For those interested - copied below the full agenda item for the January BCA meeting. Freely available in the public domain as it should be.
(7) Action over ongoing BCA IT situation ? Request for Council intervention by Matt Ewles
At the AGM, members voted to appoint Gary Douthwaite as our Webmaster, with a mandate to:
?redevelop the website including, but not limited to BCA online and communications systems.? and to
receive specified accesses and permissions to the existing systems to enable him to do this. The
intention was for Gary to lead the redevelopment, with input along the way from those already
involved in BCA?s IT infrastructure (who I, naively, had hoped would be excited about this
opportunity) to ensure a smooth but expedited transition to modern systems.
After the AGM, David Cooke repeatedly ignored my requests for these accesses to be granted and in
a face-to-face meeting he refused them. BCA Council responded to this in October by reiterating the
AGM?s instruction, which I hoped would be enough. Since then, requests to David for the accesses to
be granted have once again been totally ignored. We remain no further forward.
Furthermore, David has since commenced discussions with the IT Working Group (ITWG), that have
focussed on both discrediting Gary?s intentions, and trying to set out in writing who does what. To
quote the last sentence of an email string sent to the ITWG on 10th December:
?If we are to go down this formal route... [referring to David?s proposed roles and responsibilities]...
then it would be a requirement for the Webmaster to gain the approval of the ITWG before
commencing work that comes under the ITWG's remit.?
The full email string is not private and can thus be supplied on request to any Council member who
wishes to verify the context of this quotation.
In summary, David is now driving a proposal through the ITWG to prevent Gary working on anything
other than the public website without specific ITWG permission (which most probably would not be
granted). Be in no doubt that this is a deliberate agenda to overturn what has been agreed by our
membership and Council, to prevent Gary fulfilling the remit he was appointed to at the AGM.
Let me be absolutely clear on the current situation. A member of the BCA team is ignoring the
wishes of the AGM and of BCA Council, is holding key BCA systems hostage, refusing to relinquish
access, and is using his own Working Group to drive an agenda to overturn AGM and Council
decisions. Does BCA Council consider this contempt of AGM and Council acceptable?
I personally find this situation intolerable. The BCA?s systems, including BCA Online, and our
membership infrastructure are extremely dated and disjointed. Yet nothing changes; just relentless
talk and stubborn defence of the status quo. Years of eloquent and diplomatic talking at meetings
have ?covered-up? the barricades behind the scenes to anyone wanting to create something new or
better (Gary is not the first prospective IT moderniser to be driven away by this).
Let me clarify what I am seeking in terms of IT systems redevelopment:
I want a simple, electronic way to renew membership for all categories; one that automatically
populates a professional, ideally custom, database, and that links directly to options for electronic
payment (including with direct debit or equivalent); or at least has the capacity to do this at a later
date. I want a BCA Online that works directly off that database and that allows individual members
to log in, change/update their contact details and email preferences, vote on ballots etc. I want a
back-end to the new BCA website that incorporates an email system with different email ?groups?
(e.g. Council, Groups, DIMs, CIMs, those who have not opted out of the newsletter, etc) all running
from the live database. Furthermore, the infrastructure should be built using modern coding, which
any decent web developer could pick up and work with, and a non-technical admin interface for BCA
Officers to use. All systems (website, BCA Online, membership) should be on BCA owned webspace,
consistently branded, and seamlessly integrated. None of this is difficult, but will never happen
unless the incumbent make way for (and ideally support) those with the skills to deliver this. Such
systems are common place in other membership organisations and would stop the current practice
of stressful activity for volunteers and staff alike leading up to each annual renewal.
As far as I?m concerned, the buck stops at this meeting. There is little to be gained by Council
reiterating its previous instruction, as this has been ignored and will continue to be ignored. Plus,
it is futile instructing for offline resolutions or Working Group input; that has failed. All options for
Gary and David to work together have been totally exhausted. A clear decision is needed at this
meeting to close the situation, so the people involved know where they stand.
I deeply regret that this situation exists, and that I have had to bring it up in such strong and
personal terms in a Council meeting agenda, but I am at the end of my tether on this. As someone
who was appointed Secretary on a modernising and reforming agenda (to which getting the right
IT systems in place is critical), I am not prepared to beat about the bush on this anymore.
Council can either decide that they accept David?s decision to withhold accesses, and Gary will
withdraw his offer to redevelop BCA?s systems. You will hear no more about this from him or me.
Alternatively, my recommendation is that Council instruct Gary to redevelop/replace the systems
to which David is currently withholding access, including BCA Online, the membership database
and membership systems. I suggest that such action is accompanied by suitable preventative
measures to avoid further activity behind the scenes to frustrate this process.
Fundamentally the question is: Can any member of BCA Council ignore Council decisions just
because they think they know better? The answer is no unless you want anarchy.
Matt Ewles (Secretary), supported by Howard Jones (Treasurer / Insurance Manager)
