Like many previous members, I declined to become a new class of member after the overseas membership rort of 2018.
For those not aware, that was when the previous CEO and some of his accomplices hatched a cunning plan (Blackadder and Baldrick would have been proud).
Aided and abetted by the current auDA Board, the CEO organised hundreds of foreign members that somehow shared the same email address to sign up as members in order to outvote legitimate members! This is commonly known as “branch stacking”.
auDA then changed the Constitution and got rid of the previous membership structure. The foreign members then disappeared as quickly as they had appeared.
There is no question that the Department of Communication and the Arts (DoCA) were aware of this strategy (cunning plan), but they effectively turned a blind eye to it.
Fast Forward
It appears that all the current Board are going to be replaced at the AGM on November 14th. Let us thank a Higher Power for this miracle. The pain and suffering of the past 3 to 4 years is soon to be over.
I understand the Nominations Committee has been hard at work selecting the Independent Chair and five Independent Directors; and interviewing candidates for the four elected Director positions.
It is for this latter reason that I have decided to re-join as an associate member. This way I can vote for my preferred candidates (whoever they may be).
If You Want to Join
Membership is free to any person eligible to hold an Aussie domain name. I actually suggested this as a strategy in November 2015, and again in April and September of 2016.
It’s also easy to sign up online, and takes less than two minutes. Confirmation happens within 2 days. Here’s the link.
If you want to be eligible to vote at next month’s AGM, you must sign up within the next few days.
Ned O’Meara – 7th October 2019
It’s time for us all to SIGN UP and get ready to have our say again in a month’s time.
The same auDA Management & Supply companies who stacked the auDA voting membership and SGM/ SGM in 2018 joined months ago with their staff again. Yes over 500 again.
Where is the current auDA membership list which auDA previously made available?
Should auDA Management, their “Consultants” and Supply related parties be ale to stack the auDA Not For Profit’s decision making pwers to keep ripping off .au domain name registrant Consumers ( which the ACCC warned about in 1999 should not happen).”
Will the now ex Chair Chris Leptos keep his family stacked into voting memberships again lioke he did in 2018 to save his paycheck on the auDA gravy Train?
https://www.auda.org.au/about-auda/membership/membership-list
Alex Leptos
Helen Leptos
Lillian Leptos
Luci Leptos
Julia Trafford
auDA stacks membership with 1000 new Supply staff voting members and no accountability
https://www.domainpulse.com/2018/06/18/auda-stacks-membership-no-accountability/
auDA’s Last Elected Demand Class Director Fed Up and Resigns
https://www.domainpulse.com/2018/08/07/audas-elected-demand-director-resigns/
auDA director quits over mass recruitment of members
https://www.itwire.com/strategy/83945-auda-director-quits-over-mass-recruitment-of-members.html
auDA Membership Irregularities
https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/auda_membership_irregularities
Four Supply domain vendors control 70% of auDA membership
https://www.itwire.com/strategy/83779-four-domain-vendors-control-70-of-auda-membership-claim.html
Two companies “capture” auDA
http://domainincite.com/23238-two-companies-capture-auda
Branch stacking!
https://www.dntrade.com.au/threads/branch-stacking.11943/
auDA Branch Stacking ahead of auDA Special General Meeting
http://www.domainpulse.com/2018/06/14/auda-branchstacking-ahead-sgm/
Afilias Staffers Excited to Join auDA (and increase their company profits from the fake auDA “Not For Profit” decision & policy making manipulation!)
https://afilias.com.au/newsroom/blog-posts/afilias-staffers-excited-join-auda
—————————————
The rest of this post edited by Admin – too long
Long posts like this ruin your website. No one is ever going to read it and I had to keep scrolling down through multiple pages to see the next comment. Most people won’t bother. I understand the passion but the same thing happened on dntrade. Maybe you need to impose a limit on the number of characters or words in your comments section to prevent this.
Peter – it’s a good point you make. Many of us have tried to guide Sean on the length of his posts.
Occasionally though, he does find some brilliant nuggets of information.
I have “chopped” a lot of his last post.
Hi Peter,
Feel free to your own add a comment, knowledge and information on the issues at hand. It’s a an easy life to just read and scroll down offering little.
Maybe share your wisdom on auDA membership & how board position are filled issues?
1. Why the auDA Membership was stacked in 2018 and by who?
2. If the new auDA Membership model has already been stacked to again put onto the auDA board someone representing auDA, the auDA subcontractor wholesale Registry subcontractor or Registrar what can be done this time?
