Transparency

[John Mason]

I am with you Alan it maybe only a very small amount but where do the indivdual clubs get there money from to support the A7CA. The members subs. Without subs there would be no Austin Seven clubs and no A7CA. We don't want to know who is right or wrong. Just the facts so we can see there is no secrecy.

John Mason

[Ian Williams]

Here here John!

[Edgar Lowe]

I am with you Alan it maybe only a very small amount but where do the indivdual clubs get there money from to support the A7CA. The members subs. Without subs there would be no Austin Seven clubs and no A7CA. We don't want to know who is right or wrong. Just the facts so we can see there is no secrecy.

John Mason

You want facts no problem get it for your own club representatives. You will not get facts on this forum as it will descend into a political debates. You already started talking about subs etc.. to which has nothing to do with Les Gammon position. As I said get your facts from the horse mouth ie. your own club rep. We are getting Here Say from Jon and everybody jumping on the bandwagon.

[Paul N-M]

I find this sort of thread very sad reading.
All post holders at wahatever level are servants of the members. This is sometimes forgotton, in fact very often forgotten till a timely reminder is made then usually ignored in times of stress. The draw bridge goes up at HQ.
Clubs need to understand that social media can make or break them. A failure to understand this can be fatal. Hoping too much question asking from members will eventually go away if you ignore them breeds distrust. Those inside the fort brand the question askers as trouble makers and the downward spiral begins.
In this particular case the relationship between regional clubs and the association is accademic. I fear that asking you local club what happened will result in as many answers as there are regional clubs to say nothing of any off the record comments! More grist to the fake news mill.
A statement from those directly involved issued to the whole membership including being posted here would give all the same information and at least would be appreciated as trying to be transparent. Some may not be happy with what they read but that is always to be expected.

Paul N-M

[Charles P]

I don't like the idea of kangaroo courts playing out online but as science teaches us, nature abhors a vacuum.

In my mind the A7CA saying nothing simply isn't tenable.

Charles

[Ruairidh Dunford]

The Association announces production of it’s (unconfirmed and confirmed) minutes here: http://a7ca.org/news/

[Adam Brown]

So since the meeting was only on Sunday, it would follow that the minutes will be available in a reasonable period. Then we can read what has been said on the matter.

I agree that clearly none of us are members. First port of call is to ask our clubs what is going on, they ask the Officers an answer comes back. Short circuiting via posting on internet forums isn't going to get anywhere. Neither is a statement from the A7CA it will just descend into mud slinging.

I've seen many clubs and associations try to 'engage' with forums to keep people better informed. I've not seen a successful attempt yet!

There will be two sides to the story, but all are volunteers working for the betterment of the organisation - they need our support

[JonE]

The Association announces production of it’s (unconfirmed and confirmed) minutes here: http://a7ca.org/news/

Thanks - helpful. 

Just to clarify, as you can read this is two ways... and in this case (to save other people looking immediately!) it is not an announcement - it is merely a statement.

[David Cochrane]

Oh dear, here we go again…
 
I find it extraordinary that many of the contributors of the above posts seem to have the mindset that the Association is some sort of remote, independent body which is run for the benefit of "the committee". As Ruairidh has pointed out, the A7CA is our Austin Seven CLUBS' Association. It is an AMATEUR organisation which is there to help to co-ordinate the events and interests of all the different A7 clubs all over the world. Like Adam says, the committee are all volunteers. They receive no remuneration (apart from expenses such as postage, etc) for their work for the A7CA. They are all fellow Austin 7 enthusiasts just like (I assume) all of us are who contribute to this forum.

If some of the folks here who seem to have enough time on their hands to contribute were to offer to be their Club's A7CA rep, then they could find out at first hand how the Association operates and you could be there to offer advice & suggestions. You don't even need to be a Club rep to come to the meetings - they aren't pushed for space. We currently need a Secretary - any volunteers?