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A Summary of the SECRET History of Shoalhaven Bushwalkers
The composition of the Shoalhaven Bushwalkers committee changed significantly in the early 2020s. Many long-time club members who had been on the committee for between ten and twenty years took a well-earned rest and were replaced by club members who were not only new to the committee, but many of whom were new to the club as well. ----------------- It started seemingly innocuously enough with a President deciding to set up a sub-committee to examine the club's safety procedures. The constitution states that this can only be done by the committee. The new safety procedures were unnecessarily complicated and placed needless additional burdens on walk leaders. The President and her Vice President then tried to implement the procedures prior to their approval by the committee. At the same time, the President and VP championed changes to the constitution to bring back limited terms for the President, perhaps because they believed the President had more influence over the club than was actually provided for by the rules. The Webmaster published three new, factual web pages reminding the committee of its legal responsibilities; describing the role of the President; and updating the club history from a personal perspective like the rest of the club history. These were howled down by new club members from other clubs who were apparently unfamiliar with the Shoalhaven Bushwalkers constitution, the law, and the club's history. A new President decided to keep one piece of correspondence SECRET from most of the committee, and form a SECRET sub-committee to action complaints against the Webmaster for the three new web pages. The two long-time committee members who helped him out had supported an equally illegal sub-committee earlier the same year. At the same time, new safety procedures were circulated to the committee by a legal (for a change) sub-committee which produced 16 documents instead of the simplification of a four page document as set by the committee. Being confined to the terms under which a sub-committee is established is a constitutional requirement. The Webmaster resigned from the committee in disgust at its blatant abuse of the constitution, and the committee then saddled the club with an inferior website, a different domain name, a single email address, and the loss of a huge slice of the club's history. Apologies were issued by the committee to club members allegedly affected by the Webmaster's behaviour when no apologies were needed and for which he has never been given the opportunity to defend himself - in yet another violation of the constitution. The correspondence kept SECRET by the President was never reported in any minutes. The illegal and SECRET complaints process was described in committee meeting minutes as a casual discussion. The now former Webmaster emailed a question to the committee about it's attitude to SECRECY, and the President replied on behalf of the committee saying "I do not propose to answer it". With the President declining to explain the committee's attitude to the SECRECY it had introduced into the club, the former Webmaster then sent the committee the unreported document that the President had kept SECRET. This prompted an extraordinary response from the SBW committee. They held a SECRET meeting where it was decided to threaten the former Webmaster with cancellation of his membership, but to defer the threat due to "extenuating circumstances" - namely the former Webmaster's twenty plus years of dedication to the club. Not only was the above meeting SECRET, its decisions were kept SECRET, its correspondence was kept SECRET, and its minutes were kept SECRET from club members as well! The former Webmaster's response was to exercise his right to make formal complaints about every violation of the Shoalhaven Bushwalkers constitution by committee members during the previous year. This correspondence was mentioned in club minutes, but both the subject of each complaint and the content of each complaint was kept SECRET from club members. Brett withdrew those complaints two weeks later, hoping they would have made the committee realize the errors of its ways and modify its unconstitutional behaviour accordingly. Nothing further happened for seven months, apart from the election of a new President and a new committee at the 2024 AGM. The decisions coming from the new committee continued to be both objectively bad for the club, and also in violation of the club's constitution. In late January 2025 the former Webmaster began sending the committee suggestions for improvements to the club's website, policies and procedures. Because there had been so many bad committee decisions, the suggestions were numerous. The former Webmaster had sent 24 suggestions to the club by early April, with virtually no feedback or complaint from the committee. Then - on April 9th - the former Webmaster sent two emails to the committee disputing two of its decisions which he believed were contrary to the constitution. Like complaints, the right of members to have disputes with the club is enshrined in the constitution. The committee decided to cancel the former Webmaster's membership, but as it cannot legally cancel a person's membership for having disputes with the club, and as the only thing the former Webmaster had done during the previous twelve months was to email suggestions for improvements to the club, the committee fabricated the reason for the membership cancellation as "sending vexatious emails". The former Webmaster had broken no constitutional rules, followed all relevant guidelines and obeyed all standing resolutions, and the committee had provided no evidence to support its claims that the emails were "vexatious". The committee refused to accept the former Webmaster's explanation that he was simply sending the committee suggestions for improvements to the club, and they stuck to their unsubstantiated claim that the emails were "vexatious". Brett was then given two months to decide whether to appeal the committee's decision at a general meeting of the club. The deadline was July 19th 2025. As a silent protest, Brett had stopped attending general meetings ever since the committee had made the unconstitutional decision to replace regular bushwalking days with social functions and then turned those social functions into general meetings to justify their decision. He saw no reason to stop his protest by attending a general meeting. In addition, history shows that club members at general meetings, special general meetings and AGMS throughout the years had endorsed all committee decisions without exception - including the terrible decision at the 2023 Special General Meeting which changed the constitution and forced good Presidents out of office after three years. During the two month appeal period, Brett made repeated requests via email for the committee to provide club members with access to the allegedly "vexatious emails" so they could make an informed decision about whether those emails were "vexatious" or not. He had even emailed all committee members individually to make sure his requests had been received. In yet another example of double standards and secrecy, Brett's emails were never answered and the details of his allegedly "vexatious emails" were never made known to the members of the club. As a result of that final insult, and in the interest of openness, honesty, integrity and truth, Brett provided the content for this website so that SBW members were no longer kept in the dark ... |
Three of four long-time club members and committee members not only tolerated the new regimes, they actively supported them. They should have known better.