The PIAA hopes to fill four casual vacancies across the Board by the end of this month following several high-profile resignations. However, it is uncertain whether it will reach a decision in time.
Interim president Kieran May says the industry body has been inundated with ‘an excess of expressions of interest’ and ‘cannot say for certain’ whether it will fill the vacancies in time for the end of month deadline.
The PIAA will not class the elections as formal nominations but only as ‘casual vacancies’ until permanent appointments for the next term starting in October.
May says the Board were surprised at the level of interest from industry members and it is looking to cover all relevant states in the casual election.
“We weren’t expecting such a large amount, we have has in excess of a dozen members expressing interest,” says May.
“I can’t confirm whether we will fill the positions by the end of March, the only complication is there are so many people interested, and we want to make sure all regional areas are being represented.”
“We also need a good balance of representatives from larger corporations and those from smaller companies.”
The acting president last week cancelled the showdown SGM between the Board and Member Action Group (MAG) and says it has scrapped it completely, preventing the irate members from grilling the PIAA or taking a ‘vote of no confidence.’
“I took a decision to cancel the meeting, and Tom Eckersley and I have been communicating on various topics,” says May.
Member spokesman Tom Eckersley says the MAG ‘helped encourage nominations’ but the ‘board will ultimately decide’ during a meeting taking place on March 23.
Eckersley says the MAG will not challenge the Board’s selection even after it demanded to have veto over who was elected to fill positions, but says it is not an issue as there is only seven months until the re-election.
“There will always be an abundance of applications, but the tricky part is knowing what the association needs,” says Eckersley.
In light of the cancelled SGM, Eckersley says there are no plans for the action group to call another meeting, however he asserts industry members ‘retain the prerogative’ to arrange it.
“At this point there’s no need, we want to give the Board a chance to replace the vacancies with the right people.”
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