Last night I was supposed to go see Ward 6 councillor candidate Jem Cain at the Yalla Cafe. But there was a general members meeting of the co-op at 6PM. I was hoping to do both but the members meeting is more important and then it ran longer than expected. There were three main parts of the agenda; approve the audit, approve a bylaw change & elect two interim members to the Board of Directors. The first two are rubber stamps but the third issue got interesting.
There was also quite a bit of discussion about recent changes to the underground parking garage and security issues in general. I've never used the underground parking garage but the main issue is people dumping cars that don't belong. Some people like the changes. Some don't. You're not going to please everyone. The board and building management are figuring it out as they go. The other issue was building security. Maintenance guy Marlon is in charge of that and he spoke at length at the things he is doing. They're trying to deal with these problems.
So the time came for the election. I've only been living here for over a year so I was surprised when one of my tenth floor neighbours nominated me for the Board of Directors. It wasn't something I was seeking but if the other members want me on the board, of course I'll do it. So I said I would run. Three other people were nominated. There was a tie between this black guy Blair and this lady Ruth so we had to vote again to decide that. The result is that Blair & I are now on the co-op Board of Directors. I don't really know what I'm getting into but the first meeting is Nov. 7 and I guess they're going to give me some materials to read. I hate legalese. The one thing I can do is give the disabled members a voice on the board. The other thing I plan to look at is communicating better with the members with newsletters or more likely, a blog. Keeping members informed has been a big issue around here. The interim ends in May so I'll do my best until then. It's gratifying that folks here want me to be on the board. That's what happens when you have a big mouth.
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