Tag: Concordia University Television

Concerned staff and community members, students and donors attended an eight-hour long General Assembly to restructure Concordia University Television Saturday. The goal of the GA was to implement a legitimate set of bylaws and oversee the creation of a provisional Board of Directors.

The campus-based television station’s lack of structure has impeded it from moving forward this semester. A rough transitional agreement from the Concordia Student Broadcasting Corporation, copious resignations and interpersonal conflicts coupled with financial instability led CUTV to lose its footing on already shaky ground this October.

With a legally illegitimate provisional BoD and unratified bylaws, volunteers and former staff members of CUTV held meetings to discuss how to rebuild. Following two information sessions, the GA was set for Dec. 1.

Over 40 individuals attended the meeting, chaired by Fine Arts student Alex Matak, to voice their concerns, questions and suggestions. The meeting, which lasted from morning to early evening, provided undergraduate students, volunteers, donors, staff and community members with voting rights.

A temporary set of bylaws was adopted following contention and lack of time to develop a set of guidelines everyone could agree upon. An amendment was made to bylaw 4.1 to include all students who pay a fee-levy to CUTV as members.

Due to time constraints and conflicts over the formation of a proposed board of 11 members, a motion was put forth to implement a provisional BoD. The original proposal incorporated a position for a donor and three students, a point that was met with contention from some.

CUTV member Julian Ward proposed a board model with more student representation including four students, four community members and one staff member. This motion was amended to exclude a staff member leading to a final eight members after discord among attendees.

Following a secret ballot, the newly implemented provisional BoD consists of four undergraduate students: Emily Campbell, Ward, Michelle Moore and Kian Ettehadieh and four community members: David Widgington, Mikelai Cervera, Anthony Côte and Catherine Poitras Auger.

“Getting things sort of back to normal takes precedence,” Ettehadieh told The Concordian. “We have to address the wide variety of issues going on, whether they are personal, legal or financial.”

Two re-counts revealed a tie in the number of votes for Côte and candidate William Ray. The only proposed solution in the bylaws for such a situation stated that the chairperson could vote. Citing discomfort, Matak opted instead to flip a coin. Therefore, Côte was appointed as the result of a coin toss.

“The priority was to make sure they have a legal board to bring CUTV back on its feet,” said President Schubert Laforest of the Concordia Student Union. “It’s the best outcome given the situation.”

While CUTV possesses a legal board, challenges and questions remain. A real BoD must be structured and agreed upon, a future GA must be held to continue going over bylaws, and the payroll is frozen.

“As the signing authority on the account, the Concordia Student Broadcasting Corporation froze the payroll. It was not the university,” said Chris Mota, university spokesperson. “The university has not been in touch with members of the station as this is a student fee levy group that needs to work out its own issues.”

According to Mota, the university has been monitoring the situation.

Angelica Calcagnile, president of the CSBC, told The Concordian that a motion was passed by the CSBC to freeze CUTV’s payroll account on Oct. 30 in light of the legal limbo the station found itself in.

“I know that the university had to catch up on that with payroll, but the decision to freeze that account was taken on October 30,” Calcagnile said. “I’m not sure of the exact moment in time in which that happened, but ultimately it was the university that froze the account.”

Correction made on 5/12/2012

Concordia University Television will hold a General Assembly this Saturday to establish a proper governance structure in an effort to move forward following weeks of instability.

The future of CUTV remains unclear; clouded by uncertainty and fuelled by several unresolved issues. The campus television station underwent a slew of resignations, frozen funds and financial instability in recent weeks. CUTV experienced a rough transition period in separating from the Concordia Student Broadcasting Corporation coupled with a legally defunct Board of Directors. Following a second public meeting, a GA was unanimously voted for last Monday.

“I think everyone involved right now in the process of preparing for the GA shares one common goal,” said Sabine Friesinger, the sole director remaining on CUTV’s emergency provisional Board. “It is building a solid, democratic, inclusive and transparent structure that reflects the values of community media.”

Gabrielle Bouchard, the 2110 Centre for Gender Advocacy peer support and trans advocacy co-ordinator, moderated both meetings in hopes of aiding the station to establish a plan to move forward. Bouchard also helped plan the upcoming GA because there was a “collective understanding to work together” and is currently facilitating conversation between active members of CUTV.

At the second meeting, everyone agreed that a GA was necessary to give a foundation to a new CUTV legal identity. According to the CUTV’s event page, the goal is to form bylaws, appoint an auditor who will assess the station’s finances, elect a new BoD and establish voting rights—all legal requirements of a Quebec not-for-profit organization.

Undergraduate students, volunteers, employees, donors and community partner organizations are eligible to vote.

“I hope to see an open and positive discussion and some good bylaws adopted,” Bouchard said. “I also hope that some great, strong and empathetic people will come forward and get elected on the board.”

It remains unknown as to where the GA will be held but Bouchard hopes to ask the Concordia Student Union for the seventh floor lounge and a list of all students to make identification easier when voting.

“Despite the gloomy period CUTV has gone through in the past weeks, the fact that members are stepping up and taking the time from their own busy schedules to continue to get things done at CUTV is one of the most positive things that could happen at this point,” Friesinger said. “I’m really encouraged by their determination and will to help the station move out of the impasse.”

