Nominations for the Board of the industry’s peak association PIAA open tomorrow, with voting to begin at the end of September, for a two year term beginning January 1.
All eight members of the current Board will be standing for election, with most of them only having been in the slot for a matter of months following the turmoil that engulfed the PIAA at the a start of the year and the consequent Board resignations.
Any paid up member of the PIAA can be nominated. There is expected to be no shortage of nominations, with more than 20 candidates putting their hands up to fill the four casual positions that resulted from those resignations.
The Board is responsible for setting the direction of the PIAA and overseeing the execution of its decisions by the management. It meets several times a year. The PIAA has around 1,000 members, around 40 per cent of those at the turn of the century, reflecting the dramatic consolidation that has overtaken the industry.
Over the Christmas and New Year period the board lost two presidents as first Look Print’s David Leach then Ross Black resigned, the former over a series of personal attacks following disquiet with the actions of the PIAA and its then CEO Jason Allen, and the latter – after just 16 days – as his role as commercial manager of paper merchant BJ Ball was incompatible as the PIAA membership plunged into infighting. Directors Susan Heaney and Stephen Edwards also resigned.
However since Kieran May was appointed president and immediately reached out to disaffected members’ spokesperson Tom Eckersley peace has broken out, with the appointment of the four new board members; Kellie Northwood rom Two Sides, Walter Kuhn from Kuhn Corp, Matt Aitken from Blue Star and John Scott from WA’s Scott Print receiving universal acclaim. They and the remaining directors Peter Lane from Lane Print, Chris Segaert from Permanent Press and Graham Jamieson from Picton Press.
Craig Pearce from Tasmanian outfit Flying Colours left the Board earlier this month, but that was unrelated to the controversies of Christmas.
The PIAA has appointed the Australian Election Commission to run the elections, the first time it has handed it to an outside entity. New CEO Andrew Macaulay says, “We chose to do this so the process was clearly transparent. Other than preparing the electoral roll it is something the Association needs to step away from, this is a matter purely for the members so it is not something I am involved in.”
The PIAA has now delivered the election roll to the AEC which contains the names of full and financial members of the PIAA who are eligible to be nominated and to vote.
Nominations open Sept 1 and run until Set 15. Voting begins Sept 29 and runs to October 27.
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