Tiger

I got a call also as a L2. I just sat the phone down on the bench and let them talk to the air.

Today the news on this site is great, we hope , for RAA with the presidents resignation. Someone alluded that there is more in the wind. Well the best upcoming news could be that the Secretary and treasure also resign from the board post haste and let someone capable do the job instead of the three muskeeeters who have been running the show into the ground for the past year or so with their own personal constitution and not the Consttiution of the members of RAA.. Lets us know the news ASAP of the next resignation. Now I know why I could not get through to the office today, the champagne corks were popping. When the secretary resigns it will become a full weekend of celebrations, however don't contact them in the office Monday as they will all be in "hang over mode" and will be applying Human Factors procedures .

Andy, Up this way we have not had a "choice" who we could vote for for a long time. Personally I would vote for a preferred candidate and a back up as per the preferential system. Really I would just prefer "first past the post" type voting. This year and next year members need to look at all Board candidates and consider " is this candidate one of the current board members who got RAA into all these problems and will continue with bringing RAA into disrepute" or is it a new potential board member who offers a new outlook for the board of the future and bring RAA into the 21st century and abide by our Constitution, the CASA Deed of Agreement and various other Corporate laws and be open and accountable to the members for their actions and decisions with open two way communication with members instead of the secrecy for which the old board was famous.

The rules are ignored by the Executive as demonstrated by board members staing on this forum that they are excluded from information they require to carry out the duties as a responsible baord member.

Here it is Error 404 This is a little story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody's job. Everybody thought that Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done

Correct me if I am wrong, but didn't Eugene's unfortunate family matters happen in November / December, some three months after the financial reports were signed and two months after the AGM. He didn't even have them at the AGM yet they were supposedly signed about three weeks previous to the AGM. I cannot accept your excuses for Eugene Error404. He must go as Riley has said.

January 31, 2013 | members The auditors sign-off was unintentionally omitted from the financial report (included in the December magazine) for the year ended 30 June 2012. This is regretted and therefore the entire financial report, including the auditors sign-off, is posted here. Financial Report – Year Ended 30th June 2012 Eugene Reid Treasurer The post by the RAA treasure I would say is completly erronous. The so called financial report put out in the December Sport Pilot magazine quite clearly stated " In order to keep costs to a minimum, eight pages of technical explinations have been removed ..." How can this then be an unintentional omission !! The report that came out in December also indicated it was the auditors report signed by Eugene Reid Treasure & Steve Tizzard CEO. Neither are our associations auditor.

The Board must be above reproach and meet and comply with all CAR's & CAO's, any Legislation, Acts and Constitutional requirements at all times, not just when they feel like it. With regards to changes of the Constitution, it is not up to the Board to change the constitution as they think fit, it is up to the membership to legally change it by a 75% margin vote to a Notice of Motion. The Board is just changing the goalpost as they feel like it to frustrate the membership. What did the board say about CASA and changing the goal posts.? They complained , bucked and still failed to meet the requirements of the legislator. Fo OUR Constitution the Board is not the Legislator, only the members can change it. Most of the Board need to resign now before they fully financially break RAAus

Can anyone inform me if placing board members addresses on a public forum without informing them or obtaining their approval be a direct breach of privacy and confidentiality. I feel that the person who posted this, Middleton, is now open to a charge against the privacy ACT and I feel would be also in breach of the Corporations Act. How do we advise a government department of this breach?

It is a case of "not us" therefore we will try blaming someone else. They are not willing to accept that they are the problem, it must be someone else to blame. Get real, most of the Board have been there for a long time, however it has escalated and deteriorated overwhelmingly in the past twelve months. Only a couple of board members were not there during this time. In particular the executive have been there for over three years, so it occurred on THEIR WATCH and no one else is to blame. Why have wages to RAA staff blown out from $508,729 in 2008 to $1,075,708 in 2012 over 5 years years or by over 111% and in this tough economic times? This has occurred on their watch also when they have just "given away" pay rises.

