# Statement from the Committee 17/02/2013



## Nem (Feb 14, 2005)

> Over the last week a number of concerns have been raised by club members which have been discussed in length on both the TT Forum and the TTOC Members Area. These concerns surround a decision made last week regarding John and his position on the club committee as absoluTTe editor.
> 
> Following ongoing disputes within the committee, a decision was made to not allow John the option to renew his membership which at the time had expired, this action therefore also ended his position on the club committee.
> 
> ...


Discussion can be made on this same statement thread on the TTOC Members Area.


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## John-H (Jul 13, 2005)

Not good enough Nick. You had no right to remove me from the committee.

*(1)* - The committee vote was improperly executed in that you chose four people who agreed with you, to form a quorum and vote, whereas had you included all committee members the outcome might have been different. Votes must be inclusive of all eligible to vote - you can't pick and chose - you cannot therefore show documentary evidence that a properly executed vote took place - and yet you went ahead and enforced it.

*(2)* - You used this small number of votes to overturn the democratic decision of the majority membership that elected me as editor on the committee in the first place. By law (yes there are laws governing clubs) the management committee of the club must carry out the expressed wishes of the members according to the constitution. Clearly you have acted to overrule them.

*(3)* - You removed my membership under the constitution clause J6ii: 
_The Committee shall be empowered to suspend or expel any member: Whose conduct, in the Committee's opinion, renders them unfit for membership of the Club._ - For an editorial which contained verifiable facts and was my opinion which is my right to give as editor. Editorials have never been vetted by committee. Removal of a committee member would more appropriately have been handled by calling an EGM to get the membership to decide. You exceeded your authority.

*(4)* - You now say about removing my membership; "we now accept this was a step too far". If that's the case then how can you claim I am no longer a committee member?

*(5)* Restoring my membership but saying I am not on the committee is just the same as voting me off the committee which you tried to do in Octoder/November 2012 but which you were told was unconstitutional. You are just doing the same thing by a backdoor means.

*(6)* - Clause F9 of the constitution reads: _No member of the Committee is permitted to accept personal gifts or hospitality from any supplier to the Club or advertiser in the Club magazine._ You personally went on an Audi funded VIP hospitality weekend in Sweden to see and test some new Audi cars (not TT) in June last year. Can you please explain why you are still holding office as chairman?

*Would any TTOC member willing to support an EGM to rectify all of the above, bring about some proper democracy, openness and fairness to the club please PM me. Thanks.*


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## Nem (Feb 14, 2005)

John-H said:


> *(1)* - The committee vote was improperly executed in that you chose four people who agreed with you, to form a quorum and vote, whereas had you included all committee members the outcome might have been different. Votes must be inclusive of all eligible to vote - you can't pick and chose - you cannot therefore show documentary evidence that a properly executed vote took place - and yet you went ahead and enforced it.


We've not argued this point. However, having 4 people who all shared the same very strong view which has been expressed for a number of months would not have been talked around by either your opinion nor that of Steve, Mark or Dani. Four votes for the action, most likely four against, and my casting vote. This would have been the outcome.



John-H said:


> *(2)* - You used this small number of votes to overturn the democratic decision of the majority membership that elected me as editor on the committee in the first place. By law (yes there are laws governing clubs) the management committee of the club must carry out the expressed wishes of the members according to the constitution. Clearly you have acted to overrule them.


The constitution states:

"G: 5. Every issue may be determined by a simple majority of votes cast at a Committee meeting, but a resolution which is in writing and signed by all members of the Committee is valid as a resolution passed at a meeting. For this purpose the resolution may be contained in more than one document and will be treated as passed on the date of the last signature"

This decision was within the bounds of the committee.



John-H said:


> *(3)* - You removed my membership under the constitution clause J6ii:
> _The Committee shall be empowered to suspend or expel any member: Whose conduct, in the Committee's opinion, renders them unfit for membership of the Club._ - For an editorial which contained verifiable facts and was my opinion which is my right to give as editor. Editorials have never been vetted by committee. Removal of a committee member would more appropriately have been handled by calling an EGM to get the membership to decide. You exceeded your authority.


No, we didn't. Your membership expired with issue 33 being posted.

As you had not renewed we invoked clause:

"J: 2. The Committee shall have the right to refuse any person membership of the Club at their discretion and without the need to give a reason"

You were at this point an expired member and we stated that your deliberately damaging editorial had brought the club into disrepute - a matter which has been recorded in the club minutes stating that the majority of committee members believed making the internal personal issues public would put the club into a state of disrepute. So you willing went against a majority committee decision. The fact remains that we didn't actually even need to supply a reason according to the constitution.

