By Irek Kusmierczyk
The non-profit members of the Bronson Centre will consider the possibility of moving out of the centre after having been denied a meeting with the owners to discuss their call for more representation on the board of directors.
On Nov. 8, the members sent a letter to Sister Fay Edmonds, the superior general of the Grey Sisters of the Immaculate Conception who own the Bronson Centre and appoint its board of directors. The letter requested that the Grey Sisters dissolve the board of directors and asked Sister Fay for a meeting to discuss alternatives to the current management structure.
Hoppy Roy, spokesperson for the disgruntled member groups, says Sister Fay declined the offer.
“The answer looks pretty final,” says Roy. “There is a one-per-cent chance that they’ll come to the table within the next little while.”
The member groups met on Nov. 30 and decided not to make any major decisions until the new year, says Roy. That’s when they’ll begin to look at their options, which include leaving their beloved centre.
“There is a strong feeling that we need to find a way to build a community,” says Roy. “The location will probably have to change.”
Roy says the members would rather find a solution and continue to build their community at the Bronson Centre than move.
But Roy says that’s impossible under the current board of directors. She says the members want the board to be dissolved because they are not represented on it. The board has also replaced the sense of community within the centre with a formal tenant-landlord relationship, she says.
Roy says the members decided at the meeting to put the past behind them, including the Sept. 21 firing of the centre’s executive director, Maureen Moloughney, which sparked protests from the members. Roy says Moloughney inspired a sense of community within the centre and her sudden firing shocked the members.
The members became concerned that the board doesn’t represent them and began calling for it to be dissolved.
Roy also says the members have given up trying to understand the lack of communication from the board. The board has met with the members only twice since the Bronson Centre opened four years ago at the former Immaculata high school.
“We just don’t have the energy,” she says.
Sister Fay refused to comment on the letters or the request for the board to be dissolved.
Board chairman Timothy Kehoe also refused to comment.