A controversial proposal to rewrite the membership rules for Centretown’s main community organization – a change that would have excluded Centretown business owners and employees who are non-residents – has been rejected by the group’s board of directors.
A subcommittee of the Centretown Citizens’ Community Association urged the change as part of a suite of proposed bylaw reforms presented to the organization’s board of directors ahead of next week’s CCCA annual general meeting.
Charles Akben-Marchand, chair of the bylaw review committee, said the change was proposed in the belief that a residents-only rule would better represent the interests of those living in Centretown.
“When the CCCA was created, there weren’t as many options for business owners and managers to be represented, and also there was a different context of everyone trying to work together,” said Akben-Marchand.
“Since then, we’ve found that membership tends to be towards residents only, so we didn’t think it would be that controversial a change.”
The committee was wrong.
“Several board members spoke against it, basically because they felt a Centretown organization is part of a mixed community, and they wanted to represent everyone,” said Joan Spice, a board member who was also a member of the bylaw review committee.
“There are associations and groups for Centretown business owners, but most of them are not very active.”
In the end, the board and review committee agreed not to pursue the amendment, allowing business owners who live outside Centretown to remain part of the association.
“It didn’t come out of any problems, so we didn’t feel it was necessary to try to push it or anything,” said Akben-Marchand.
“There are plenty of more important things that need changing, and to distract from those more important things by having a debate on this particular issue is not a good use of our time.”
All bylaw changes must be approved by the membership. A two-thirds majority of people at the annual general meeting is required in order to make a bylaw change.
The bylaws of the CCCA were last updated in 1998.
With the rejected amendment to membership criteria, the updated bylaws are essentially unchanged except for a new provision stating that they must be reviewed every five years.
The bylaw review committee met four times during the summer with the intention of clarifying some confusing bylaws, and updating them so they are more relevant to the modernized neighbourhood.
CCCA’s annual general meeting is scheduled to be held on Oct. 21, beginning at 7 p.m.
More information can be found on the website at www.centretowncitizens.org/ .