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

Thu Sep 20 09:19:18 EDT 2007

Dear Angela,
It would be a travesty if you were to withdraw from the campaign. Your 
explanation of events shows your commitment to MMP but not at any cost. I 
have seen you in action twice and came away very impressed. The campaign 
needs you! You have my full support.
Donna Reid
----- 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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