By Nigel Maxwell

SPCA board faces confidence vote, membership-driven meeting

Jul 1, 2015 | 6:37 PM

A major shake-up could be coming to the board that governs the Prince Albert SPCA.

The board has passed a motion to hold its annual general meeting (AGM) on Aug. 20, rather than in September as previously discussed. 

“We will be dealing with all the usual issues that need to be dealt with at an AGM, in addition we are putting on the agenda a confidence vote for the board of directors and we will also be discussing each board member’s turn,” said board chair Joleen McCullagh.

McCullagh said an open forum will be held at the AGM, so that members can express their opinions prior to the non-confidence vote.

When asked why the date was moved up, McCullagh said the board felt there was a sense of urgency to resolve some matters.

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“There’s been a lot of media and social media attention to it so we just wanted to have it resolved,” she said.

The board has not held an AGM since October 2012, and the board has faced some criticism through social media for the delay.

According to the bylaw that governs the SPCA, an AGM “shall be held each year not later than 15 months after holding the preceding Annual General Meeting in accordance with S.123(1)(a) of the Non-Profit Corporations Act.”

The time and location of the meeting will be announced in the upcoming weeks.

Anyone who has been a member for 50 days at the time of the meeting is eligible to vote.

“We encourage people to come out and vote at the AGM and contact the board or the executive director if they have any questions or concerns,” said McCullagh.

Before the AGM on August 20, a membership-driven meeting will be held 10 days earlier.

A board confidence vote will also be held at the meeting, according to Carol Samuels.

Samuels explained that members have a lot of questions and feel as if they have been blocked at every angle.

“They’re (the board) in violation of seven of their own bylaws and three of the bylaws for the non-profit act, we’ve asked for them to address those,” said Samuels.

So far there’s been a lot of interest in the membership-driven meeting.

“We’ve got over 70 letters, 20 of which will be given to the board today,” said Samuels.

She said there have been many changes at the SPCA that the board needs to answer to including a large staff turnover, volunteers suddenly quitting, and why the shelter appears only half full most of the time.

“We want to know what’s going on and it’s concerning that there’s so little transparency with the organization,” she said.

 The meeting on August 10 will take place at 7 p.m. in the Log House on the Prince Albert Exhibition grounds.

Samuels said their issues require a whole meeting for discussion, not ten minutes as part of a larger meeting.

nmaxwell@panow.com

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell