MattyB Posted November 16, 2020 Share Posted November 16, 2020 Posted by Martin Dilly 1 on 16/11/2020 18:33:57: Posted by MattyB on 16/11/2020 17:17:58: the link from their "About us" page gives a 404 error! You couldn't make it up... You did actually. The About Us link works fine for me. Anyone else got poor Matty's problem? Yes Martin - 100% of people who click the link I referred to will have the issue... Interesting. So I was initially defended by the mods, then my post with views on and information from the BMFA budget mysteriously disappears just as Martin Dilly pops up to (incorrectly) claim the Articles of Association are fully accessible. What a coincidence. Perhaps as you are here now Martin you can tell us why the BMFA feel the need to password protect the documents for the AGM when the accounts will be publicly accessible at Companies House anyway? OK the annual report from the Officers and the budget is not a statutory requirement, but it hardly seems controversial stuff - why make it harder for your members to view these materials than it needs to be? I'm sure they used to be published straight on the website in previous years, but those historical materials seem to have disappeared... Edited By MattyB on 16/11/2020 19:18:38 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Symons - BMFA Posted November 16, 2020 Share Posted November 16, 2020 Perhaps as you are here now Martin you can tell us why the BMFA feel the need to password protect the documents for the AGM when the accounts will be publicly accessible at Companies House anyway? Edited By MattyB on 16/11/2020 19:18:38 Because most of the documents are only for members. It was hardly difficult to obtain the password and be able to download the documents if you so wished. As you know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dickw Posted November 16, 2020 Share Posted November 16, 2020 Posted by MattyB on 16/11/2020 19:13:30:............................ Perhaps as you are here now Martin you can tell us why the BMFA feel the need to password protect the documents for the AGM when the accounts will be publicly accessible at Companies House anyway? OK the annual report from the Officers and the budget is not a statutory requirement, ................... Edited By MattyB on 16/11/2020 19:18:38 That link is not to the BMFA's accounts - it is the wrong SMAE. On the Companies House website you will need to search on the full name not just the initials. Dick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Former Member Posted November 17, 2020 Share Posted November 17, 2020 [This posting has been removed] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Former Member Posted November 17, 2020 Share Posted November 17, 2020 [This posting has been removed] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dickw Posted November 17, 2020 Share Posted November 17, 2020 Posted by Steve J on 17/11/2020 07:12:43: Society of Model Aircraft Engineers Correct link this time, but for the sake of accuracy:- Society of Model Aircraft Aeronautical Engineers Dick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattyB Posted November 17, 2020 Share Posted November 17, 2020 Posted by Dickw on 16/11/2020 21:53:14: That link is not to the BMFA's accounts - it is the wrong SMAE. On the Companies House website you will need to search on the full name not just the initials. Dick Good catch, apologies for posting the incorrect link. However it doesn't change the fact that the accounts do remain a matter of public record, so password protecting them seems somewhat unnecessary. Indeed Andy's statement that the password protection is "Because most of the (AGM) documents are only for members" does confuse me somewhat - a high percentage of the BMFA website is for members only (committee meeting minutes, handbooks, club support resources, insurance information etc), but none of that is password protected, so why are the AGM materials? I also don't fully agree with the statement that "...It was hardly difficult to obtain the password and be able to download the documents". Yes, if you knew where they were it was relatively easy (if a little long winded compared to clicking on a direct link), but I subscribe to the BMFA website and there was no news article pointing people to the materials there or on the Facebook page. Yes, I just searched to double check! I don't doubt the AGM notification was sent to Club Secs and posted in the BMFA News, but I don't remember seeing the accounts or the reports in the mag as a paper insert this year. That is fine - I fully support the materials going online only to save money - but if you're going to go paperless that needs to be communicated to members via all the BMFAs online mediums (website news page, FB etc) as well as in the mag. Alternatively if the BMFA wanted to go paperless but was worried about security they could simply have emailed AGM materials (or links to them) out directly to members email addresses. It's just basic comms/change management thinking - if you script the change and make it simpler to engage via whatever medium that person chooses (be that paper or online) then you should see better engagement. Edited By MattyB on 17/11/2020 10:53:20 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattyB Posted November 17, 2020 Share Posted November 17, 2020 PS - The link to the Articles of Association on the BMFA About Us page has now been fixed - many thanks Andy S. Edited By MattyB on 17/11/2020 10:50:08 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cuban8 Posted November 17, 2020 Share Posted November 17, 2020 MattyB, you make a good point about going paperless in order to better use our increasingly limited resources. I have a feeling that given the shrinking membership of BMFA, the provision of hard copy of BMFA News to all members will soon be a thing of the past. It's a considerable outlay in terms of production and distribution if you look at the figures, and many others have ditched their hard copy magazines in favour of an on-line version. I get on-line publications from various organisations and do tend to look through them as opposed to having them go straight into the recycling bin as junk mail if they were posted. Others, on-line, I read more carefully, for example, Great Ormond Street Hospital, IWM News, Blood Donors, Camping and Caravan Club and a few others. No, I don't bin my hard copy of BMFA News without reading the parts that I feel are useful to me, probably a third of its content. I actually like reading some articles from its on-line archive that have been previously published, so not having a copy posted wouldn't bother me. Anything that needs to be communicated urgently to clubs and members get emailed out anyway. Worthwhile savings must have been made already, now membership cards and docs are on-line. Edited By Cuban8 on 17/11/2020 11:23:54 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Long 1 Posted November 17, 2020 Share Posted November 17, 2020 Good catch, apologies for posting the incorrect link. However it doesn't change the fact that the accounts do remain a matter of public record, so password protecting them seems somewhat unnecessary. The 'Statutory Accounts' that must be sent to Companies House and must follow a prescribed format and must contain certain information and that is what is made available to download from the CH website and viewable by anyone. - They DO NOT have the proposed budget, nor the membership numbers, nor the reporting on financial turnout against the previous budget/years, nor the various reports by officers of the BMFA etc etc - which is what was being protected by the password. So the 'fact' you refer to is not correct as they are different - not in the financial outcome etc. but in what they contain. In addition; those AGM accounts/budgets/documents/proposals were until adopted or approved at the AGM are just proposals - even the accounts - so what you were displaying to the forum at large could well have been changed, amended or even rejected at the AGM. Which is why password protecting them was 'necessary' to prevent possibly inaccurate information being bandied about. The rest of the documents to which you refer to (handbooks, minutes etc) that are available to the public for viewing via the BMFA website, have been approved by the various committee(s) or BMFA officers for publication. Which as they are the copyright holder(s) they are entitled to do so. Hopefully that will help you become less confused? The approved accounts and other documents will no doubt be made available to the BMFA membership in due course - perhaps in the next BMFA news. Which by the way is probably 10 months in advance of the 'Statutory Accounts' appearing on the Companies House website as 'the public record'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Former Member Posted November 17, 2020 Share Posted November 17, 2020 [This posting has been removed] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.