[Wamvan] Fwd: [dnc-members] REMINDER: Downtown Eastside N'hd Council AGM & board elections this Saturday

Fri Dec 7 13:43:20 PST 2012

FYI

pass it on

***DTES Neighbourhood Council ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING***

The DTES Neighbourhood Council's board election nominations are open now.
If you are interested in running for the board see below for details and
get your nominations form filled out and delivered; the deadline is Friday
November 7 at 5pm. And make sure to come to the AGM to make your
nominations speech, vote for the new board and discuss the future of the
DNC.

DNC ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2012
Including elections to the 21-member DNC board of directors
SATURDAY DECEMBER 8
2:30PM
DODSON HALL
(25 E Hastings St, by the bottle depot)

Special DNC member dinner will be held during the break mid-meeting while
we count ballots from the board election. The regular $3 honorarium will be
available onsite as usual for all members who need it.

The focus of this meeting are the board elections, but there will also be a
celebration of the work DNC has done in the past year and a look ahead to
the year to come. If members bring forward any motions to amend the DNC
constitution or bylaws they will also be discussed and voted on at this
meeting.

***BACKGROUND INFO***

WHO CAN RUN FOR THE BOARD?

In order to run for the DNC board you must be a regular member of DNC,
which means you must be a resident of the DTES and you must agree with the
constitution of the DNC. See the DTES boundaries and the DNC constitution
here (and below): http://dnchome.wordpress.com/about/

Board positions are divided up by housing type, in rough proportion to the
housing types in the DTES with a total of seventeen elected board seats:

5 seats --- Social housing reps (government subsidized including co-ops and
supportive housing)
5 seats --- SRO hotel reps (private or publically owned including
non-profit run hotels)
3 seats --- Market housing reps (rental or owned)
4 seats  --- Homeless and Special Needs Residential Facility (living
outside, in a shelter, or in assisted living) By proportion of population,
there should be 2 homeless seats but we inflate the represenation to offset
the difficulties homeless people experience participating in regular
meetings.

Then, after the new board is elected they will appoint an additional four
members to ensure the board is balanced in terms of race, gender, age,
sexuality, interest and committee representation.

Natural community members who live outside the neighbourhood but have been
elected as honorary DNC members can put their name forward for Member at
Large seats but are limited to 2 seats total.

HOW TO RUN FOR THE BOARD

Fill out a nomination form – Available at VANDU (380 E Hastings) and in the
CCAP office (Carnegie 2nd floor) and available for download here:
http://dnchome.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/2012-board-election-package.pdf

Return your form in the nominations box at VANDU or the CCAP office (if no
one is there slide it under the door) or to one of 3 DNC board members on
or before 5pm Friday December 9th:
    a. Tami Starlight (Co-President): 604-790-9943
    b. Herb Varley (Co-President): 604-773-2517
    c. Kelvin Bee (Board member): Find him at Aboriginal Front Door
Or email the information from the form to: dtescouncil at gmail.com

Come to the Annual General Meeting and be ready to make a speech there
about who you are and why you’re a good candidate for the DNC board.

If you can’t make it to the AGM:  Please indicate this on your nomination
form and write an election statement that can be read out for you at the
AGM.

*If you are a Natural Community Member (non-DTES-resident DNC member) you
cannot run in the election but still must submit a nomination form to be
considered by the board to fill an at-large seat.

MORE INFORMATION ABOUT DNC

In order to form a neighbourhood council, 3 meetings were hosted by the
Carnegie Community Centre Association, Access Association of Chinese
Canadians for Equality and Solidarity and the Vancouver Area Network of
Drug Users in the Carnegie Theatre in 2009.  Over 100 residents came to
these meetings and drafted a basis of unity statement that was later turned
into a constitution.  A structure for the future board was agreed upon as
well.  In Feb 2010, a 13 member interim steering committee was elected to
hold monthly general meetings, prepare the constitution and bylaws,
organize around community issues and prepare the community for the first
DNC AGM.  In November 2010 this steering committee held an Annual General
Meeting and a 20 member board was created. In November 2011 the DNC’s
second board was elected and that board appointed at-large board members as
well as two co-presidents and a treasurer. On December 8 2012 the DNC’s
third board will be elected to serve the community through to the end of
2013.

Real keeners can download the pdf and read the full bylaws of the DNC here:
http://dnchome.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/bylaws-of-dnc_2011.pdf

Outgoing DNC Board members 2011-2012: Richard Cunningham, DJ Joe, Jamie
Richardson, Dave Hamm, Harold Lavender, Ann Livingston, Ann Marie Monks,
Wendy Pedersen, Roland Clarke, Dave Murray, Tami Starlight (co-president),
Ivan Drury, Jenn Allan, Kelvin Bee, Herb Varley (co-president).

The constitution of the DTES Neighbourhood Council

1. We are a representative group of Downtown Eastside residents who
advocate for the needs, interests, and aspirations of our neighbourhood.
2. We seek to act in honor of the Tsleil-Waututh, Musqueum, and Squamish
nations whose unceded lands the DTES occupies. We stand for the national,
territorial, and cultural rights of Indigenous peoples.
3. We defend DTES residents regardless of how each person came to live in
the DTES, and regardless of each person’s legal status.
4. We seek community control over neighbourhood planning, policy, land use,
and community development.
5, We are for community directed accessible education and recreation
programs.
6. We strive to stop gentrification and the involuntary displacement of
DTES residents.
7. We work for dignified, low-income affordable housing at welfare and
pension rates and livable incomes for all.
8. We advocate for self-determined and accessible harm reduction health
care.
9. We support a legal drug market based on health and human rights
principles.
10. We stand against all stigmas, discriminations, and violence that
silence and marginalize DTES residents.
11. We support women’s safety as a basic and unconditional right.
12. We advocate for the rights of sex industry workers and especially
survival sex industry workers to safety and dignity.
13. We stand for accountable, community-positive policing that prioritizes
peoples’ safety over property.
14. We aim to honor, respect and celebrate the members of our community,
including the racially oppressed founding communities of the DTES – Coast
Salish, Black, Chinese, and Japanese – and our community’s history of
working for social and economic justice by continuing this work with care,
love and camaraderie as our guiding principle.

---
Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood Council
http://dnchome.wordpress.com
dtescouncil at gmail.com

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