Picking up where we left off, we now have lift off! Come and sign up this Sunday Aug 15, Civic Green, (11am – 1pm) to show your support for putting the community back into the heart of Lyndoch.
This is a show of solidarity for the staff and residents. It’s a chance to say that we want a reality check around what is happening with Lyndoch, beyond the spin and the silence and the puffy stories.
So many people have worked so hard these past years to raise the issues that are now coming home to roost at Lyndoch. For me, the string of failures in care recorded by the ACQSC is the final straw.
We can either walk away, or we can walk up on Sunday and say, “Sign me up”.
Wear a mask, bring a pen and bring your resolve.
[If you would like to fill out your form before you arrive, you can do so here. If you can’t make it Sunday, but would like to sign up, send me a message.]
Testing the gate: launching a Lyndoch membership drive
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].
Lyndoch Living board member calls it quits…now what?
Now you see him…..Peter Downs was listed as a board member on Saturday morning, 15 February 2020.
Carol Altmann – The Terrier
Former Warrnambool Racing Club chief Peter Downs has quit the board of Lyndoch Living, having been reappointed for another three years just last October.
I don’t know exactly when Mr Downs* – who moved to Melbourne in September – resigned, but his board profile was on the Lyndoch website yesterday morning and gone by the end of the day.
This is awkward.
Lyndoch now has to fill his spot.
Mr Downs was one of nine board members, and Lyndoch must have at least nine board members under its constitution.
And here’s the catch: to become a board member, you must be first a general member.
Uh oh.
As we know, Lyndoch has only 15 14 members in total, all present and accounted for, including the board, the executive including the CEO, and two life members in Ron Patterson and David Atkinson who have already done their time.
There is nobody else, because, as we also know, nobody has been allowed to join.
No new members = no new board members.
Now you don’t. The Lyndoch Living board page was updated by the afternoon to remove Mr Downs.
Just yesterday there was a brilliant Letter to the Editor to the Warrnambool Standard by retired lawyer Lynn Hudson, a super-qualified person who applied to become a member of Lyndoch and was flatly rejected.
Lynn’s letter pulled back the veil on the farce that has seen a string of smart, caring, well-credentialled people who have applied for Lyndoch membership and been rejected with no explanation.
What an absolute joke.
Except the joke, if it only were funny, is that the Lyndoch board now has to find a new board member.
It has four choices, only two of which will pass muster.
One is to hand pick someone that passes the strict criteria for being a Lyndoch board member, which appears to be sit down, don’t ask tricky questions and be bedazzled by the plans to transform our aged care home into LyndochLand™.
Another is to advertise for a board member, which used to happen back in the days of equity, openness and gratitude for a community that loved Lyndoch.
A third is to do both of the above: advertise and then pick the person who has been worded up to apply.
Or…..
Former WRC CEO Peter Downs was re-elected to the Lyndoch Living board at the AGM last October. Photo: Racing.com
Or, the board just happens to have a membership application on its desk right now from one of the most qualified, most decent, most ethical, respected and upfront people in Warrnambool: Vicki Jellie, AM.
What a stroke of luck for Lyndoch Living!
Vicki, as we all know, was the driving force behind Peter’s Project, which saw a multi-million-dollar cancer treatment centre built in Warrnambool.
The AM after her name was awarded in the national Australia Day awards in 2017 as Australia’s Local Hero – a winner chosen out of the whole nation!
And yet here is Vicki, applying along with the rest of us, to see if she is good enough to be accepted as a member of Lyndoch Living where she used to work and where, first hand, she saw the changes that are now the subject of long-overdue scrutiny.
Mind you, I doubt Vicki would want to join the Lyndoch board as it stands.
There are mounting questions about the direction of Lyndoch, and around staff morale, resignations and sick leave, which rolls on, believe me, except I am unable to speculate publicly as to why.
Mr Downs’ resignation has forced the hand of the board to reveal its true intentions and the next board meeting on 25 February will be very revealing.
We will know whether the board intends to once again be open and honest with the community that built and sustained Lyndoch for more than 60 years, or to remain a place of secrets and, I hope, growing unease.
One thing is certain, the game is up.
*I have left messages with Mr Downs late this afternoon for comment. If you would like to apply to become a member of Lyndoch Living, here is the form.
If you would like to help keep the Terrier typing, please contribute below.
