About 70 people were at the Otago Pioneer Women's Hall in Dunedin to wind up Stop the Stadium - the organisation more recently known as Sort the System - after its liquidation as an incorporated society in the High Court at Dunedin last week.
However, STS president Dave Witherow moved quickly to unveil posters of the new organisation, named the Dunedin Coffee Club - or "DCC" for short - with himself as the new group's president.
The new group's name referred to revelations 36 senior council managers and four personal assistants had together spent $100,500 on food, coffee, entertainment and drink over the past three years, including $7000 on staff meetings in city cafes.
Mr Witherow said the new group would be dedicated to the "restoration of democracy in Dunedin", and was likely to exist only until October's local body elections were completed.
"The No 1 rule, which is tough, is that members are expected to pay for their own coffee," he said, to laughter at yesterday's meeting.
The new group would encourage members, and others, to vote, he said.
It would also help them understand the STV (single transferable vote) voting system and what individual council and mayoral candidates stood for, he said.
However, Mr Witherow also took the opportunity to fire a few parting shots at yesterday's meeting, including criticising mayoral candidate Cr Dave Cull for his "betrayal" of the anti-stadium movement.
Mr Witherow said he had been "gobsmacked, disappointed and disgusted" to hear Cr Cull - a vocal critic of the stadium - say he and his Greater Dunedin candidates would support additional funding to ensure the stadium was successful, now that it was being built.
"We consider that to be a betrayal," Mr Witherow said.
