OK, don't all rush to answer :-p In the absence of other more neutral voices, I'll try to answer.
Unlike two years ago CI as an entity doesn't have any actually material problems right now. It has a functioning board, money and no significant legal issues (that I'm aware of).
To understand what happened its important to know how the CI / ICU works.
- The Management Board
- The Executive Board
- The Staff - Including the CEO
The Board is made up of representatives from all the different disciplines of kayaking, the training and development unit (TDU), and the five members of the executive board. This board decides what the ICU does. But, there are too many people on this board to make it functional, they come from all corners of Ireland (in theory), so meetings can only happen every few months (more so now), and the ICU is a company (limited by way of guarantee) so it has other obligations. So thats where the executive come in. Its made up of the ICU Chairperson, and four other executive members, who act as secretary, treasurer and company directors, etc. They meet more regularly, keep in contact and often take action on behalf of the board. Think of the Management board as managing things month to month, and the executive board managing things week to week.
The Staff, are made up of training and development officers, secretaries etc. But the important staff member is the CEO (now the GM). The CEO attends Board meetings and executive meetings. The CEO/GM is responsible for carrying out the wishes of the boards, but also informing the boards about what the best course of action is, and carrying out the day to day business of the ICU as in their executive capacity (ie. make their own decisions, independent of the board)
So there, you have it there's the Political side of the ICU and the Staff/Company, and the CEO acts as a go between. It's complex.
- Management Board ( 12+ people): Month to month
- Executive Board ( 5 people) : week to week
- CEO/GM (1): Day to day
And they all answer to the one above it.
Some more details on the Structure of the ICU from the ICU website:
http://canoe.ie/Information/AbouttheCan ... fault.aspx
An ICU committee member posted a
concise outline of what occurred at that meeting in a post on Boards.ie:
Paddle Hard wrote:... The motion which led to the resignation of the Executive and certain Board members had nothing to do with how the GM position came about, whether or not it's creation should be reviewed, whether or not the process was flawed or transparent or fair or any of the other descriptions which have been used in earlier threads.
The board were asked to support a motion put forward by the President and supported by the Executive. When repeatedly asked why the motion should be supported absoloutely no solid information was provided. Board members were asked in effect to vote blindly. Several Board members asked for clarification as to why the exec felt so strongly about their position they did not put forward any supporting argument. This left a number of Board members unable to support the motion. It fell, the Executive resigned.
Board Member.
However, I don't believe that the problem is isolated to this specific issue. I believe it came to a head at this point. The wider problems, problems that you have heard about are largely opinions on how things are run and should be run, and what should be priorities for the organization. This is exacerbated by complexity due to the diverse all encompassing nature of what CI is, and this is reflected in how the CI/ICU board and executive is made up.
After talking to a lot of people I think that every single person elected to the ICU board, including those that resigned, were working towards what they believed was a better organization. However, I think the structure of the ICU makes this a difficult task.