+++++please circulate widely+++++++++++
Two years ago, at our Annual General Meeting, the membership of the 2110 Centre for Gender
Advocacy voted on a vision for the centre. This is the vision we’ve been operating under and
putting our resources towards for the past two years. Last year, the membership voted in a newer
draft of the vision and mission, the former being our broader political ideology, and the
mission laying out how to carry that out with the resources we have.
Lately, both the ideals of the 2110 and the way we as a board have been carrying them out have
been under attack. Accusations against the board have ranged from misappropriation of funds
(an issue which has been addressed by the board in the open board meeting of October 19th)
and a "staggering hostility towards activism" (an accusation which is interesting both in how it
creates a hierarchy of value for activism, and in the people at whom it is directed, considering the
extensive participation in community organizing members of the board display), to "violations of
the constitution" regarding the decision of the board to fall back onto the decision-making
procedure outlined by our constitution.
Most consistently, the board has been accused of ignoring calls for staff and board accountability.
This, despite the fact that since August, when many of these concerns were aired, the board
has consistently been trying to implement various strategies, including:
- Calling for a conflict mediation process, naming open hostility in the workplace and a breakdown
in respectful communication as serious obstacles to maintaining healthy working relationships, and
to strategic collective visioning around moving forward. The conflict mediation process was
dismissed by the staff now heading the group '2110democracy' as nothing but a space to talk about
feelings, and not the appropriate venue for which to begin to resolve structural problems,
- Implementing a system of regularly scheduled check-ins for all staff, in response to a staff member
claiming they were unable to get a check-in for months (this despite emails showing evidence to the
contrary). This move was intended to ensure that both staff & board have a guaranteed space
in which to discuss their concerns, ideas and strategies together.After this system was implemented,
two staff members promptly refused to have their check-ins with the board,
- Suggesting a collective visioning session, with all staff and board members, around how the 2110
cycle of activities progresses throughout the year, in order to undertake a comprehensive needs
assessment of this organization and strategize around the next year, and
- Undertaking regular staff evaluations, as per our employement policies & contracts, in order to
assess and address concerns aired around job performance.
These efforts, and others, have been side-tracked, delayed, or dismissed, and as a result our energy
at this point as a board is taken up in simply trying to keep track of and address the numerous
unacceptable actions that have been taken by the '2110democracy' group. These actions include
slander, use of an employee's legal name rather than their name of common usage, hijacking of
the contact list of our organizational listserv to defame their colleagues and disclose
confidential labour information, and many others.
Finally, the board has been accused of violating the constitution by making decisions without the full board present,
since the three permanent staff share a staff seat on the board. In the
context of the decisions to which they are referring, namely those around workplace safety
and labour relations, the suggestion to involve staff in final decision-making would be
impractical. The board is constitutionally mandated to make labour decisions without the
staff seat, since staff decision-making power on issues of labour (how many hours they are
paid for, how much they earn, who is hired, who is deserving of disciplinary measures
and how those should be implemented, who should be fired or have their contracts terminated,
etc.) would obviously constitute a conflict of interest. All staff, regardless of their permanent,
temporary, or contract status, are allowed and expected to air concerns around the functioning
of the centre, respectfully, and in accordance with confidentiality policies in place. Yet the
final decision-making power on labour issues rests with the elected and appointed board members.
Letters recently circulated by several staff of the centre have explicitly failed to acknowledge the
value of the more invisible labour that is carried out by other volunteers and staff through the 2110.
Being a feminist organization, and one whose mission it is to provide services and resources towards
promoting “gender self-determination, bodily sovereignty, and a self-reflexive politic,” the 2110
must not be viewed as a campaigns- and promotions-only space. The events and campaigns which
have come out of the space during the past couple of years have been prolific and remarkable.
