1.50PM: The outgoing chair of the NZ AIDS Foundation is disturbed by the sequence of events which has effectively subverted an attempt to introduce democracy into the process of selection of Foundation trustees. Today's announced withdrawal of one Trust Board candidate means the remaining four candidates are all but guaranteed to step into four vacancies on the influential seven person Board without any vetting by existing board members or the NZAF's 150-plus strong membership. Although they last year chose to subject board candidates to membership scrutiny, outgoing chair Jeremy Lambert says the Foundation's members have got just the opposite. At last year's Annual General Meeting, Foundation members decided in favour of an open democratic process to fill regularly scheduled board vacancies, doing away with the 'shoulder tap and appointment' process used until that time. Outgoing chair Jeremy Lambert says during his tenure on the Board it attracted a balanced set of skills and experience and did not always appoint the shoulder tapped candidates, who had to undergo a personal interview. Although that process had been seen as reasonably workable for much of the Foundation's twenty two year life, board turmoil three years ago, when the agendas of several appointed members threw the NZAF into a period of internal conflict and public acrimony, seemed to influence the membership to seek a more open process. Lambert says the NZAF must hold an election for vacancies at its AGM, regardless of the number of candidates and vacancies. "The Trust Deed requires us to run an election, and the outcome of that vote is a recommendation to the trustees," he says. He believes it would be very difficult for the existing trustees not to induct all of the candidates in tomorrow's election. Lambert, who has agreed to work with the new board for six months to ease transition, says the election process has not delivered what the members wanted and the NZAF is in danger of being subjected to the agendas of minority interests. "This is not the fault of the people putting themselves forward," Lambert says, believing the current candidates are to be congratulated for fronting up for election. "But in future the membership of the NZAF must ensure it nominates a broad base of candidates." Looking back to the last AGM, when the AGM chose the open election process for Board membership, Lambert says he now wishes he had argued more forcefully for the selection process to be more carefully considered over a longer period of time rather than being voted on immediately.
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Friday, 23rd November 2007 - 1:40pm