Doug PollardSave ALSOCare - close Foundation
ALSO Members, if you have not already voted, please read before you do.
TO : AlsoCare Contributors, Members & Committee & General & Media Release via Email & Website postings
June 4th 2011 From Geoffrey R Richards 1A Ascot St Preston
Whatever happened to Responsibility, the ‘Westminster’ system we govern under, and Harry Truman’s dollar note dictum on his desk - ‘The Buck stops here!’ Ross Wootton has ignored all three in his erroneous claim to be a ‘new untarnished broom’
The June 2nd letter to Members by Care Committee member Ross Wootton does outline the establishment of a Reform Group - after unsuccessful individual efforts at prior Annual General Meetings. I regret that there has been a parting of the ways by Ross Wootton & Robert Morris.
They continue to believe they have a duty to Save the Foundation before that of Also Care and before that of the members who elected them.
This is wrong morally, ethically & on my legal advice, wrong at law & could be actionable
I regret too that Jamie Gardiner’s significant past efforts have become intertwined with the Also Returning Officer role, but once Jamie spoke out in support of the Also Care Committee at the first April 20th Resolution meeting and then his Attachment 7 (the content of which is debatable) was included in the Member Pack for the latest Resolutions such an appointment would have created conflict & Jamie would have realized that. If there is another word for ‘bias’, as I’ve described it, I’m happy to apologise & use the replacement
Ross Wootton is ‘enraged’, yet he chose his path not I, when having been elected to the responsibility of managing Care member funds he & his colleagues have consistently, but wrongly, put Foundation first. If he did read the flip side of our ‘How to Vote guide’, there is the telling analysis by past Also Treasurer - David Owen:- “that since June 30th last year the Committee of Also Care have misappropriated, that is ‘withdrawn in contravention to a Member’s Resolution, at least $233,409.67 over the past ten months’ …this is not something that happened many years ago,…
... it is an average of $23,000 over the past ten months… The existing committee have stood by ….. they need to step aside” end edited quote.
Ross Wootton, Robert Morris & Gerard Brody were all present for the latter part of this financial management period as were Daniel Perkins & Bill Jeffrey. When it became obvious no new funding was arriving yet expenses were piling up still they took no action. The ’buck’ stops there!”
That a large number of Care & Foundation Committee members have left over the past few years speaks for itself. I suspect most found it difficult to equate effort with unbelievable, never achieved income streams, yet continuing high & in some cases questionable expenditures. However, three member elected persons continue to occupy those positions while being Foundation Directors. This is against all the principles of ministerial & committee accountability & is a conflict of interest & ignored by all three. It was suggested that it may be acceptable for two of them to become Also Foundation nominees but this was rejected. As to the Treasurer Gerard Brody his position remains even less tenable since he signed the 2008 Accounts when, as indicated by David Owen’s analysis, Member Equity was $1,147,939. Now it is LESS than $374,442 (as at April 18th, 2011)
Lets also look at the deception deliberately played upon members during the April 20th 2011 Resolution meeting, when members rejected a resolution to take $500,000 from the Members Resolution Fund. From late March a damming email had begun circulating, including to the media. Apparently it was from the Also CEO Crusader Hillis to then Also President Jarrod Hassell, the Treasurer Gerard Brody and two Also finance employees. It indicated that he (the CEO) had ‘discovered’ they may have ‘breeched’ the Members Resolution Fund. This sudden ‘discovery’ in March is just not believable. On the morning of the April 20th Resolution meeting ‘The Age’ published an article indicating that there was not $500,000 in the Fund & the CEO & Treasurer admitted same on the night. Since Ross Wootton & some others on Care Committee already knew of the March email prior to the Resolution meeting, an inspection of withdrawals should have been ordered, which would have revealed who, when & how much & how often the withdrawals were made, but this was not done
Finally at an aborted Reform Group/Care Committee meeting on May 17th the CEO and Treasurer in front of many witnesses admitted to the transfer of the monies without authority. Again no action taken by the current Care Committee. Instead they chose to try to’ legitimize’ the past errors by ‘bundling’ together a number of Resolutions into one & to present same in the current Poll.
