2016122 - Former WIA Director Rowan Dollar (VK8RD) - letter of resignation published

Post date: Dec 20, 2016 3:59:20 AM

From: Rowan VK8RD <rowan.vk8rd@gmail.com>

Date: 26 December 2015 at 17:31:51 ACST

To: Phil Wait <philwait@bigpond.net.au>, Phil Wait <vk2dkn@gmail.com>

Subject: WIA Board

Phil,

My tenure as a Director of the Wireless Institute of Australia has become untenable.

I have never witnessed such unrestrained arrogance and nepotism as I have witnessed in the last few months in the words and actions of the other directors. There is no thought of members or the hobby as a whole in any decision making. The decision making is anything but transparent and is governed by a minority of sanctimonious directors who only think of themselves and refuse to engage on any issue. They are out of control and despite numerous conversations between us over the last year or so you refuse to do anything to control them.

The WIA IT and business systems are a disaster. I raised a paper and proposal over a year ago and was laughed down. The integration with Memnet that the WIA is now paying thousands of dollars to get fixed would have been done at that time. Robert Broomhead has written the website's content himself with apparent disregard for industry advancements and protocols (the debacle of a mobile site earlier in the year is a great example). The risk he presents to the WIA is substantial. I proposed advertising on the website that could have generated large sums of income for the WIA but was laughed down.

Nepotism is rife - look at the attempts by Fred and Roger to appoint Robert's mate, Marc Hillman, on to the board recently. Hillman was lauding loudly around his club that he was going to be on the board before it had even been discussed. Simply appalling. I protested the requirement and they kept going. Roger's personal attacks on me were bewildering.

Fred Swainston, a director, is employed at a 30% mark up above the advertised rate for the role and despite my protesting clearly nothing has been done. He is still reaping the rewards of not having engaged a permanent person in the role. I have protested over the continuing appointment to no avail.

Norfolk Island is a junket for the directors. Nothing less. I have protested against that debacle from the get go.

The WIA have lost long term volunteers this year and the board has not acted in a timely manner. In the space of about 6 months, losing an assistant treasurer, a treasurer, a company secretary and now 2 directors should be ringing the alarm bells loud and long but nothing.

The forthcoming election has been an unmitigated disaster so far and will continue to be so. I doubt that the outcome will go un-contested.

The relationship with the ACMA and the WIA is in tatters. Roger's communications with the regulator are apparently viewed by them as laughable. No engagement over the LCD which was the single most important thing to occur in the hobby in the last or next 10 years. The Board has done and achieved nothing.

The Board has achieved nothing and made no change to the hobby since I joined. Read the monthly agenda and you'll see it hasn't changed fundamentally in the time I've been a director. No decisions or activity just more talk and reasons for not doing anything.

The vast majority of the hobby see the WIA as a waste of time and an anachronism. I have had no member talk to me over my time as director with any positive feedback whatsoever. Always a long list of things wrong with the WIA. 160m and 4m allocations are available apparently and the Board has done nothing about it. 6m is free but no moves to get Standards onto the portion.

Despite the Corporations Act I was refused access to the financials for the organisation. An appalling situation.

How dare I question decisions? It is my job as a director to do so. The other directors seem to have forgotten what their job really is supposed to be.

I have no faith in the current board and it's ability to manage the WIA in anything resembling a professional ethical manner. I hereby resign effective immediately. Frankly I'm disgusted.

Sincerely,

Rowan Dollar.