Re: An apology for my misunderstanding


About this email
In early 2023 President Mary Furness formed a sub-committee to update the club's safety procedures. This violates the SBW Constitution which states that only the committee can form sub-committees.

When the sub-committee produced new procedures, Mary asked me to upload them to the website to replace the current safety procedures. This too violates the SBW Constitution which states that the Club shall be managed by the Club committee, so I refused to upload them.

It then occurred to me that perhaps I had misunderstood what Mary was asking me, so in mid May 2023 I sent an email to Mary to apologise for any misunderstanding. Mary's reply quoted my email and is shown below. Text in black is from my original email. Text in red is from Mary's reply. The blue text is automatically generated when forwarding an email. The capitalization is Mary's.

The news items mentioned in the email are shown below. They can still be viewed by members on the club's News page.



From: Mary Furness

To: webmaster@shoalhavenbushwalkers.org.au

Subject: Re: An apology for my misunderstanding

Date sent: May 16, 2023


 

Hi Brett,
Answer in CAPS below
No need for apology

On May 15, 2023, at 11:29 AM, Webmaster at SBW
(webmaster@shoalhavenbushwalkers.org.au) wrote:

Hi Mary,

In a recent email when I said that you didn't have the authority to change the safety procedures on the website, I may have misunderstood your intention.

YOU DIDNT MISUNDERSTAND.

Because of your news posts on April 7th and April 29th which make it appear that the club has already adopted the proposed changes to the safety procedures, I may have wrongly assumed that you wanted me to change the safety procedures prior to their approval by the committee.

I DID WANT YOU TO CHANGE. THE EMAILS TO COMMITTEE FROM THE VP, INDICATED THAT THEY WERE COMPLETED. BOTH VP AND I THOUGHT THE NEW SAFETY PROCEDURES WERE IMPORTANT ENOUGH TO BE ADOPTED EARLY AND SANCTIONED OR ALTERED BY THE C'TEE LATER.

However, it occurred to me this morning (on a 40km bike ride with Karen to Murray's Beach and back) that you might have simply wanted me to post the proposed safety procedures to the website so that we could show our insurers that the club was in the process of updating our safety procedures - which is a reasonable request.

NO, WE WANTED THEM POSTED AND BEING USED

I have added a paragraph explaining the situation and providing a link to the document to two pages on our website - the Safety page which appears when you click on "Safety" in the menu, and the "Safety Procedures" page which can be reached via this page or the drop down menu. If you think the wording needs to be changed in any way, let me know and we can discuss it.

I DO NOT BELIEVE THE ROLE OF THE WEBMASTER IS TO ADD OPINIONS ON THE WEBSITE. MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE ROLE OF THE WEBMASTER IS THE UPDATING OF THE MECHANICS OF THE WEBSITE AND ATTACHING ARTICLES WHEN THEY HAVE BEEN APPROVED BY THE COMMITTEE OR REQUESTED AS AN EMERGENCY OR IMPORTANT ITEM.
THE SAFETY PROCEDURES WERE CONSIDERED BOTH BY THE VP AND P.
WHAT YOU ADDED WAS YOUR PERSONAL VIEWPOINT AND USED RULES TO BACK IT UP.

The paragraph states - "The safety procedures on this website are currently in the process of being updated. A working document has been produced - see Proposed Safety Procedures April 2023 - but this has not yet been ratified by the club committee. Leaders may choose to follow these new procedures if they think they provide greater safety or decreased risk for our members. Implementation of the new procedures will be decided at the next committee meeting in July 2023."

I DO NOT CONSIDER THIS PARAGRAPH APPROPRIATE ESPECIALLY 'MAY USE'.
IT IS YOUR PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE AS ONE MEMBER OF THE COMMITTEE.
IT IS YOUR RIGHT TO TAKE THIS MATTER TO THE FULL COMMITTEE BUT I DONT THINK THAT WOULD BE WISE. WE CAN SUMMARISE OUR DISPUTE AT THE NEXT MEETING IF YOU WISH.
I CAN ONLY ASK YOU AGAIN TO REPLACE YOUR PARAGRAPH WITH MINE.

CHEERS
MARY


[Mary obviously believed that her actions and requests were justified and legal. I believed otherwise. The difference of opinion was never resolved. Readers of this page can make up their own minds.]
SBW President's news post April 2023 #1


SBW President's news post April 2023 #2

































This page shows an email sent by the Shoalhaven Bushwalkers webmaster to the SBW President.



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