Hi All,
The big difference is that the judiciary interpret the laws made by parliament,
which is democratically elected and can change the rules we live by if it
doesn't agree with the judiciarys interpretation, ( and has done so not
infrequently, particularly in regard to taxation,) subject to the constitution,
which also can only be changed by an overall majority vote of electors and a
majority of states. If we had an arrangement like that in the GFA we would all
be happy.
Sorry, but really no comparision, you will have to find a better example,
Regards,
Harry Medlicott
----- Original Message -----
From: Mark Newton
To: Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia.
Sent: Tuesday, May 19, 2009 1:35 PM
Subject: Re: [Aus-soaring] democracy and the GFA
On 28/04/2009, at 3:16 PM, harry medlicott wrote:
The sticking point is that the Executive and Board of Directors are not
elected by the popular vote of fee paying members, but by a convoluted system
involving club committees, state associations and the Board then electing an
Executive who may never have faced a vote of any kind.
This separation of the Executive from the general membership is pretty
unique. I know of no other organisation whose compulsorily fee paying members
do not have a direct vote in electing the powers-that-be.
I know of one: The judiciary.
In Australia, citizens vote for members of parliament, and those
members form an executive which directly appoints judges.
The processes of electing MPs and of appointing judges are
separated. The main benefit of the separation is that the judges
won't be seen to have conflicts of interest when they make
decisions which affect citizens, because citizens have played no
part in the hiring/firing decision. Judges are free to draw
whatever conclusions they see fit, secure in the knowledge that
they'll never be held accountable by those affected by their
decisions.
I think there are a great many exact parallels between that process
and GFA's governance.
I'm not being judgmental about this. It's entirely possible that
the GFA (and/or GFA members) believes there is some kind
of overwhelming benefit stemming from a management
structure that's independent from the members. If so, the fact
that this issue has been a controversy for as long as I've been
gliding would seem to suggest that they've spectacularly failed
to communicate the attractiveness of the status quo.
- mark
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I tried an internal modem, [email protected]
but it hurt when I walked. Mark Newton
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