This is not the problem. We as a board wish to underline that we value many different types of
activism, whether it be in the form of peer support, organizing the finances for a body that funds a
great deal of community activism, booking spaces for events, creating promotional material, or
leading a march. All of these different types of activism are equally necessary for the type of social
change we are mandated to support, and devaluation of any of these detracts from our work as
part of larger movements.
Furthermore, recent accusations have produced a public display of tensions and divisions,
widening them and making the work all of us do to be focused on our internal issues and self-care
surrounding these, rather than on the needs of our larger constituency. This is a common
non-profit downfall and, as many have stated, is downright depressing. The last thing we
should be using our resources for is to work against each other in internal struggle. Rather,
our focus should be on providing the services we offer to our membership – taking book
requests for the library, training more people to do peer-to-peer support, bringing in facilitators
for workshops on topics it might otherwise be hard to be educated around. Given the current
hostile climate at the Centre, it is close to impossible to focus our efforts where they should be.
It is also worth noting that a public and aggressive attack on the Centre of this nature clearly
deters those who need to access the services offered there.
The recent issue surrounding the cops and security needs to be addressed. It should be stated
clearly that the board does not endorse police brutality, let alone police intervention. It’s really
problematic that it got to that level, and really indicative of the kinds of quick choices many of
us as individuals have been required to make in a stressful moment where everyone is burdened
with trying to maintain a level of safety, self-preservation, and mental well-being. It also indicates
that we as a community need to do more work around creating resources that provide alternatives
to police intervention in situations of crisis, and skill-share around de-escalation strategies. It’s clear
that all parties involved have made some unimpressive decisions, ones that in a climate of calm
and good faith would have been made differently. Unfortunately, that point was passed awhile ago
and we’re currently making decisions in a climate of hostility and despair. In order to continue to
provide services and carry out administrative functions (both of which have recently been under
attack or have been deemed unimportant by certain members of the staff), suspension was an
unappealing but necessary choice. As a board, we do not condone, nor will we participate in,
public attacks on peoples' individual integrity, smear campaigns or mud-slinging.
Board members have to a certain extent maintained a level of reserve these past few months, preferring
to focus on internal investigations and planning how best to address the issues brought up by the staff,
neither of which seemed appropriate to discuss outside of the context of our public board meetings.
We do not wish to air confidential information although, as has been stated, mistakes have been made.
We do not wish to assume a defensive attitude or participate in the discussions prompted by 2110democracy
group, as doing so validates a slanderous and unproductive level of discourse that serves only to harm the 2110
Centre for Gender Advocacy as an establishment.That being said, we have never tried to keep any of these problems
quiet or to actively stifle the groups responsible for them. (However, it is unacceptable for any
member of the 2110 to use the organizational list-serve and facebook group to disseminate slanderous
content against 2110 staff, both current and former. The decision to monitor what is sent out through these venues was made to stop escalating hostility in the workplace.)
As board members who have power over employees, our actions are necessarily open to scrutiny by the membership at large, so as to ensure that power is not abused.
For these reasons, in public statements we have always encouraged people to attend our meetings, self-educate on the issues and participate in these discussions.
We are committed to seeing the centre provide resources, services, and outreach to its full potential. We need to strategically vision about how to move forward, as a collective,
but cannot do so until healthy working relationships are restored.
We therefore would like to invite our membership, particularly those who feel that they have a stake in gender advocacy and organizing, to attend the Special General Meeting and help us in addressing this situation. You are a member if a) you are a Concordia student, b) you have volunteered 12 or more hours over the last 12 months, or c) you are a community member with a stake in these issues who has paid the equivalent of the student fee levy for the semester.
The SGM will take place on Monday, November 2nd at 6pm at 1515 Ste. Catherine st. west. - EV 1.605 (guy Concordia metro). Childcare will be available on request, please contact the
Centre 48 hours in advance to let us know if you need it.
Contact information:
phone: 514.848.2424. ext. 7431.
email: board@centre2110.org or centre.2110@gmail.com