To the editor:
Re: Disgruntled Rutland Park Society member rules himself out as an interim director (Aug. 3)
The first I learned about an "invitation" from RPS president Todd Sanderson to join an interim board was in emails from assistant Capital News editor Al Waters.
It is my understanding that I cannot sit as a board member, interim or not. RPS bylaw 5.2 states in order to stand for a position on the board, one must be a member for not less than five months. I have only been a current member for four months.
Having said that, I would never serve on any board where Sanderson was the president. Thankfully, Sanderson's days as RPS president are numbered.
Sanderson said on July 19: "Once a trustee is appointed, or a system is put in place where we could get to an AGM, I am going to stand down."
But a trustee is not required. In her July 27 press release, RPS treasurer Wendi Swarbrick quoted Debbie Turner (assistant deputy registrar with BC Registry Services): "There is no provision in the Society Act by which a society can be placed in trusteeship...The existence of a society under the Society Act is not terminated by reason only that it has fewer than three directors."
And a system has already been put in place to nominate and elect new directors—at the Aug. 9 general meeting (6 p.m., Rutland Centennial Hall) that was requisitioned by RPS members. So there is no need to wait until the October AGM.
Sanderson told the Capital News that he received legal advice to suspend Swarbrick. Who is the lawyer who gave Sanderson this legal advice? What firm is this lawyer with? Why won't he make this information public?
On July 22 and again on July 28, I emailed Sanderson and asked when the minutes of the July 18 board meeting would be made available. From his July 2 letter to RPS members: "Discussions arising from the board meeting will be recorded by the secretary and reflected in meeting minutes, which will be made available to members of the society after the board meeting." (p. 2).
It has now been almost [four] weeks since the board meeting and no minutes have been made available.
Sanderson also said on July 19: "If nothing else when I joined the board we took it from what I'll call the dark ages of the Rutland Park Society and we implemented a system of transparency, a system of good governance, given the nature of the organization."
Ironically, no board minutes or AGM minutes have ever been provided to its own members, never mind the people of Rutland and the city at large.
David Buckna, Kelowna