The Australian Newsagents’ Federation today did a u-turn in advising newsagents to suspend direct debit authorities for the Bill Express equipment. They also said that their goal is the dissolution of the equipment rental agreements and that the present ANF Board had been placed in a complicated situation.
Today’s communication matches what I put to the Chairman and Deputy Chairman when I met with them, at their request, at the VANA offices on Tuesday this week. I explained the flaw in their approach to then of trying to negotiate a deal with Mobius on a discount on the equipment rental agreement. I was pleased to see the ANF u-turn. However, I suspect that my advice to them on Tuesday was not the first time this advice had been given to them.
It is important the ANF now disclose what they are doing to seek the dissolution of the Bill Express equipment agreements given that up to Tuesday, nothing was being done or had been done on this. Until then, their focus had been on negotiating a discount on the amount newsagents owe.
The ANF today also said:
We are also deeply concerned that there is third party commentary and we see this as serving no ones interests. This continues to fragment our industry.
Given the performance of the ANF, third party commentary such as my posts here and the comments of others serves newsagents well. If newsagents had relied only on the ANF then many would have paid one or two months of direct debit payments and the ANF probably would not have changed its position as announced today. Sure I am critical of the ANF from time to time. They could take this as an indication that I think the organisation has an opportunity to be relevant.
Debate is healthy. It does not fragment the newsagency industry.
Thank you for your efforts Mark, they are appreciated by us in the land of mushrooms
I only see your comments in this Blog as helping the cause. If no one said anything, then ANF would not have done anything. Don’t back off Mark, for as soon as you do, all these so called saviours of our industry will move on to the next issue, and try to forget the BXP issue. Many of us still have a long time before our contracts are over. This is still one of the most devastating things to happen in our industry, and the out come will either bond, or tear apart out national and state bodies. At the moment we don’t need cheap pens or copy paper, we need this BXP issue to end, before we can move on. People like you Mark, are the only hope, us smaller agents have.
I’ve never been a member of the ANF and after watching their actions over the past few months will not even consider being a member.
The fact that they had the time to notice a “third party commentary” shows me and everyone else that they aren’t doing their jobs.
I don’t want them bargaining with Mobius stc on behalf of me either. I don’t need them to stuff it up for me.
We all know that there is a real mess with the Bill Express / Mobius deals and that the ANF have there own real problems but we cant abondon ship now even though we are all very dissillisioned with the whole thing.
The ANF will move forward and this has been shown by the latest advice on the Mobius contracts, so lets give the ANF a real chance.
They are in the process of rebuilding so lets get behind them and give them our support at a time they need it most.
Jonothan,
The ANF seem to always be “in the process of rebuilding”.
Jonathan,
ANF has not earned my trust yet at this point in time.
The fact that they quoted on there being a third party commentary serving no one’s interest still tells me they are not honest and not really willing to help with whatever is necessary in the newsagents’ interest.
I am sure that it is bcos of third party commentaries that they sought to hopefully secure their future memberships by doing a U-turn on the direct debit situation.
Otherwise more members will resign in disgust.
Jonathan, The ANF has rejected the wishes of newsagents on the BXP issue for more than six months. It is only now after many newsagents resigned that they realised they were wrong. Maybe the organisation needs to be broken before the rebuilding can commence.
mark
Common sense prevails.
I have not been a fan of the approach by the ANF; and the critisism directed towards them has been warranted by its members, saying that, credit needs to be given for the change. At least they are open to suggestion and discussion surrounding the Bill Express situation. Whilst i cannot speak for the whole board of The ANF, the Deputy Chair has my full support. He is a consumate professional and does have newsagents at heart.
I’d sooner dip my head in a vat of boiling pus, than give the anf another go; particularly while any of the bxp pushers are still employed by the anf.
Member resignations has only changed their position nothing else. The full ANF Board has a lot to answer for on the BXP issue.
It took mark and others here to make the anf do the u-turn Vaughan, don’t make the anf board heroes. They have a lot to answer for. No wonder so many newsagents resigned last month.
From what I hear every second call is a resignation.
Geoff,
Don’t try and read more into my post than what is written. I can’t see anywhere that i have made the ANF heroes, far from it, and if you knew me you would think twice before making such a stupid statement. The ANF does have a lot to answer for; so does its board, current and past. However showing support for one person hardly makes anyone a hero? Since when does one person control a board.
