Resignation of President and Executive of Canoeing Ireland

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Pat MacAlinney
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Resignation of President and Executive of Canoeing Ireland

Post by Pat MacAlinney » Fri Dec 14, 2012 12:44 pm

Dear Canoeing Ireland members and Clubs,

I was honoured by the membership of Canoeing Ireland to be elected as President last year.

I have been privileged this year to work with an excellent hard working team of fellow elected volunteers on the Executive.

On Wednesday night 12th December 2012 a Board meeting took place in Sports HQ.

During this meeting, I was left with no alternative but to tender my immediate resignation as President of Canoeing Ireland along with the Hon. Treasurer, Hon. Secretary and rest of the Executive.

It saddens me that it has come to this, but I can see no other course of action available to me.

I must also tender my resignation as a Director of the Irish Canoe Union Ltd and have taken steps to expedite this process.

I will go through our most recent minutes and send to the Board any reports or actions due from me.

I have not chosen this course of action lightly; it has serious repercussions for Canoeing Ireland, both legal and reputational.

I have communicated with the NGB unit of the Irish Sports Council to inform them that the organisation now has a by and large unelected board, and thus is not compliant with Sports Council guidelines.

I now call on the remaining Board members to immediately convene an EDM to elect a new Executive. There are no doubt discussions taking place among the remaining Board members as to whether this is absolutely necessary. It is.

To Canoeing Ireland's Technical committees; you have the ability to instruct your chairpersons in this regard and I would urge you to do so.

You as members must decide the future of the organisation and take ownership of it, or else let it go on with "business as usual".

Yours Sincerely,

Pat MacAlinney

Gonetosea
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Re: Resignation of President and Executive of Canoeing Irela

Post by Gonetosea » Fri Dec 14, 2012 1:25 pm

Hi,
Following on from Pat's post. Reading through the memo and arts there is no set procedure for the event that occurred. There is no only one elected member of the board remaining who represents clubs. Presently in the vaccum there are moves to appoint an executive and avoid an EDM / ADM.

Canoeing Ireland is supposed to be for its members, hence if you are a member of an affiliated club get your secretary and chair to request an ADM of the organisation. It will take a minimum of 15 affiliated clubs to make this happen.

Regards

Kevin

paupier
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Re: Resignation of President and Executive of Canoeing Irela

Post by paupier » Fri Dec 14, 2012 5:21 pm

I absolutely agree Kevin. It cannot be left to those remaining to appoint an executive without an ADM.
GKC will me making a request for ADM immediately. I hope other affiliated clubs will make this request.

Paul.

canned
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Re: Resignation of President and Executive of Canoeing Irela

Post by canned » Fri Dec 14, 2012 5:35 pm

I'd love to ask about details but I know you'd be far too professional to divulge Pat.

I'm sure you gave it your absolute best shot.

I don't know about anyone else but I'm pretty much done with the ICU. I know there are many many good people involved but it seems to me that for disciplines not funded by ISC there is room for a separate organisation.

AndrewR
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Re: Resignation of President and Executive of Canoeing Irela

Post by AndrewR » Fri Dec 14, 2012 6:12 pm

Thanks for the hard work Pat.

Hope transparency wins here and the facts come out as soon as possible.

roshaw_87
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Re: Resignation of President and Executive of Canoeing Irela

Post by roshaw_87 » Fri Dec 14, 2012 8:35 pm

Really saddened to hear you could not make it work Pat. I trust you done your best and were left no other choice. I agree with canned that what little faith I had left in the Canoeing Ireland to function is gone.Since you were elected you may be the best to lead those willing in a new direction. Would you consider heading up Kayaking Ireland Pat?
087 9862517/ [email protected]
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Pat MacAlinney
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Re: Resignation of President and Executive of Canoeing Irela

Post by Pat MacAlinney » Sat Dec 15, 2012 12:26 am

This being the Internet....

By way of some clarification:

Our resignations are the result of a serious disagreement with the Board.

There is no wrongdoing or malfeasance on the part of the Board or any of it's members. They too, are hard working volunteers.

My post is intended to ensure that the Board of Canoeing Ireland continues to operate with a democratic mandate from its membership, that is all.

I shall remain a member of Canoeing Ireland.

Re: Kevin's post; an EDM may be called by ten registered clubs but their Motion must be clear and precise.

Thank you all for the kind words.

Pat

mbredmon2000
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Re: Resignation of President and Executive of Canoeing Irela

Post by mbredmon2000 » Mon Dec 17, 2012 9:47 am

Resigning your post is a major stand for something, so can you please tell us what it was? You were elected by sporting members who wanted you to represent them and we want to know why you and others can’t do that now. As you have decided to publish your resignation on this form I have asked this question here also
Thanks Mark

aqualung
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Re: Resignation of President and Executive of Canoeing Irela

Post by aqualung » Tue Dec 18, 2012 10:01 pm

Hi Pat, to cut to the chase a portion of your statement bothers me greatly:;;;; "You as members must decide the future of the organisation and take ownership of it, or else let it go on with "business as usual".

Yours Sincerely,

Pat MacAlinney*

are you implying that the newly installed CEO is behaving in an improper manner, as that is the only conclusion I can take from such a sentiment

VERY CONCERNED

Bernard Walsh

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Seanie
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Re: Resignation of President and Executive of Canoeing Irela

Post by Seanie » Wed Dec 19, 2012 9:03 am

Bernard, to the best of my knowledge there is no CEO of Canoeing Ireland or even an acting CEO since Michael Scanlon, the last Chief Executive was fired. The current role is General Manager. The GM role doesn't exist in the ICU/Canoeing Ireland articles of association(constitution). The creation of the position, the advertising for the position, the job outline and the interview process were all very "unusual".

For the uninitiated here is a forum thread that happened while the process played out: "Rush to select a new Canoe Union CEO/GM". If you havent read it I would urge you to do so. Please pay attention to the dates of the posts, it'll give you an idea of how rushed the process was.

And for added context to this entire mess heres a post that gives the timeline and links to threads discussing key events in the ICU's tremulous history over the last two years: "A Concise Account of the ICU CEO Suspension & Related Issues"

I will wait until the full facts have come out to fully outline my thoughts on the resignation of Pat as President of Canoeing Ireland along with the Hon. Treasurer, Hon. Secretary and rest of the Executive. But, I don't need these facts to make some broader points about the ICU.

This much is clear to me, having had the benefit of standing back and pondering the issues that the ICU faced and still faces:
  • A lack of transparency into the actions of elected and non-elected board and executive members.
  • A very poor organizational structure. This has been highlighted by two independent reports in the last 6 years and the Irish Sports Council.
  • Violations of basic ethics going unchecked.
  • Jobs, contracts and tenders are not being advertised each time.
  • The process for hiring, contracts and tenders is not established and varies widely from private sector or public sector norms.
  • Lack of transparency into how the ICU disperses it's funding (process, forumla and exceptions).
A clean slate.
Frankly, it appears the the problems the ICU faces are insurmountable.

I think it might be time for the functioning parts of the ICU to jettison themselves from the cancerous mess of interested parties, squabbling and conniving.

The first group that comes to mind is the TDU. The ICU hasn't giving the TDU either the respect or resources it deserves. Funnily enough the lack of resources also means the TDU doesn't need the ICU. I imagine the TDU could thrive if it was independent, and as a result grass roots paddling in Ireland could also thrive and develop into something we can all just dream about today.

Seanie

aqualung
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Re: Resignation of President and Executive of Canoeing Irela

Post by aqualung » Wed Dec 19, 2012 10:33 am

Hi Seanie, excuse my ignorance in using the wrong title (CEO) instead of the current (not correct, GM.)
1.do I take it that your statement above is taken from discussions you have had with Pat in recent days, and that the content in your statement are the grounds for Pat's resignation ?
2. Can I also take it that Pat's resignation has nothing to do with the current (?) GM (?) performing his role, which was my original question
3. I really like your TDU idea ;)

Bernard

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Seanie
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Re: Resignation of President and Executive of Canoeing Irela

Post by Seanie » Wed Dec 19, 2012 12:07 pm

aqualung wrote:1.do I take it that your statement above is taken from discussions you have had with Pat in recent days, and that the content in your statement are the grounds for Pat's resignation ?
2. Can I also take it that Pat's resignation has nothing to do with the current (?) GM (?) performing his role, which was my original question
No.

While I have spoken with Pat Mac briefly, I do not have all of the details.

Pats discretion shouldn't be mistaken for secrecy. The facts will come out when the minutes of the meeting are publish and on the record. The speed that this happens at will have no effect on the slowly moving train wreck.

The ICU was in trouble when the CEO was fired, and the core problems remain. My statement above is simply based on the fact that Pat Mac and the executive resigned and the preceding issues the ICU has faced over the last two years. Nothing more is needed for me to arrive at my conclusions.

lmc
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Re: Resignation of President and Executive of Canoeing Irela

Post by lmc » Thu Dec 20, 2012 10:37 pm

Hi Seanie et al.



This once again seems to be the way things work in the ICU (HE said SHE said but we cant tell you because the solicitors are dealing with it ) I am sorry to hear the executive committee has resigned and even more that the Canoe Union has not seen it important enough to inform its members and what they think will be the next course of action


As you call it the slow train wreck goes so slow by the time the minutes of this meeting are published a new exec committee will be elected and when they find out the reason the first committe resigned, they may choose the same path and resign and off we go again. What should happen is that ahead of this,is clear and transparent details of what transpired and the reason the Committee felt their positions were untenable should be communicated to the members, before we start on this endless cycle all over again.



What I have heard on the grapevine transpired was...there was a vote on whether or not to terminate the contract of the GM. The vote didn't go the wayof the Exec Committee so they resigned.


Feel free to confirm or deny this, but at least let us know what happened, so we can make an informed decision.

Niall

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