I just rechecked the site. It is still there. All I did was click on the news section then clicked the general meeting item and it then came up and then a further click on either the information sheet with a lot of bXLL SXXX and then I clicked on the proxy form. Also the proxy form information is incorrect as they say you can nominate two on the form. That is incorrect (another stuff up by the board executive) as there is only provision for one proxy holder name. Remember, be very careful who you give your proxy to. Ensure they have ideals like your own and I suggest you check with your proposed proxy holder first to ascertain their intentions as to how they think and to advise them how you want them to vote at the meeting.

I hope you were careful whom you gave your proxy to rdarby. Has anyone read the RAAus website tonight? I just did and was shocked at what I read. !!!!! The Board, signed by our secretary, has released a three page document saying how good the Board is, how they are fixing the rego debarcle, blaming prior board members for the problems and said a lot of political talk without addressing any real issues (to the older Qld people it was called Jo speak where a lot is said that means or says absolutely nothing) The document purports a number of items but instructs members to give their proxy only to a board member. This is in direct contravention to legislation, and is breach of our Constitutional rights in that it is instructing members to ONLY give proxy votes to members of the board and to NO other party. Then they had the audacity to ask us to give them our proxy. They have made out that they are a group of "Angels" and have done nothing wrong. Why ??? Why should I give someone my proxy when he (the individual board members) are the ones who caused the problems over the past twelve months. That would be giving my opposition all my ammunition and then wanting me to fight them with no ammunition in my camp. Members out there , think seriously who you give your proxy vote to if you cannot attend the meeting. If you do not know someone who you can trust to carry your vote, then think seriously why you should give it to any member who you don't or trust explicitely. Remember you can always abstain. I have seen some very serious emails from the membership over the past few days and I have continued with my idea of going to Canberra. Come on 9th February, so we can get this sorted and get RAA back onto a good footing under better management than we have at present.

Has anyone read the RAAus website tonight? I just did and was shocked at what I read. !!!!! The Board, signed by our secretary, has released a three page document saying how good the Board is, how they are fixing the rego debarcle, blaming prior board members for the problems and said a lot of political talk without addressing any real issues (to the older Qld people it was called Jo speak where a lot is said that means or says absolutely nothing) The document purports a number of items but instructs members to give their proxy only to a board member. This is in direct contravention to legislation, and is breach of our Constitutional rights in that it is instructing members to ONLY give proxy votes to members of the board and to NO other party. Then they had the audacity to ask us to give them our proxy. They have made out that they are a group of "Angels" and have done nothing wrong. Why ??? Why should I give someone my proxy when he (the individual board members) are the ones who caused the problems over the past twelve months. That would be giving my opposition all my ammunition and then wanting me to fight them with no ammunition in my camp. Members out there , think seriously who you give your proxy vote to if you cannot attend the meeting. If you do not know someone who you can trust to carry your vote, then think seriously why you should give it to any member who you don't or trust explicitely. Remember you can always abstain. I have seen some very serious emails from the membership over the past few days and I have continued with my idea of going to Canberra. Come on 9th February, so we can get this sorted and get RAA back onto a good footing under better management than we have at present.

Yes but we have to have an appointed Tech manager to be able to do KPI's with. We can get things underway in the meanwhile. The way this current board is working we won't have a Tech manager until ??? So who is rewriting the Tech manual that has to be completed in March for CASA under our deed of agreement ?? Is it our illustrious: Board secretary / or is it the acting CEO or is it the acting Tech manager/aircraft files fixer, currently all filled by the one person. This will be his fourth job at once. In the past it took three to do these jobs, now we have it being done by ONE.

I the past years we all took responsibility for our own actions / inactions. All everyone now want to do is blame someone else for tgheir "stuff up". These day they in effect keep using the phrase " not my responsibility" it is XXXXX's responsibility. Ducking for cover.

Have not heard a peep out of those positions.

Well Face 2 Face sent out the job description on Wednesday 16th Jan for a job closing two days later on Friday 18th Jan. Face to Face then just extended it to the Sunday night. How can anyone descent put in for a job that has a micky mouse advertising recruitment programme and process. In total three different closing dates, two different processes for applications ( first through RAA then over to Face 2 Face when the heat was on) We need a new board.!!

