Mood:
quizzicalTopic: local news
And so the next chapter in the patchy history of Addison Rd Community Centre rolls on. It seems the radical film maker John Reyolds behind the nascent festival above is now the new president until the next AGM. We had an email from the Inner West Courier about the ARC but whether they have written any stories about it I do wonder. The local press have been hopeless till now at covering this story it seems:
Sent: Monday, March 09, 2009 3:52 PMSubject: addison road boardHi Tom,
Is there a number I can call you on regarding the Addison Road Centre board?Regards,Sam Worrad, Journalist, Inner West Courier.
We received this amongst many emails recently:
Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2009 1:10 AMSubject: ARC
Peace seems to have broken out at ARC. There appears to be not a trace of Andrews, her husband or Burgmann. As far as I know the ALP has disappeared from the place which was Burgmann's last bit of influence. How quickly things can change. Your efforts played a part in cleaning up the place. Activism does have its place. Keep up the good work.
Best regards
Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2009 6:18 AMSubject: Mmm ...Re: ARCThanks for the comments. Now that it is known (?) I'm moving out of the area mid April I'm getting some 'good on you' type comments. I suspect it's just relief a real activist is moving on. And nostalgia perhaps given the ARC is rudderless.Peace? Mmm. I wonder. After so many years of secrets and favourtism and bullying culture and I do wonder.The key is transparency as an ethos. Circulating the old minutes is one positive step. But it's a very very very low base.Here are some real problems.1. Reynolds as president - he installed Andrews and allowed her position to remain without advertising for close to 18 months. That's not an honest broker.2. I personally have a grievance for bullying against Reynolds which the Board refused to deal with under their so called grievance procedure.3. Reynolds is proudly militant in his dealings with Ch31 and doesn't believe in Gandhi style social action at all. Good luck ARC.4. Where [are] the explanations and excuses of the resigned board members to the general public, let alone tenants.5. The gerrymander against 50% of the tenants namely artists and the like is still well in place with one token vote at an AGM.6. The grounds are in a bad state - look at the piles of dirt between ChildCare and Conservation Volunteers. They are emblematic of leakage of nutrients out of the system and poor ground keeping. This returns the centre back to 2003 when I started there - 5 times worse. The converse are the lawn dead/dirt patches being the norm rather than the exception. The attempts at systematic composting are gone to generate mulch for the grounds. Also the mowing too short is dumb. Look out street frontage. Unswept is the norm.Unweeded planters.7. Reverse Garbage have annexed open space with a shipping container likely without any debate or DA from council. Open space!8. Mamouney personally authorised the felling of several young healthy gum trees which arguably were a risk to the power lines - a few years ago. Trouble is it was highly illegal. That's why the stumps were ground down and you can't see them. This attitude prevails as does his influence along with dinosaurs like Vivi. The grounds crew knew it was illegal too. I got an opinion from Helen at the nursery - all good healthy trees. No transparency.9. And to really prove nothing changes - Terry Cutcliffe still has no obligation to provide financial reports for all that free rent and indeed positive rental income from studios.10. The budget no doubt is still in dire state and Andrews was willing to go because the place was increasingly broke and couldn't pay her anyway. One reason for the state of the budget is poor marshalling of assets - like the rent free gallery and ancillary rooms over 500 sqm. Also with the grounds looking fairly dodgy there will less interest in events on the grounds.11. The website which might have been really interactive and a nurtured resource of all tenants has gone dormant or moribund for a good 12 months. Sad since I was instrumental in building it.........All in all the dinosaurs are firmly entrenched and suppressing the next generation from having a genuine role in their own community centre. I put it down to the arrogance of the boomers. And I specifically refer to Cutcliffe, Mamouney, Vivi while you would probably include Burgmann.Yours trulyTom McLoughlin
Subject: Re: ARC Steering Committee
Date: Mon, 09 Mar 2009 15:53:10 +1100
To all members and Associate Members
ARC Plan Steering Committee
Following the Special general meeting of last week we are
calling for nominations from Centre users to be part of the
Steering Committee for the New Planning process.
The steering committee should have reasonable representation
from the main interest areas of Centre users. There are 6
main types of interest areas in the Centre...
Community Service, Educational, Environment, Cultural,
Theatre&Performance, Visual Arts
We would like to get a cross section of people connected to
the major interest areas of user groups represented on the
Steering Committee. If you would like to volunteer to be
part of the Steering committee please fill in the attached
form and return it to us by 13/3/09. Even if you have
already sent an expression of interest to join the Committee
you should still fill in the short form. Please note this
invitation is also open to associate members.
Also please remember that there will be many other
opportunities to participate in the planning process once
it is up and running.
John Reynolds
President
.............................
One cynic responds as follows:
Sent: Wednesday, March 11, 2009 12:09 PMSubject: Fwd: Re: ARC Steering Committee> [Hello] Tom,
>
> This is all a waste of time and money. When Don was last
> president of ARC in 2005(?) he produced the ADDISON ROAD
> CENTRE BUSINESS ANALYSIS AND PLAN 2005/06.
>
> The report appears to have been professionally done and is
> fairly exhaustive and, of course, very little of it has been
> followed through. What they are now proposing to do is a
> repeat of the same.
.........................................
As we always say when it comes to Addison Road Centre transparency is the key, so we applaud these minutes being circulated unlike so many before, and we post them in the next story in full, as per this email:
Subject: Minutes of the Last 3 Meetings
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 2009 09:38:55 +1100
Dear Member,
Please find attached the minutes for the last three
meetings.
Regards
Sue Paraha
We don't know who Sue Paraha is either, presumably a new office administrator amongst a steady procession. We wish her well like all the others .... if they do a good job and act in an even handed and transparent way.
