[fvc-wat-disc] Information night on Sept. 18th -- please respond ASAP

[Alida and George]

Angela
I certainly hope that you do NOT step down, step aside, or go anywhere but 
onward with your work for the MMP campaign.
Interceding in a case of  threatened suicide of an oldtimer after 
desperately trying to relay apologies and directions to a meeting of  people 
who, hopefully, are concerned with bringing about a society in which 
democratic action can lead to- for one thing - better geriatric care...you 
lead by example, Angela, which is extraordinarily rare in this postmodernist 
world.
Your presentation at Cambridge council on Monday was a model of clarity and 
obviously came from the heart. Those old council campaigners were impressed.

No reasonable person can doubt that your efforts to promote  democracy 
through MMP comes from real, social concerns, and not  simply abstract 
reasoning.

Your nightime caller was beyond melodramatic  and seems to suffer from an 
inability to empathize with real people in the real world.

No more apologies, please. "Ya do what'cha gotta do" :)


George Burrett



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Angela Yenssen" <ayenssen at rogers.com>
To: "'FVC Waterloo Region Discussion'" <fvc-wat-disc at listserv.thinkers.org>
Sent: Thursday, September 20, 2007 1:03 AM
Subject: [fvc-wat-disc] Information night on Sept. 18th -- please respond 
ASAP


>
> I am sending this message to the entire discussion list responding to a
> query from Paul as to the events of last evening (Sept. 18th) because
> everyone needs to be aware of what has happened and to cast a vote as to
> whether or not you want me to withdraw from the campaign in light of last
> night's events.
>
> On Tuesdays I work for a private company that provides geriatric social 
> work
> services.  Yesterday (Sept. 18th) at 3:00 p.m. I was called away from my
> usual assignment in Kitchener and sent to deal with a crisis situation in
> Aylmer.  I did not know who I could call to cover the information night if 
> I
> ran into difficulty in Aylmer, so I proceeded to the work site hoping I
> could finish the job and return to Kitchener for the information night.
> Unfortunately, by the time I realized the situation was far more complex
> than I had been told initially and there was no hope in hell that I would 
> be
> back to Kitchener by 7 p.m., I felt my only option was to call Laurier
> security and ask them to post a notice informing people the meeting was
> cancelled and to communicate that information to anyone who arrived 
> because
> I (the person running the meeting) was detained out of town.  By the time
> Laurier security arrived on the scene there were about 10 people gathered
> looking for the meeting.  Neil Dietrich, who will be speaking at a church
> for us next week, was there (which I did not expect) and jumped into 
> provide
> some information to people.  According to Neil, none of the message I had
> communicated to Laurier security got through to anyone in the meeting 
> other
> than that the meeting was cancelled.  Neil apparently jumped in to speak 
> as
> soon as the security guard arrived to say the meeting was cancelled.
> Evidently the Laurier security staff also neglected to communicate the 
> whole
> story to our room booking contact at Laurier.
>
> The call to Aylmer was an extraordinary circumstance that has never 
> happened
> to me before.  My line of work is very demanding but up to this point I 
> have
> managed to handle all of the different duties on my plate and keep all of
> the balls in the air I guess because I was never called to a crisis far 
> out
> of town and could reorganize any work that I needed to do within the
> tri-cities to meet all my obligations.  There were a couple of our team
> members at the meeting last night in addition to Neil and one of them 
> called
> me last night demanding an explanation for the events of the evening.  The
> person indicated that I had brought ill repute on everyone attached to the
> campaign through my irresponsible conduct and I should withdraw from the
> campaign.  My initial reaction was that the person was acting a little
> melodramatic considering that anything can happen to anyone to disrupt the
> best laid plans.  For example, what would have happened if I had been in a
> car accident or become acutely ill and hospitalized yesterday?  Why does
> everyone assume that if something was scheduled and it doesn't happen that
> some sort of nefarious or belligerent act is behind it?
>
> However, in light of the fact that this incident has also created a
> firestorm with the people on whom we rely to continue to give us free
> meeting space, perhaps I was too inclined to minimize the significance of 
> my
> error.  My intention was to turn the information nights on Sept. 25th and
> Oct. 2nd back to Paul in light of yesterday's events so we don't run the
> risk of such an incident occurring again.  I am thinking now, though, that
> there seems to be even more trouble over this incident, that I do need to 
> go
> a step further and make the offer to the campaign team to withdraw from 
> the
> campaign.  I still want to see the MMP system passed and thus want to take
> the course of action in the best interests of the campaign.  When I was
> speaking with one of our members last night, I was not certain that a new
> co-chair stepping in, causing a disruption and transition in leadership at
> this point was in the best interests of the campaign.  I also don't know 
> if
> Brian wants to take over everything I've been doing and chair the whole
> campaign himself at this point.  However, on the other hand, perhaps if 
> the
> campaign team can say that the person responsible for last night's debacle
> is gone from the organization, then the team's sullied reputation can be
> restored, as my caller last night suggested.
>
> Since this organization is focused on promoting democracy, I want to make
> sure people have an opportunity to voice their opinions on this issue.  I
> will respect the consensus of the group and act accordingly on this 
> question
> of whether I stay or go.  I do take ownership of the fact that I was faced
> with a no win situation yesterday and did not choose to prioritize this
> campaign.  I tried to meet all of my obligations and when I discovered 
> there
> was no way that I could, I made the choice to prioritize the mental health
> assessment for a suicidal and homicidal person that needed completion 
> rather
> than this campaign.  I can't guarantee that such a situation will not 
> happen
> again before the campaign is over.  I suppose this scenario is a good case
> in point as to why there is little political activism on the part of 
> health
> care workers compared to people in other sectors (such as teachers or
> lawyers), namely the unpredictable nature of the work in health care means
> that glitches sometimes happen in other aspects of life.  I have an
> obligation I have to fulfill for the campaign tomorrow night in Cambridge
> but I will withdraw after tomorrow night if that is the decision of the
> group.
>
> I do apologize for the events of yesterday.  I have appreciated the
> opportunity I've had to meet and work with all of you and I wish you well
> with the final days of the campaign.
>
> Angela
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Paul Nijjar [mailto:paul_nijjar at yahoo.ca]
> Sent: September 19, 2007 2:09 PM
> To: Lynn Beney
> Subject: Re: LSPRIG meeting last night at Faculty of Social Work
>
>
> --- Lynn Beney <lbeney at wlu.ca> wrote:
>
>
>> There was confusion here last night in regards to the meeting that
>> you had booked for September 19, 2007 from 6:30-9:30.  A number of
>> people did come expecting a meeting to be held.
>
> We did have a meeting scheduled! I was not going to be running it,
> but another (very reliable) volunteer was going to do it. At this
> point I have no idea what happened, but I will investigate.
>
> Oh no. I don't believe this. The fault was on our end, obviously. I'm
> so sorry. I will personally make sure this does not happen again.
>
> To answer your question: we currently have a space booked for the
> next two Tuesdays: Sept 25 and Oct 2. We did cancel October 9, but I
> need to tell the security guards that the room had been cancelled for
> that time.
>
> - Paul
>
>
> --
> Paul Nijjar  http://www.fairvotecanada.org/WaterlooRegion
> Next Referendum Info Session: Sept 18, 7pm
> (Please use this Yahoo! account for future correspondence.)
>
>
>
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