There has been no official validation of a new White Rock Business Improvement Association board in Victoria.

Ron Townshend, Registrar of B.C. Companies, confirmed last week the file of a new list of directors by Larry Anschell, registered July 14, has been “frozen” – meaning that no further filings will be accepted at this time.

He said this is not because his office has confirmed this list of directors – as has been reported on an online site – but simply because it is the subject of an ongoing dispute within the organization.

Townshend said Thursday he has “asked the society to address the ongoing internal dispute before further filings will be permitted and will add a notation to the file to advise anyone who searches the public records for this society.”

And he reaffirmed it is not the business of the registrar’s office to ensure the filed record is “accurate, or complete, or meets the requirements of the Society Act or the society’s bylaws.”

“Just because a new list of directors has been filed in the registry does not signify that the registrar has reviewed and approved the new directors,” he said.

The controversy came to a head when Anschell and other dissident members of the BIA requisitioned a July 7 extraordinary general meeting at which he and others were voted in as a “new board,” and proceeded to file the names of the new members with Victoria.

An online report on the matter by Dave Chesney – one of the members of the “new board” – said Anschell had been informed “the Society office was confirming his duly appointed board of directors and there would be no change in that list of directors.”

Townshend’s response was that there was “likely some misunderstanding about the implications of freezing the filing for the society.”

He said the registrar’s responsibility is only to ensure that the information is properly filed – not to interfere in any internal disputes or get involved in determining the legitimacy of a new board.

“We’d have to have 500 people in this office,” he said. “There are 25,000 societies in B.C.”

In a press release issued July 16, Anschell claimed “the office of the B.C. Society Act in Victoria has determined that the recent July 7 election of new directors for the White Rock Business Improvement Association is valid and has issued documents to confirm this.”

But the documents showed only that he had filed a document listing the names of the “new directors,” which had been stamped by the registrar of companies in acknowledgement of receipt of a $15 filing fee.

Townshend also differed with Chesney’s statement that “the names, according to Victoria, will stand until such time as there is another AGM at which time a new board of directors may or may not be elected.”

“The society can have a general meeting at any time, once proper notification and information is sent to its members,” Townshend said.

“The members do not have to wait until the next annual general meeting to make changes to directors.”