'Arrest' at the AGM

[Deleted]

I'd never heard of Yu-Gi-Oh. What an interesting life you do lead! The official rulebook is 2.33MB and has 55 pages. I now know that "Trap Cards have the ability to surprise the opponent by disrupting their attacks and strategies."

Are you going to the AGM? I'm afraid that I'm not.

[Joe K]

Not so interesting, Kay. File under 'rubbish you watch a few times to see how bad it can get'. You start out wanting to see how 'our hero' prevails, with the odds stacked against him, only to find him using some 'special' card to combine two or more other cards and produce a blue-eyed Ip Dip Bird Shit Dragon or whatever, and win the game. The kind of deux ex machina re-interpretation of the rules governing the commercially available game that... our partnership officers wouldn't see any problem with.

The silliest thing I have time to watch now is 'Glee', occasionally.

It's weird, but apart from the poster outside One-eyed Jacks, one I put up at the post office, and one hidden away at the City Farm, there is no advertising anywhere for the AGM eight days hence. I passed the Community Centre to check last night, and noticed they'd left the front door off the latch, presumably following their 'pre-AGM' meeting. Which we were still not invited to, to clarify what a mess they've made of preparations. Nomination forms specify that anyone wanting to be on the committee must agree to 'abide' by the constitution, but few residents have even seen it...

[Deleted]

Apparently, the BTNP now claims to use Facebook and Twitter, and at least one committee member was supposedly unaware of the existence of the Bartred website until I told him about it. I couldn't locate their Facebook web page, and I haven't even tried to find them on Twitter. You're much better than I am with the interweb thingy, so perhaps you could have a look.

[Joe K]

Sorry, I thought I'd responded late on Tuesday night, but I must have got distracted and then turned the computer off before sending.

The Twitter address is twitter.com/btnp_ and it's managed by Mohammed Patel (non-resident). It doesn't actually work when posted on Facebook, directing clickers to a completely different account.

They have no Facebook page that I can see, but they may have hidden it, so it can only be seen by members, who would have to be invited. If so, its the kind of secrecy I would like to see ended.

[Deleted]

So, the BTNP Twitter account is managed by a non-resident, and I couldn't even find it for myself as it didn't come up as one of the top Google results. And they may or may not have a Facebook page, but there isn't one that can be found by someone not 'one of us'.

On a related note, have you joined the new Gloucester City Centre Community Partnership? It is now a different legal entity from before, being both a company limited by guarantee and a registered charitable trust. I went to the inaugural meeting last night, and it's looking good. Absolutely anyone with any interest in Gloucester city centre (i.e.Westgate ward) can join, but you have to tell Barry Leach, as he is not allowed to transfer names from the old membership list to the new one.

[Joe K]

To paraphrase Bill Murray, I respect the professionalism of the CCCP, but I've always been reluctant to become involved with them, as it would feel like admitting that our local chancers have ran me out of Dodge. Maybe I should partake in CCCP activities, and build up a bit of reputation that I can take back to our ward. might even be able to get a recommendation from them, and get on the Community First panel...

By the way, there is a 'Meet The People' event at Tredworth Junior School today (Friday), between 3:30 and 5pm (according to the posters, though the website has different times).

Meet The People Tredworth

[Deleted]

Yes, I think that you should join, if only to get the frequent emails that often contain information not easily available elsewhere.

By the way, I'm thinking of turning up to the beginning of the BTNP AGM, just to see what happens. I really can't stay long, as I have to be in Brockworth at 7.10pm.

[Joe K]

Actually, it's only now you've mentioned it that I realise I haven't had any partnership emails, as I had been, since February 20th (FRIENDS OF ALNEY ISLAND).

Perhaps Barry Leach has swallowed the Phil Lowery/Pat Hurley line...

The beginning of the meeting will be interesting, if only to see if there is a proper effort to check the names and addresses of those who attend, to confirm quoracy. I am going to be checking things are done right, as well as making sure that each step of the elections process is carried out properly.

[Deleted]

As I said, you've got to join the new GCCCP in order to get the emails, although you should have continued to receive them till March, I think.

[Joe K]

I'll have to do that, then.

[Deleted]

Let's have a blow-by-blow account of the BTNP 2013 AGM, then, Joe.

I wish I could have stayed to watch the ructions, but I couldn't be in two places at once.

[Joe K]

Well, what is there to say? Bren McInerney got to give his Health & Well-being report first, because he had to leave early, and couldn't resist, as usual, a snide dig about emails while ostensibly praising Phillip Lowery's chairmanship. The rest of the reports had guest appearances, and thus dragged on.

Come the elections, managed by Lyn Scudamore, the officers all re-nominated each other, with the exception that Tony Ward was replaced by Sonia Friend. Lyn then announced that there six nominations for committee members. Despite Lorraine Mutty assuring me that she had nominated myself, along with someone living in Hopewell Street, and that Sam Mutty and somebody else had nominated Rachel, our nominations were not read out. This didn't particularly surprise me, and I had already decided not to send in our own nominations for each other, with support from neighbours, because if LM couldn't be trusted to do what she promised, there really was no point in continuing with the partnership.

After the meeting, though, Rachel, perhaps further irked by the failure to provide diet drinks for any diabetics, suggested that I should ask Lorraine about her nominations, since neither she, nor Sam, had questioned their absence. Lorraine said that she had definitely dropped them off at Age UK, one of the designated points. Despite this, Pat Hurley avowed, as if butter wouldn't melt in her mouth, that no nominations had been received for us, from any location.

So we've quit worrying about the partnership, but that doesn't mean the partnership should stop worrying about us, or me, since Rachel can't take the grief anymore (for which I feel partly to blame, in thinking that involvement would be good for her, and that members like Paul Harries would not be too two-faced). There is much to criticise, and no reason to hold back anymore.

[Deleted]

Of course, Sonia Friend is no longer a councillor, but I assume that she is still a trustee of the BTCP?

[Joe K]

That's a question you might want to put to Paul Harries on the Gloucestershire Boards. Although it's a question he might want to avoid, as apart from giving the committee the smallest possible* crumb of comfort they needed to continue with an inquorate AGM last November, he has, just as with the India House planning application, done nothing to help...

*And, as it turned out, irrelevant.

[Joe K]

And this is from the minutes of February 27th:

Joe states that he will not abide by the constitution of BTNP.

I've never stated this. I have written this in an email, on Jan 14th:

Hi Philip,

I'm hoping to have a chat with you before the committee meeting on Monday, to clarify a few important issues you haven't responded to by email. Specifically, two things; firstly, what evidence/indication exists that the last amendments to the partnership constitution were approved at a committee meeting at least 28 days before the AGM (if at all)?

Phil Lowery never answered. Questioning the legitimacy of a constitution, however, is not the same as refusing to abide by it. I've actually been more willing to abide by it than Lowery, Pat Hurley, or any of the rest of the committee, for all the good it's done me.