Now Is The Time

I have received an email saying "When you did hold office you did not represent the whole society. Your focus is dance and that is what you concentrated on not the MFS as a whole". 

For every person that takes the trouble to write, there are probably a dozen who think similarly but don't write, so I appreciate the email and the chance to respond. Your comments are also welcome, just click the "comments" link below. 

The writer has a long memory, that was years ago, and different recollections to me, or has been misinformed.

The fact is that I think the last thing the MFS committee should be doing is running dances, and for the two years I was on that committee I stood aside from all other organising teams and did not involve myself in their decisions. The MFS Committee achieved great improvements in dance, by delegating and empowering others, but MFS Committee focus was the MFS as a whole. Results through people.

- We behaved ethically and openly. We consulted with stakeholders before making decisions that would affect them, and invited those particularly interested in an item along to our meetings. We advised members of our decisions along with reasons, and made our meeting agendas and minutes freely available to members.

- The public web site was totally re-developed and a collaborative Web Content Management system implemented.  That means each organising team can instantly update their own publicity, because they are best placed to do that.

- The members' web site was created

- Simple reporting and accountability standards enabled us to responsibly share leadership through pre-approved budgets, delegation and empowerment. All organising teams were encouraged to promote and run their own activities.

- Improved financial management reporting on all activities of the society, including assets, was one area that was going to take more than two years, but tremendous strides were made.

- We established a PayPal account making possible secure on-line payments.

- MFS Committee meetings were business-like two hour meetings with equal air-time for all, in a professional board-room setting with proper voting and majority decisions

- We filled all positions, with no-one wearing two hats.

- We made a start on publishing "Roles & Responsibilities" for each volunteer position.

I rest my case.

We are not running a knitting circle where the committee could micro-manage everything. The MFS is a free association of autonomous activities and that means MFS Committee have to delegate responsibility to well-defined organising teams, and hold them accountable for results. If you can't delegate you can't manage.

The good news is that proper division of responsibilities and business-like relations are easier for all concerned. No second-guessing, no impasses, everyone taking care of their own business to achieve the results they want. The MFS Committee needs to take a strategic leadership role, consider reports, make important decisions that affect the whole society, and attend to their own details like insurance and consolidated accounts.

If you warm to these ideas, why not step forward? Don't wait till the society folds due to lack of interest, do it now!

Cheers
Lance

MFS AGM Thursday, 26 September 2013

I understand from an email that the Monaro Folk Society Annual General Meeting is on Thursday, 26 September 2013, 7pm, at St Margaret's in Hackett.

There is no mention of the AGM in the MFS main page "latest news", and it is not in the MFS Google Calendar, and the date has been moved back this year to a date when we and many others will be away at the well-publicised Bush Dancers Bendigo Bivouac, but I am sure that all on the committee are there for altruistic reasons and would warmly welcome all members to attend the AGM.

For all MFS members, the most important business of the AGM is to elect your new committee.

The MFS Committee is the top policy and strategy committee of the society. If you have a commitment to ethics, truth and honesty and wish to build the society through shared experiences and positive outcomes then this is the place for you.

We need a committee that is flexible and fair in all dealings and interactions, and that will actively pursue a dramatic increase in public awareness of and participation in the Monaro Folk Society.

The MFS Committee needs to be run in a thoroughly open, transparent and democratic way, with an impartial chair, speakers for and against, and voting. It is responsible for a large decentralised enterprise and needs to follow standard and simple legal decision making practices.

A strong field of candidates is a healthy sign and sincerely welcomed by all.

New blood means fresh ideas and renewed vigour for the Monaro Folk Society, so what is stopping you from nominating at the AGM? You don't need previous experience, just an interest in helping the society and an ability to learn as you go. As well as being satisfying and fun, committee members and office-bearers can learn a tremendous amount about running a successful organisation and about all aspects of folk music, dance and culture.

Whether or not you feel moved to lend a hand on the committee, another small but rewarding contribution that you can make is simply to attend the AGM on Thursday, 26 September 2013, 7pm, at St Margaret's in Hackett. See for yourself how the MFS is travelling, and appoint your new committee.

Regards

Lance

Farewell Monaro Folk Society?

We have received a worrying email, saying it was on behalf of the MFS Committee but not sent by the secretary. Of course we do not have access to MFS Committee's minutes to verify this so we must take it on face value.

The email hints that the MFS Committee might be attempting to eject The Bush Dancers display group activities from the Monaro Folk Society.

