Nine months after the last Island Community Services (ICS) annual general meeting, the society’s board has made public its new criteria for membership — and it’s unlikely to translate into anyone becoming a new eligible voting member of the 50-year-old organization before the next AGM set for Sept. 25.
“ICS has adopted criteria and a process for membership selection that is considered best practice for the sector, and includes drawing members from those that are actively participating in the organization’s activities,” stated ICS board chair Jennifer Lannan in an emailed response to a series of Driftwood questions about the issue. “The current policy that defines that participation is completion of 20 hours of volunteer service annually.”
According to emailed notices shared with the Driftwood, that policy change was communicated in an Aug. 4 email to some of the dozens of individuals who applied for society membership in 2024. A May 28 ICS email to applicants had asked if they were still interested in becoming an ICS member, if they still lived on Salt Spring or in the Southern Gulf Islands, what capacity they had to support the organization and whether or not they had conflicts of interest to disclose. A response deadline of June 30 was set. They were advised that if they did not reply by the deadline then their application would need to be resubmitted.
Earlier in the year, on March 6, the board sent membership applicants a letter advising that “The board has been engaged with a number of external consultations including board development and legal. A membership committee has been struck and is actively working on a response to the applications that is fair, objective and consistent . . . We will be communicating at some point in the spring of 2025 with regard to an information session for applicants on the subject of the society and we look forward to your attendance.”
But that session did not occur.
Gayle Baker, who last year took an active role in trying to get more members for ICS, said the board’s actions in “stringing along” last year’s applicants with interim communications and then ultimately drafting the 20-hour volunteer work criteria that eliminated most of them were “disappointing.”
“It’s unfortunate it worked out this way,” said Baker.
Facing many membership applications in the months leading up to its Nov. 14, 2024 AGM — in response to concerns expressed publicly by former local MLA Adam Olsen, past board members and others about the organization — the board decided at that time to approve no new members. Doing so, board members said, ensured no “hostile takeover” of the society would occur at the AGM or through additional general meetings that a certain number or percentage of registered society members are allowed to call.
“As part of its ongoing commitment to continuous improvement,” Lannan wrote in her Driftwood response, the board of ICS has undertaken an extensive review of the membership selection process over the last year that has included significant research and consultation, including legal and other expertise in the non-profit sector.”
She also referred to a 2023 Pacific Legal Education Outreach (PLEO) Law for Non Profits legal reference sheet about membership, which is posted on the ICS website in the section on membership and includes a paragraph describing how some non-profits “will require prospective members to volunteer before they can apply to become members. Having that in a policy is a good way to establish the ground rules for members. This practice may help protect the non-profit from conflicts that result from individuals joining the organization who do not share its mission or values.”
Current ICS volunteers meeting the 20-hour requirement were reportedly invited to apply for membership in the society. Lannan did not respond to a specific question of how many of those individuals had made an application.
Although ICS executive director Rob Grant was not asked for input to this story, he emailed a copy of the PLEO Law for Non Profits document on the ICS website to the Driftwood, highlighting sentences such as “Membership in a non-profit is not a right; it is a privilege,” and “Many non-profits have bylaws requiring the board to have the final say on whether an individual can become a member. However, others have gotten out of the habit of taking this important step.”
“Law For Non Profits is a significantly more credible source of facts about non profit governance than Facebook,” Grant wrote, adding, “This is what my research into journalism ethics turned up” and providing six paragraphs of ChatGPT-generated information about “journalism ethics.”
Changes made to ICS bylaws in July of 2024 included board approval being required for society membership, but with no criteria spelled out. Further bylaw changes made this past July added that membership was open to people who are “free of Conflicts of Interest relevant to the Society” and who meet “the requirements for participation in the Society as a volunteer as established by the Board of Directors.”
Lannan said the Sept. 25 AGM will take place at 3 p.m. on the third floor of The Core on McPhillips Avenue, “at which time we will be marking our 50th year as a registered B.C. society.”