Spriteah and DWF, I agree whole heartedly with what you have both said, however this is just one of the areas that is lacking from bad management by the board in the past. When this has been applied across all area of RAA like we have seen in past years, we end up in the situation that we have now with RAA. The Feb 9th meeting hopefully will give us some direction where to go and to set about a process so that we can set up these advisory groups and get a board who can manage and govern instead of applying crisis management techniques to each and every item. This will require a forward thinking board, not a board which lives on things that happened yesteryear. Many members with legal, accounting, management, HR etc are available and would be willing to assist, but not on a board position. One member known, may well be a leading legal authority of workplace matters. Another heads up safety with his employer but would not want a position but may be more than happy to assist for a few days to get RAA back on track. The board has no idea at the depth and breadth of knowledge, experience and qualifications hidden in the membership and when it has been offered to the board in the past has been knocked back. The board has been / is still top heavy with CFI's was do not know the complete set of answers to good governance and are basically unwilling to listen to the members cries over the past years.

Many thanks. I will try and see if I can get that process to work.

We used to have an email come out on the RAA site that told us that the RAA site had a change. It was an alert email. We have lost that. It was extremly important for updates for aaircraft maintenance issues. From a safety perspective that must be returned as an option on the RAA site.

Nothing in my mailbox either. I have heard that it was only going to be posted today, hence we will not see it until next Thursday or Friday, that is only a few days before the meeting and does not comply with the 14 days clear notice to the membership. We don't know what was sent to us either. Was it just the change of venue? Was it the missing proxy form? Is there a motion on notice? Is so that notice is outside of the constitutional guidelines and will be deemed null and void. I see the change of venue is on the RA-Aus website. Great to see there.

Given the posts that I have just seen under meetings - general meeting called, and above here, it appears that the board member Gavin Thobaven has no concept of meeting protocol, procedures, legal issues or any other issues required to remain in the position of being on a board, any board for that matter. This is also totally contrary of his post when he applied for the board position. Mr. Thobaven has demonstrated that he is not fit to be an RAAus board member and therefore should resign his position on the board forthwith before the members apply, I think someone said, rule 17 of the constitution, and terminate his position. Natural justice has been mentioned somewhere. Mr. Thobaven has brought the Board of RA-Aus and the other members of RA-Aus into disrepute. He has had natural justice applied through this website link already and has demonstrated how he personally is not becoming of a RA-Aus board member. It is also up to the other board members to point this out to Mr. Thobaven and solicit his resignation now before he does any more harm to OUR RAA. Regarding proxies, someone mentioned they had given some to Mr. Thobaven without understanding the full situation. Does this indicate that Mr Thobaven has been soliciting proxies from members without due process and correct information?Before any member gives anyone a proxy, we are bound by ethics to explain the questions and issues that are of concern, to share with that person their intentions, and in what circumstances a proxy would be used. If you want to withdraw your proxy, put it in writing to RA-Aus and if you wish to make a new proxy, that is your decision now that you are better informed. Your proxy may be the one that will guide RA-Aus into the future. Remember Mr. Thobaven only won his position by one vote. It could now be one misplaced proxy that could make all the difference! I have been told that one member had refused to give a proxy over the past weeks until they had solicited as much information about the meeting, the process and what the intentions of their proposed proxy holder would be. That is an informed member who really cares about OUR RA-Aus!.

WHO IS RAA ? We the members are RAA and the board members are our elected representatives and we the members can terminate their board position if need be under Rule 17 of the Constitution. If a Board member resigns his position before the expiration of his term, then it is up to US and US ALONE, the members, as per our Constitution, to elect our new representative, not have the Board “appoint” someone. There is no provision in the constitution for this. I have heard a rumour that the Board has legal opinion that they could “re-appoint” Mr Runciman to the board as North Qld. Representative. Let the members see this legal opinion on this site, including the brief to the legal person from the Board which outlines his resignation. To have the “Board” appoint someone denies members, and we the members are RAA not the Board, natural justice (as per clause 50), and that action is not a democratic process. I thought that we still live in a democratic society!. It is some six weeks since his resignation and we have yet to be told when we are having a By-election? Under our Constitution it should have been in the December / January Sport Pilot.! Is it in the next edition of Sport Pilot?

