“We are MAAC members who care about the Past, Present and Future of the Association”. It has come to our attention that, for some time now, false information about our activities and our motivation has been spread within the membership at large, primarily through postings by trolls on RCCanada. We would like to take this opportunity to set the record straight and have the members of MAAC learn the truth about us. The subjects we will cover are:-
- What’s in a Name? Why the Cricket Club?
- Why Did the Cricket Club Come Into Being? Attempts at Dialogue
- Further Attempts at Dialogue.
- Why Did the Cricket Club Continue?
- What Are We Doing Now?
- Who Are We?
- Are We the Villains?
- What does the Future Hold?
What’s in a Name? Why the Cricket Club?
First, let us explain the origin of the name that we call our informal group – The Cricket Club. This came about quite simply – once the group got to a certain size (11 members) it seemed to stabilize at that number for a while. It was suggested that we should have a ‘handle’ by which to refer to ourselves and ‘The Cricket Club’ was jocularly put forward – for no other reason than that a cricket team has 11 members. This name seemed to strike a chord so that is what we called ourselves – rather than talking about “the group” or some other such generic term. Since that time the size of the group has grown, although we have not actively strived for that. We are simply a group of like-minded MAAC members who are disturbed by some of what we see the organization’s leadership doing and who contact one another to discuss the issues and to seek ways to bring those concerns into the open. Initially we simply wanted to bring the issues that concerned us to the attention of the Zone Directors, who form the Board of Directors of MAAC – that didn’t work. The name has been brought into question on occasion and it has been suggested that it be changed. One of the things it has going for it is that it carries no ‘baggage’ – it implies no particular agenda. That is a good thing, because the Cricket Club does not have an agenda – other than a quest for truth and openness, for the membership to be fully informed about how their association is run and the decisions being made on their behalf.
Why Did the Cricket Club Come Into Being? Attempts at Dialogue.
This group came about when two old friends talked on the phone about a survey that was issued to the membership concerning a resolution to change the By-Laws and Constitution (and, consequently, the Letters Patent governing the association) to remove all mention of competition, and even to remove mention of International connections, from those documents. Those two MAAC members discovered that they both had the same serious concern about, not only the intent of the resolution itself, but also about the way that it was being presented to the membership. The ‘survey’ contained supporting material describing several perceived benefits of the proposal – and no discussion at all about possible downsides to it. Our first move was to contact our Zone Director in order to bring our concerns to his attention and to ask him to address those concerns at the Board. He refused. We then tried to discuss the matter with the president of the Board – he refused.
We soon found that there were others among our acquaintances within MAAC who were similarly concerned about what was transpiring and our group widened from two to around six. Our first course of action was to again try to open lines of communication between ourselves and the Board in an attempt to persuade them that their actions in this regard had been inappropriate. Instead of opening the anticipated civilized dialogue, our overture was met with anger, vitriolic attacks, personal smears and slurs, and a direct refusal to open dialogue in any way.
Further Attempts at Communication.
In response to this refusal to discuss any of our thoughts on the subject, the group decided to try to find other ways to get some pertinent information out to the membership prior to the anticipated vote. During this time the group continued to slowly grow. The first idea that surfaced was that perhaps an article in the MAC magazine would provide the membership with the information that they needed in order to be fully informed before they voted on the issue. Negotiations with the editor of the magazine progressed over a number of months, to the point where a mutually acceptable text was agreed upon. At that point the editor then refused to publish, on the grounds that the Executive Committee would not allow it. We should point out that this was when we discovered that the magazine editor was the facilitator of the group that had created the survey that started the controversy in the first place.
