Max Evidence 3[26] AnnWere-JillMills 13Jul'13
Attached Message
From:
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ann were <ann_were12@yahoo.co.uk>
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To:
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Jill Mills <jlsmills@tiscali.co.uk>; David Murray
<david.murray@greenparty.org.uk>
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CC:
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wgprc@lists.greenparty.org.uk
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Subject:
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[WGPC] Complaint against a Green Party member.
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Date:
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Sat, 13 Jul 2013 18:38:08 +0100 (BST)
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Dear GPRC/David Murray,
As you are aware, on the 9th May Pippa
Bartolotti submitted a complaint against Max Wallis to David Murray, which was
eventually passed on to you. At that time Wales had not adopted an official
complaints procedure.
Last week you requested that Wales deal with it as
we now have a complaints procedure in place. Wales Green Party held a telephone
conference on 11th July to discuss this issue and to decide a way
forward.
The Council was unanimous in agreeing that
we are not in a postion to handle this dispute on a local or regional
level for the following reasons:
The newsletter about which Pippa has complained
went out to all members. We cannot, therefore, be confident of finding
people to sit on a complaints panel who have not already formed an
opinion, as per our complaints procedure. We have already requested DRC to
intervene but they have refused as they feel they do not have members with
enough experience to deal with such a difficult matter.
We decided that, in relation to this particular
issue, we would not suspend Max Wallis (the subject of the complaint) from the
Regional Party.
However, at the same meeting we discussed a
separate matter which, we felt, did warrant his suspension from the Regional
Party under clause 6 of our Complaints Procedure.
Clause 6 says:
6)You may suspend individuals from your local or
regional party or exclude them from meetings on the grounds of safety or peace
of other members or unimpeded progress of business. If they are to be suspended
from the national party for the same reasons this request has to be submitted
to GPRC via the CEO. Expulsion may only be carried out by GPRC at a meeting.
Some local parties have their own membership schemes and therefore have the
right to expel members who do not have a national membership- and if they are
not members of the national party they have no right to the national party
procedures or sanctions- this should be made clear in the local party
constitution.
This relates to Max's inappropriate use of the
membership data he was given in order to carry out his duties as Newsletter
Editor and we feel we have a duty to consider the wellbeing of the Party
To expand, Max sent out a Newsletter on the 9th
March which contained a link to the Socialist Unity website which heavily
criticised the disciplinary process GPRC had carried out concerning Anne
Greagsby and Marc France. Wales Council members expressed disapproval of this
inclusion as we felt it was not an appropriate link to include in a member's
newsletter. However, on the 4th May, Max produced another Newsletter (the
one which is the subject of Pippas complaint) which included an anonymous
letter and a link to a spoof blog.
At our meeting on the 11th May we decided to
suspend Max from his role of Newsletter Editor. The selection procedure for our
Euro list had just begun but we felt we had no option but to put that on hold
while the ERRO got advice on how to proceed. Max was informed of the decision
and asked to destroy the membership details he had been given. Note, please,
that he attended the meeting initially but chose to leave before the matter was
discussed.
Subsequently, we found that confidential emails had
been leaked to a non party member so, on 23rd May, we felt we had no choice but
to suspend him from Wales Green Party Council altogether. Again, Max was
informed and reminded to destroy the membership details.
Unfortunately, on 5th July, Max chose to send out
another Newsletter. This newsletter claimed that I had been remiss in my duties
in informing members of the WGPC meeting taking place on the 6th July, but this
was not the case as I had already done it on 11th June.
Max claims that the meeting where he was suspended
as Newsletter Editor was inquorate and that he was justified in sending out
another newsletter. We understand that he had asked another member for advice
before sending it and had been advised against it. We are confident that the
meeting was quorate and that the decision we took was justified.
We have received numerous messages from Party
members expressing disappointment in the recent events within Wales Green Party
and who are questioning their membership. For the sake of party unity we felt
we had no option but to suspend his membership.
We would be grateful if GPRC would now consider
both of these matters in order that we can move forward in peace.
I have attached the draft minutes of the telephone
conference where both these decisions were taken.
Please note that I will be away for the next
fortnight so please direct any queries you may have during that time to Chris
Simpson or Jane Cooke.
Ann Were
General Secretary,
Wales Green Party.
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