Nine years after it was first proposed by the ANF, the QNF has today announced the calling of a Special General Meeting to vote on the merging of the QNF with the ANF, as a division of the national association.
This is good move, one Victoria and NSW/ACT should follow. Newsagents spend too much money on disconnected and conflicted representation.
Why didn’t this happen nine years ago? Egos got in the way.
Bloody Good thing now how about the other state bodies. I do not need a state and a federal body.
Thank goodness I have lived long enough to see this day (I’ll really believe it when
the papers are signed, sealed and delivered).
QNF – congratulations – I am only sorry it
has taken so long for this to happen.
SA has been a branch of the ANF for a lot
of years now and no newsagent has been hurt by us being part of the national scene
rather than a toothless local association.
Come on NSW and Victoria – forget your
own selfcentred reasons for staying as a
state association and do the right thing for
ALL newsagents.
I have no problem with a onc voice scenario but at presnt the structure and resources would need an overhaul to make it a well drilled and working environment. Through experience the day to day knowledge of issues would need to be addressed signficiantly if a one body scenario existed; currently a Stste strength and a NAtional weakness. There are certain defficiencies all round – State and National – and there is no good jumping into the one scenario to satisfy a few unless it is implemented properly
“Egos got in the way”. Pot…kettle…black.
‘Bob’ I don’t know who you are so I can’t verify how you voted at the time. I know how I voted, what I proposed and what I said publicly. What was agreed yesterday sounds very much like what I supported in mid 2004.
The QNF have to do it now because they are broke and no other reason.
It doesn’t necassarily matter whether it’s state or national or both. What does matter is how clearly defined their objectives are and how well they execute the work to be done to achieve the objectives.
Current situation seems to be an imbroglio of trying to do too many things across a very broad front.
The executive management has a capabilty set which is almost irrelevant to many of the issues. Membership needs to understand what the purpose of the association is and support the objectives acccordingly.
A series of 3 or 5 year plans should be agreed focussing on the top 3 to 5 issues for each planning period.
The executive should be staffed with a capability that is relevant to the objectives. We don’t need timeservers on the executive team. We need to engage specific professional skills that can be leveraged to achieve results which are beneficial to members.
Kmc – you raise some valid point concerning a Business Plan and the Executive Team. It is interesting to see the AGM Elections every year tend to struggle for nominations for the Executive so until Newsagents opt in to be earnest in their endeavours, and as you say not to be timeservers, the status quo will remain. This applies to both State and National. Being a sideline critic is very easy but being prepared to put your hand up, and then put in to the best of your ability is all that can be asked.
Harold, the ANF cannot afford to have newsagent directors only on its board.
It needs a professional lobbyist, a lawyer,
an accountant and perhaps a couple of
newsagents to perform par excellence.
We have had good people on the ANF
board but they have not been able to achieve at the level required for their position so we must change the requisites
accordingly.
This is a critical time for newsagents and
their future is far from assured. Top notch performance from a national body
is absolutely essential to our viability in the
future.
Now is not the time for a couple of newsagents to say “oh well, I guess I could stand for the board”. We need
professionals at the helm not just “good people” from within our industry.
Mark Fletcher would be the newsagent that
I would like to see on the ANF board because he has the most insight and the most knowledge of both newsagencies and
publishing companies/distribution companies.
I’ve been around a long time and there is
absolutely NO ONE ELSE WITH HIS KNOWLEDGE. (if there is please stand up
and tell us who you are and what you are
capable of doing for us and we will join the
ANF immediately)
Harold I am not referring to the elected representatives or independent board members. My comments are directed towards the salaried employees who run the associations, They do not have a track record of effectiveness. This could be changed if they were held to be more accountable to specific objectives, as set by the board.
Hope the vote goes well and the merger is smooth otherwise you may end up with the fun situation we have in the West. As best I can work out the ANF has declared WANA unfinancial and set up shop in WA, WANA insists it is financial and is going it alone without ANF support. So you can join the ANF and back them against WANA or join WANA and back them against the ANF. I was a member of WANA but until they sort their differences out and get back to their Knitting I’m really not interested.