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Post by swerveman on Jun 24, 2007 21:32:50 GMT
The ACU&S website has two new items dated 16th June: acus.org.uk/news.aspThe first is about the clothing questionnaire votes to date, but the second gives news of a special GC meeting. The contents are most interesting, as they talk of a possible merger with ECBOA.
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Post by umpire50 on Jul 16, 2007 15:57:22 GMT
Is this is the latest attempt by the ECB to ‘acquire’ the ACU&S when previous attempts have failed? They need to acquire ACU&S to be able to demonstrate to Sport England that they are involved in recreational cricket and thereby qualify for significasnt funding - little or none of which will come the way of umpires or scorers..
Their first attempt was to withdraw the £25,000 annual grant at a time when ACU&S were over-stretched financially. At the same time they set up the ECB OA in the hope that ACU&S collapsed and the members would then naturally migrate to ECB OA. Frank Kemp regularly predicted the demise of the ACU&S. He must have been really miffed when, as result of much-improved financial control, ACU&S did not collapse but continued to attract far more new members than ECB OA. This explains the latest 'attack'.
I am convinced that the ECB did their best to ensure that those ACU&S members who had drafted the ‘Renaissance’ document resigned from the Association.
It is a measure of the outstanding ‘success’ of ECB OA that, after about 18 months of life when it only managed to attract around 1200 members (= subscription income of only £24,000 per annum), the ECB are more than willing to fold it up and set up a yet another new organisation, this time called the Association of Cricket Officials (ACO). They need to be sure that they can attract lots of members as a result of any dissolution of ACU&S. Could it be that the ECB accountants are breathing down the neck of ECB OA because that organisation is a loss maker?
The latest attempt to attempt to persuade ACU&S members to vote for a merger (otherwise known as a takeover!) in a hastily arranged ballot, with the active connivance of a couple of Senior ACU&S officials, is a high risk strategy by the ECB. Initial soundings are that many ACU&S members do not want a ballot. If one were forced on them, they would not vote (a two-thirds majority is required) for a merger. The media would then have a field day at the expense of ECB. “Recreational umpires and scorers snub advance by ECB”.
If umpires and scorers in the recreational game wanted to be controlled by the ECB, they would have joined ECB OA and there would have been no need to propose the ACO.
Why can't the ECB leave the ACU&S alone? It is clear to me that most umpires and scorers are totally fed up with the petty politics - they just want to umpire and score.
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mmm
Junior Contributor
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Post by mmm on Jul 17, 2007 11:43:03 GMT
Dear young '50', ECB can't leave ACU&S alone, because of the reason you stated in your 1st paragraph - and of course, their careerists would have to think of another job creation scheme.
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Post by nompere on Jul 20, 2007 6:52:48 GMT
There are more postings on www.acus.org.uk/meetings.asp which show that meeting on Wednesday is to hear the latest proposals from the ECB ACU&S negotiating team. GC will decide then whether to organise Regional presentations followed by a postal ballot of members. It seems that GC will not be asked whether they recommend the proposals. Hopefully it will become clear as to when proposals from the Next Steps working party will be presented and whether they complement the ECB ideas or whether they provide a viable alternative for an independent ACU&S. As soon as more information is published, I will promulgate it here and, no doubt, further debate will take place online. Personally I feel that most ACU&S members have already indicated their intentions by paying their current subscription!
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Post by swerveman on Jul 20, 2007 10:04:26 GMT
This is interesting, too:
"The possibility of a message board on the website is being looked into".
A bit of healthy competition, perhaps?
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Post by johnfgolding on Jul 21, 2007 19:39:30 GMT
Personally I feel that most ACU&S members have already indicated their intentions by paying their current subscription! But do you think that is because you have to be a member to get GL6, 5 & 4 Are many renewing their subscriptions to keep their "qualifications". What will happen when the ECB get their training courses actually off the ground, I ask myself. Interesting times ahead. There is a lot both organisations have to do to build up trust.
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Post by johnfgolding on Jul 21, 2007 19:43:03 GMT
This is interesting, too: "The possibility of a message board on the website is being looked into". A bit of healthy competition, perhaps? But will they like what is being discussed. I know of several organisations that introduced message boards only to close them when they did not like what was being discussed.