….You can always scroll down and add nothing to the topic or conversations like so many others with their head in the sand or trying to hide info from still coming out about the auDA Fiasco which continues.
You, Ned & a handful of others may know it all already but the posts are to show information for others who may not know the history and issues and who do want to learn and know it… Often this is what auDA and some other culprits really hate being put into the public and onto posts… They would love no information, no news stories, no google search results, no posts, no auDA or PRP or Nomination Committee, CMWG, “Squad Consulting” or Registry / Registrar day minutes, no auDA Trip reports, no accountability and no transparency…
I wonder if Blackadder Boardman got a performance bonus for his cunning plan?
Probably. There were a lot of bonuses awarded (see the Board Minutes), but names and amounts were redacted.
A quick question for Ned or anyone else who has following this saga.
AuDA currently has a tiered membership structure – with empowered Governing members and 2nd class associate members. This will be the state of play until 2 years after the constitutional change or upon reaching 12500(!) members. So we have about a year to run.
In their constitution and reform FAQ, auDA has explicitly stated that associate members can participate in the upcoming Director election – good.
But my question is: do all associate members currently lack the status to request a register of members, as required under the Corporations Act? As many will recall, the Act requires auDA to provider such a register to any member, upon request. However, only Governing members seem to have status under the Act at this time.
Am I reading this right? It is a concern because I for one would like to be assured that the list has been audited to purge the many many members from overseas that signed up with the same email address last year and to make sure similar shenanigans haven’t taken place again more recently.
Not much point in us having a vote if the Elected Directors will be chosen by a captured block of members with questionable eligibility….this would have the effect of skewing the future direct of auDA after this critical re-set.
I assume that as the only Members are the Nominations Commitee then the registar of members would only contain 10 names anyway.
Fair call Nobbie – and if auDA is sticking to the letter of the law (Act) then that’s exactly right.
But all and sundry will be allowed to vote at the AGM. How is that process managed other than through a register of all members?
Are we members or are we not and, if we are, how is eligibility confirmed on the day? More importantly, is that list still “broken”, perverting the election process? Can we see it?
Well, I hear on the grapevine that Checking eligibility will be easy.
You’ll be asked to log into your registrar account and register a domain name at the door.
However, those who won’t, will need to bring along their company registration, licence, passport, a couple of bills, and your most recent council rates notice with you.
Also, don’t forget $10 bucks because I’m certain they’ll charge an application fee for attendance. But be warned, I think there are new rules for attendance this year, whereby, everyone is waiting to enter the meeting but only the last one standing is the only one to enter.
No point asking the standing advisory committee they’ll take 3 months to give you an answer.
I think you’ll find, there’s a registry of associate members, you can’t become a member unless your eligible to hold an Aussie domain name, therefore, it’s only common sense to ensure the registry integrity and transparency is available, especially after the last unlawful Fiasco committed by this same board. As for governing members they have the right to pass resolutions and vote…and they can also alter the constitution.
So, You can thank the CWMG members, and a bunch of squid lip pricks for spraying black ink Bullshit everywhere at the expense of Aussie registrants.
auDA have refused a request to view the auDA Register Of Members. Why?
Why has auDA has refused to publish a list of members on their website like they previously did until 2018 when they rigged the voting membership model.
https://www.auda.org.au/about-auda/membership/
CORPORATIONS ACT 2001 – SECT 169 Register of members
http://www5.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ca2001172/s169.html
https://domainer.com.au/becoming-an-auda-member-again/
https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/auda_membership_irregularities
https://www.domainpulse.com/2018/06/18/auda-stacks-membership-no-accountability/
https://www.domainpulse.com/2018/08/07/audas-elected-demand-director-resigns/
http://domainincite.com/23282-auda-car-crash-continues-as-director-quits-over-foreign-members
Who are the proposed new auDA Directors?
When can people vote for them?
How did they get chosen?
How can .au domain name Consumers vote for who is running this Not For Profit which the paying .au domain name registrant Consumers fund?
Why has auDA continued to provide false and misleading information here?
https://www.auda.org.au/about-auda/our-org/board/
Wrong Director Dates
Wrong Board Remuneration
“auDA directors vote to give themselves pay rises”
https://www.itwire.com/strategy/82986-auda-directors-vote-to-give-themselves-pay-rises.html
Just got an email from AUDA – who would be the best person for Domainers?
Hi Kevin, we’re writing a new article about this as we speak, stay tuned…