It is not quite clear, but it might be trying to say that the MFS Committee has decided that the Bush Dancers Lakesea Weekend was not run by the Bush Dancers display group, and is therefore not an activity of the Monaro Folk Society, when blind Freddie could see that it was.

The weekend was first mooted at a Bush Dancers display group performance, the idea was developed over discussions with Bush Dancers display group members over a period of time. Barbara and I, acting as Primary Contacts for The Bush Dancers display group, visited many parks all along the coast looking for a spot with a dance floor, and we communicated our findings to The Bush Dancers display group members. We then made the information available to the broader bush dancing community.

The Bush Dancers display group's music co-ordinator organised the musicians to join in for the weekend, totally at their own expense and making their own bookings. They are wonderful folk and a real asset to The Bush Dancers display group and to the Monaro Folk Society.

The trip was reported as a Bush Dancers display group activity in The Bush Dancers display group Annual and Quarterly Reports (MFS members can see these in the index at http://mfs.org.au/members/).

These get-togethers involve the group in no income or expenditure, the group role being to suggest to folk that they book into certain parks at certain times and we will all be there at the same time and have fun. The weekend then evolves according to who is there and what they want to do, mainly bush dancing to live music and walking. Naturally no insurance certificate is asked for when a group of people make their own bookings in the same park, and use free facilities like a dance floor and camp kitchen in that park. Whether this kind of activity is covered or not under the society's insurance appears academic and not worth worrying about. If they are not it is probably because there is no risk to the society worth insuring.

In the unlikely event that these activities do need insurance then they should be insured. One of the objects of the society is to promote interest in activities like bush dancing, and the activities of The Bush Dancers display group certainly do that.

To suggest that these activities are not run by the Bush Dancers display group as an activity of the group and therefore of the Monaro Folk Society is arrant nonsense, and although I hesitate to appear paranoiac, suggest problems consciously or unconsciously contrived for reasons that are not in the interests of the society.

Regards
Lance

Grievance Policy Test Drive, Our Verdict: Epic Fail!

We have received a response to our formal grievance (A Moderation Mess). I can't verify this by having a look in the minutes (The Saga of the Minutes), but we will take it that the response reflects MFS Committee handling of the grievance under the grievance policy.

If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck. Based on our test drive, the society's grievance policy is a sham. Maybe it was designed to be used against members, and not by members against decisions of MFS Committee, who can say.

The MFS Committee's response to my grievance against them, was to say that they have reviewed their own decision and decided it was correct. Well, they would, wouldn't they?

They restated their unsubstantiated story of complaints about my postings to MFS announce (and presumably no complaints about others who are allowed to use MFS Announce without problems).

This committee appears totally unaware of the rules of natural justice referred to in the Associations Incorporation Act. Everyone is entitled to a fair and independent hearing, and to confront their accusers. What are these contrived complaints and who is said to have made them? Where is the independent panel to decide on my complaint of MFS Committee abuse of power for vindictive purposes? Is the panel really the MFS Committee itself? If so, the grievance process is a sham.

Their second reason for deciding their own decision was correct was that they don't like me expressing my opinion on my blog. This is even more indefensible, messing up my use of MFS Announce as revenge for me writing this blog. It appears to me to be an abuse of power.

Again, they quote complaints about this blog that they allege they have received, with no substantiation. I have heard no complaints from others outside the MFS Committee about either my use of MFS Announce or my blog. I have had some comments published on my blog disagreeing with this or that that I wrote but none recently in spite of high readership numbers. I encourage polite comments and contrary views on my blog, in the interests of open discussion.

The MFS Committee call sending out event announcements with reminders closer to the time "overloading". Again a baseless complaint obviously contrived to convince themselves they are right, and a statistical count of announcements shows that we are very low on overall message count, and about in the middle for number of reminders per event. Folks with busy lives like a reminder a few days before the event.

They also state as a reason "The announce list is for information of events, not for baseless accusations". Who could disagree, but talk about setting up a straw man and then knocking it down, this reason is the most baseless I have ever seen.

I requested access to the list of who is moderated and who is not, under Rule 40 (The records, books and other documents of the society shall be open to inspection). I received a general answer that did not provide the list.

The MFS Committee have moved the date of the AGM to a week later this year, to a date that is when we will be away at the Bush Dancers Bendigo Bivouac. So, I leave it to those who are in town to think about the problems that lie behind this mess, and to realise that the best solution is a brand new committee of ten. What are you going to do?

Regards

Lance

The Saga of the Minutes

"But Mr Dent, the plans have been available in the local planning office for the last nine months."