When it became apparent that probably the Care Committee had been deceived & that clearly the Members Resolution Fund had been breached then was the time for the current Care Committee to act - it was their last chance to show legal propriety.
Such action should have led them to suspend the CEO and Treasurer and investigate the funds breech AND clarify if they had the power to release funds for ‘loans’ and ‘letters of comfort’ & they should have called for ‘sight’ of the documents themselves.
We now know no such documents were presented and probably do not exist.
That the current Care Committee is but the ‘last of the line’ is fact but by not commissioning investigation & establishing the truth and legitimacy of their powers, particularly to lend & guarantee, the current Committee has aligned itself with the past & real culprits of the present financial ‘morass’
It would be easy to obtain independent legal opinion upon the lawful Powers of the Committee and Conflict of Interest issues AND commission a Certificate of Solvency from an independent auditor rather than rely on a questionable in-house statement by the CEO & the Finance Manager. Perhaps the latter two would be prepared to sign an affidavit?
If the Care Committee is so certain of its ‘purity’, what are they afraid of taking these simple steps to cleanse themselves? Until they do so there can be no basis for confidence in their management of Also Care funds. Much of the current anger could be allayed by such documents
I challenge Ross Wootten to identify the errors in my letter to Members, which he claims are ‘wrong, ill informed or arise from overheated imagination’. It is Ross and his Committee I feel, that have been ill informed, they should NOT be supported in their current resolution
With the ‘Save the Foundation first’ approach adopted by the current Care Committee it would be unlikely for many years, if ever again, to obtain the bequest & donation funds previously given so generously to Also Care. More so when Also and its current CEO has all but abandoned, barely even started, to foster, provide practical help to or assist the older aged gay community members – the very source of the bulk of its past (almost $1.6m) & future income. The Val’s Café project is held up as a beacon and perhaps it has a way to go but it threw up no such light of help to my task last year of finding a suitable venue for my colleague to settle.
Geoffrey R Richards B.Comm., CPA Retd., Past Also Care Initiating member email gfrolf@yahoo.com.au
TO : AlsoCare Contributors, Members & Committee & General & Media Release via Email & Website postings
June 4th 2011 From Geoffrey R Richards 1A Ascot St Preston
Whatever happened to Responsibility, the ‘Westminster’ system we govern under, and Harry Truman’s dollar note dictum on his desk - ‘The Buck stops here!’ Ross Wootton has ignored all three in his erroneous claim to be a ‘new untarnished broom’
The June 2nd letter to Members by Care Committee member Ross Wootton does outline the establishment of a Reform Group - after unsuccessful individual efforts at prior Annual General Meetings. I regret that there has been a parting of the ways by Ross Wootton & Robert Morris.
This is wrong morally, ethically & on my legal advice, wrong at law & could be actionable
I regret too that Jamie Gardiner’s significant past efforts have become intertwined with the Also Returning Officer role, but once Jamie spoke out in support of the Also Care Committee at the first April 20th Resolution meeting and then his Attachment 7 (the content of which is debatable) was included in the Member Pack for the latest Resolutions such an appointment would have created conflict & Jamie would have realized that. If there is another word for ‘bias’, as I’ve described it, I’m happy to apologise & use the replacement
Ross Wootton is ‘enraged’, yet he chose his path not I, when having been elected to the responsibility of managing Care member funds he & his colleagues have consistently, but wrongly, put Foundation first. If he did read the flip side of our ‘How to Vote guide’, there is the telling analysis by past Also Treasurer - David Owen:- “that since June 30th last year the Committee of Also Care have misappropriated, that is ‘withdrawn in contravention to a Member’s Resolution, at least $233,409.67 over the past ten months’ …this is not something that happened many years ago,…
Ross Wootton, Robert Morris & Gerard Brody were all present for the latter part of this financial management period as were Daniel Perkins & Bill Jeffrey. When it became obvious no new funding was arriving yet expenses were piling up still they took no action. The ’buck’ stops there!”