We then sought other ways in which to distribute the information to the membership. The Canada Not-for-Profit Corporations Act specifies that any member must be furnished with the register of members, with names and addresses, for either of two specific purposes. The first specified purpose is to communicate on any matter that is to be brought before the membership for a vote. The second is for the purpose of contacting members with a view to the calling of a special membership meeting. There is a further limitation on this communication – it can only be once annually, plus once in preparation for the AGM. The Board initially reacted to this legitimate request by refusing to provide the list at all. Once the requirements of the law were spelled out to them – and verified by MAAC’s legal counsel – the list was provided. The list, however, had been stripped of all email addresses even though the law specifically calls for the register to contain email addresses, where these have been provided by the members, and the law also specifies that the register must be made available – not some edited part of it. It should also be remembered that the Board, when distributing its views on why the resolution should be accepted, had sent this out to the membership via email. This was a clear and flagrant attempt at preventing a view, different from the Board’s, being distributed to the membership before they cast their votes – in contravention of the clear intent of the provisions in the legislation. An estimate of the cost of sending a mass mailing to ~10,000 members by Canada Post would be around $25,000 – well beyond the means of a small group of friends.
Dismayed, but undeterred by this, the group struggled to find another way to get its message out to the membership. Eventually, a number of zone directors agreed to use their email and/or other electronic capabilities to distribute the article (the one that would have appeared in the MAC magazine) within their zones. Some Committee Chairmen also agreed to distribute it to the members that they were aware of, as did some club presidents. The article then also spread by ‘word of mouth’ so to speak (if the internet can be described that way). Although the article didn’t reach the whole membership by any means, the result was a groundswell of opinion against the resolution, and the resolution was subsequently defeated at the AGM. Despite the Board’s determined efforts to prevent the membership from being made aware of opposing views, the information did get to enough of the members and their voices were heard – which is the way that a recreational association should operate, but without the need for such a desperate struggle to express alternative views. We should note here that the Board was not united on this issue; there were some who objected to the way in which the survey was presented, including the Board’s refusal to share downsides with the membership.
Why Did the Cricket Club Continue?
At this point the Cricket Club was hopeful that this outcome would have illustrated the wisdom of co-operation and consultation. Unfortunately, that was not at all what happened. Rather than recognize that a lesson had been learned, a campaign of division erupted. Anyone who could be identified as having been even peripherally involved in the campaign to bring a view opposing that of a Board majority to the attention of the membership, was targeted. Directors were vilified, belittled, and threatened. Violence had previously been threatened against a member of MAAC who had the temerity to try to express his views in an email to the Board president.
It has never been the purpose of the Cricket Club to create division within MAAC. We started out as a group of friends and acquaintances who saw something undesirable going on at the top of the association that we love and wanted to do our best to counter it. We had initially assumed that, once that issue was resolved, we would return to the level of somnolence that we had enjoyed before we woke up to what was happening. The reality, however, was something different. The more we looked, the more things appeared to be moving in directions that were not, in our opinion, in MAAC’s best interests, and the more secrecy there was surrounding the activities of the Board. Our small group gradually grew, as more people became concerned about MAAC’s future and began to hear about our existence. We have never felt that our opinions must be accepted as the correct ones. We did, and still do, feel that our – and everyone else’s – opinions should be heard and treated with respect.
What Are We Doing Now?
We continue to try to discuss solutions to MAAC’s problems through dialogue and co-operation – and we continue to be met with obstruction, vilification, persecution, and lies. These are tactics that we have never used, and we never will. We want the best for MAAC. We want MAAC to be run honestly and openly, in the best interests of its members, according to the law, and to its own rules, policies, and procedures. We are a group of model airplane enthusiasts who want nothing more than to fly our models in peace and safety. We make no claim to be a repository for all knowledge and wisdom, but we do have some, and that could be of enormous help to the Board in its functions.
Who Are We?
Although we are a relatively small group, we include previous and present directors of MAAC, a previous MAAC president and chairman of the Constitution Committee, previous and present Committee chairmen, members who have over fifty years of model flying experience, members who have just one or two decades of experience, previous members of Canada’s various International teams, previous Canadian team managers, and a previous USA National Champion. In short, we are a varied group of fliers, with interests across the whole spectrum of model flying, some competitive fliers and some not, whose single common denominator is that we are all worried about the direction that MAAC has been taking in recent years. We have all also found that we grow more concerned the more we find out about what is really going on at the Board level. That, in itself, is a very worrying factor. If we had found that there was one thing that went awry, and that got corrected and the ship was then back on an even keel, we would probably have all gone back to sleep again. That is not what transpired, however.
