Towards a New CUTV

Second Meeting Sets Timeline for GA, Outlines Eligible Voting Population

NewsColin Harris — Published November 20, 2012 | Updated November 20, 2012 at 4:16am

The meeting’s general civility was a credit to the moderating skills of Gabrielle Bouchard, the 2110 Centre for Gender Advocacy peer support and trans advocacy coordinator.

Like the previous meeting held Thursday in the same location, Bouchard outlined that everyone was in a “safe space,” ensuring a mutual consent of its definition before moving forward. Conflicts between individuals were not to be discussed.

The agenda picked up where Thursday’s meeting left off, continuing the process of defining who will have voting rights in the station’s upcoming general assembly. The assembly will see CUTV elect a new Board of Directors, write new bylaws and find an auditor—all legal requirements of a Quebec not-for-profit organization.

According to the resolution met, the GA will take place the weekend of Dec. 1.

After some debate, it was resolved that students paying the station’s fee levy, community members, volunteers, CUTV staff and donors to the station would be eligible to vote at the GA.

Students, as “founding members of CUTV” in the words of the sole remaining Board member Sabine Friesinger, received a unanimous ruling to have voting rights at the GA.

CUTV staff, the paid employees of the station, will get to vote as well.

Concern was raised initially about who would be defined as staff at the assembly—as only three staffers currently remain at the station—but, after member Fahim Moussi suggested that the title be extended to anyone who was staff since Oct. 2011, the motion also passed unanimously.

It was the topic of donors that illustrated the underlying tension in the room. If donors were to get a vote, it would be a first for the station.

CUTV member Emily Campbell and Concordia Student Union President Schubert Laforest, among others, voiced concerns that donors’ politics might undermine the station’s internal operations if they were able to vote in the general assembly, given that the vast majority of donations were made during CUTV’s coverage of the Quebec student general strike.

But the ties the station made with the carré rouge movement was reason to give donors voting rights, according to others.

“Because the strike did define what CUTV became, because nobody here can pretend the strike isn’t the reason CUTV is as successful as it is […] I think it is important to keep links with the movement,” said CUTV Member Fehr Marouf.

After some discussion, it was resolved that donors who could be identified via cheque or PayPal would have voting rights at the GA.

However, little progress was made to solve the station’s current management structure, which has been bemoaned in several recent resignation letters by former CUTV staff.

A motion for outside arbitration between management and workers was passed, but details of when, how and by whom were not discussed. Bouchard will take charge of looking into options.

In the interim, Bouchard asked for volunteers to help “keep the doors open” at CUTV by working in the office throughout the week, as Executive Director Laith Marouf is the only one currently holding the keys required to access to the station’s offices.

“I can’t continue to be the only person there,” said Marouf.

Update: The Link originally reported that Gabrielle Bouchard is the peer support coordinator for the SCPA, she is the peer support coordinator for the 2110 Centre for Gender Advocacy. The Link regrets the error.