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David Z - 1027224

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Posts posted by David Z - 1027224

  1. Comments are sought from VATPAC members on the VATPAC Constitution which is to be proposed to the Board for adoption. 

    This document has been produced as a result of consultations in September-October this year with the Board, staff members and more generally at the recent Town Hall meeting.

    If you wish to make a submission, you may do so in writing to director at vatpac dot org. Submissions must be submitted by Tuesday 11 December 2018 at 23:59 AEDT.

    VATPAC Constitution.pdf

  2. One thing I'll point out about Milk Run Monday. There has been criticism of the ML/SY city pair for as long as I've been here, but it remains extraordinarily popular. The introduction of MRM was aimed at capitalising on this popularity rather than fighting it.

    Whenever we run any event, we should ask ourselves, "who is our target audience". The reality is that if you propose an event other than the ML/SY city pair, your target audience is no longer the same one that MRM is aimed at.

    Indeed when we make any change in policy generally, we have to consider the impacts of those decisions. In an organisation of some 850 active members, the reality is that the desires of the few don't necessarily match those of the many. Certainly the many staff hold minority views (myself included) and we must be conscious of this when making decisions for the whole community.

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  3. Keep in mind that we actually have access to the actual procedures used by Bankstown/Camden. However, we have in fact made a concious decision to modify some aspects, such as the number of tower controllers. It is necessary for us to do so to ensure that our procedures are suitable for our environment.

  4. I'm pleased to advise that Greg Barber has agreed to fill in as Acting Director Operations until the vacancy is filled next month. Peter Story will also fill in as AIS Manager.

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  5. I would like to take this time to thank Richard Quigley for his time as acting operations director. He has provided stability to the portfolio and ensured that it is well staffed by experienced members for a future permanent operations director.

    Richard will now be departing the team for personal reasons and I will announce the interim staffing arrangements later in the week.

    Thanks again Richard for your hard work and dedication and certainly for the time I have been in my role, I am grateful to have had your counsel.

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    • Thanks 5
  6. A couple of responses to Brett's comments:

    1. While the position descriptions for directors is outside of the scope of this discussion, they will be reviewed to align with the Governance Policy. The delineation of portfolios is to remain part of the division director's duties.

    2. It is already the practice that some of these items are exercised by the board. The intent here is to formalise the practice of the board ratifying these matters and restrict the division director from making "captain's calls" (except of course in extraordinary circumstances).

    3. The assumption of the division director position during their absence is covered at item 3.4.1 of the paper. In the Governance Policy, the division director will be required to establish an order of precedence for the assumption and this will be notified to the board and RD.

    5. The Governance Policy will make it clear that a policy cannot be enacted without a vote by the board.

    6. This paragraph is provided for historical context.

    7. Comment on number of non-executives noted. Not sure about having a non-executive deputise. By their very nature, non-executives are not involved in the day-to-day running of the division. It seems a more natural progression that a portfolio director take the division director position.

    8/9. There is precedent for an outgoing director to sit on the appointments committee. There is also precedent for portfolio staff to sit on the committee. My view is that this should remain at the discretion of the board.

    12. Correct--portfolio directors are responsible for selecting their staff. 

  7. Yes, the history in this document is based partly on the stuff on the website. We might look at getting some of this stuff put together better--it's pretty incredible how long this organisation has stood and it is easy to forget how we got to where we are today. To our decision makers, our history shouldn't just be novelty, it should be a reflection of our identity as an organisation and of our lessons learnt (good and bad).

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  8. 3.1 Yep never got around to fixing the pluralisation. This organisation has always "provided" a platform by aligning itself with a platform provider, either SATCO in the early days or VATSIM today. Our history differs from most other divisions in this respect.

    3.2 Loss of confidence in the division director by the remainder of the board should be an exceptional circumstance for the regional director to resolve. It should not be the case that a division director sacks his board while the ship is sinking. That being said, there should be a formalised process for this, the major political parties in this country have learnt as much.

    Appointment of board positions does not change. Appointment committee to recommend and board to ratify.

    3.2.2 Order of precedence for assuming division director does not change. It is better for a portfolio director to take over as they are more across the issues and probably have more skin in the game than a non exec, esp given the limited tenure of non execs.

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  9. VATPAC this year passed its 20th anniversary. We probably should have celebrated this, but we have been busy elsewhere :)

    Over those 20 years, we have learnt about what works and what doesn't. Those learnings don't always get passed down to the next generation. 

    It is my intention to put before the Board a "Governance Policy" which will serve as the framework for how the Board operates in the future. The policy will be a codification of the practices and conventions that have been put in place over the past 20 years, things that are proven to work. The policy will also introduce a number of other measures to improve our consultation and transparency with the public. My ambitious target is that this will serve us over the next decade, although I fully expect that future boards will make necessary amendments as times change and we learn further lessons.

    The Board discussed the first edition of a discussion paper on this topic over the weekend. I have now updated it to reflect some of the agreement and discussions that we had.

    This is attached and I invite the staff to provide their views on these important matters. If you plan on commenting, please do so by the weekend as I plan on releasing the final edition of the paper to the public on Sunday night.

    VATPAC Governance Discussion Paper - Staff.docx

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  10. VATPAC Members are invited to our Town Hall meeting to be held on Sunday 14 October 2018 at 8pm AEDT (0900 UTC).

    Business:

    1. Reports from the Board
    2. Governance Discussion Paper
    3. Questions and Answers

    If you would like to submit a question on notice to be answered at the Town Hall meeting, please submit to director at vatpac.org. Otherwise, you may ask questions without notice at the meeting.

    We will be releasing our Governance Discussion Paper at the next weekend and we will be inviting a discussion and comments on the issues raised in the paper.

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