That a large number of Care & Foundation Committee members have left over the past few years speaks for itself. I suspect most found it difficult to equate effort with unbelievable, never achieved income streams, yet continuing high & in some cases questionable expenditures. However, three member elected persons continue to occupy those positions while being Foundation Directors. This is against all the principles of ministerial & committee accountability & is a conflict of interest & ignored by all three. It was suggested that it may be acceptable for two of them to become Also Foundation nominees but this was rejected. As to the Treasurer Gerard Brody his position remains even less tenable since he signed the 2008 Accounts when, as indicated by David Owen’s analysis, Member Equity was $1,147,939. Now it is LESS than $374,442 (as at April 18th, 2011)
Lets also look at the deception deliberately played upon members during the April 20th 2011 Resolution meeting, when members rejected a resolution to take $500,000 from the Members Resolution Fund. From late March a damming email had begun circulating, including to the media. Apparently it was from the Also CEO Crusader Hillis to then Also President Jarrod Hassell, the Treasurer Gerard Brody and two Also finance employees. It indicated that he (the CEO) had ‘discovered’ they may have ‘breeched’ the Members Resolution Fund. This sudden ‘discovery’ in March is just not believable. On the morning of the April 20th Resolution meeting ‘The Age’ published an article indicating that there was not $500,000 in the Fund & the CEO & Treasurer admitted same on the night. Since Ross Wootton & some others on Care Committee already knew of the March email prior to the Resolution meeting, an inspection of withdrawals should have been ordered, which would have revealed who, when & how much & how often the withdrawals were made, but this was not done
Finally at an aborted Reform Group/Care Committee meeting on May 17th the CEO and Treasurer in front of many witnesses admitted to the transfer of the monies without authority. Again no action taken by the current Care Committee. Instead they chose to try to’ legitimize’ the past errors by ‘bundling’ together a number of Resolutions into one & to present same in the current Poll.
When it became apparent that probably the Care Committee had been deceived & that clearly the Members Resolution Fund had been breached then was the time for the current Care Committee to act - it was their last chance to show legal propriety.
Such action should have led them to suspend the CEO and Treasurer and investigate the funds breech AND clarify if they had the power to release funds for ‘loans’ and ‘letters of comfort’ & they should have called for ‘sight’ of the documents themselves.
We now know no such documents were presented and probably do not exist.
That the current Care Committee is but the ‘last of the line’ is fact but by not commissioning investigation & establishing the truth and legitimacy of their powers, particularly to lend & guarantee, the current Committee has aligned itself with the past & real culprits of the present financial ‘morass’
It would be easy to obtain independent legal opinion upon the lawful Powers of the Committee and Conflict of Interest issues AND commission a Certificate of Solvency from an independent auditor rather than rely on a questionable in-house statement by the CEO & the Finance Manager. Perhaps the latter two would be prepared to sign an affidavit?
If the Care Committee is so certain of its ‘purity’, what are they afraid of taking these simple steps to cleanse themselves? Until they do so there can be no basis for confidence in their management of Also Care funds. Much of the current anger could be allayed by such documents
I challenge Ross Wootten to identify the errors in my letter to Members, which he claims are ‘wrong, ill informed or arise from overheated imagination’. It is Ross and his Committee I feel, that have been ill informed, they should NOT be supported in their current resolution
With the ‘Save the Foundation first’ approach adopted by the current Care Committee it would be unlikely for many years, if ever again, to obtain the bequest & donation funds previously given so generously to Also Care. More so when Also and its current CEO has all but abandoned, barely even started, to foster, provide practical help to or assist the older aged gay community members – the very source of the bulk of its past (almost $1.6m) & future income. The Val’s Café project is held up as a beacon and perhaps it has a way to go but it threw up no such light of help to my task last year of finding a suitable venue for my colleague to settle.
Geoffrey R Richards B.Comm., CPA Retd., Past Also Care Initiating member email gfrolf@yahoo.com.au
