[homeles_ot-l] Nelson House update - June 21st

[Linda Lalonde]

Hi folks,
 



We had a very good meeting last night and were able to share a lot of information. 


Attached are the notes from the meeting on June 15th of the VAW community and MCSS; the Nelson House membership application form; a list of interim board members and the summary of a get-together held last Saturday. I'm sending these out so that everyone has as much of the information as possible. 

The group last night included members of the Action Committee; Nelson House staff; applicants in the injunction; the community; VAW service providers and interim board with some people falling in more than one category. Also invited were MCSS and the current board - we didn't hear back from the board and MCSS wasn't able to get someone there on short notice. We agreed at the beginning of the meeting that one purpose of the meeting was to try to identify where the Action Committee should be going and what role it could play as this continues to unfold. 

We had a very wide-ranging discussion and so I've summarized it by topic areas rather than provide minutes of the meeting. Karin Galldin joined us and was able to give us an update on recent developments. I reported some information from the MCSS/VAW meeting and others contributed the info they had. 
Minutes of Settlement have been signed between the parties to the injunction and they are now in the process of getting each of the nine applicants and the five board members to sign agreements which include a clause saying they won't speak negatively of the other parties and that they will not discuss the settlement with the media. One piece of the settlement is that the existing board will appoint new members to the board and then resign. The new members, including Karin, will form an interim board until the AGM at which time their terms will terminate. 
A list of the members of the interim board is attached - they held their first meeting last night. They see their mandate as broadening the membership base; calling an AGM and giving NH room to breathe. Some members of the interim board have said they will not be running for election at the AGM and are only there to get the organization to that point. At this point, they have not seen the Minutes of Settlement from the injunction application or the risk assessment & governance review. They are committed to following the bylaws and will be including a staff member at all board meetings. They want to work with the Action Committee and are looking for feedback on getting new members and recruiting new, permanent board members. They have set up an email account at nelsonhouseinterimboard at gmail.com - it should be operational today. 
There was some discomfort in the group that the lawyers who took forward the injunction application appear to have been receiving their instruction from NH staff and some applicants were not aware of what was being discussed throughout the negotiations with the board. 
The group underlined that one of the main problems has been lack of transparency. Nobody has all the information that's needed to be able to make good decisions and identify how to support NH. The suggestion was made to the interim board that they need to get the risk assessments, governance review and financial statements sooner rather than later and, if they need it, to set up a group of advisors that would help them work through all that info with the goal of sharing it with the community asap. There has to be a commitment to report to the community at large - it's in the community interest to know what's in the Minutes of Settlement; risk assessments; governance report and financial statements and these need to be made public. We suggested that MCSS should also be invited to their meetings. 
The interim board should only act as necessary and not as a fully functional board. Their role is to do the work to get information out to the community and to get the AGM in place. The only other items they should look at are safeguarding the property (meeting insurance requirements; paying bills for essential services, etc.) and meeting their obligations to the staff. 
We suggested that the interim board should consider the recommendations from the group that met on June 16th. Those recommendations are attached. They include holding a community meeting as quickly as possible, i.e. within a week, where all of the documents would be provided and explained. Community members could ask questions about the documents and any other issues. The purpose of this would be to inform everyone of the issues and clear the air before the AGM. Simultaneously, the interim board would call the AGM, giving the necessary 20 days notice and ensure that the notice was broadly distributed. 
In addition, the group suggested that, immediately before the conclusion of the injunction application is announced, a briefing should be held for the applicants, the staff, the interim board and the Action Committee. The purpose is so that none of us are caught off guard when the announcement is made and can have the details explained and our questions answered before the media descends on us. This meeting would be held in camera so we can put everything on the table and speak freely. Immediately afterwards, the information would be released to the public and the media. 
MCSS met with the VAW community last Friday and the summary of the meeting is attached. They will work with the NH board, whoever that is, to deal with the risk assessments. They will require the development of a mitigation plan that shows how the board proposes to deal with the problems that have been identified. Before NH could be re-opened to residents, the board would have to demonstrate some progress in correcting things. It would take some time to do that and so NH won’t be re-opened in the short-term. 
It was agreed that Karin, Keri and Linda would continue to exchange information on behalf of the interim board, the staff and the Action Committee. We will wait a few days to see what develops before calling the next AC meeting – at that meeting, we will decide what role, if any, the AC should/could play on an ongoing basis.
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