I stand by my support for the Deputy Chairman as do i for the information Mark posts here daily.
Vaughan Lawrence
Beechworth Newsagency
Seymour Newsagency.
Fair enough Vaughan. I have been told that 137 newsagents have resigned from the anf in the last ten days. The board is responsible for causing this. They made Don McAskill the fall guy and they will blame him for the member resignations. He did what they told him to do about Bill Express.
Geoff;
If those numbers are correct, the ANF are in more trouble than even i thought.
I wonder how many of those members are going to effect VANA as a result of the dual membership?
I think the only way the ANF are going to salvage anything from this is to dissolve the board. Better yet, dissolve the boards of all Associations on a specific date and start fresh……….
Then again haven’t we been down this road before?
Vaughan the numbers are correct, worse even with more yesterday and today. The director I spoke to thinks McAskill being sacked as he was all they had to do to point the finger. Newsagents are smarter than that. At this rate they have lost more than 200 members by next week.
i will never be an ANF member,not only Iam upset with BXP saga, now i am also upset with their eVana which thried to compete with our GNS. we need a strong GNS , even though we all are not 100% happy with GNS products, but GNS is very important to Newsagents. ( iam not even a share holder of GNS)
Spilling all Boards would be a good start but then you would need to make some major structural changes to constitutions, incorporation of independent directors and governance standards. Sometimes you have to go through a bit of pain to come out the other end better for it. A clean slate is needed.
As a famous man once said,
(While not exactly to the letter)
“Boards are like nappies……
they need to be changed regularly and for the same reason.”
It seems to me that we have a once in a lifetime opportunity here. The options available as I see it ;
a. rebuild the ANF,
b. create our own management team,
c. annoint a state body to represent us all,
d. just go along as we are.
Perhaps its time for a national plebiscite on this issue. I think its important that we take this opportunity and make it right for the next decade or two of operations.
I wonder what newsagents will be told about the audit being done at the anf this week and whether the board will make the recently sacked ceo the fall guy on this as well. My information is that not even all the board members know the facts. They didn’t all know about the spending habits of the ceo they sacked in january. They didn’t know because they were not doing their jobs as directors. A bit like the directors of the day didn’t do their jobs about Bill Express.
A national plebiscite is an excellent idea. For once let newsagents decide their future rather than the politics of boards.
The auditors would be due to go into the ANF in preparation for end of year reporting for the AGM.
I hear that the ceo sacked in january left the ANF in a financial mess. Makes you wonder what the board has actually been doing? Obviously not doing their job.
From the inside I can tell you the ANF is in a mess. No one knows what is happening. Members are not renewing. Money is being spent on things some of us do not approve. At least two supplier relationships are in tatters.
There are two groups of ANF employees, those who support Don the sacked CEO, and those who went on strike demanding he be sacked. Many refused to turn up to work Monday until the board had sacked Don. Some of those who refused to turn up were involved in claims about him which the Board used as the excuse to sack him.
The question is who is running the ANF? The employees who went on strike or the chairman who still doesn’t understand who things work.
I was not the employee who leaked that Don was being sacked four days before he was actually sacked. The Directors know who that person is but are too scared to act.
Newsagents have every right to ask questions.
Inside,
If you are right, the ANF does sound like it is in a mess. How can we know that what you say is true? Mark
The ANF office will be half the current size in the next two weeks. A mixture of sackings and resignations. Then you will see that what I have said is true. And member resignations continue.
Inside, Newsagents who resign the ANF ought to join a state association. This way they can be represented on issues that matter. Mark
Except if you are a member of VANA, then you are still supporting the ANF. You cannot be a member of just VANA
I thought you could be a member of VANA but not the ANF? Isn’t it entirely up to the newsagent to decide if they want to pay the extra $125 bucks or so to be a member of the ANF?
I wonder why we need ANF after all.
There will be no ANF to need if you wait a few weeks.
Inside, what are the other sackings that have occurred at the ANF?
If we as newsagents agreed together to do things and left egos out of it maybe things would work
Your blogs refer to the drop in membership of the ANF!
Are you aware of the current membership of each State? What percentage did not renew in each State? How will the ANF survive financially?