Boundary museum directors resign after AGM held up – Grand Forks Gazette

Three board directors on the Boundary Museum Society (BMS) resigned their posts Friday, Dec. 17, 4 days after their membership known as a halt to the society’s long-awaited annual common assembly (AGM).

Former President Joe Tatangelo mentioned Friday that he’d left the board efficient instantly, together with board Treasurer Kathy Rush and directors Lyle Burt and Laura Lodder.

Board director Larry Jmaiff has stayed on as an interim president, pending an election when the AGM reconvenes within the new yr, based on Jmaiff.

“In the meantime, I’m forming an interim board so we are able to proceed with enterprise on the museum,” he mentioned Monday, Dec. 20.

Speaking to the earlier board’s accomplishments, Tatangelo mentioned, “All of us had the very best pursuits of the museum at coronary heart.” While board directors had labored onerous to run the museum at 6145 Reservoir Rd., “We didn’t really feel like we had been getting co-operation from the town,” he continued.

Their departure comes roughly a month after metropolis council withheld round $23,000 of BMS’s price for service, roughly 1 / 4 of the $105,000 in annual contributions by the City of Grand Forks and the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary’s (RDKB’s) electoral areas C (Christina Lake) and D (rural Grand Forks).

Tatangelo and Rush had requested council to launch the primary sum at a committee of the entire delegation earlier than council’s common assembly on Nov. 8. Appearing through Zoom, Rush didn’t present any form of a monetary assertion to agency up their request, telling council she hadn’t thought that was vital. The board hadn’t held an AGM for the reason that begin of the COVID-19 pandemic within the spring of 2020, she and Tatangelo mentioned.

When the board convened the society’s AGM Monday, Dec. 13, the assembly was interrupted by a unanimous decision launched and seconded by BMS members Danna O’Donnell and Cathy Korolek, based on each members and Tatangelo. The decision stopped the assembly in order that it could possibly be rescheduled for someday within the new yr.

O’Donnell, who serves as director of the RDKB’s Area D, mentioned Monday that she’d put ahead the movement as a result of there weren’t sufficient BMS members in attendance to switch the incumbent board. She, Korolek and Tatangelo individually confirmed that there have been between 25 and 30 members on the assembly, the place the board hoped to switch three directors, excluding the president.

“I consider that if the society doesn’t elect a brand new board and alter issues drastically, they’ll should be involved concerning the funding that they obtain from their native governments,” O’Donnell mentioned.

Danna O’Donnell, RDKB Area D Director and BMS member, mentioned she needed to see a brand new board of directors on the museum society. Photo: Laurie Tritschler

Korolek mentioned Friday that she’d “labored onerous to encourage the board to succeed” whereas beforehand serving as metropolis council’s liaison. While she’d been a board director in that capability, she mentioned she’d attended Monday’s AGM as a member of BMS.

“The current board has been in place for a very long time and so they take fairly a way of possession over the museum. And I’ve to offer them that,” she mentioned.

But the board had fallen behind on numerous its obligations to its authorities funders, particularly by not holding an AGM all through the pandemic. Korolek added that the board selected to disregard a strategic plan designed in the summertime of 2020 to modernize museum operations.

“I can inform you, the board didn’t evaluation the plan. They filed it,” she mentioned.

Cathy Korolek, city councillor and BMS member, spoke highly of the society’s board, but insisted they’d fallen behind on key obligations to their government funders. Photo: Laurie Tritschler

Cathy Korolek, metropolis councillor and BMS member, spoke extremely of the society’s board, however insisted they’d fallen behind on key obligations to their authorities funders. Photo: Laurie Tritschler

Korolek added that BMS has no social media presence, whereas the board didn’t have a non-public e-mail server till late final summer time. The board had set up e-mail servers at varied factors previously, she certified.

The board “didn’t like” lots of the strategic plan’s suggestions, however had been ready to maneuver ahead on some others, Tatangelo informed The Gazette. When requested for a replica of the plan, he mentioned he didn’t know the place to seek out one.

Board members had communicated with one another via their private e-mail accounts earlier than setting up the society’s newest e-mail server, he defined.

Tatangelo went on to say that he and his fellow board members felt as if they’d been “set up” by O’Donnell and Korolek. When requested to elucidate why O’Donnell’s movement garnered zero opposition from the ground, Tatangelo mentioned he questioned if voting members understood the intent behind the movement.

Asked for clarification, O’Donnell and Korolek mentioned they’d hoped the movement would move in order that the society may change the board when the AGM reconvenes.

O’Donnell and Korolek mentioned they’d acted to guard the museum’s greatest pursuits and to safeguard its future.

The Boundary Museum has been closed since mid-November, following the resignation of its final administrator.

Non-profit societies registered in B.C. should maintain an AGM as soon as per yr, based on the Societies Act.

Tatangelo mentioned the board hadn’t been ready to do that amid the COVID-19 pandemic, including that he and different directors had been working with BC Registries to quickly put aside that requirement.


 

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