TRUTH?

Is the speculation shown below the TRUE and SECRET reason for the SBW committee lies?

Late in the evening of 9th April the former Webmaster sent two emails to the SBW committee "disputing" two of their decisions as being unconstitutional. The SBW Constitution states that if disputes are not resolved, they must be referred to a community justice centre for mediation under the Community Justice Centres Act 1983.

The SBW Constitution further states that if the dispute is not resolved by mediation within 3 months, it must be referred to arbitration where the Commercial Arbitration Act 2010 applies.

So, unlike "complaints" where decisions as to their validity are decided by the committee, "disputes" initially go to external mediation and if unresolved are finally decided not by the committee but by an external court.

The SBW Constitution says that the committee must act on disputes, so it is up to the committee - and not the person who initiates the dispute - to make all the necessary arrangements for mediation and arbitration.

Although the two dispute emails were part of the "50 vexatious emails" reported in the minutes of the April 15th committee meeting, there is no mention of the subjects or any of the content of any of those emails anywhere in those minutes. The committee is keeping this SECRET.

As shown in the minutes of the April 15th committee meeting - less than six days after receiving notice of the former Webmaster's disputes - the SBW committee had prepared "a background paper" (author not mentioned) on the cancellation of the membership of Brett Davis, and added this paper to the meeting's agenda.

In addition, someone on committee (author not mentioned) had also created a document titled "Cancellation of the SBW membership of Brett Davis: Decision and reasons" on the off-chance that the motion to cancel the membership of the former Webmaster would be passed. 😀

Significantly, the committee themselves pinpointed the exact day when they decided to cancel Brett's membership, as the motion for cancellation of his membership refers to the "vexatious" emails sent "between 20th January and 9th April" - the same day it received notification of the two disputes. Brett sent other suggestions a couple of days later, but these were not mentioned in the minutes.

So it would appear that rather than go through the time-consuming process of mediation and arbitration that would highlight their violation of the SBW Constitution, and rather than change their original decisions and admit their incompetence, the committee decided to keep the true reason for the membership cancellation of the former Webmaster a SECRET and kick a person who had devoted 25 years to Shoalhaven Bushwalkers out of the club.

Violations of the SBW Constitution; Double Standards; SECRET meetings, SECRET minutes, SECRET agendas; lying by omission, misdirection and spin; such are the ethical principles of every member of the 2024 / 2025 Shoalhaven Bushwalkers committee, a committee that at best could be described as "well-meaning but out of their depth" but probably more accurately as "incompetent and malevolent" ...

This is graphically demonstrated by the committee's actions (or lack of action) between their decision to cancel the membership of the former Webmaster (and former President, former Ettremist Editor and soon-to-be former Life Member) and the final rubber stamping of that decision by an uninformed general meeting - see The End.