Tue 23 Feb 2016 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback View at NDHA
Brice Kilmister Body Positive's retired General manager Bruce Kilmister has been co-opted onto the organisation's caretaker board as its chair and says reopening BP's Wellington office is likely. In what appeared to be a significant shift in culture and focus at Body Positive Kilmister retired as GM over a year ago after over a decade of helming the organisation. A new GM was appointed by a board which was signalling significant change due to changing times, financial stress and what it believed was the unsustainable decision to open a Wellington office two years ago. A pressure group, believing that the board was taking the organisation in the wrong direction and unhappy with the way the board was operating and communicating, forced the board's mass resignation late last year and a caretaker board was voted in at a December special general meeting. Kilmister says he was co-opted on to the interim board to help provide a sense of stability to BP's members and funders. He says members' concerns about the closure of the Wellington office will prompt a re-think of that decision. "We're still paying the rent on the Courtenay Place premises," he says, noting that a replacement tenant has not been found and the "huge amount of office space available in Wellington at the moment" means landlords are "keen on hanging on to tenants and won't relinquish existing arrangements." BP's lease has two years to run. He says it makes sense to keep using the space and that a replacement BP presence there is likely to be based on volunteer involvement. Kilmister has also signaled an on-going commitment to HIV testing. It's important that every organisation involved in the HIV area does its best to find the over 600 people out in the communities who have HIV but don't know it yet." Finances are also a "major question" for the new board, he says, "HIV funding has never been more difficult to secure."
Credit: GayNZ.com daily News staff
First published: Tuesday, 23rd February 2016 - 10:16am