Knitters in knots

Last Saturday saw us (as the erstwhile self-styled magic president would say) at the AGM of the NSW Knitters Guild. Now you wouldn't think that something as genteel as knitting would generate such heated debate and engender such deeply felt emotions. I guess that when you get a group of people together for whatever purpose, then divudes can open and the original common purpose get forgotten.

We were told not to talk about the AGM so I can't tell you about the grossly improper behaviours that occurred. Nor can I comment on the travesty of the "election" of the office bearers. I have since heard that there were even more improprieties during the nomination process than we understood. It seems that the President herself opened the nomination papers and, upon seeing who had nomonated for what position, then persuaded other people to also nominate for those positions. The Returning Officer was not allowed to fulfil her role of impartially overseeing the process and the Executive Committee later voted on the validity of the nominations despite the fact that there was a clear conflict of interest.

At the end of this debacle, we have a new committee and a new president who is committed to ensuring fair, equitable and accountable governance. It is a shame that they weren't permitted to go through the proper election process as I know that they would have got massive support from the ordinary members. The people who, after all, supposed to be what the Guild is all about.