"Oh yes, well as soon as I heard I went straight round to see them, yesterday afternoon. You hadn't exactly gone out of your way to call attention to them, had you? I mean, like actually telling anybody or anything."

"But the plans were on display ..."

"On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them."

"That's the display department."

"With a flashlight."

"Ah, well the lights had probably gone."

"So had the stairs."

"But look, you found the notice didn't you?"

"Yes," said Arthur, "yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard'."

The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

I have heard that MFS Committee have decided that their minutes will not be made available to members apart from in a book in someone's house. It must be nice living in 1991. I must write them a letter some time, if I can find my quill pen and parchment. At a time when everyone else is using email and the web, I don't have time to drive to someone's house every month to see the minutes of our committee's meetings.

So, I can't verify this by having a look in the minutes, but I have seen a couple of references so I guess our committee has done it again. The minutes are not the committee's secret diary, they are part of their accountability to members.

Abysmal, but there is no volunteer ombudsman, so your only recourse is to elect a better committee next time. Maybe you should stand?  

Moderation Mess Ctd(2)

The Lakesea bush dancers' weekend at the coast was a lovely weekend of bush walking and bush dancing, and other activities of folk's own choice like cycling and practising for the upcoming Scottish ball. Everyone had a great time and it is on again next year, all being well, on the Winter Solstice weekend of 21 June 2014. There are some pics and videos at http://dance.pcug.org.au/new.htm

We arrived home to find no improvement in the ongoing saga of the MFS Announce moderation mess. There in our inbox was the message that we had sent out the Sunday just over a week before, about the weekend that we just returned from (better late than never, well not really in this case) and another of our messages about Wongawilli that had been languishing who knows where. Intriguingly, the latter message was sent to MFS Announce as if it was not from us, but from the control person. I don't know how she managed to forward a message that was sent to MFS Announce from her own email account, and I don't know why she thinks I would want my messages to appear as if coming from her? I have written asking for an explanation.

There was also a pleasant enough email from the control person explaining some of the reasons behind previous delays. But she is in denial about the real reason, and that is the unfair and indefensible change to my status on MFS Announce. The reasons given so far are alleged but unsubstantiated complaints and a dislike of me expressing my opinion in this blog. Contrived reasons. My point is that, like all other regular contributors that are MFS members, we should not be relying on the health and availability of the control person or anyone else for the service to work. The ongoing campaign of harassment and abuse of power arising (I think) from a dislike of me expressing my opinion on this blog means that I am not interested in pleasantries - I want action and I want it now!

Moderation Mess Ctd

“Withholding information is the essence of tyranny. Control of the flow of information is the tool of the dictatorship.”

― Bruce Coville

Well we emailed again early this morning, to all the MFS Committee again. We know they have deliberately and unfairly moderated us for their own reasons and caused us abysmal service but this is ridiculous.

We asked "Has anyone rung [the control person] to see if she is ok? Is anyone even reading their emails? What's going on?". No acknowledgement and no response.

So, we emailed again just before 11am, pointing out that it was literally the eleventh hour for the announcement, and asking the question "Does anyone take their responsibility to represent members seriously? What is happening?"

A couple of hours later the message finally went out. Not the item written for MFS Announce but a copy of a similar item from another list. No apology for the delay, but at least someone responded. Our responder advised us that she had phoned [the control person] and the latter's computer was out, but everyone knows about the weekend so it didn't matter. We think we are the best ones to make judgements about our publicity and its timing, and that this could have been an urgent message about a change of venue or cancellation and we would be sending it to the same black hole.

It is the change from our unmoderated status that always worked fine with no incident, to a moderated status that seems to be badly managed with a poor level of service, that is the problem.

Apparently [the control person] is the only person that can control our postings. Our responder suggested that we should have rung [the control person].

I am sure noone would want an angry member phoning them every time they don't do their self-appointed and insulting job, and pointing out the offence caused by her actions. That would be every time and would lead to a heated exchange that wouldn't solve anything. They would just become more entrenched in their reprehensible position. "They just don't get it" I'm afraid.

And how ridiculous if a service that used to work faultlessly involved us (and only us) telephoning for a "by-your-leave" each time we send information to members?

Well it is good that one person took the trouble to find out what the problem was this time, and we appreciate that. I am sure that if they hadn't, then this would have been just be another message in the MFS Announce black hole. But what about the other office bearers and committee members? Do they have any input or engagement in representing members' interests? What is going on?