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

[Bill Kirby]

Hi All and especially Angela,

Most you do not know me but I hope you take the time to read this.

The way I see it SHIT HAPPENS.  If the success of our MMP campaign rests on one meeting then we all must ask ourselves what we are doing or not doing.

Most of us, like Angela, have jobs that despite our belief in MMP require us to respond when called.

It would be very unfortunate to loose the commitment and passion that Angela brings to the table is not easily replaced nor should it be.  I for one sincerely hope that Angela stays on a co-chair and takes this situation for what it is.  

Any one who thinks that Angela resigning from the committee will benefit our attempt to win this referendum should come and speak with me, we need all the people we can get!

Please feel free to call me.



Very Best Regards,
Bill Kirby
Bill Kirby - Inside Sales
Nederman Canada Ltd.
www.nederman.com
Nederman is an ISO-9001 and ISO-14001 certified manufacturer
TF. 866 332-2611 x240 F. 905 542-2206 




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-----Original Message-----
From: fvc-wat-disc-bounces at listserv.thinkers.org [mailto:fvc-wat-disc-bounces at listserv.thinkers.org] On Behalf Of Angela Yenssen
Sent: September 20, 2007 1:04 AM
To: 'FVC Waterloo Region Discussion'
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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