HOME PAGE | FACTFILES | QUOTES | COMMENT FORM |

Conduct unbecoming.......

Issue 303 of How's That? has a letter from members of the Cuckoo Cabinet, all but two of them directors of ICUS - Bastable, Bennett, Brandon, Burns, Counsell, Farnfield, Fielden, Freeman, Dave Jones, Say and Warren - in which they resign as Officers of ACU&S. Quite why our chairman describes them as "valued" in his ACU&S website statement is puzzling. Clearly, he failed to notice that their every action in General Council once the membership rid itself of the spendthift Stuart-King was directed at thwarting the democratically elected chairman, Dave Burden and, following his resignation when he recognised that they would always be able to prevent him from carrying out his elected duties - his statement to General Council was not published in How's That? and was taken off the website within three days; no prizes for guessing who was chairman of the Media and Marketing Board at the time -Geoff Lowden has met with similar non-cooperation.

Valued? They are of even less value than the false accounts Smith, Freeman and Stuart-King foisted on the membership at Durham fifteen months ago. (Incidentally, page 3 of HT still has Smith as General Secretary, although his disgraceful term of office came to a merciful end at this year's AGM, which he failed to attend in case anyone should want to ask him a question. Well done, Della. Got your ear to the ground as always!)

The weakness their letter refers to in ACU&S comes not from a lack of leadership, as they claim, but from a desperate shortage of funds. It is convenient for them to forget that the ludicrous trio of Stuart-King, Freeman and Smith - not to mention all those now resigning - presided over a time of profligate spending and crazy commitment to future unfunded expenditure which caused ACU&S to have to cash in its carefully built-up reserves. Mind you, they announced that in just thirty words - "ACU&S has now liquidated all its investments, which were shown as reserves in the Accumulated fund at 31st October 2004. The balance sheet will show a reduced figure at 31st October 2005" - in Issue 301 for Winter 2005, so perhaps they missed it. Still, they got one thing right. Sure enough, there is a reduced figure. Now we have absolutely no reserves. Zilch.

For those who find it odd that these "valued" ex-officers have not gone the whole hog and resigned completely from membership, we should explain that there may be good reason for that. For some of them, perhaps for all, renewal of their CRB clearance may be coming round again. As is mentioned elsewhere on this site, ACU&S members get this free by courtesy of - dare one mention it? - the ECB, as do members of the ECB OA. Now, if they were to resign completely, it is possible that they could have to pay £35 or more. Obviously, it would be folly to allow a matter of principle to stand in the way. They may have helped to run up losses of £167,000 for ACU&S in the last three years, but there is no need to bankrupt themselves as well!

Meanwhile, our Deputy Treasurer, Martin Reed continues to give us his help and advice. This is tremendously useful for he was holding the same office all the while those financial shenanigans were going on, attending practically every meeting, and being copied in religiously with Finance Board e-mails and others circulated more secretively. So he is in a unique position. He knows exactly what went on, and when. Why should he resign and cause us to lose the benefit of all that experience? What a waste that would be!

But wait. Maybe we are misjudging all these people. Perhaps mindful of what Lord Griffiths said in the General Council meeting of 22nd October 2005 - that Stuart-King was liable for all payments under the laptop/projector leases - and later - that by their subsequent actions Council members themselves had taken on such liability - our ex-officer friends, in the second paragraph of their resignation letter, remind us that they have made the offer to "assume all the Association's liabilities, including the computer payments, office lease and staff." We should take them up on that, or part of it. Let them all sign, personally, a legal agreement to pay for the computer leases. And, as they keep saying that they do not want to see ACU&S go under, let them all agree also to allow ACU&S instructors and examiners to continue to use them, at no cost, as before. Being ACU&S members still, clearly they will wish to give ACU&S whatever help they can and this could be a marvellous way to demonstrate the nature of their loyalty. Down with those craven turncoats who are "apparently happy to acquiesce in giving our Association away"! If our friends really want independent officials to continue to enjoy official independence through the survival of ACU&S, this is the solution they seek.

Let's get it on, and not later, but right now!