WSRA Trustee Election Hustings

I am speaking without the M&A in front of me, but IIRC, there is no specific time limit. I agree with your assessment, the meeting was run from the floor. It is to be hoped that the fact that the present Trustees have lost all legitimacy will now sink in with them and a spirit of compromise / resignation will emerge. If not, those who will not rest until there is change look forward to the resumed AGM, ask the membership to keep faith with us and attend the resumed AGM in good numbers. Rest assured, we have a plan, even if the Trustees do not. Every member attending will be able to make a difference.

kind regards

Robin White

 

I concur completely about the fantastic work Steve has done over the years to promote the WSR. Sadly his report was not helpful to the cause of reform. It did not need to be "outspoken" just factual and reasonably complete. Sadly it was not.

 

So do you advocate giving up and going home? You are wrong to say there is no legal or constitutional way of resolving this deadlock. As others have said, or hinted, there may be several ways. There is no 'corporate' majority to permanently block change - the greater majority of members (those who did not attend or proxy) have not yet expressed a view either way so there is everything to play for as far as they are concerned. Although the trustees won a few votes at the AGM their tactics, and the voting numbers, show they are now living in a house of (proxy) cards. Blow it down!

 

Re Miff 864 above - the best thing for blowing down a house of cards is a big bad wolf......

On the subject of proxy votes in favour of incumbents - I used to work in an investment department and was involved with the voting on shares held. We were one of a few investment houses that actively used our votes, including against incumbent managements, we were always frustrated by the practice of default voting in support of management. If you got a "protest" votes of 10% you were doing well.

Sounds pointless? Not really, sooner or later, perhaps through sheer vanity, incumbents start to realise something is going wrong and become more receptive. No-one wants to be seen to have lost their mandate (moral or otherwise).

On the subject of how soon the AGM should be reconvened, I'm no expert on Charity law but, for comparison, in company law there is a time limit by which an AGM must be held (and implicitly completed). I imagine there must be something similar in Charity law. Maybe Bean Counter knows for sure?

Deep breath, keep going..... The WSR is worth it.

 

Precisely. We Association members could go on tickling the problem for years but with no significant effect. We already have done. Ultimately, like it or not, the plc hold all the cards. I predict we will eventually end up lobbying the plc to run WSRA off the Railway. Then will come the time to decide what happens next with regard to support group(s). It might be all the eggs in one basket initially but that is far preferable to this.

 

Just picked up on this discussion. I was not at the AGM on Saturday and due to other commitments will probably never make a Saturday afternoon meeting - however it suits everyone else and I accept that.

I would plead with all volunteers not to resign as volunteers over this - future membership of the WSRA is your choice. Volunteers work for the 'West Somerset Railway' in its totality, which was one of the reasons responsibility for volunteer recruitment moved from the WSRA to the PLC a few years ago. The WSRA still supports recruitment through message taking and photocopying services at BL and use of Brunel House for Induction - which reflects an overall approach. Keeping trains running with satisfied passengers/customers/visitors should be our priority.

I have also noted a couple of posts suggesting that volunteer recruitment is being affected by this issue. The evidence does not support this. Only one negative comment has come my way from a potential volunteer. 80 new volunteers have joined us this year with another 4 already booked into August Inductions. This figure puts us ahead for the same time of the year as the previous three years. I do get questions at induction about the situation and I try to explain the roles of the PLC and WSRA - it hasn't put anyone off so far - all attending induction have gone on to volunteer.

Hopefully resolution of the situation will prevent any impact on volunteer recruitment in the future.

Mel Hillman

 

As a reminder the WSRA is a company limited by guarantee. As such I would have assumed it to be bound by all aspects of company law?

I still find it odd that a relatively small support association should have chosen to constitute itself as a charity and a company. There are much simpler forms of charitable status such as trusts which would have removed the onerous double reporting the current structure imposes. Any of these other forms would have also safeguarded the assets of the association a lot better.

Some good news from Mel. So If the campaign is not having a negative impact then let's press on.

 

A trip to Wells (Som) today in my official capacity as Funeral Assistant to the Railway. A lovely lady donated her late husband's model railway and books to our Railway. Whom am I working for......... it doesn't matter as I am collecting items for distribution to the stations which will be sold to support the Railway. It is official business and I can put in an expenses docket to the plc, if I feel the need. The books will go to various Friends groups and other support organisations and money will be raised. Politics have no place in the operation.
The Minehead Line has been in existence privately for 40 years and these last couple of years infighting should not and will not cripple our Railway. Lets move forward, hindsight is a great and exact science but has no place on here. Lets try and be positive, lets make good and useful suggestions, lets get our ONE RAILWAY back on track, pun intentional.

 

Ah, the penny has dropped as to who I might be replying to here! As before, the brief report was factual but clearly not complete due to slight differences in various reports* I have received. I am trying to get more information to clarify those muddy bits. In the interest of accuracy I prefer to get things right, if I can; and if in doubt leave it out. One last thought, in the interests of openness and transparency perhaps you could pop your real name onto your posts? Most do.

Steve

* if anyone else has a report on the AGM please send it to me.

 

His name is on his profile as my name is on my profile. You make it sound as if you had to employ Sherlock Holmes to find out. Your comment about putting names on posts seems to suggest that his post has less validity because he doesn't state his name each time he posts.

 

Steve,
if you click the members nickname next to a post they have made it takes you to their profile page. On one of the tabs the members actual name is displayed if they've given it.

 

No one is saying give up and go home. What people are saying is one set of tactics didn't work, therefore a different set should be considered.

 

Thanks.

Steve

 

I have today, again written to the Trustees of the WSRA to express my disquiet at how they have acted during the run up to and indeed at the AGM. I urge all working volunteers to do the same.

 

These weasel words simply will not get you off the hook. Robin White, a respected barrister, gave a full report that was available to you. To claim that you needed clarification, and by implication that his report was flawed in some way, is like something out of a novel by Kafka. You were clearly too scared to give an accurate report because it might prejudice your relationship with the Trustees.

 

rather OTT; oh and by the way it's her report not his report.....

 

Not OTT at all just an accurate summation of the actuality, unfortunate though it may be. Heat and kitchens comes to mind. Of course I apologise unreservedly to Robin.

 

If you don't think it is OTT, then I suggest you read the works of Kafka. Steve's actions are nothing like the works of Kafka

 

Peter

I am grateful for your apology, which I unreservedly accept. You have made your point about Steve's post about the AGM very clearly, but there are bigger fish to fry, so don't be like the present Trustees and drop the bone now and focus on the really important issues.

Kind regards

Robin White