As most regular readers will know, auDA unilaterally removed all previous Minutes, Agendas, Reports and Board history from their website. This was despite the CEO (Cameron Boardman) and Chair (Stuart Benjamin) promising at the Annual General Meeting in November that communication and transparency would improve – not diminish. Don’t take my word for this – hear it from their own mouths once again:
I protested the removal of these documents most vociferously – as did many others including David Goldstein from Domain Pulse. This is part of what David wrote on May 15th:
“Additionally, transparency has gone out the window with Annual Reports deleted and since restored with no explanation and significant pieces of the organisation’s history deleted including previous Board members. Yes, your correspondent has been wiped from some of auDA’s history.”
To embarrass and shame auDA, I published some of these documents on Domainer back on May 3rd.
Miraculously the Annual Reports and the Cameron Ralph Report then re-appeared back on the auDA website. Though the Minutes and Agendas didn’t – nor did the Board Member history.
How Did Cameron Boardman Respond?
Apart from my blog article, I emailed Cameron Boardman – and then I wrote a letter to the Board. I got a response to my email, but nothing as yet from my letter.
So how did Cameron respond?
Lots of spin obviously. You’d expect nothing less from a seasoned politician. He tried to equate auDA with the ABC and CSIRO – and the fact that they don’t have Minutes or Agendas.
Cameron obviously has lofty ambitions, but the power has really gone to his head if he thinks this way. For a start we are a true Membership Organisation – CSIRO and ABC are not. Their Directors are appointed by the Governor-General on the recommendation of the Government.
auDA has 11 Directors – 4 in “Demand Class”; 4 in “Supply Class” (elected by members) – and 3 Independent Directors appointed by the Board. As at the 5th May (according to auDA’s website), there are just 240 Demand Class members; and 53 Supply Class members. 293 members in total.
Once again, don’t take my word for it – here is Cameron Boardman’s email response to my written protest. Highlighting is mine.
PDF: Response from Cameron Boardman 12 May
My response to his email was this:
Tomorrow, I will compare auDA to the rest of the internet world, and their stances on transparency and communication to their members.
auDA should really have a rethink in my opinion!
What do you think?
Ned O’Meara – 30th May 2017
Disclaimer
Cameron isn’t going to convince anyone with that argument, AUDA had well publicised transparency issues then decided to remove a large chunk of available information.
The motivation to do that is a similar motivation to the code of conduct, it is intended to limit information to members and prevent criticism of AUDA.