A controversial rule that led to the cancellation of at least one high-profile booking at the Caboto Club is expected to come up this week at a meeting of the club's executive.
Member Matt Marchand, who is also the president of the Windsor-Essex Regional Chamber of Commerce, sat down with General Manager Ron Moro, and Dino Chiodo with Unifor over the weekend.
"We had a candid conversation about the environment, about the risks of the status quo," says Marchand. "We also talked about what things might look like in the future."
Premier Kathleen Wynne was booked initially to hold a town hall meeting in Windsor at the Caboto Club on Thursday, but the event was moved to the St. Clair Centre for the Arts after her team caught wind of a rule that only men can sit on the executive board and vote on policy.
Women can hold membership on the auxiliary board, but cannot vote on policy.
The rule goes back to the founding of the club 93 years ago and has come up in the past.
In 2010, a then-Essex town councillor, Denisa Blackburn complained she was ineligible for membership because of her gender.
In 2014, University of Windsor's Women's Studies program boycotted the club. Up until that point, it had held it's Distinguished Visitors series at the Caboto Club.
In recent years, some organizations, including Windsor Regional Hospital has stopped holding events there.
Marchand says the meeting this week is no guarantee the men-only rule will change. He says it is only the start of the process.
"I wouldn't expect a one-hour meeting to be the be all and end all. It's a process like any other organization. I think the fact that they're open to meeting about it, talking about it, and seeing what the next steps are, is a positive step," says Marchand.
Meanwhile, Wynne's town hall meeting is on Thursday night at 7pm.