General Meeting Thursday February 25 2010

Today is Thursday 04 March 2008 I spent the past week trying to find a way to proceed with these matters though the courts. It is really time consuming. There is very very little case law about societies so this is virgin territory. Since societies are created in the public interest, then the public should not be shut out of anything i.e. everything should be transparent. No one should be afraid of or be intimidated from asking questions. Charitable societies exist with taxpayer money and everyone of us should be overlooking what societies are doing. DERA has created an organization that is one to itself with no checks and balances from the public or even from a concerned director. Forget about auditors as every bankrupt corporation and society have all had auditors.

This past week three residents of the area went to the offices of DERA and were told that DERA was not accepting new memberships. Last year 2009 just before the annual general meeting in April four residents of the DTES tried to renew their memberships and Kim refused to do so. These residents then went to a lawyer and started legal proceedings. Kim then instructed an employee to give the members their renewed membership cards.

I understand that ten years ago DERA had a membership of 4,500 and it was computerized. When I asked the secretary of DERA, Pat McSherry, for a copy of the membership list, as she is responsible for it under the Society Act, she said that the executive director Kim Kerr controlled the list and he decided who are to be members. According to the Constitution and By-laws that isn't the way it is suppose to be. Every resident in the DTES is a members of DERA. A membership card is a means of identification only. And when I asked Sister Elizabeth Kelliher, the president, for a membership list, she told me that directors were not allowed access to it. So who is suppose to have access to it. Like my friend would say, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.

One thing for sure is that the next annual general meeting should be void because of this. How are the members to know about the annual general meeting when only fifteen members are notified. Although there is some confusion over notice, all reputable societies like PIVOT send a notice to every member and also send a notice to every member asking those members who would like to run for a directorship. DERA can't just create a bylaw so it conforms to a loophole in the Society Act. The Society Act says that members have to be given written notice but it does not say that each member has to be mailed a written notice. So what does DERA do. It posts a letter-sized poster on its windows. As my friend would say, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.

The Board or the membership does not have to stand for this. To be fair and credible, the Board should mail a notice to everyone on the membership list as it is obvious the intend of the legislation was that each member be notified by mail. If you agree phone DERA: 604-682-0931.

I attended the meeting with a few supporters. I thank them for coming. Only the Board director, Chris Slater, attended. The Board has no respect for the membership. The meeting was cancelled without notice or else the President, Elizabeth Kellihier, decided to move it to another location so that no one except the members of the Board attended. What contempt the Board shows to the DTES community. DERA no longer speaks for the community; maybe it never has. Nothing comes to mind it can assign credit to. The general population thinks that the Society Act protects the public; not so. DERA can continue to do whatever it wants even the funders do nothing saying that they are not interested in the day-to-day operations. How can funders give $millions of taxpayers money to societies and then say that they are not interested in what happens. It is like giving money to the mafia.

There will be a general meeting open to all the members of DERA/DERAH this coming Thursday February 25 2010 at 6:30 at Solheim Place, 251 Union Street, Vancouver (Main/Gore/Union)(north side of Georgia Viaduct). The membership is open to all residents of the DTES.

All those members who are interested please attend and ask why isn't DERA accepting new memberships.

Also DERAHousing's final date of revocation Revenue Canada is April 26, 2010, at which time DERAH will no longer be tax exempt, will be subject to fines, and will be subject to a tax which is 100% of the fair market value of its assets. This may not be very important to Kim Kerr or the Board but it should be important for the members(the DTES community) and those that donate monies to DERAH.

Although I was illegally impeached from the DERA Board, I am still a director of DERAHousing and will be attending the meeting on February 25 2010. Apparently there isn't anything I can do about being illegally impeached unless I go to Court which is time consuming as well as $expensive. At the impeachment meeting I presented two legal opinions as to why the meeting was invalid, no one wated to listen to them. So if you are poor a Board can act illegally and get away with it. DERA represents the poor and yet it takes away the legal rights of the poor when it suits them. A typical tactic of poverty pimps. The poor stealing from the poor.

Contrary to Kim Kerr and his cheerleaders, I am not interested in DERA as much as I am interested in DERAHousing as that is where the big money is.