Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Well blow me down: Lyndoch Living has opened up its annual general meeting to the community it serves.

If you haven’t heard already, people who sent emails asking for a link to the AGM via Zoom on Tuesday 14 December have recently been sent a reply saying that they will receive a link and an agenda on Monday 13 December.

This is a breakthrough.

Lyndoch has finally realised, it seems, that it has obligations both as a charity and as a community owned organisation.

As a charity, it must – by law – maintain public confidence in its operations.

Blocking the public out of an AGM does not instil confidence: it crushes it.

In terms of accountability as a charity, it would be a big fat fail.

And as a community owned organisation, Lyndoch has a moral obligation to allow the community it serves to join its AGM as observers.

We have every right to watch the chair, Sue Cassidy, deliver the annual report and to hear how Lyndoch is travelling financially.

We also have a right to see who, if anyone, has been approached for the two board positions which have remained vacant since May and who from the current board will be elected again.

This is pretty basic stuff and for Lyndoch to have tried to slam the door shut and make the AGM a select, invitation only event was sending it down a perilous path that I am almost certain would make an interesting case for the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profit Commission.

But while the door has opened slightly, it is far from being flung off its hinges.

None of us can ask questions at the AGM, we can only watch.

We can’t ask questions unless we are members of Lyndoch and we know how that works: nobody is allowed to join unless hand-picked.

I have a number of questions I would like asked at the AGM and perhaps you do too.

But we can’t ask them, because we have all been denied membership to Lyndoch.

Bugger that. Let’s ask them anyway.

If you have a question, please email it to me (TerrierCarol@protonmail.com) or DM via Facebook and I will make sure they are sent to the chair by next Friday, 9 December.

Here are a couple of questions on my list:

Is the $22 million medical clinic fully tenanted?

What is the contingency plan if unable to fill it?

What is the debt strategy of Lyndoch?

How many staff have left the organisation in the past 18 months and how much has this cost?

What is the strategy to retain experienced staff?

Why are there no copies of previous annual reports on the Lyndoch Living website?

Has the board checked the figures presented to the AGM? How was this done?

What feedback, if any, has the board had regarding staff satisfaction at Lyndoch?

Has the board reviewed Lyndoch’s business partnerships and sponsorships and how are these performing?

What is the financial position of the Waterfront Living apartment complex? Is it fully sold?

…over to you.

(If you would like to join the Zoom, email ceo@lyndoch.org.au by 9 December.)

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Time to get busy: the Lyndoch Living AGM is coming up in October, so next Sunday I am running a “sign up” for Lyndoch membership day.

The plan is to collect as many applications as we can – 20? 50? – to try and put the “c” (community) back into the heart of Lyndoch.

As I have written before, Lyndoch has no general members who come from outside Lyndoch.

All of the general members – around six or seven – are employees of Lyndoch.

In the past 18 months, a string of applications from the public have been flatly rejected by the board with no reasons given.

Who would have thought our aged care home would become such an exclusive club?

And speaking of the board, Lyndoch has had two board vacancies since May, but there has been no call for nominations – the spots remain empty. (The nine board members are separate to general members.)

It’s all very strange and completely at odds with what has been the community spirit of Lyndoch for the past 60 years.

This gatekeeping also removes a grassroots layer of scrutiny because members can – if they want to – do a number of things, including ask questions at the AGM, call general meetings, pass resolutions, run for the board, and vote on board nominations.

With the AGM now on the horizon, I believe the time is right to “test the gate” and see if it remains firmly locked to the uninvited.

Prof James Dunbar and Jim Burke, from the “Keep Lyndoch living” group, will be helping me out next Sunday.

If you would like to be a part of this push, pop down to the Warrnambool Civic Green between 11am and 3pm and look for the not-very-fancy terrier table.

I will have membership forms ready to go, it’s free to apply, and I will deliver them all to Lyndoch once we are done.

We will then wait and see how many people, if any, make it through.

[Sunday August 8, Civic Green, 11am to 3pm. Covid-safe protocols will apply. Please BYO pen and wear a mask. If you would like to bring your membership form already filled out, you can download it here].

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Does bullying and intimidation just disappear?

It’s seven months since a leaked staff survey at Lyndoch Living revealed poor staff morale and serious allegations of intimidation and bullying that went right to the very top – nothing has been heard of it since.

Was anything done within Lyndoch to address these allegations, and to lift poor staff morale?

This is another question to add to the list for tomorrow’s (27/10) Annual General Meeting, which we cannot attend as it’s by invitation-only Zoom (Lyndoch says a recording will be uploaded later to its website).

It’s a question that should concern us all.

