CTC AGM Wesley Hotel Euston NW1 Sat 13May2017

Well I have to say that in my opinion it was a non event. There were around 35 people in attendance mostly officials and administrators, with only 17 ordinary members present, representing 0.02642% of the declared 64,343 registered members.
I did not make an accurate record of the votes cast or the outcome (which will be published) but in the main CTC got their way.
There were only two members who stood up and challenged the CEO and Board and they were constant in their harassment (a little bit like Phil Benstead who never gives up). One was Colin Clarke and the other I did not catch his name but he is well known to council & Paul Tuohy. He was repeatedly saying that he did not think that CTC and the Board were being open and honest with members. I was on the edge of my seat on more than one occasion trying to support this argument but every time I was about to ask a question some procedural problem cropped up mainly to do with the the malfunction of the electronic key fobs we were all given at the start, so for the first time every I attend a meeting and I did not say a Dicky Bird!
Well apart from raising one question at the start relating to the key fobs? On arrival I registered with the ERS staff and was given a key fob. A demonstration of how to use the key fob was carried out. The simple question to members was how many had come by bike? Answer only Colin Clarke and MMHM (Me!). To add insult to injury only Colin was allowed to put his bike in the Hotel luggage room and I was instructed to chain my valuable Van Nic to the railings outside the hotel with no assurance that the staff would keep an eye on it. In the end having got nowhere with AGM organisers I took the law into my own hands and forced my bike into the luggage room. This did upset me quite a lot.
The question I asked about voting fob was should I use this if I had already voted online. Answer NO! So why then was I given one in the first place, seems to me that the ERS system was not functioning properly. This was highlighted over motion 8 - Increasing membership. The first figures flashed up on the screen showed incorrect results. This was noted by Jim Brown and questioned by others. ERS operators were caught out and it brought into question, was the whole voting system being rigged. The answer by ERS was that it was Human Error on the input side and that the final figures were correct - Trust us!!!!???
Motion 13 Broadcast the AGM to a live membership. Well I have to agree with Jim Brown who stood up against this by saying imagine beaming in 4hrs of this stuff into the living room of members on a Saturday morning much to the disgust of say housewives who really wanted to go shopping! CTC do not have the IT skills to do it!
Finally Motion 11 Scrutiny Committee. Quite a long discussion took place on this point and in the end I was swayed by some of the arguments that we have to trust Council/Board. I had already voted for the scrutiny committee so my vote did not change but one big question raised was who scrutinises the Scrutiny Committee and who elects it and from where? In the end this motion was defeated.

So below is a picture of Paul Tuohy enthusiastically extolling the virtues of CTC and what a fantastic year he (we) have had. The 1.5 meter safe distance proposal was highlighted but no reference back to Chris Juden, who was not there, was made!

One thing that did surprise me was that CTC appear to have taken to heart that they must be more open with members. Dated the 30 September 2016 they produced an Annual Report and Consolidated Financial Statement, two copies of which I have brought back from the meeting and will let Jeff have a copy so he can take to the next SWL committee meeting.

Perhaps one other highlight to make is that CTC are disappointing about the uptake of Gift Aid only about 20% of members do it and a concerted effort will be made to increase this.

Author: mike morley

1 Comment:

Simon L 14 May 2017 at 18:29 BST

Mike, thankyou for attending and reporting back to us. Even if as you say it wasn't that exciting, we at least get to hear a little bit of what happens at the AGM, which is appreciated.