Following weeks of legal troubles and a handful of resignations, members of Concordia University Television held a meeting to discuss how to move forward.

On June 1, a transitional agreement was put forth between CUTV and Concordia Student Broadcasting Corporation, the organization that supervised the governance of CUTV and the university’s student radio station, CJLO. This agreement meant that CUTV would be seen as a new, independent not-for-profit organization.

However, while in the midst of the transition process, CUTV faced an array of problems. CUTV currently has no tangible operating budget due to financial troubles that forced the university’s administration to step in and freeze the accounts in October.

In documents obtained by The Concordian, the statements of a PayPal account owned by CUTV revealed financial instability. In the months where the student strike movement was at its height, CUTV recorded a gain of more than $25,000 in a single month alone. Conversely, the financial statements from Oct. 1 to Oct. 24 reveal that CUTV’s funds dwindled from $3,724.73 to $333.42 prior to the university’s intervention.

Furthermore, the student-run organization lost its station manager, Laura Kneale, and the growing number of resignations for its provisional Board of Directors has rendered it legally defunct.

Legally, CUTV cannot appoint more members to its BoD since only one person remains as a director. Therefore, the station must either dissolve or have a judge legally appoint more members. During this changeover, members of the station neglected time limits concerning the transition agreement between themselves and the CSBC. They never managed to adopt any bylaws or hold general assemblies.

In an open letter published last Tuesday on the station’s website, Laith Marouf, former program director and current executive director of CUTV, stated that the student strike movement lead to less time for “implementing government structure.”

The first meeting, held in the basement of Concordia’s School of Community and Public Affairs, was called by Marouf in the same letter in order to garner support to “save” it.

In response, staff members of CUTV voiced their concerns and frustrations in their own letter. Staff members claimed that information was inaccessible to them and they were disappointed with the lack of communication and having to rely on external news sources for information. An article published in The Link detailed the legal challenges CUTV is facing and the authors of the letter claimed that “it has been disappointing and frustrating to watch from the outside as the station we contributed time and energy to seems to be crumbling.”

Students and members of the Concordia community attended the meeting to discuss what kind of guidelines need to be implemented and a way to move forward. At times, the conversation was contentious due to the inability to render a decision on who was considered a member of CUTV, the need to put forth bylaws and eventually hold a general assembly.

Marouf said that membership should be defined by volunteerism, and that while students of the university pay into the fee-levy group, only volunteers at CUTV should have voting rights.

This motion did not sit well with many in attendance, including Morgan Pudwell, the Concordia Student Union’s former VP advocacy and outreach.

“Undergraduate students deserve to be in that discussion,” said Pudwell.

Unable to reach a consensus on what defines membership, the meeting ended at an impasse with a second meeting held Monday evening to discuss the same matters.

The result of the second meeting was that voting rights at the upcoming General Assembly would extend to individuals who have been staff members since October 2011, donors and Concordia students.

The General Assembly is to be held the first weekend of December, though it is not yet known what day it will take place.

During both meetings, individuals suggested that personal attacks were unacceptable and impeded discussions from moving forward. Thursday, staff member Emily Campbell said the current atmosphere left her and others feeling unsafe about going to the station.

It was a reference to the mounting tensions between members within CUTV and the two letters published by different groups with opposing views. The letter issued on CUTV’s website claimed that the station was “under attack” by the CSBC who “positioned itself as the governing body of CUTV” and wanted to “shut it down.” Authors stated that CSBC President Justin Giovannetti was “engaged in a public campaign to undermine CUTV.”

However, in an interview with The Concordian, Marouf contradicted the statement on the website.

“The CSBC was not attempting to shut down CUTV. Its president, Justin Giovannetti, differed in his vision with CUTV members and staff and was not able to detach his inherent bias as both an employee of CTV, a corporate rival for our station, and his presidency on the Board of Directors of The Link,” Marouf said. “He was wearing too many hats.”

Giovannetti resigned from the CSBC Wednesday, marking yet another resignation. Giovannetti wrote in an email that “Few of you will be surprised when I say that I didn’t enjoy my past year as your president.”

He went on to write that “Tonight I was forced to make a choice between my employment and continuing to volunteer for a campus organization.”

Angelica Calcagnile, the CSBC’s vice-president, said that CUTV was now on its own.

“CUTV is no longer part of the CSBC, and we are no longer responsible for their decision-making, so it is up to their membership to improve the situation at the station,” she said. “That said, we support the development of a strong, unified and financially stable organization with a clear legal structure and demonstrated responsibility to Concordia’s students.”

The provisional BoD of CUTV that included Kneale, Marouf and staff member Abel Alegria dissolved in October. Wendy Kraus-Heitmann also stepped down as provisional emergency director of CUTV’s BoD earlier this month citing Marouf’s actions as the reason for her departure, and leaving Sabine Friesigner as the single director.

“[CUTV] is only holding meetings now because the staff went nuts after being mismanaged into the ground for months on end, and Laith and [his] friends are desperate to look good,” Kraus-Heitmann said. “Laith Marouf is not attempting to save CUTV. Laith Marouf is trying to save his job.”