Congratulations to Jim Tatlock for his stand on the board. It appears that you are not alone at being left out of board emails "illegally". We currently don't have a board representative in North Qld, so we need you and others to hang in there fighting for our rights to re-elect a new representative. Chin up Jim, and turn the other cheek. Some other board members may be ignoring you, but not us, the real members of RAA. In post 150, John says he received a reply from Mr Runciman. John, can you please post Mr.Runciman's "political reply" here so we can all see its full content and not get it taken out of context as we all need to know what he said. Mr.Runciman also made a lot of political statements to the AGM on the questions on notice. The statements told us a lot, but in effect said "nothing" and has apparently not settled things down on this site. In post 156, John says a letter has been sent asking for Executive Board members to step aside. This is indicative that the membership is now asking for the Executive to stand aside. It is up to the other members of the Board to now convince the Executive that for the overall good of RAA that the current Executive must resign their Board positions before the 9th February meeting. Threads all indicate that a number of Board members have had no specific or individual matters raised against them, however seriously thinking members have identified and indicated on this forum that the current management style of our Executive is the main problem within RAA. When you have a serious problem it is up to those who have the authority , fellow board members and the membership in general, to address the problem and fix it, even if it may hurt a persons personal aim or self ego. The retiring Board Executive will be able to hold their heads up high if they do this before the overall general membership of RAA terminate their appointments and they have to vacate their board positions "kicking and screaming". We need a genuinely impartial person to Chair this meeting in February. This will allow those members at the 9th February meeting the chance to start restructuring our RAA into the future and raise it out of the ashes of a bygone era. Have a look at the structure that RAA has to work under with our CASA agreement. http://www.casa.gov.au/scripts/nc.dll?WCMS:STANDARD::pc=PC_93439 Has our Executive been following this guideline that was introduced in 2010. I think not, and that is why we, the members of RAA have failed this audit.

I cannot understand various statements by board members on membership numbers. At the AGM it was stated we had over 13,000 members, for the job application it was 12,000 then another board member quotes 11,000 in the December Sport Pilot. Now we see it posted on the RAA website, at a request of a member, as some 9200. Who do we believe? How can we believe anything this Board Executive tell us!. Now to see what the West Australian board member has sent out to members or posted on this site is grossly misleading. Great reply alfaromeo, you hit the nail on the head with your responses to Gavin. This current outburst by Gavin is a great indicator for us members to be able to judge who we do not want on the board. This is a very narrow, one sided and unprofessional viewpoint that has been carried out in breach of the constitution. How can we put up any longer with board members like this. As has been said, if he has the guts, resign, as we will then be able to go forward again. The statement by the Secretary that accompanied the meeting request by members was nothing short of condescending to the applicants and a breach of the Secretary’s impartial position. It gave a very biased outlook for members against those ( I understand over 300 not the few as has been mentioned) who had requested the meeting and to prejudge the outcome. The failure to supply to members a full audit report is another failure by the Board Executive and is another breach of the Act. How many breaches of acts, constitutional matters, board policy, guidelines, etc must us members suffer before we make a stand and say enough is enough. Read what the CASA Sport Aviation Self Administration Handbook 2010 says for board action, responsibility, communication, information to members, etc. Once you read this you will realise that the RAA Executive / Board has not been complying with most CASA guideline equirements for quite some time and this is where RAA has ended up. In essence a total lack of governance and lack of risk management, even after it had been told to them by CASA with the 2011 Audit. We mustn't forget our office staff at this time - their actions to the membership has been exceptional during a very trying time. My congratulations to all the front line office employees. You are always very understanding and courteous to the members.