Stephen Vance, Staff
At their February 1 meeting, Meaford’s council voted in favour of a staff recommendation to allow Woodford Hall to continue operating without a management board, and instead volunteers assisting with the operation of the hall will adhere to a ‘friends of’ model; however after a dispute in January that saw nearly all of the core volunteers quit, will Woodford Hall have any ‘friends’ to help out?
In her report to council, Meaford CAO Denyse Morrisey recommended that “no change occur at this time to the governance of Woodford Hall and that a ‘friends of’ model be continued; and to direct staff to review the governance of Woodford Hall as part of the mid-term governance review to be brought forward to Council in the first quarter of 2017.”
When contacted by The Independent on February 4, three days after the council meeting, Jan Sideris, one of the volunteers who had quit after a January 15 meeting with municipal managers, said that there had been no notification of the recommendation of staff, nor the approval given by council. Sideris wondered what the wording of the recommendation meant given that the volunteers had been told by municipal managers that they were not following the ‘friends of’ concept properly.
“I haven’t heard anything, I’m just waiting,” Sideris told The Independent.
When the resolution approved by council was read to her over the phone, Sideris was puzzled.
“The problem is the definition. We’ve been working under their (the municipality’s) instructions since 2013, and then the message we got from the CAO (at the January 15 meeting) was that it wasn’t acceptable, that we couldn’t function in that way, and we haven’t heard any different. I mean, our group (of former volunteers) definitely supports the hall, but we don’t know what we are to do, or where we are to fit in,” explained Sideris.
The CAO included a comprehensive description of the role of a ‘friends of’ organization in her report to council, and that information was also provided to the volunteers in January, but Sideris says that she doesn’t feel comfortable being told that the group of volunteers are not allowed to meet, keep records, or speak to councillors as she says the CAO informed the volunteers.
Morrisey told council on February 1, that while the volunteers may not want to operate under a board model, they have essentially already been doing so.
“The difference is the formality between a friends model and a board, and based on the presentation (to council) from the group in September, there was quite a strong resemblance to a board model whereby there were meetings, whereby there was formalities of positions, whereby there were reporting structures, and whereby the specific request to the Municipality of Meaford’s council was for a council appointee, which thereby triggered a model which was more similar to Bognor and Riverside (whose halls operate under a board model),” Morrisey told council.
The conflict began on January 15, when the volunteers sat down with members of the municipal management team, and among the disputes was whether or not a board of management should be formed to run the hall. In 2013 Meaford’s other two rural community halls, Bognor Hall and Riverside Hall, adopted the board model, however Woodford Hall opted to operate under a ‘friends of’ model. On October 26 of last year, council approved a motion to review the governance of Woodford Hall, and to implement a board model similar to the boards that operate Bognor Hall and Riverside Hall, however at the meeting on January 15 volunteers were less than pleased with the idea of forming a board.
“Our understanding was that there was to be a review, which we welcomed because for the last two years we’ve been functioning as their sort of project ‘friends of’ model. So we welcomed this review, and thought that it would actually be (a ‘friends of’ model),” former Woodford Hall volunteer Jan Sideris told The Independent last month.
Sedaris said that she and her fellow volunteers were surprised when the municipal representatives – which included Meaford’s CAO, treasurer, and clerk – told the volunteers that they were not to hold meetings, or make bookings for the hall, or even make presentations to council.
“Normally we were meeting with a committee, but what we got (for this meeting) were the big guns, and we were told quite clearly that we were not to hold meetings, we were not to have minutes, we were not to have a financial statement, and I was not to be booking or showing the hall. But this was a reversal of everything we were told originally,” Sideris told The Independent.
At the February 1 meeting, council agreed that a management board would not be the best solution at this time.
“The report that the CAO has brought before this council is very accurate, and I think that what we can conclude here very solidly is that the group out there in no way wants to become a board. They do not have any desire to do that and as a council we can reflect back on when they did come before this council, and they had some issues with communication (with the municipality and council), and they also expressed quite clearly that they wanted council representation,” said Councillor Tony Bell, who after the request by the volunteers in September, attended meetings with the volunteers.
Mayor Barb Clumpus noted the passion of the volunteers in Woodford.
“Having been the council rep with this group of volunteers for four years during the last term, I observed how hard they have all worked with fundraising efforts that raise very little actual money. You can’t raise a whole lot of money through bake sales and garage sales, but it was all going to the upkeep of their hall which they all love dearly,” said the mayor. “They’re a passionate group, and their efforts are very much appreciated.”
