FINALE

It took me much thinking before deciding to heed the advice of Mr. Bumble and close this chapter. I am not impressed by the overall composition of the present committee. The 2014 AGM was a farce, with much obfuscation and a phenomenon I have never seen in my decade as member of ASPA (Vic), which is the huge number of solicited proxy votes. No proxy votes were used in any previous AGM that I know of. If a member is that concerned about the affairs of the Association, why not attend meetings and participate in activities? Names of people voting by proxy were alien to most regular members, who continually supported their Association and are unluckily decreasing in numbers.

Courts are for much more serious matters. Unbecoming conduct of a committee might be important to members of an association. It is not important to the public. Matter of fact, Scrabble and scrabble players have been publicly ridiculed by comments of newspaper readers. Court time is much more valuable to be wasted on a dispute between two immature members of a committee and an aggrieved member. The use of the word “immature” in this context is not related to age. Otherwise, I would have used the word “overripe”.

An appeal against the relatively trivial cost, of what was legally considered an unnecessary hearing, would be deemed a waste of court time. The technicality was that you cannot challenge an accusation of cheating because cheating was never proven. An appeal would incur high cost to both sides. In the final analysis, both contestants would finish losing financially. So I decided not to appeal. Some members of ASPA (Vic), including a small number of Committee members, might appreciate this move and be more vigilant when selecting committee members in the future. Scrabble deserves better.

People have been bewildered by the magistrate’s decision. Some thought I lost the case. This is not true.  The court orders as delivered verbatim in upper case lettering have been forwarded to Richard Birch for publication of the relevant part in ATB.

It is absolutely necessary that committee reform takes place in the near future. Steps in this regard will take place after we get the National Championship out of the way in April 2015. Reform cannot wait for the next AGM in late November.