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Post by nompere on Jul 26, 2007 9:23:55 GMT
I attended the Special General Council meeting (on Wed 25-Jul-07) where the latest proposals to form ECB ACO were discussed in detail. These proposals will be circulated to ACU&S members in the slightly delayed edition of Hows That? and Regional Councillors will be arranging meetings to discuss them. These will probably be followed by a ballot but not in the immediate future.
Jonathon Glynn is preparing a report which will appear on ACU&S website, probably over the weekend and a link will be posted here as soon as possible thereafter. Please refrain from making any further comments until after that time. I may open a separate area for this sole purpose.
I may also require you to join up before posting messages to that board. May I suggest you go through the identification process NOW? It is painless and we do not require any sensitive data. Furthermore I guarantee that I will not pass your email address on to any third party - not even ACU&S, ICUS or ECB without your permission.
Colin Pearson
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Post by umpire50 on Aug 1, 2007 7:19:21 GMT
Geoff Lowden, the ACU&S Chairman, has regularly claimed that communications within ACU&S have improved.
How is it then that, almost a week after the Special General Council meeting, nothing has been posted on the ACU&S website?
This is probably the most important period in the history of an independent ACU&S. Why are the members being kept in the dark? What is being hidden from the members?
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Post by umpire50 on Aug 1, 2007 9:27:07 GMT
Further to my previous posting, a report of last Wednesday's meeting has now appeared on the ACU&S website. www.acus.org.uk/news.aspHowever, there are significant differences between the report and the PowerPoint presentation that was in circulation in Yorkshire, Surrey, Sussex and Kent before the meeting. In particular, this report states that the National Board of the new Association of Cricket Officials "would be elected by a vote of the County Associations, and this Board would be able to appoint other committees and working parties" The PowerPoint presentation slide on this topic shows the following as the Board Structure:- Independent Chair 6 Regional Representatives (including ECC) Representative of MCC Education Director ECB Finance Director/Treasurer Representative of Scorers Representative of Women's Cricket Independent Director ECB Executive Director This is rather different and implies that the majority of the board may well not be elected from the membership. This rather conflicts with the claim that the ACO will be independent, does it not?
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mmm
Junior Contributor
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Post by mmm on Aug 1, 2007 16:58:46 GMT
Almost correct '50' - On the ECB ACO Board 'The 5 Regional Representatives elected by Regional Forums made up of County Association delegates Independent Board members elected by majority vote of County Associations Nominations made by Board or by minimum 3CAs'
Make of that what you will but its a long way from 'One Member - One (Postal) Vote, as is the ACU&S' democratic way, which has stood the test of time.
ECB (Power Point) proposals also state -'Under auspices of ECB and known as ECB ACO' - this gives the first clue as to its Independence or Autonomy.
I would be interested to know of any part of the proposals which even point to ECB ACO's Autonomy from ECB.
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Post by fatpunter on Aug 1, 2007 19:31:34 GMT
Delegates, forums, representatives, committees. It's just a never ending stream of in-fighting tosh.
You wonder how an umpire makes a decision on a Saturday afternoon without having to put it to regional boards and create a working party.
There is no end other than to scrap everything, all the schisms, all the infighting, all the backbiting. It's almost getting like the civil war in Ulster or Palestine, all sides are right and no side will back down.
IT'S JUST A GAME!! Blokes hitting a ball with a bat and running about, that's all. There are no lives at stake. There are an awful lot of heads that need banging together.
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Post by umpire50 on Aug 2, 2007 7:04:44 GMT
I agree with your sentiments, fatpunter.
However, knowing a fair amount about the history of this saga, it was the ECB who starting playing politics by aggressively trying to acquire the ACU&S. It was surely not unreasonable for the ACU&S to defend itself.
There has to be a negotiated way out of this morass and it is right and proper that the members of both ACU&S and ECB OA have a full say in their future. It is a fact of life that 'politics' in some shape or form will form part of the discussions.
Without such a negotiated settlement, it is highly probable that cricket will be the loser.
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Post by nompere on Aug 4, 2007 6:32:43 GMT
If you look carefully, the new organisation will be called ECB ACO and not just ACO !
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Post by umpire50 on Aug 8, 2007 10:58:36 GMT
I'd noticed that too! So much for any thought that any new organisation will have freedom to act independently. Despite what ECB might say the actuality is that they, the ECB, want to control all aspects of cricket with a rod of iron.
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