NATFLY News

[Guest Maj Millard]

I don't like this secrecacy bullshxx. It is totally unnecessary in a Sporting orgnization like ours, and appears to have been created by those holding high office in recent times. We elect the board members, and they should be treated with respect, not disrespect. As a long-term fee paying member, I want those responsible for the secret men's business gone now !.............Viva la revolution !!............................................................Maj...

 

 

[turboplanner]

Well you need to keep up the pressure Major

 

Quite a few members don't realise the damage which has been occurring

 

How are we going to have a Natfly in all its glory next year without Carol Richards putting in MONTHS of hard work?

 

Has Steve Tizzard got the skills to do it?

 

The respect for the Members Representatives will come back when the secrecy stops and the communication starts; you can see that with the representatives who are communicating with the member base on this forum.

 

But plenty of people are lazy enough to say "I don't get involved in politics" not realising they are shooting themselves in the foot, and some have been actively covering for mates.

 

 

[winsor68]

I totally agree with Maj Millard... perhaps its a North Qld thing but this sort of rot gets my blood boiling.

 

I have been hearing rumors about the Executive asking a Board Member to resign or face legal action for a few months now... It appears there may be more than one....CAN ALL BOARD MEMBERS WHO HAVE BEEN ASKED TO RESIGN BY THE EXECUTIVE OR FACE LEGAL ACTION PLEASE RAISE YOUR HANDS... it seems from recent comments which we have no reason to doubt that the "Executive" has no ethical or moral ground to be asking anyone to resign based upon their own recent actions... but then it is so hard to know anything for fact because they are so secretive.

 

 

[Admin]

I was by the President representing the then Executive of Caban (NSW Rep and Treasurer), Jarvis (SA Rep and Secretary) and Reid (Tas Rep and President) as a result of having this site...I basically said "stick it" and gave my reply in about 8 pages showing how this site has helped many recreational pilots. It stemmed from a complaint from R otec to CASA that this site was passively promoting illegal flying. This was a year ago

 

I will put myself on the line here and attach the letter and my reply...judge me if you will but I still stand by the faith and belief that this site is helping in so many ways...sure there are some things that I don't always get right like everyone but as long as there is a much higher percentage of things that are good.

 

RAA Letter.pdf

 

CASA Response - final.pdf

 

CASA Response - final.pdf

 

RAA Letter.pdf

 

CASA Response - final.pdf

 

RAA Letter.pdf

 

CASA Response - final.pdf

RAA Letter.pdf

[winsor68]

Thankyou for that hypothetical scenario Blackrod.

 

 

[slartibartfast]

Brilliant story Don.

 

And provided we get a happy ending, it would make a good movie, although one would have to suspend belief a bit.

 

 

[winsor68]

And thanks for finally clearing this up Ian... I am not surprised that this happened. Its a shame that Carol was collateral damage in their tardy games.

 

 

[turboplanner]

Not a very pretty story I agree, but the existing board members could have had wholesale support from THOUSANDS of members if they had been open and transparent, and their fellow board members, so a new question has to be what was their agenda?

 

Also, if they had been open and transparent the employee's position would have been untenable and he would have moved on, which would be the honorable thing to do now.

 

How much of members finds has been expended in this disgraceful affair?

 

As far as the board member owning a website is concerned, that's no different to the other board members owning a mouth and ears - only the transmission methods are different.

 

It's a very simple method for that board member to declare a pecuniary interest and step out of the room if that was the issue. If it wasn't let's have it good board members?

 

 

[winsor68]

Oh my GOD!!!!

 

I have heard enough... I am rather speechless as to what to say. Looks to me like there is going to be some holes in the executive in the very near future.

 

 

[turboplanner]

You have to wonder what the $93,000 in professional (legal) fees was for. I honestly (i.e. no sarcasm here for once) don not expect that to be explained in detail in public as it may not be in the best interests of RA-Aus for the world at large to know. But, I will attempt to get an understanding for myself.

Blackrod this IS a public Incorporated Association handling the moneys of some 9600 Australians who OWN the Association.

 

Situations like this occur in Clubs and Associations on quite a regular basis.

 

The first reaction is to keep it quiet, but the story always gets out.

 

So the nest reaction is to quickly admit there is an issue, outline the events, summarise the action which will be taken to clean it up, and everyone, inlcuding the news media moves on.

 

This case represents one of the clumsiest sagas where attempts to hide thing by changing the rules to a degree not compatible with the Consitution and without the approval of the Members, the Owners is going down an inevitable path.

 

Spit it out and get on with it!

 

 

[Admin]

Basically nothing other then my letter was accepted and the matter stopped...My father has always said that I am a type of person that when pushed, I will push back twice as hard...don't push me and I will bend over backwards to do what ever I can for you

 

 

[winsor68]

VH-XXX is still trying to run up support on Pprune for this sad little saga... They must be the sourest grapes in history those poor souls have had to suck... lol

 

 

[slartibartfast]

VH-XXX was not even asked to leave this site. He slunk away under the weight of his own transgressions.

 

With that new thread he seems to be suggesting that Ian was asked to leave the board and is costing us money in legal fees by not going.