Are We the Villains?
We are frequently accused of being a negative influence on MAAC – even that we are trying to destroy it. There is a telling difference between the Cricket Club and those who object to our existence and try to discredit us. The Cricket Club consistently uses reason, facts and rational argument to present our points. Our firm determination is to ensure that the members of this association – the only people who actually matter at all – are fully informed about the matters that they are asked to support. The matters that will determine whether they can enjoy their activity or not. Those who feel threatened by us do not use argument, facts, or reason to support their position. Instead, they use personal attacks, threats, lies, and obfuscation. Whenever we have uncovered a questionable act on the part of MAAC’s leadership the response has been quite predictable. It is never “let’s talk”, it is never “that’s a good point, we’ll take It under consideration” it is invariably “How did they find out about that! We must find out who leaked what we are doing and get rid of them!” Never for a moment is thought given to the fact that perhaps no-one ‘leaked’ the information. Never is there thought about the fact that ‘leaking’ something to the membership is a concept that shouldn’t even be in anyone’s vocabulary – the membership has a right to know! Never is there thought for the fact that it is more important to find the best course of action than to worry about who might have prevented the Board from taking what might be the wrong one – and punishing them for it. Secrecy will destroy MAAC, – not the open discussion of ideas. The megalomania of people believing that they have all wisdom will destroy MAAC – not the search for truth and knowledge wherever it may be found. A Board that is insular and operates on hearsay, rather than insisting on documentation to support its decisions, will destroy MAAC – not openness and a reliance upon evidence. We are not the enemy of MAAC – we seek to ensure that it survives for another 70+ years. We have no wish to dictate anything to MAAC, or its Board of Directors, but when we, as bona fide members of this association, see things occurring that concern us, we have a right to express those concerns and not to suffer for it.
What Does the Future Hold?
Lastly, we would like to assure you that we are not going away. We will continue to struggle for the rule of rational, reasonable, action in the leadership of this association that we love. We beg you to look at where the actions of this Board and its leadership have brought our beloved MAAC to. There are those among you who want to convince you that it is some rogue members of MAAC who have caused the greatest crisis that MAAC has ever faced. That is simply not the truth. No amount of persecution of MAAC members is going to cure this situation. No litany of misinformation and lies is going to get NavCan and Transport Canada to have faith in MAAC again. This crisis has been brought on by the actions of some of the leaders among you, and also by the deliberate withholding of information from you, and the distortion of information that you have been fed. Unless this Board faces up to the reality of what it has done (or has been done in its name) there will be no way to repair the situation. Even with a new openness and honesty it is our fear that it will take a very great deal to convince the government agencies who have responsibility for public aviation safety that MAAC is a sound partner that they can rely upon again. You might wonder why we have not all put our names to this document – in the spirit of openness! None of us is ashamed to be a part of this informal group. However, we have all seen the vicious way in which anyone who questions the Board’s actions is treated. We have no wish to subject ourselves to that kind of behaviour. Some of us are known to be members of the group, some may not be. There are probably many more who sympathize but are not members. As we pointed out earlier, we have not sought members, they have sought us out. We remain an informal, like-minded, group who discuss the affairs of our association between ourselves. We are not a rival to the Board, we are not a rival to MAAC, we want to assist MAAC towards a better future. Please – stop the bullying, stop the finger-pointing, stop the closed-mindedness, stop a small faction from destroying this association – and we emphatically do not mean the Cricket Club. From what we hear now, it might be too late for that, perhaps MAAC has already destroyed itself; we sincerely hope not – but it will be a long road back for MAAC, if it can recover at all.