One month ago, I wrote this article about what was happening at Trinity Grammar in Melbourne.
An unpopular decision was made by the Kew private school to summarily sack their long-serving and extremely popular Deputy Principal. What happened next took the school by surprise. This excerpt from The Age on 11th April says it all.
“Mr Brown’s sacking last month thrust the Anglican school into an administrative crisis, with parents, students and alumni declaring they had no confidence in the school council or principal.”
Then came the consequences and the backdown.
“Facing intense criticism from the school community, three school council members, including the chair, stood down last month.”
“After weeks of unrest, the Kew private school offered deputy principal Rohan Brown his job back on Wednesday evening- an offer he swiftly accepted.”
Now It Is auDA’s Turn
Member unrest at auDA has resurfaced in a big way. This has culminated in a request for another SGM (Special General Meeting).
auDA responded to this in two ways.
- Firstly, there was this letter from their lawyers Ashurst.
- Then followed (late last night) this statement from the auDA Chair.
And it appears from reading LinkedIn this morning that certain people have been “leaked” confidential Board information.
All I can say is “WOW!”.
I read this great article on FIREBRAND yesterday by the very well credentialed Nicole Matejic. It is entitled:
“In a crisis? Don’t do these seven things. Ever.”
Some excerpts:
- Do not spin the truth to suit you — that’s not truth, it’s manipulation: the very definition of propaganda.
- Don’t fight or flee the truth.
- Do not play the blame game.
I wonder who is advising auDA?
Ned O’Meara – 12th April 2018
Disclaimer
I am a VERY BIG fan of the truth!
If so called leadership cannot speak the truth, they’re not really leaders.
Sometimes it takes years – but the TRUTH generally comes out.
In this day and age we should NOT tolerate BS. The people are speaking and taking big steps, putting themselves on the line- this doesn’t happen unless things are fundamentally wrong.
CB – if you are reading this – take a good look at yourself and ask yourself – are you really acting in everyone’s best interest? Are you really telling the complete truth? Or are you swaying the truth to push for interests of some? It’s not too late to change mate! It might be for your current role – but in life – the truth will always stand you in better steed.
When the truth comes out and if you weren’t acting in the common interest, there’s generally repercussions.
The behavior of the auDA CEO, Chair and some of the board over the last year or so reminds me of John Oliver’s analysis of Trump’s manipulation tactics; Delegitimize, whataboutism and trolling.
You can read more about it at https://www.rollingstone.com/tv/news/john-oliver-breaks-down-trumps-dangerous-speaking-tactics-w511598
The actions of the auDA Chair and CEO fit this pattern. But that is to be expected because they are political animals not people actually interested in how .au is run or its future or the future of auDA as a successful organization.
The ‘referral’ to the police (some 4 months ago) of a mystery matter has nothing whatsoever to do with the calling of a meeting by members. Nor does it have anything to do with the lack of confidence in the CEO, Chair and others, the handling of the discussion around opening up .au, the lack of transparency or all of the other matters raised by members. It’s classic deliegitimizing and whataboutism!
It’s worth repeating a post I made to this list back in July last year when the last SGM was called…
‘These low level Liberal apparatchiks are used to working in the stench of politics and have treated auDA as if it were a branch of a political party.
Starting with having brothers, wives, partners, personal assistants and friends join as members they then moved on to have friends elected to the board and then to unseat the independent chair. This was done in a ‘coup’ rather than simply taking a little time to mangage what could have been a graceful passing of the baton. This was followed by a witch hunt, a whispering campaign, a purge and the installation of a mate as CEO. And then, breathtakingly, the overnight transformation of an elected director into an independent one.
Of course, in the typical way of the political class, no personal responsibility is taken for this. For a while it is all the fault of the previous administration and when that proves unsustainable as a claim they take refuge in sound bites and obfuscation.
All of this is familiar territory to thosee used to operating in the political arena. So familiar in fact that these apparatchiks probably can’t see how appalling it all is.
And none of it is in the best interests of auDA which, like it or not, was viewed around the world as an exemplar of ccTLD management and is now viewed as a basket case.
To quote Edgar Watson Howe, “if you have enough sense to realize why flies gather around a restaurant, you should be able to appreciate why men run for office”.
Removing the chair will be only a first step in redeeming auDA. I hope there are some plans for what happens next!’