This website tells the story of the incompetence, bad decisions, constitutional violations and complete lack of transparency of the Shoalhaven Bushwalkers committee since the beginning of 2023. Some of their bad decisions potentially impact the safety of over 200 SBW members.

Only Shoalhaven Bushwalkers should read this SECRET history as it will have little relevance to people outside the club. Most members probably won't want to read this anyway because they just want to go bushwalking - they don't really want to know how bad their committee is! 😀

This story will include multiple violations of the Shoalhaven Bushwalkers constitution by the SBW Committee; their ignorance; lies; deceit; spin; SECRET meetings; SECRET decisions; SECRET minutes; unfounded accusations; abuse of power; double standards; threats of legal action; heated exchanges via email and phone; ruined reputations; and the destruction of friendships.

The SBW President has requested that the names of SBW Committee members be kept SECRET, so most of the SBW Committee members names on this website have been changed. Given the actions and terrible decisions of the SBW Committee, it is not surprising that committee members don't want anyone to know who they are ...

Section 47 of the SBW Constitution states that all meeting minutes, records, books and other financial documents must be open to inspection by club members.

However, in early 2024, the SBW Committee decided that it wanted to keep some club records associated with its illegal actions SECRET. After it was pointed out to them that this violated the SBW Constitution, the committee passed an illegal over-riding resolution to validate its SECRECY.

That resolution shows the SBW Committee's complete lack of understanding of the SBW Constitution, the NSW Associations Incorporation Act 2009, the NSW Associations Incorporation Regulations 2022, the Department of Fair Trading's Model Constitution, and the limitations of its own powers.

The regulations are not difficult to understand. The Associations Incorporation Act 2009 includes a list of matters which must be addressed in an association’s constitution. This list is called Schedule 1. If Schedule 1 matters are not addressed in a constitution, the rules described in the Department of Fair Trading's "Model Constitution" then apply. However, because all matters in Schedule 1 are addressed in the SBW Constitution, the Model Constitution has no relevance to Shoalhaven Bushwalkers.

Additionally, because the Model Constitution's provisions apply AUTOMATICALLY if a matter is not addressed, there is NO NEED for the SBW Committee to pass a resolution to include a non-addressed matter. If the SBW resolution had been legal, it would also have been unnecessary.

When a club member disputed the legality of the SBW Committee's standing resolution regarding SECRECY, his club membership was cancelled, so this assertion has never been decided by an impartial third party. However, for the record, Gemini AI was asked the following questions, and screen prints of its answers are shown below. Feel free to duplicate this procedure with any AI models you prefer, or even get a legal opinion ...

Q1. Does the SBW constitution satisfy the requirements of schedule 1 of the NSW Incorporated Associations Act 2009?

Q2. Can the SBW Committee legally include section 43 paragraph 4 of the NSW Dept of Fair Trading's Model Constitution in its standing resolutions?

Q3. Would the adoption of section 43 (paragraph 4) of the NSW Model Constitution contradict SBW's current registered constitution?

Q4. Is it likely that all twelve of the SBW Committee's members would fail to reach this conclusion?

Q5. If a regular club member formally challenged the resolution by pointing to the supremacy of Clause 47, would this justify their expulsion from the club?

In an email to the committee in late January 2023, President Elizabeth Donaldson* said - “A member, Edward Low*, put up suggestions re the club's safety procedures. When someone questions our safety procedures, I deem it appropriate to follow up quickly. I decided to do some preliminary work to inform our next committee meeting in March. A sub-committee of the committee met on Saturday to discuss Edward's* question re safety procedures on walks. I called the sub-committee suddenly as I was in Vincentia that day."

This sub-committee was illegal. The SBW constitution says that the President does not have the power to establish sub-committees. This can only be done by the committee - Rule 22(b)(x) -
The President was either unaware of the requirements of the SBW constitution regarding her powers and those of the committee, or chose to ignore them. This opinion has been verified by AI -
Committee members Dennis Denuto*, Mildred Ratched* and later Hedda Tesman* should never have agreed to be a part of the illegal sub-committee. They too seemed to be either unaware of the requirements of the SBW constitution, or chose to ignore them.

* not his/her real name

The March 2023 committee meeting minutes (written by President Elizabeth Donaldson*) say that "Elizabeth Donaldson* will post a Positions Vacant Notice in News on the website looking for people, who are not regular walkers, to act as a safety contact person for each walking group - On Track, Hybrid and Off Track". These contacts were part of the proposed new safety procedures - which the same minutes show were still being revised.

There is no mention in the minutes of this action being moved, seconded, voted on or passed.

On April 7th, six months prior to the date when the safety procedures would eventually be approved by the committee, Elizabeth Donaldson* advertised on the club News page for “Positions Vacant – safety contacts” as specified by those draft procedures, with Vice President Hedda Tesman* listed as a co-contact. This news is still able to be read under “Old News” on the club website.

On April 29th, Elizabeth Donaldson* posted a news item on the club's website with the subject of “Revised Club Safety Procedures” which said that “the club’s safety procedures have been revised” and that “these will be posted on the website as a set of safety procedures when our Webmaster returns from holidays”. While they had indeed been revised, they had yet to be approved by the club committee.

When the Webmaster arrived home on May 15th, President Elizabeth Donaldson* phoned him to request the uploading of the draft safety procedures to the website to replace the existing procedures. The Webmaster refused, saying the President did not have the authority to replace established safety procedures with draft procedures that had not been approved by the committee. The exchange was heated, the President remained insistent, but the Webmaster was unmoved.

Unilateral actions which should have required committee approval show that the President and Vice President were either unaware of the requirements of the constitution, or chose to ignore them. At least the Webmaster seemed to be familiar with the constitution ...

* not his/her real name

The SBW Committee held a SECRET committee on March 5th, 2024. The meeting was not advertised in the club Program or News, so no club members apart from committee members were aware that the meeting was being held.

The SBW Committee violated the constitution by keeping this committee meeting SECRET. AI was asked this question - "According to the SBW Constitution, is the SBW committee allowed to hold committee meetings without informing club members?" - and here is the response -

After their illegal SECRET meeting on March 5th, 2024, the SBW committee produced no minutes for the meeting. Rule 23 (i) of the SBW constitution states – “Proceedings of committee meetings shall be available to any Club member”, so as the committee meeting minutes were not made available to club members, the constitution had been violated.

When this lack of minutes for the SECRET committee meeting was pointed out to the committee by a club member who received correspondence from that meeting, the SBW committee produced two sets of minutes, one for distribution to members, and a SECRET set of minutes for itself. The one for members is called the "website version" and lacks critical details - so this presupposes a SECRET version of those minutes.

Rule 23 (i) of the SBW constitution states – “Proceedings of committee meetings shall be available to any Club member”. If committee meeting minutes are not made available to club members, the constitution has been violated. AI was asked this question - "Is the SBW committee allowed to withhold any of its committee meeting minutes from its members??" - and here is the response -
AI was also asked "Is the SBW committee allowed to produce two sets of minutes for a committee meeting - one for its members and a different set for the committee?" and here is its response -