187 Willis Street, Wellington
PO Box 427, Wellington 6140
21 July 2020
Tena koe
Recently
there appears to have arisen some confusion about who can be members of
LILAC. Also, there are actions, apparently attributed to the
Collective, that are simply not true.
Following many debates over a number of years, LILAC’s constitution
sets out the criteria for membership and the purposes of the
organisation. These sections of the constitution were confirmed as
recently as the 2018 Annual General Meeting and are set out below for
your information.
Members
of the Collective are very clear, we have a membership definition and
we have the agreed purposes of the organisation. They are what we abide
by and what we promote. We have a code of conduct to which we are all
expected to adhere. This can be found at lilac.lesbian.net.nz/codememb.htm
Of
course, we cannot control what any individual member of LILAC says, nor
should we try, but when members of the Collective and our other
volunteers are “on duty” so to speak, we need to stay within the
boundaries set by the constitution and code of conduct, and not express
personal opinions that would take us outside those boundaries. We can
have that sort of conversation elsewhere.
We
do not have many places we can go to access positively presented
resources. LILAC is one such place. It must, therefore, be a place where
we can meet, socialise with other, like-minded women, borrow resources,
listen to visiting speakers and so on. It must be a place where we feel
welcome, safe.
To
facilitate this, it means that EVERYONE who is in the LILAC premises
needs to be courteous and considerate of the other women there.
Discussions, debates are fine but they must be measured, not heated. Do
that somewhere else ??
There are two other matters connected to membership.
Apparently LILAC declines membership to bisexual and/or trans women. Not true. The Collective has done neither.
That
there is a clause (6.2) in the constitution which enables the
Collective to question prospective members and refuse membership without
necessarily saying why. That this clause is there specifically to
refuse membership to trans and/or bisexual women. This is also untrue.
The reason for this clause is that over the years there have been
members who have, for example, failed to return books, damaged DVDs, etc
and then, sometime later, wish to re-join LILAC. 6.2 allows the
Collective to have a chat about the earlier issues and work out some
form of recompense. It is a clause that is found in any number of
organisations to protect the good name and purposes of said
organisation.
As
it appears we have Covid-19 under reasonable control and we can pick up
some aspects of a former life, the Collective is looking to arrange
functions at the premises in Willis Street. However, we must be assured
that there will be courteous listening, discussion without heated
arguments.
We are sure we can rely on our members to make LILAC a popular, pleasant place to be.
Nga mihi
Carole A Hicks
For the LILAC Collective
Extracts from Constitution 2020
Membership
5.1 Membership of LILAC is open to any woman whose primary relationships
are with women and who supports the purposes of the Society.
2.1 The purposes of LILAC are to:
provide members in the greater Wellington region with a wide range of lesbian and queer library and information services;
maintain archives of lesbian material;
provide an informal meeting space for members;
maintain
LILAC as a lesbian-led and lesbian-identified organisation that is
inclusive of any woman meeting the membership criteria;
do anything necessary or helpful to the above purposes.
6. Admission of Members
6.1 To become a member, a person ("the applicant") must:
Complete an application form; and
Supply any other information the Collective requires.
6.2 The Collective may interview the applicant when it considers membership applications.
6.3 The Collective will have complete discretion when it decides whether
or not to allow the applicant to become a member. The Collective will
advise the applicant of its decision, and that decision will be final.
9. Obligations of Members
9.1 All members (including Collective members) will promote the purposes
of LILAC and will do nothing to bring LILAC into disrepute.
9.2 All members will abide by a Code of Conduct, which is attached as Annex A to this constitution.
LILAC · PO Box 427 · Wellington, 6140 · New Zealand