No Warning Given

Helen Aikman however voiced her disapproval at the way in which the whole situation was being handled, saying that it was neither "the time or the place" to discuss it. "It should have come up at National Exec," she said. "We came along here to elect one member to the board and when the candidates were out of the page 9 room we were informed that moves were afoot to roll one of the present members."

Tony Stuart from Canterbury agreed that the matter should have been raised at National Executive, adding that "there's something a bit smelly about the whole thing". He said later though that in his experience Nigel did not seem to have been doing his job well enough.

Simon Wilson made a plea for some decency in the matter and said that Nigel should be given time to think about the allegations being made about him and be allowed to resign if he wanted to, "rather than informing him in the morning and then by barely 12 o'clock be passing motions of no confidence in him".

Nigel was called back into the meeting to give a chance to defend himself. He said that the reason he had taken little part in discussions on accounting matters was because of a lack of experience. He had tried to visit the various campuses, one of his responsibilities as a student representative on the board, and had been to several.

Paul Gourlie of Otago asked him if he considered the other members of the board were trying to push him out, but Nigel replied that he did not think the issue was a personality one. He did think he had not been involved in the running of the organisation as much as the other board members, but he said this was more of a "communication problem" than ostracism. (Is there a difference?).

After some further questioning Nigel again left the meeting and a motion calling for his removal from the board of STB was carried. Instead of the matter being dealt with in a manner demanded by its seriousness if nothing else, expediency had ruled. You can judge whether or not it was ok.

No doubt in recognition of this, Margaret Underwood said that Victoria would like to express its concern at the way the situation was handled, especially the lack of notice given.

After that, the elections were something of an anti-climax. Graham Bowers was elected for a three year term to replace John Judge and Phil Chronichan was elected for a one year term replacing Nigel.

Mark Wilson.