerly of DERA.  We’re working on resolving this problem.

Adoption of Financial Report – motion passed.

Nomination Committee Report:

14 people turned in nomination forms. 12 of those people live in the dtes. There was a problem in past as board was dominated by those who live outside dtes.  We have resolved the problem of people who live outside dtes dominating the board. We allow for people outside dtes to join board. 2 people who handed in nominations are in ‘at large’ category.  X introduces nominees and states where everyone lives.

Motion to Acclaim those Nominated – Motion passed.
.
Co-President’s Report:

The Downtown Eastside Council is an example of how well people can do things to improve the quality of life in their community, rather than have paid bureaucrats do it for us or speak for us. In the past four months we have done the following activities:

  •         We ran a harm reduction van, saving lives, until told to stop by VCH.


·         We've posted a legal argument for the equal treatment of certain people who use certain harmful drugs. The argument expressed what we believe is the correct operation of law. People’s human rights are at issue. We understand it is persons before the law, not “drugs.”  We have the assistance of a legal expert. We hope to have the argument heard properly via the media and in a court that has jurisdiction.

·         We've organized a tenant’s rights seminar and assisted people to fill out BC Housing applications, with the assistance of other organizations. We have Ann to thank for this seminar.

·         We continue to work closely with the Street Market, as we share the same values of people empowering themselves with the resources available to them.
   
·         We've begun to develop an Aboriginal Committee to assist the community to identify what programs can most benefit themselves in community.

·         We've gained press through donated services of the Editor of the Gastown Gazette. We have permanent space in that local newspaper.

·         We've done all of this in just 4 months. And on top of all of that we’ve had to hold two AGMs as the previous attempt to hold AGM was disrupted by people from CCAP.

Motion to Accept Co-President’s report - motion passed.

Aboriginal Committee Report
Motion to accept Aboriginal Committee Report – motion passed.

Tenant Committee Report
Many people living in SRO’s would rather live in park in tents during summer. There is a problem of people being overly monitored in SRO’s. People have their i.d. taken. We’ve been advised this is a violation of privacy. We’re exploring tenant’s rights. Many of the rules imposed on people here are only imposed elsewhere in prisons, and mental hospitals. We’re exploring the issue of tenant’s rights.
Motion to accept Tenant Committee Report – motion passed.

Legal Committee Report
Motion to accept Legal Committee Report – motion passed.

Harm Reduction/Health Committee Report
Roughly $60 million is spent in dtes every year on services. $12 million goes to Mental Health and Addiction services.  The medical clinics get a large portion of funding. There appears to be no accountability. The DNC wants people to have a say in how services are run.  One study shows that of 4000 clients who attended medical clinics only 400 returned.
DNC ran a safe injection van everyday for 2 months. Eventually Vancouver Coastal Health said we must stop. As homelessness increases there is greater need for safe injection site. Insite deals with 500 injections but there are an estimated 1500 injections that happen each day in dtes. If you would like to help come to a meeting or contact Ann.

Motion to accept Harm Reduction/Health Committee Report – motion passed.

Moment of Silence
Adjourn





DNC Board Meeting Minutes, August 19th, 2014.

Minutes for DNC Board Meeting  - August 19th, 2014
12 members present
Agenda
Constitution
Minutes
Security for AGM
Sound System
Snack
Membership List
Board Package
Film Update
Nominations
#1 Hastings

Motion to accept previous board meeting minutes – motion accepted.

Security:
X will stand at gate. We will use cameras to record any harassing behavior.
Sound System:
X says people should step into middle to be heard properly. Street Market crew will set up tents.
Snack:
X suggests coffee and muffin. X will buy and be reimbursed.
Membership List:
X and X will do membership list at gate.
Board Package:
The board package will consist of membership form, constitution, by-laws, agenda, and the minutes from previous AGM.  Each committee will write a report to put in package. 
Film Update: The funding from film industry is the only funding that Strathcona Resident’s Association receives. A person named Ed McMurdy formerly of DERA takes all the money received in dtes for himself. We are working on resolving this as it seems rightfully the money should go to DNC for dtes residents.
Nominations:
Closed board meeting.

#1 Hastings:
As a result of building material falling onto park the residents have lost use of the park. People were endangered. Legal Committee will research possible actions.

Moment of Silence
Adjourned