BANK FRAUD - LAA STATEMENT and REPORT

[Steve Slater]

Dear Member,
I wrote out to members in a letter accompanying the October edition of Light Aviation to advise that the Association had been subject to a financial fraud and that the Board had commissioned an independent review to investigate the fraud and report its findings and recommendations. In my letter I indicated that a full report would be made at the AGM.

Ahead of the AGM on Sunday the Board is providing a Report to Members. This replicates the Panel’s Report to the Board, which it considered on 23 August, save for the exclusion of individual witness evidence which the Board has been advised to remove to preserve anonymity.

At the conclusion of the formal AGM business on Sunday there will be a short presentation, summarising the Report and Recommendations; an update on their implementation and progress on efforts to recover the stolen funds. The Report to Members provides answers to a number of questions that have been raised by members and there will be an opportunity to raise further questions at the conclusion of the presentation.
If you are not attending the AGM but have a question you wish to raise having considered the report please forward it to LAA HQ and we will endeavour to answer it. Following the presentation on Sunday I will again write out to members summarising the discussion and question and answer session.

Eryl Smith

http://www.lightaircraftassociation.co. ... embers.pdf

[Paul Catanach]

Hi Eryl

How are we to show (with our votes) if we are satisfied with the performance of Board members if the report (and there are issues with that document) has come some months after the event and so close to the AGM?

While we have not been brought up to date on developments over the last two months?

While that very important update is not part of the agenda and thus partitioned from the voting?

One might be forgiven for feeling that we are deliberately not being given sufficent opportunity to judge the Board's performance around this extremely important event.

Like other members I have a strong desire to know how this came about, what protections were in place, how they were circumvented, what is being done to prevent a recurrence, whether or not we are getting our money back................. and those are all before I even re-read the report and are told (on Sunday) about the actions of those on the committees who failed to meet for several years, those who decreed that one person should be allowed to move vast sums of our money around without cross-checking and those who seemingly chose not to instil some training and awareness around what is these days a very common form of crime.

This is not, and I repeat NOT, to vilify the unfortunate staff member who was taken in by these scammers.

It IS about keeping the membership informed and not depriving us of the opportunity to have a say in the running of our association.

[DaveWhite]

Dear Member,
In my letter I indicated that a full report would be made at the AGM.

Steve (and Eryl), this appears not to be correct.

As Eryl says in his letter to members:

At the conclusion of the formal AGM business on Sunday there will be a short presentation, summarising the Report and Recommendations; an update on their implementation and progress on efforts to recover the stolen funds. The Report to Members provides answers to a number of questions that have been raised by members and there will be an opportunity to raise further questions at the conclusion of the presentation.

(My bold)
The clear implication is that the report update is not part of the AGM, and explicitly that it comes after the AGM elections.

I suggest that the Officers should carefully reconsider the order of the Agenda, and whether the report update should be part of the formal AGM proceedings or not.

[Jonathan Holland]

Paul / Dave

Some very good points, which I know many people want (and deserve) to know the answers to.

Let’s hope Sunday puts a lot of the smoke and mirrors about how this has been handled to bed.

Thankfully, mechanisms to have additional meetings exist, which will be the only other option if Member confidence isn’t properly restored in 36 hours time.

[ed ludlow]

Hi Eryl

How are we to show (with our votes) if we are satisfied with the performance of Board members if the report (and there are issues with that document) has come some months after the event and so close to the AGM?

While we have not been brought up to date on developments over the last two months?

While that very important update is not part of the agenda and thus partitioned from the voting?

One might be forgiven for feeling that we are deliberately not being given sufficent opportunity to judge the Board's performance around this extremely important event.

Like other members I have a strong desire to know how this came about, what protections were in place, how they were circumvented, what is being done to prevent a recurrence, whether or not we are getting our money back................. and those are all before I even re-read the report and are told (on Sunday) about the actions of those on the committees who failed to meet for several years, those who decreed that one person should be allowed to move vast sums of our money around without cross-checking and those who seemingly chose not to instil some training and awareness around what is these days a very common form of crime.

This is not, and I repeat NOT, to vilify the unfortunate staff member who was taken in by these scammers.

It IS about keeping the mebership informed and not depriving us of the opportunity to have a say in the running of our association.

The above post very much reflects my own view.

I look forward to attending Sunday’s AGM (albeit virtually) where I hope we, as members, will be given the chance to discuss matters fully.

However I am concerned that the discussion of the fraud has been scheduled to take place after the formal business of the AGM has been concluded. This seems most odd.

Perhaps the order of events on Sunday might be reconsidered?

[Paul Catanach]

Several questions and concerns raised here by members without a response.

Given that one of those concerns is the paucity of information and the fact that it seems to have been drip fed so close to the AGM would it be unreasonable to have expected a reply?

Or are we just being made to wait until tomorrow?

[ChampChump]

I shall not feel well enough informed to vote on anything if the discussion on the scam is after the AGM. As others have said, bringing this matter forward seems essential if the LAA wishes to maintain the confidence of its members.

Elsewhere, there are hotter heads than ours.

[Paul Catanach]

Well Nic, in a way we got to hear the latest report before voting. Not in the way either of us might have predicted though!

[ChampChump]

I ran out of time at the start of the second chunk (nearly two hours on-line by then, I think), so missed the post-AGM discussion which was evidently informative.

[Paul Catanach]

Happy to fill you in if you like. Probably easier by phone than PM or email, PM me your number if you'd like to.