WIA Treasurers puts WIA into "care and maintenance" mode

The WIA Treasures have expressed their disappointment with the inability of the Board to achieve mediation on Saturday and furthermore have failed to implement the recommendations outlined in the previously leaked Treasurers report.

The WIA Treasurer included as recipient of the email the WIA Reform Group who were party to the failed mediation. The letter gives explicit permission to publish the letter "so that WIA members can be made aware of the Honorary Treasurers’ position".

The letter and links to the Treasurers report can be found on the NewsWest website at:

• http://vk6.net/

 

Thank you for this latest update on the state of affairs with the WIA. I think the proposed late January General Meeting will be an interesting one.

 

The most interesting part of this email is that the Honorable Treasures will not approve any expense of the board to bring litigation against the wia members. 2 directors have already sent solicitor letters to members threatening defamation proceedings and from what I understand a 3rd was wanting the WIA to fund solicitors to bring an injunction against the members to stop the January vote. So, individual directors will have to fund from their own savings any legal challenge they wish to bring against the members.

 

Completely unreal and unbelievable, what a dismal state of affairs.

Can hardly wait for the January meeting....the kookaburra's will be laughing.

 

There seems to be a lot of shake ups coming in the WIA.

gregW OH2FFY ex VK6
https://www.youtube.com/user/HamAndShortwaveRadio

 

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In the context of the above message, what does "mediation" mean?

de NK2U

 

That's what can really be DISGUSTING ABOUT AMATEUR RADIO CLUBS, GUYS WHO ARE MORE INTERESTED IN THROWING THEIR WEIGHT AROUND (CONTROL) rather than for the GOOD OF THE HOBBY!!! There's a number of ARCs around the globe like that TOO!!! SAD :-(

 

Each day goes by and this situation has progressed from just bad to horrific. The problem is now common knowledge on air and in all honesty should have been solved as soon as the problems had been identified by its members. I'm not a WIA member but I do understand the easy solution to putting some form of common sense back into this problem. " SACK THE ENTIRE BOARD" as this is your one and only solution left now. HOW I hear you say? Easy I say. Get a few clubs, members together that can see the problems and join forces with a vote of no confidence. Or perhaps the board is above the wishes of everyday men and women of Australia. I think there are over 4000 members but so far the replies are few and far between. Surely you can find a couple of hundred to just say " It's Over Pack Your Bags ". You can and must do it, as your hobby, my hobby relies on your actions and your actions alone. Remember you are discussing things with ACMA that every Amateur Radio Operator in Australia has a right to be involved in and not just members. Australians have done it before, Governments have been thrown out, wars have been stopped and huge powerful organisations crushed by just plain little people wanting to have their say. Cheers from an old Rockabilly Rebel.

 

100+ members have signed a petition to call a general meeting of the WIA to resolve these matters already. This meeting will be held sometime in January.

 

A mediation session was arranged between the various parties on Saturday to attempt to resolve the impasse. It appears that this did not go well. The official statement released by the mediator (former Director Chris Platt) was published after the session concluded.

Almost immediately additional information was published by one of the attendees, the WIA Reform Group, followed by the WIA Treasurers' response a day later.

In addition to this, in the last 16 hours a post to Facebook has been made by the WIA President. A copy appears on the http://vk6.net website where you'll also find all the documentation the News Team (of which I'm a member) has available.

 

Thank you for your reply and I am so happy to see it perhaps will happen in January 2017. What I refer to in my post is WHY have we been reading and listening to concerns about all this for so long and no one seems to be able to bring this body of people to account. It's been going on for months maybe years and according to one of my readings a call for a general meeting was called back on 26/10/2016. Our regulatory body ACMA also want answers on who or what they should be negotiating with in regards Amateur Radio. This should have been solved within days of it raising its ugly head. Cheers

 

The why's are probably a long list, but for the most part, why has it not happened until now, complacency of the members who are happy to just let things carry on as they have been for far to long. And secondly, because until now, no one was willing to stick their head on the chopping board, organize and be the face of of a movement to remove sitting directors. It takes a lot of fortitude to be the face of change, because if you are wrong, its you who wears all the blame, not the 4 directors we would like to replace.

Of the members, i would ask they look at all the facts and vote accordingly, and from the non members like yourself who care, to think about joining the WIA so that they can do their part to bring about change. You have to be in it to win it as they say.

 

I like your attitude to this problem and I really hope there are 1000's like you. I left the organisation over a few problems, the main one being no support for the disabled through the CW sending days. Hard to send CW when your arms are no longer functional. I will make you this guarantee on here that if I see it become again what it was when I first joined in the 80's I will rejoin and stand again with the rest of you. 73 VK6NO

 

There are Amateurs who refuse to support the WIA because of poor performance or because of the current ineffectual board.

It must be remembered that the Institute is made up by the members, not the Board. For the Institute to be strong and effective, membership must be strong and effective.

This is an organisation that was founded before any of its members were born (though we're sure that there's an Amateur somewhere who was born and licensed before 1910).

The current board were elected by the membership and can just as easily be removed by the membership. For that to happen, you need to be a member first.

While there may be dissatisfaction with the functioning and operation of the Institute, that's not helped by refusing to be a member.

If the concern is that member money is being wasted by the Board, you can either remove the source of income, or the source of the expense. One leads to less members and a weaker Institute, the other leads to another Board.

 

so what is exactly the problem I have noticed an upheaval since the AGM involving the treasures but no discription of the problem .
Tim NL8F