Carol Altmann – The Terrier

More than 100 membership applications* for Lyndoch Living will be hand-delivered to Lyndoch on Friday by Jim Burke, thanks to those who have stepped forward and signed up.

The next step is for the Lyndoch board to decide who from the community, if anyone, is accepted.

This is an opportunity for the board to right a wrong, because surely it is wrong that there is not one single member of the general community among Lyndoch’s current membership. Not one.

And, as far as I know, Lyndoch’s membership still doesn’t include any residents, or family of residents.

This means that aside from a handful of executive staff (about six) and the seven people on its board, Lyndoch doesn’t have any other members.

If that situation has changed in recent times, we don’t know about it.

The situation at Lyndoch is very different to other community owned, not-for-profit residential homes like, for example, Boandik in Mt Gambier.

Members of Boandik (which is about half the size of Lyndoch) are those who have donated to its work in the past fin year, or are a resident.

In theory, you can apply to become a member of Lyndoch if you are over 18, of sound mind, and agree to its main objectives.

In practice – for the last couple of years – anyone who has applied without being invited has been rejected.

Lyndoch now has 100-plus chances to change that.

[*The final figure will be known by Friday when last-minute forms roll in. What a great effort by everyone who has been involved.]

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

A simple but unsettling question underpins this Sunday’s membership drive for Lyndoch Living: why is Lyndoch so scared of the community it serves?

Why has it not allowed one single person from outside Lyndoch to join its membership ranks in the past two years, if not longer?

A not-for-profit, community owned organisation is normally hunting like a hungry Scottie for members who care enough to at least, on a good day, turn up to the AGM.

Speaking of the AGM, here’s another curly question: why are there no annual reports available on the Lyndoch website, other than the most recent? Odd.

And why, in the past two years, has Lyndoch not advertised to fill any board vacancies as they arise?

Every single vacancy has been filled by invitation only.

Is it you?

Is it, gulp, me?

Are we so terrifying that we must be kept at arm’s length from poking around and tearing a hole in the delicate fabric of the Lyndoch Living image?

Surely the community is not that scary, after all, we are talking about the same people whose parents, aunts, uncles, friends and families helped to create Lyndoch in the first place.

Without the community, there would be no Lyndoch.

Believe it or not, the community still owns it.

Admittedly, I don’t expect to be on Lyndoch’s Christmas drinks list. I have never met the CEO and I have never received, like one journo, a string of love hearts on Facebook from a board member. I get that I am never going to be allowed in.

But YOU – as a member of the wider Warrnambool community – YOU should be welcomed with open arms.

So why has Lyndoch – metaphorically – gone and changed the locks while you weren’t looking?

Perhaps, and this is only a theory, Lyndoch is nervous of the potential power of members.

Under its constitution, members can, if they like, ask questions.

Maybe Lyndoch is also twitchy about members being able to call general meetings, where they can pass resolutions, like, say, a vote of no confidence.

Members don’t have to do these things…but they can.

Members, as a group, can be powerful.

Perhaps that’s why Lyndoch is so scared of the community it serves, because its comfort zone has become a place of total control and losing control is, well, terrifying.

If you apply to become a member of Lyndoch on Sunday, and I really hope you will, this theory will be tested.

Applying to become a member does not mean you will be accepted, and therein lies the challenge.

We shall see how many, if any, make it through.

[The sign-up will be held this Sunday, August 15, Civic Green, 11am to 1pm. No fee required. Forms provided. Bring a pen, wear a mask. You can find a membership form in advance here, and the Lyndoch constitution here.]

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.]