By Jolene Ogle
THE feud between the Sunshine Hospice and its former volunteers has come to a dramatic end this weekend, with the Katie Rose Cottage committee walking out on a special meeting.
There were emotional scenes outside the meeting room at the Big Pineapple, Nambour, on Saturday 8 October with the media and non-financial members excluded from the meeting called by disguntled charity volunteers who want the board to step down.
Those interested chose instead to stand at the windows and watch on as the financial members held a vote of no confidence and fielded motions to install temporary board members.
The Katie Rose Cottage Committee (KRC committee) called the special meeting three weeks ago to hold a vote of no confidence against the current board, calling for them to stand down – but left the meeting after what they believed was an invalid vote.
Vote scrutineer Marcia Vickers, who is aligned with the KRC committee, said the group walked out of the meeting because they believed a number of “irregularities” made the vote invalid.
“The numbers of the ballot were irregular based on the number of people who were present and the number of (proxy votes) filed,” she said.
Ms Vickers said there were also “irregularities” with the Sunshine Hospice membership registry.
Ms Vickers said the committee was entitled to view the membership register on the day notice was given for the special meeting, and as three weeks notice was required to call an extraordinary meeting, only people who were registered as financial members 21-days before the meeting could vote in the meeting held on Saturday 8 October.
Ms Vickers said the committee members who attended the Sunshine Hospice offices to view the membership register were only shown a list of names rather than the official register.
“The KRC committee were not shown the register, they were shown a list of names and the people who saw the list were told there were 73 financial members as of that day,” she said.
“Today we showed up and were told there were 98 financial members and then when I went into the room to scrutineer the formal voting, I was shown a formal registration list of members by the auditor that now has 99 members as of this morning.
“Now, the 99th member, we admit, is someone who is voting with us, but that is an irregularity as well and we want this election to be totally accurate, correct, within the law and above board.
“This board is willing to cut corners every which way, including when running an election. We have just walked out.”
Sunshine Hospice chairman Frank Lewins said he believed members could renew their membership right up until the start of the meeting, confirming a financial member was added to the registry the day of the special meeting.
“We’re entitled to accept a renewal of membership of someone who is not financial, you can do it right up until the time of the meeting,” he said.
Mr Lewins said this late membership also accounted for a small sum of money that was seen placed under a notebook on the desk where the board members sat during the meeting.
Mr Lewins accused the KRC committee of purposely “spoiling” the meeting because they knew they would be “defeated”.
“This bares out a pattern of this spoiling tactic and whether this was orchestrated, because they knew they were going to be defeated,” he said.
Mr Lewins said there was an issue with the voting as there was one extra vote in the ballot box compared to the number of registered voters, but Ms Vickers was “standing on ceremony” by calling for the vote to be marked as invalid because the single extra vote made no difference to the outcome.
Mr Lewins said the current board had remained intact and the motions to elect new directors were defeated.
Mr Lewins said he didn’t know what the final vote count was as he “didn’t see the ballot papers” but said the auditor who conducted the count said there was a “clear difference” in the votes, meaning there was a significant margin between those who voted for the board to step down and those who voted against.
Looking to the future, Mr Lewins said the Sunshine Hospice Board is in talks with an allied health body to help create a private health facility and the partnership is “poised right on the edge” with a joint statement to be released as soon as the end of the month.
The KRC committee said they would take their complaints to the Australian Charities and Not-For-Profits Commission (ACNC) and ASIC.
