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Re: Canoeing Ireland AGM

Posted: Sat Apr 20, 2013 10:04 pm
by talkin sense
Ah yes - the lunatics have taken over the asylum!

Canoeing in Ireland? R.I.P.

Those who claim to love the sport have destroyed it in an orgy of vitriolic , nasty, and unnecessarily vicious shortsightedness!

Before he even thanked the floor for his election the first words out of the new President's mouth were to suggest that the Board would work against him and the changes passed at today's meeting. So much for any desire to work with the Board. Coming from someone who is already on the record as saying he cannot work with the GM or the Board it is easy to see where this is going.

Whatever their shortcomings some very good and well intentioned people were shafted today and the paddlers they represent were disenfranchised.

To the victors the spoils ! Hope you don't come to regret it in time.

Re: Canoeing Ireland AGM

Posted: Sat Apr 20, 2013 10:21 pm
by Johnb
Ah now...

To give out about vitriol and then put a post up like that? It's the equivalent of taking the ball home with you after you lost the match.

Also, on your point about well meaning people being shafted, I doubt anyone who put their name up to go on that board at this point in Canoeing Ireland's history is not well meaning. Their intention is to enfranchise paddlers too, and it's unfair to infer otherwise, just because your agenda doesn't align with theirs. I don't see how provincial reps will disenfranchise people.

Re: Canoeing Ireland AGM

Posted: Sat Apr 20, 2013 11:39 pm
by Seanie
talkin sense wrote:Ah yes - the lunatics have taken over the asylum!
From what I heard the main votes were decided by around about 600 votes to less than 200.

“The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four people is suffering from a mental illness. Look at your 3 best friends. If they're ok, then it's you.”

Re: Canoeing Ireland AGM

Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2013 9:55 am
by Ken
canoekayak wrote:
Boards report not adopted by the ADM
Any consequences to that? Does that include the accounts? If it does would it require an EGM to get them approved as otherwise they can't be filed?

What else does the board's report include?

Re: Canoeing Ireland AGM

Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2013 10:42 am
by Adrians
Ken see the Board's address below, full size copy attached.

The boards address / report not being adopted has no consequences and has no relevance to the accounts. It's worth nothing that the boards report was from the board made up of Non Executive members.

Loads was said and what happened at the 52nd ADM of CI will forever change the NGB of paddle sport in Ireland forever.

Image

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You can download a high res PDF of the report here

Re: Canoeing Ireland AGM

Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2013 10:49 am
by Ken
Cheers Adrian - kinda surprised any of that was controversial - lots of holes to pick but rejecting that seems to be a bit petty. Wasn't at the AGM so I'll have to wait for minutes and so on - hopefully it can be an end to all this in-fighting and the ICU and the various discipline committees can just focus on promoting paddlesports from now on.

Re: Canoeing Ireland AGM

Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2013 10:55 am
by Adrians
I had meant to add,

Before people start talking about being disenfranchised or others start gloating about some sort of victory, it's worth remembering that the changes that happened at the ADM were by what can only be described as a landslide. This obviously reflected how the membership feel, and CI is an organisation that is meant to represent it's members.

The changes made at the ADM will not effect some of the fantastic work that some of the Technical committees have done over the years and I hope will continue to do so. With the structure for the board being changed and how members are represented we will all have to work together to further paddle sports in in Ireland across all disciplines both noncompetitive and competitive.

I'll try surmise my report of what happened later today.

It's worth noting that Malcolm Banks who stepped up to chair the ADM did a fantastic job under what could only be considered very difficult circumstances.

I wish the new president and incoming board the best of luck and every success.

Adrian

Re: Canoeing Ireland AGM

Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2013 3:49 pm
by paupier
I second what Adrian and Seanie have just said.

With such overwhelming support for change, it cannot be supported that the system to date worked. It may have worked in some peoples views, but not not to the majority of paddlers.

I hope that the changes see more paddlers returning to CI and that it will continue to grow.

None of the changes were an attack on any one person or discipline. From a short sighted point of view one could see this a detrimental to disciplines, but the bigger picture puts regional development resources in place to allow disciplines to grow in each region and allows the disciplines chairs (who do a great job for their discipline) to focus on the discipline without the double duties of sitting on the CI board as well.

In relation to the rejection of the board report... Well the report didn't really say much about what the board has done, it was really just a statement of opinion. Throughout the meeting the board inserted snippets of information about what plans they had made and how they wanted to grow the sport (Appointing two new office staff as regional development officers being the only one I remember right now) but they failed to put this type of information into the report.

The addition of the old chestnut "the board is made up of volunteers, freely giving their time etc..." is a bit of a cop out. Especially when sitting in front of a room of people who, for the majority, sit on committees and instruct/coach freely for their clubs don't need to be reminded of the personal sacrifices we all make for the betterment of kayaking.

The ADM went on for 6 hours including about 30 mins for breaks. It cannot be said that the discussions were brief in any respect. Everyone had a chance to have their say. Given that most of the motions have been with the members for almost 2 months, in the end there really wasn't much significant opposition to the changes proposed.

Malcolm Banks did an amazing job chairing the meeting - maintaining order and balance. Much respect for what was not an easy meeting to chair.

Re: Canoeing Ireland AGM

Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2013 7:01 pm
by Seanie
Statement on election to the Canoeing Ireland Board of Management.
NewBoard2013ADM.pdf
(27.49KiB)Downloaded 752 times

Re: Canoeing Ireland AGM

Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2013 9:51 pm
by talkin sense
With reference to my most recent posting when I said the following -

"Before he even thanked the floor for his election the first words out of the new President's mouth were to suggest that the Board would work against him and the changes passed at today's meeting. So much for any desire to work with the Board. Coming from someone who is already on the record as saying he cannot work with the GM or the Board it is easy to see where this is going."

I see the following on the most recent minutes posted on the CI website -

"Agenda item 3 - correspondence received

Transcript of abusive message left on GM's phone by Mark Clinton after ADM was postponed,
Board agreed that this was inappropriate behaviour; Staff should not be subject to abusive behaviour from anyone"

Perhaps in the interests of openness and transparency the new President might consider publishing the transcript here so that he can share his views with the rest of us. Alternatively he can defend himself.

Or will it be a case of openness and transparency for everybody else but not for him?

Just how abusive was he? I for one would be very interested to see this transcript.

One way or the other I see no reason why the transcript should not be published.

On the face of things he new President seems to be starting from a position of antagonism not only towards the existing Board but also towards the GM.

Hardly an optimal outcome for an organisation in need of healing !

Difficult to see how divisiveness of that nature can be for the good of the sport either!

Re: Canoeing Ireland AGM

Posted: Tue Apr 23, 2013 4:09 am
by Seanie
For those not aquatinted with the user called "talkin sense".
talkin sense = troll account by an anonymous user.

I can't help but feel that those minutes were put there to spite Mark. While I agree no employee should have take any sort of abuse, the current GM has proven his utter incompetence time after time. I'm sure it wont be the last time someone loses their cool with him.

Re: Canoeing Ireland AGM

Posted: Tue Apr 23, 2013 9:22 pm
by seanmc
Maybe I'm missing something here, where does the TDU function sit in the structure?

Re: Canoeing Ireland AGM

Posted: Tue Apr 23, 2013 10:21 pm
by paupier
One Recreational Sport rep shall be nominated by the TDU unless another candidate is elected to this position at the ADM in an uneven numbered year and elected at the ADM.
So the TDU still exists, but the Chair of the TDU does not sit on the Board, same as disciplines.