Is the College of Opticians of Ontario eligible to file for bankruptcy protection? Is it headed that way?
Is the College of Opticians of Ontario eligible to file for bankruptcy protection? Is it headed that way?
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The auditor gave stiff warnings to the College about the deficit. The auditor was ushered in and out of the meetings very quickly to curb any questioning. It would be best to ask that question by calling the auditor directly. Members are self governed, therefore the members own the College , therefore even if the Registrar and her minions refuse to answer questions, it would seem reasonable that members can call the auditor directly . The financial statements are prepared primarily for use by Council, but they are also prepared and audited for use by the members. The auditor knows this , therefore the auditor has a legal responsibilty to the end users of the financial statements. Under GAAP rules the auditor will have to answer you . Many auditors have been sued by the end users of statements .
Correct me if I am wrong on this .
An eastern Councilor , was not worried about the auditor's warnings as he planned to borrow money to pull the College out of crisis . Others, were just going to raise the license fees.
The new President and a few other Councilors were far more realistic. They wanted to curb spending immediately and put in cost control measures, heed the auditors warnings and control the legal bills, and cut off funding to outside organizations.
They were not popular with the Councilors on the Registrars side of the table.
A member from the gallery tried their best to question the auditor about this, but the Registrar made hand signals to the Councilors to cut off the member and not allow any questioning of the auditor. The Councilors complied with the Registrar's hand signals. As an observer , I found this hard to believe as it was happening because it seemed like the member was correct in their approach. The member was not speaking from the gallery, instead the member was asking questions of the Councilor so the Councilor could raise the questions which should have been permissable and correct. Either way, the employee succeeded in cutting off a member and also her employers.
Strange that the employers would allow this insubordination from an employee.
You guys have talked about the College a lot. Have you ever tried to run for it?
Councilors are elected by members theoretically to represent the districts members. If a member can not ask a Councilor for representation during a meeting and ask for the Councillor to bring forth a subject to the Council , then what is the purpose of having Councilors ? I would think the Registrar needs formal reprimanding and the Councilors need to remember their duties to the members.
The purpose in brining an auditor to a meeting is to let others ask questions about serious matters the auditor is raising. Cutting off questioning is therefore not responsible.
ok, but what about my question?
It was not my purpose in life to run for Council, however to turn things around and get it back on a proper track , yes I would. There would need to be 2 more of similiar thoughts to make a difference though. One can't do it alone against the present established mind set.
Who has the 'Power' to terminate the registrar?
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I am no expert on this but I'll take a stab at it. If enough members put non-confidence pressure on their district Councilors , then they might force the Councilors to act to terminate the Registrar. A majority of Councilors could terminate the contract (assuming there is a contract) . A Violation of the contract , if there is one, may be grounds to terminate. My guess is ,and I am not sure on this , that there is an inner Council and you would need a majority of the Executive inner Council . To gain that majority would require cahoonas or is it cahootas ? Where did that word ever come from anyhow and what does it mean?
In any event , the employer always has the right to terminate the employee. The members elect the Councilors, the Councilors elect the inner Executive Council , the Council hires the Registrar. so the power lies with the employers. The employers are the Council. Get a majority of Council to terminate.
I stand to be corrected on this.
It's unfortunate to see an admirable profession, like Opticians fight so often. Revolts, non-confidence votes, trashing those that chose to represent their peers etc. has done nothing for your profession over the last 20 years. Instead of banding together to inform the public about the dangers of non-regulated individuals performing your beloved control act, you choose to tear each other part for not doing it "your way." Is your Registrar really the problem, or is it your inability to organize and present a rationale argument your true Achilles heels?
You can play the blame game all you want, but until you get your collective butts in gear, you are DOOMED to failure.
Hindsight will always be 20/20 and armchair quarterbacks will always make the right calls.
I am of the opinion that all opticianry jurisdictions have a factioning problem. Most of the associations are now government controlled, as acts are being rolled into Provincial Health Care Providers Acts. The shift is away from good for Opticianry to good of the Public. They must behave accordingly.
Demographically, there are less independent thinking opticians, as the number of chain, grocerystore checkout, Wa""yworld, optromitized opticians grow in #'s....they refuse to leave their corp badges and thinking at the meeting door.
I'm with ManitobaOD - but only to a point. It is easy to be an armchair quarterback - as many of us on this Board know. However the views expressed on OptiBoard should not color the perception of the whole profession. Opticians do not "fight so often" rather they seem to cooperate more than most professions. Some other professional fights get really ugly. On this Board we seem to be limited to three or four of us filling in time and flaming all comers.
Optometry have the same issues that opticians scrap about about. I gather that no other provincial optometry regulator agreed with BC recognizing the American Boards (at least that is what my pal the optom next door told me). On most areas of cooperation - opticians groups seem to talk to each other and reach an understanding on direction.
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