History of the National Tramway Museum

Sunday, December 06, 2009

An exchange of emails

I set out below a recent exchange of emails. My role as a volunteer in the Library will be decided next Saturday and I am to be excluded from the decision making process.

Please advise how and when my suspension will be brought into line with the Panel's recommendation (4).

The duration of any formal suspension, and the nature of any conditions attached to it, should be made known at the time of its imposition as the DP [disciplinary procedure] process requires.

Your e-mail of 25th October, which raised comments and points concerning the Panel’s report was discussed by the Board in private meeting. The Curator was on leave and not present at that meeting, the duration of the suspension and any conditions attached thereto will be discussed with him and decided at the next Board Meeting.

 
Thank you for confirming that the duration of my suspension will be on the agenda of the next Board meeting on Dec 12th. I would remind the Board that I have been unfairly dismissed and then suspended since March 27th, so I suggest we make a new start in January after nine months suspension.

Will I have the opportunity to make a submission or to be represented at the discussion? If not I suggest that it would be improper for Glynn Wilton to present.

Thank you for your e-mail of 1st December.
The evidence has been heard, the panel has presented its report and, at its next meeting, the Board will consider the final matter of the duration of your suspension and any conditions attached thereto.
It is a Board Meeting and not a hearing so you will not be invited to be present.
If the meeting finds it necessary then Mr. Wilton will be asked to leave the meeting.

8 comments:

  1. I hope you get to hear whether 'Mr Wilton' is asked to leave. I wouldn't hold my breath. They make it sound like a 'Kangaroo Court'

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  2. Andrew Pendleton7/12/09 16:53

    Richard,

    You are hardly doing yourself any favours by playing out these matters on a public website.

    Regardless of what you believe to be the rights and wrongs of this case (and I suspect there is more to it than meets the eye - after all, there are two sides to any story), a publically accessible website is hardly a suitable platform to play host to emails sent between yourself and the Board.

    (And before people jump in and say that it is a personal blogsite, might I remind you of this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7703129.stm)

    Regards,

    Andrew Pendleton
    (Driver and conductor at Crich)

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  3. Anonymous8/12/09 09:07

    A very valid point Andrew. I have no doubt if it was a member of staff discussing private matters and the Board on a blog, Facebook or any public place for that matter, they would be immediately dismissed.

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  4. If Richard wishes to make his private correspondence readable that is his business.
    The heavy handed mistreatment of volunteers was one of the reasons I stopped taking an active part in museum activities a number of years ago. Too many self important peaked caps and management school types strutting around.

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  5. Andrew Pendleton8/12/09 13:57

    @Freel07

    As Richard is unlikely to have received the consent of the Board to publish their emails to him, I'm afraid it is not "his business". The employees of Virgin Atlantic (see the article I quoted earlier) no doubt thought the same as you, but they were still sacked, as their actions "brought the company into disrepute."

    I would also question how aware you are of both sides of this story - Richard has published his side, but the Board have (quite rightly) kept their side confidential. I would therefore question how you are able to conclude that this is down to a "heavy handed mistreatment of volunteers", and not due to circumstances that you are not aware of. Unless you are in full possession of the facts, you are in no position to judge who is in the right - which is one of the reasons why it is completely inappropriate for Richard to be publishing all of this on his blog.

    I repeat what I said before - this is a publically accessible site, and therefore should not be playing host to confidential discussions, particularly not without MUTUAL agreement from BOTH parties.

    Regards,

    Andrew Pendleton
    (Driver and conductor at Crich)

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  6. Obviously time for me to 'butt out' as I am upsetting the apple cart. I sincerely hope Nadrew never oversteps the 'company line'.

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  7. Sorry I mis-spelt your name Andrew. My brain and fingers don't sync when I'm typing.

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  8. Christoph Heuer11/12/09 20:44

    Richard,

    personally I do not think you did anyone a favour if you published this essentially private correspondance without the consent of the other party involved.

    From the relative distance I enjoy this all seems to be a clash of a few personalities without a clear cut line between the Good and the Bad. Isn't it about time that those involved sat together in a sensible manner, with some common sense and little formality to sort things out? Do those involved, including yourself, think that it is necessary to use disciplinary procedures, panels, Board meetings, blog entries and all that just to sort out how some people can work together? Isn't that a sad use of scarce ressources?

    Regards

    Christoph

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