 

 

[Admin]

With that new thread he seems to be suggesting that Ian was asked to leave the board and is costing us money in legal fees by not going.

As you know Slarti that is complete and total rubbish as usual from Brent Christensen (VH-XXX)...however is this site now starting to sink down to that level of made up rumours...let's not let that happen

 

 

[winsor68]

Don't worry Ian... I am sure that won't happen... If the Executive spent our $$$ on legal fees for this it is the Executive that will be held accountable of costing the membership... If any of it is true of course.

 

You do have to wonder which members of the Board are feeding these Trolls the half truths don't you?

 

 

[turboplanner]

TP,What I was saying is that while all members should and can know what the money was spent on, it may be in the best interests of all members that that information remains a matter for "Members Only".

I understand your wishes Don, but someone inevitably leaks it as someone has to VH-XXX, so the best solution is to be open, as you see currently on AFL and NRL.

 

In this case we should get most of that money back, since I doubt that any employee had minuted board meeting approval to spend money on a catfight, and the same ghoes for any board members involved, so these people are going to have to pay that money back.

 

What would be good is to see the report from 2009 so we can see where the financial slide has occurred

 

 

[Admin]

All I can say is that a lot of the legal fees were spent on something that is still ongoing so please don't ask me as I can't say nor would I want to...I am sure you would all understand that

 

 

[slartibartfast]

As you know Slarti that is complete and total rubbish as usual from Brent Christensen (VH-XXX)...however is this site now starting to sink down to that level of made up rumours...let's not let that happen

Absolutely Ian. I didn't think it necessary to point out that it was rubbish, but thanks for doing so.

 

Your reference to starting rumours on this site - is that happening? I can't think of one off hand.

 

 

[slartibartfast]

There's a good example cficare - he's claiming that Ian has blocked all the RAAus staff members by IP.

 

I can state that there are no IPs blocked by this site whatsoever.

 

Also, claims that Ian runs this site for profit are patently ridiculous. Even with proceeds from the shop and donations, he still uses his own money. That crap gets my goat.

 

But hey - I'm just a sycophant.

 

Great to meet you BTW - although briefly.

 

 

[Admin]

There's a good example cficare - he's claiming that Ian has blocked all the RAAus staff members by IP.I can state that there are no IPs blocked by this site whatsoever.

Also, claims that Ian runs this site for profit are patently ridiculous. Even with proceeds from the shop and donations, he still uses his own money. That crap gets my goat.

 

But hey - I'm just a sycophant.

 

Great to meet you BTW - although briefly.

Slarti...I take it you have looked into the Admin panel of the site however this is not the only security on the site and an IT person that he is suppose to be would know of such a thing called Mod_Security that is standard on all web hosting servers. The security system on the server automatically picks up anything that doesn't seem right and immediately blocks the IP address. This happens all the time and most of the time it works well but like spam filters if it is set to very secure every now and then a good one gets blocked by the server itself. When we moved to the new server recently we had a normal user on the site have his IP address blocked by the server. It turns out that there was something not right with his printer that caused the server to think of it as a possible exploit. There is also a guy in Italy that was continually being blocked until we were able to pinpoint the problem and fix it for him. Every week or so as and when I get the time I investigate each blocking and as I said most are possible attacks but there have been the odd one that was genuine. It is far better to be over protective of users private information then to relax those rules...if anyone that is reading this and does get blocked by mistake they just have to send me an email or ring me and I look into it...it is that simple. If anyone tries to rort the system by blocking cookies or using proxies that are world listed as bad or something else like that it is most likely that they may end up getting blocked by the server automatically...any IT person would know about Mod_Security

 

 

[slartibartfast]

...any IT person would know about Mod_Security

Really? I've been in IT for 35 years and I didn't. Then again the web server I run is internal. I don't do internet facing stuff - that's a whole new ball game.

Yes, I'm talking about the function in this new software which allows banning/blocking by IP - and none are specified here.

 

The point is, we haven't blocked RAAus office staff.

 

Perhaps I need to crawl back in my box. I seem to have been stirring a bit since the weekend.

 

I blame David's port.

 

 

[turboplanner]

Maybe it had Agent Orange in it Slarti

 

 

[Admin]

Sorry but we are way off topic now...back to NatFly News

 

 

[coljones]

I was by the President representing the then Executive of Caban (NSW Rep and Treasurer), Jarvis (SA Rep and Secretary) and Reid (Tas Rep and President) as a result of having this site...I basically said "stick it" and gave my reply in about 8 pages showing how this site has helped many recreational pilots. It stemmed from a complaint from R otec to CASA that this site was passively promoting illegal flying. This was a year agoI will put myself on the line here and attach the letter and my reply...judge me if you will but I still stand by the faith and belief that this site is helping in so many ways...sure there are some things that I don't always get right like everyone but as long as there is a much higher percentage of things that are good.

 

RAA Letter.pdf

 

CASA Response - final.pdf

Thanks Ian, very informative.

If nothing else other than the provision of discussion channels (if only I had 24 hours per day to read them) thanks for looking after the tutorials - a great source of info (including LSALT!) should be compulsory reading.

 

Keep up the good work

 

Col

 

 

[turboplanner]

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