Long-term readers will know that The Terrier has written a series of stories questioning why more than 80 staff had left the aged care home in the past two years, amid allegations of staff being targeted, bullied and devalued.

The special survey was held in response to these stories and the results leaked in March confirmed the toxic environment.

A majority of respondents raised issues of being overworked and under-valued, and claimed management favoured some staff over others.

Two-third of respondents said Lyndoch did not uphold its values, starting from the CEO down.

The survey then went on to report this bombshell:

“A small sample of around 10-15 respondents stated that the CEO’s culture of intimidation, manipulation and bullying greatly impacted their safety, health and wellbeing.

They said they witnessed her bullying others and making decisions in regard to her own self-interests and not the organisation as a whole.”

Sadly none of the allegations in the survey came as a surprise to me, as by March I had spoken to dozens of people who all told the same heartbreaking and terrible stories of being managed out, pushed out, demeaned, isolated, or cut loose.

Lyndoch’s culture, like that of the Warrnambool City Council, had gone bad.

South-west MP Roma Britnell, a former nurse, had been similarly contacted by people seeking her intervention and in March she demanded a meeting with the CEO and Lyndoch board.

Then Covid-19 hit.

And the meeting between Ms Britnell and Lyndoch never happened.

So, I have to ask again, does bullying, intimidation and low staff morale just disappear?

Of course it doesn’t.

As of today, I have never had a response from Lyndoch to requests for a comment on this staff survey, the allegations, or what actions it has taken to address the allegations, but CEO Doreen Power told the local newspaper at the time that she would “take on board” the findings.

Ms Britnell, in a statement, said she continues “to have discussions with Lyndoch Living on a range of matters”, which – I guess – is hopeful.

In the meantime, Lyndoch is about to launch another anonymous staff survey – this one is held every two years – to again take the pulse on staff wellbeing and whether everyone is heading “in the same direction”….rather than, perhaps, out the door.

“I encourage you to be completely honest,” Ms Power has written in an email to staff.

Well, yes, but what happens after the staff are honest, as they were the last time they were surveyed?

That’s what I am hungry to know, as are all those who have left Lyndoch these past five years in less than happy circumstances.

This next survey is being run by Alignment Partners, owned by a fellow named Michael Webb, who has worked in the past with Lyndoch on management-type issues.

So many surveys.

I made a promise to those who entrusted me with their stories that I would not look away until the issues and allegations were addressed and we, as the community who owns Lyndoch, could take comfort that they were being addressed.

It’s the same promise I made to Warrnambool City Council staff who filled out survey after survey for a decade and saw nothing change…until everything blew open.

We may not be able to Zoom in on the Lyndoch AGM tomorrow, but we are watching.

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Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Here’s a little surprise I discovered purely by accident – Warrnambool City Councillor Sue Cassidy is now Vice President of Lyndoch Living.

Wow, that is called shooting to the top after just three years on the board.

Ms Cassidy is second in charge on the board of the largest aged care home in Warrnambool and no doubt primed to replace President/chair Kerry Nelson when she retires.

At least two board vacancies should be coming up at next week’s Lyndoch Living AGM, although I can’t be sure, because board vacancies are no longer advertised.

But on my reckoning, Ms Cassidy is one of them and WCC colleague City Growth Manager Andrew Paton is the other.

Abbey, the Unofficial Member of Lyndoch representing the broader community, had hoped to apply.

Of course she had no hope, because to become a board member, you have to first be a member – approved by the board.

At last count, there are no members of Lyndoch Living who are not already connected to Lyndoch.

As I have written before, this is because ever since Lyndoch changed in 2018 from an association to a Company Limited by Guarantee, it runs pretty much as a closed shop.

Board members are now appointed by invitation to what is a volunteer position.

Not only did Abbey have to scale that impossible hurdle, she had to unseat either Mr Paton or Ms Cassidy and they are going nowhere fast.

Because Ms Cassidy and Mr Paton have another special job inside Lyndoch and that is as co-directors of Lyndoch Healthcare Pty Ltd.

The third director is Lyndoch CEO Doreen Power.

Lyndoch Healthcare Pty Ltd is the company that oversees the Warrnambool Medical Clinic which was bought by Lyndoch last year for $1.3 million and will be relocated to Lyndoch as part of the $100 million masterplan.

Here is question for the AGM next Tuesday: are the directors of Lyndoch Healthcare Pty Ltd paid? And if so, how much? And did the board select who became directors?

I hate to break it to Abbey, but I don’t think she is going to be elected to the board as a fresh face and neither, most likely, is anybody else.

[The Lyndoch Living AGM is next Tuesday at 4pm and will be Zoomed live by invitation only. Lyndoch has said a recording of the event will be uploaded to its website.]