Calls for a complete spill of the entire CAMS Board gained momentum on Monday night, November 30, after more than 120 members of CAMS member clubs attended a meeting in Melbourne. The meeting had been called in response to two motions put to the Victorian Sport and Development Council in October after a number of delegates had expressed their anger at the lack of transparency from the Board and a perceived failure to actively manage the sport. Approximately 50 CAMS Victorian voting clubs were represented at the meeting.
Bruce Robertson, the President of the Benalla Auto Club, the originator of one of the October motions, outlined a long list of failures by the Board in terms of failure in its role of oversight and governance, and spoke to the formal resolution regarding seeking the spill of the Board.
The meeting was also advised of the significant bleeding of motorsport activities from CAMS – one example claiming that 40% of motor racing in NSW had been conducted outside CAMS. A further speaker, Simon Miller, who is a chartered accountant, also spoke to the meeting on the subject of finances and claimed that there had been a drastic reduction in trading surpluses since 2006 and where CAMS had actually traded at a deficit in 2008. He also said that an unconfirmed deficit of $600,000 was likely in 2009. CAMS President, Andrew Papadopolous responded by acknowledging that the Board had consciously decided to operate with a budget deficit in 2008 in the interests of the members.
Other speakers who spoke for the motions were Graeme Steinfort, President of the Austin Seven Club), Dr Norm Gowers of the Mini Club, Darryn Snooks, the Chairman of the Victorian Rally Advisory Panel, and Jim Reark, the President of the Maserati Club and chair of the Speed Events Panel.
Another point of contention was the CAMS website which was widely regarded as being far from satisfactory but it appeared that no restorative action was being taken to fix the problem. A number of other issues were discussed at length during the two and a half hour meeting, winding up with a plea by Bruce Robertson that a spill of the entire Board was necessary for CAMS to continue to enable a positive change to be made.
Andrew Papadopolous responded by advising that he had noted the concerns aired and was taking everything that had been said very seriously. He also advised that he was happy to be accountable for his and the Board’s actions in terms of what is and isn’t done to address the concerns raised.
Dr Gowers proposed that the resolutions passed at the last meeting in October be confirmed by the meeting. The resolution was then passed unanimously by all voting clubs present – there being no abstentions and no votes recorded against the motion.
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