By Goya Dmytryshchak
A stoush has erupted between The Substation committee of management and community members involved in restoring the building.
The committee has been accused of abandoning the community and deliberately running down membership numbers, but the director has defended the current structure as typical of a professional arts organisation.
Darren Williams, founder and president of 16 years of the Newport Substation restoration and redevelopment project, said that since 2013 community membership of the arts venue had dropped from hundreds down to five.
“I retired from the committee once we had created the operational Hobsons Bay Community Arts Centre (now The Substation) and employed our first director, Jeremy Gaden,” Mr Williams said.
“We were in a very strong position, both financially and organisationally at that time, with hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund infrastructure and programs and more than 500 association members.”
Mr Williams has started a website named saveoursubstation.org, which he says is to provide a forum representing “the excluded membership of hundreds of Hobsons Bay residents”.
He has called a community action meeting for Tuesday, August 6.
“I have declarations from many former members, including recently retired committee members, to state that they did not receive notification of annual general meetings or membership renewal notices,” he said.
“You have to seriously question the values and motives of a group that receives over $1 million over three years from our local council, but will not allow the community of Hobsons Bay to elect its committee.”
Mr Williams said The Substation had become focused on a very narrow “edgy” vision within the arts.
“The Substation has … lost its heart,” he said.
The site is owned by the state government through VicTrack. It is leased to an incorporated not-for-profit association with a committee of management operating as The Substation.
The Substation director Brad Spolding said he was seeking mediation with Mr Williams and Hobsons Bay council.
“We unequivocally sent renewals of memberships to every member from the time that the association was incorporated,” he said.
“We have evidence to show that we sent those renewals to all of the members, including Darren. In 2013, we sent him his renewal of membership and he didn’t renew his membership.
“After a year, if you don’t pay your membership renewal for an incorporated association, your membership expires.”
Mr Spolding said that currently there were seven members, six of whom were on a “skilled-based” committee.
“In the early days, when the building was being restored, there were hundreds of members, the reason being that they were volunteers working on the building,” he said.
“When the building project was complete, the membership dwindled.
“I was appointed in 2015 and by the time we get to 2015 the membership is quite small.
“That’s how we arrived to today with our current governance structure, which I might add is a typical governance structure for a professional arts organisation.”