All committee members have to be current and paid up members of the club, so as you were an expired member and we had stated you were not invited to renew your membership you committee position was by default ended.



John-H said:


> *(4)* - You now say about removing my membership; "we now accept this was a step too far". If that's the case then how can you claim I am no longer a committee member?


You do not have a current club membership. If you decide to renew you would then be required to stand for a committee position at the next AGM.



John-H said:


> *(5)* Restoring my membership but saying I am not on the committee is just the same as voting me off the committee which you tried to do in Octoder/November 2012 but which you were told was unconstitutional. You are just doing the same thing by a backdoor means.


On the contrary, we have used the constitution.



John-H said:


> *(6)* - Clause F9 of the constitution reads: _No member of the Committee is permitted to accept personal gifts or hospitality from any supplier to the Club or advertiser in the Club magazine._ You personally went on an Audi funded VIP hospitality weekend in Sweden to see and test some new Audi cars (not TT) in June last year. Can you please explain why you are still holding office as chairman?


Audi UK is not a supplier to the club, nor an advertiser.

However, you have made all of this huge fuss about breaking our relationship from the TT Forum, yet you now try and discredit me for forging links with Audi UK who without question is a infinitely more useful connection than any forum. We have worked incredibly hard to try and mend the damage caused by the 'old' committee over Rockingham, 5 years of finding contacts, networking with people in and connected to Audi and we've come to the point where myself as the club chairman was invited as one of only 3 people from the UK to represent the UK clubs and forums and you now put this down as something I shouldn't have done?



John-H said:


> *Would any TTOC member willing to support an EGM to rectify all of the above, bring about some proper democracy, openness and fairness to the club please PM me. Thanks.*


I will simply point out at you are not currently a TTOC member, so you have no business discussing an EGM with any club members.


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## John-H (Jul 13, 2005)

Nick,

(2) G5 saying, _"Every issue may be determined by a simple majority of votes cast at a Committee meeting"_ does not include things which are clearly unreasonable. You couldn't have a vote for the committee to run off with the club funds for example. So you can't use what is merely a procerdural clause describing the voting process to justify extent of scope of any action you please. The membership vote superceeds your wishes.

(3) I think you need to have a word with your secretary or she needs to have a word with you:



> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Club Membership
> Date: 08-02-2013 22:02
> From: Sara Burney <[email protected]>
> ...


It clearly says J6ii was the reason.

If you are now claiming that the the secretary made an error and the reason I am not on the committee is because my membership expired with issue 33 of the magazine and I now have to renew and then be re-elected, then could you please explain where in the constitution it says that an expired membership negates membership of the committee? As far as I can see it only says you must be a member to apply for a committee role and does not deal with expiry of membership mid term.

Andrew for example had his membership expire with issue 32 but he is not being asked to stand down until re-election.

The accepted working practice has always been that membership of the committee caries through regardless of expiry of club membership. As with any contract (which is what the constitution is), accepted practice would be deemed reasonable. By changing the practice just for me you appear to be acting unreasonably and unfairly.

Put simply, you took a vote to refuse renewal of my membership. You then reversed the decision. You now have no justification for preventing me from continuing my committee role. To continue to do this is unconstitutional, dictatorial and unjustifiable - a clear abuse of power.

(6) As regards your statement that Audi is not a supplier to the club nor an advertiser with the club: The club is the membership. All members have, or have had, Audi TTs and even other Audis. It is clear that Audi is the biggest club supplier by far. It has also through its agents advertised in the club magazine. The issue was that the constitution (contract) states that no committee member may accept hospitality or gifts from a supplier. It would have been more correct therefore to make arrangements to appoint an ordinary member to go on the trip and perhaps make it a "lucky member receives Audi VIP weekend in Sweden" feature article in absoluTTe magazine, or decline the invitation until such time as the constituion was changed to allow committee members to accept such things if you wanted to go personally. Then you could have been open about it and reported it. It just seems to be another behind closed doors keep it hidden from the membership aproach. How can the membership trust what's going on with all this secrecy, the worst example of which is keeping policy discussions hidden from the membership.

As regards your last point about me having no business to discuss club matters - clearly I have because I am still a committee member from the above points. Or I could renew my membership today and also be entitled to discuss these things. So the invitation is a valid one.

Here is a copy of the constitution: CONSTITUTION

Please stop locking topics of discussion.


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## Nem (Feb 14, 2005)

This is a statement posted here for clarity.

Discussion of this statement is for members who all have access to the members area where a single thread on this statement can be found to keep all people informed on all replies made. Rather than this dashing between both places with some people only getting half the story.

So, seeing as this is the TTOC section of this forum I am well within my right to lock this thread.

So, will you please stop unlocking it.


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