I have been reliably informed of the following and publish it here for the benefit of Victorian newsagents in advance of the VANA meeting today.
The information put by VANA to its members about the ANF and related matters recently is incomplete. By not being open with members, Victorian newsagents remain ill-informed. Even the VANA Board is kept in the dark on some of these matters.
QNF/NANA & VANA have spoken at length about restructuring the ANF. VANA proposed the QNF model when it met with the ANF yet it put a different position to members recently.
VANA appears to be trying to please everyone in terms of the ANF. Their representative agrees with QNF and NANA and then agrees with the ANF and then flip-flops again. This flip-flopping is about politics and not newsagents.
QNF & NANA want a Secretariat model, to represent newsagents on national issues. This has a lower cost than an expensive national office. The Secretariat would focus solely on policy and national representation issues. It would not be conflicted by commercial arrangements.
The current ANF structure is expensive and ineffective. Its commercial arrangements put its interests ahead of newsagent interests – the two are not the same. Remember Bill Express? The ANF made money off every Bill Express transaction and this was more important in decision making than serving its members.
QNF & NANA would welcome VANA & ANF being involved in creating the new leaner national representation model but will go it alone, recruiting members from all states.
NANA & QNF are not-for-profit associations which aim to help newsagents. Their membership has grown considerably over the last year. They feel they can no longer watch this industry fall apart in national representation.
The new national secretariat would focus on serving newsagents on national issues and not of making a commission on newsagent sales as the ANF did with Bill Express and other enterprises.
That VANA has not called the meeting in a way which enables members to compel the Boards to act denies an opportunity for democracy and demonstrates a lack of respect for newsagents.
Can anyone that was present please give us an overview of the meeting?
Anon,
Can you tell us who you are and why you want to know>
Brett
Anon is being cynical about Mark’s post, also this Anon person is a coward with a vendetta against Mark. Because this is a open and transparent blog it is too much for Anon and its multiple personalities to handle, the people like Anon like to hide behide things, I do my best to ignore it and will continue to do so, I just hope it gets the help it needs. It cant be taken seriously because it hides however it is a good spellcheckerr.
I was unable to attend the meeting so cannot report on what happened.
What I can share is that at a QNF meeting organised for Brisbane Northside newsagents last night those attending voted unanimously in support of the secretariat model.
I am confident that newsagents across the country would support this model over the current expensive and ineffective ANF model.
Mark