Rugby: Club delegates' meeting a tame affair but everyone is on the same page

Meeting organiser Anthony Morley (centre) gives two of the departed directors Taine Randell (left) and Simon Tremain a say last night. Photo/Duncan Brown

If you were expecting votes of no confidence or other similar actions at last night's meeting of Hawke's Bay rugby club delegates in Hastings you would have been disappointed.

It was a tame affair.

MAC delegate Anthony Morley and his Maraenui counterpart Doug Laing called the meeting with the aim of deciding on a requisition to the union chief executive to call a special general meeting to re-establish the board and raise relevant issues in the wake of the recent resignations of board members Kevin Atkinson, Dan Druzianic, Taine Randell and Simon Tremain.

The meeting attracted 30 people who represented 14 of the Bay's clubs. They agreed the independent chairman, Sport Hawke's Bay chief executive Mark Aspden, would be the only one to make any official media statements afterwards.

"There were some really positive views. Everyone here wants to work with the union to nominate quality directors to fill the vacancies. They want to support the union with a review of the constitution and governance. Everyone was committed with the best interests of the union at heart."

Aspden said the June 1 special general meeting which was called for by representatives of six Bay clubs will be the ideal time to start the review process.

"Everyone was on the same page," he added.

The meeting heard that one of the key issues which led to the resignations of Atkinson, Druzianic, Randell and Tremain was union chairman Brendan Mahony's decision to dishonour the commitment made at the special board meeting on April 5 for "board only time" to discuss governance issues and succession planning for the chairman, directors and chief executive at the next board meeting on May 2.

In a statement prepared for the meeting the quartet said they supported the following governance principles:

1) The chair is the leader of the board but has no special powers above other board members.

2) The chair has extra responsibilities from other board members as set out below:

2.1) The chair is responsible for ensuring board reports are full and accurate and the board is receiving the right information flow so it can make good, informed decisions.

2.2) The chair is responsible for controlling and setting the agenda. The chair must ensure valuable board time is spent discussing the most important issues.

2.3) The chair is responsible for the board/CEO relationship and must manage the CEO appropriately.

2.4) The chair is responsible for board succession.

The quartet claimed Mahony failed to adequately carry out these responsibilities and was too close personally to chief executive Mike Bishop.

As a result Mahony had ignored requests for board-only time and the board had had no opportunity to talk about chief executive performance because Bishop was at all meetings.

They also claimed Mahony and Bishop didn't share information with other board members, ran the organisation on their own and reported to the board after the fact, as was the case with this year's All Black test application and the declining of an opportunity to host a Hurricanes match last year.

They were disappointed CEO performance concerns of the board were not being dealt with.

They were also disappointed with the quality of information in board packs and the amount of shoulder tapping of co-opted board members. They said nobody bothered to stand for elected positions because the perception was the positions were tied up.

"In our view an annual (and independent) board performance review supported by professional governance training needs to be adopted if the issues that led to our resignations are to be avoided in the future," they said.

Speaking after the meeting, Tremain said he was impressed with the turnout and the level of support for the union.

"All we want is what is best for the union. If we had not done what we did we would still be sitting there getting more frustrated."

Mahony didn't attend the meeting because he had a work-related meeting in Queenstown. He said yesterday morning that he was aware of the special general meeting on June 1 and he was hopeful some good candidates for the vacant positions would come out of it.