Abta chairman Noel Josephides has defended plans for the association’s board to appoint future chairmen rather than have members elect them.
The Abta board will propose to a general meeting on November 25 that the chairman “be appointed by the board from among its [board] members”. The move would cut the maximum number of elected members on the 14-strong board from five to four.
Abta has had to move the meeting from the planned date of November 10 ?after some members did not receive sufficient notice.
More important, it would put ultimate control of Abta in the hands of appointees rather than elected representatives – since the chairman leads the board and is responsible for appointing and, if necessary, removing the chief executive.
The association noted: “This is a model commonly used in organisations to ensure efficient running of the board, and reflects the increasingly technical demands of the role.”
Commenting on the Travel Weekly story that broke the news, one Abta member argued: “A worrying move. It’s essential the chairperson is elected so he or she can hold the bureaucracy to account.” Another questioned why more time had not been taken to discuss the matter.
But Josephides said the board was “unanimous” in its support and said: “If I felt uncomfortable about this, I would say so. I’m aware there is a feeling that Abta is in the pocket of the large companies and that the board is insensitive to the concerns of smaller agents.
“[But] it is not. If I thought there was any risk of the secretariat being biased, I’d say we shouldn’t do this.
“The complexity of what Abta has to deal with is probably incomprehensible to most people outside the organisation. People imagine the chairman to be like the old Abta president, but it’s a very different role. The chairman runs the board.
“We have elected representatives of small agents and large, of small operators and large, and they wouldn’t dare have someone in the chair who didn’t look after the organisation as a whole.
“There are also top-notch people on the board other than those elected. I don’t believe for a moment that whether the chair is elected makes any difference, so long as we have elected members representing the grassroots.”
Chief executive Mark Tanzer insisted: “Abta members will continue to elect a number of the board positions.”
However, Alan Bowen, legal adviser to the Association of Atol Companies and a former head of legal services at Abta, described the move as “dangerous”. He said: “A lot of people are not satisfied with Abta. The danger is people become even more disillusioned.”