AN INSTITUTE of Travel and Tourism meeting ended in disarray last week after nine members walked out after a dispute over the technicalities of a new set of house rules.
The ITT members were furious because they had been called to an extraordinary general meeting to give formal approval to the Institute’s new articles of association without being told how they differed from the old.
Members claimed when they raised this and established that new wording needed to be added, they were told by the chief executive, chairman and president they should ratify them anyway and the changes would be made later.
A vote among the 32 people present on whether to go ahead with the articles ended in 15 for and 12 against with some abstainers. Nine of the 12 then walked out in disgust. As the meeting needed a quorum of 30, it had to be adjourned.
Former travel agent Brian Cooke, spokesman at the meeting for the dissenters, said: “The way the articles were presented to us just wasn’t done in a professional way. We were not given copies of the old articles so we couldn’t tell what was new. And there were mistakes in the new articles.”
Members claimed chief executive Linda Gibson agreed the articles were wrong but she, the president and the chairman refused to withdraw them.
ABTApresident Steven Freudmann, one of those who left the room, said: “The thrust behind the set of changes – to move away from a regional management board to one which comprises representatives from individual sectors – was agreed almost unanimously. It was just the wording was inaccurate and we weren’t prepared to go ahead without it being changed.”
But ITT chief executive Linda Gibson said: “Members get a copy of the new rules and they could have applied for a copy of the old ones before the meeting but no-one did.”