Controversy

WHY WE REMOVED PAT DONOVAN AS ICS PRESIDENT

Over the past few weeks, emails have been flying:

-charges of censorship

-ICS in crisis

-divided Board of Directors

Most recently, the ICS president has been removed from office.

You may have been wondering “What is going on?”

Most of the communications you have been receiving have come from a minority of the ICS Board of Directors.  Some of you are perhaps wondering why the rest of the directors have been mostly silent. For those members,

We begin by giving you the background on why Pat Donovan was removed as ICS president.

Article III, Section C. 5 of our bylaws states “The Board may remove any ICS Officer, for cause and by a recorded 60% majority vote, if the Board deems it best for the well being of ICS.”  Of the 16 voting Board members, 10 supported his removal.

 

Here are some of the issues (with rule reference) we took action against.

 

Routinely & intentionally ignored several ICS Bylaws (BL) and Standing Rules (SR)

– Support of CPTP in violation of the Standing Rule prohibiting ICS from endorsing any company’s products. (SR 30-3.1)

– Asked Board to pay a $1,500 retainer to attorney – he did not consult the BOD about the attorney and wouldn’t explain why it was necessary (SR 12-2.3)

– Asked Board to pay a $600 bill for a 3 hr. consultation with a parliamentarian, again, without prior discussion with the Board (SR 12-2.3)

– Failed to abide by (BL) Article III Section 2, A ….. The President shall … see that all orders and resolutions of the Board are carried into effect.

 

Caused disruption and conflict with his autocratic leadership style

– Repeatedly went around the Board rather than attempt to work with them

– Stopped calling the regular monthly meetings we had been having for years, leading to delays in publishing of meeting minutes and treasurer’s reports and severely inhibiting our ability to work on important issues.

 

Pat’s intentional violation of several Bylaws and Standing Rules and his unwillingness to work with the Board and abide by the Board’s decisions were reasons enough for the motion to remove him as ICS President.

Another core issue that divided this Board was centered around how much (if any) does ICS support and promote the activities of CPTP and their training program.

Pat adamantly supported the idea that CPTP was equal to the CFF program and should be equally supported.

The majority of the Board felt that such support not only violates our rules, but was based on unfounded and personal animosity directed towards CFF and designed to estrange the long-standing (40+ years!) mutual support relationship that has existed between ICS and CFF.

The debate severely inhibited the productivity of the Board and strained the relationship between Pat and the Board to the point where he stopped calling our regular monthly meetings and took active measures to work around the Board and its rules in order to pursue his agenda.

After several attempts to work out compromise solutions, the last straw was when Pat, after agreeing to not publish any reference to CPTP OR CFF training until a yet-to-be-formed committee had made its recommendations – broke that promise in his very next newsletter. It was clear to us that he would continue to act in defiance of the Board.

Rightly or wrongly, the Board has, until now, been trying to work this out without peppering the membership with a barrage of unwelcome email traffic. However, since Pat and others decided to take it public via direct email and social media, we felt compelled to respond to some of the misrepresentations and uninformed allegations being posted.

While Pat and others have a well-deserved following with respect to their technical expertise and dedication to ICS, we ALSO have dedicated many hours of time towards the betterment of this Society and we urge you to question the likelihood that, as some are suggesting, 10 out of the 16 voting Board members are being swayed by one or two renegade Board members who wish to destroy ICS.

It is also untrue that this is a plot with CFF trying to “take over” ICS. CFF has no need or desire to control ICS in any way. Their mission of educating and training Comanche pilots remains the same whether or not they have the support of ICS.

The difference here is that CFF has and will support ICS members with subsidized training and fly-in support. CPTP is a for-profit venture which has not contributed a dime to ICS members in the five years they have been in business. We will continue to publish their paid ads in the Flyer (like any other vendor), but, given the business models, history and background of these two organizations, we do not feel obligated to provide equivalent support to CPTP.

We trust that any of you still reading this will now have the basic issues as presented by BOTH sides.

If you have further questions, please contact your Tribe Chief or Tribe Rep and/or any the undersigned and we will be happy to present any information possible to help put this matter to rest and get back to the business of serving our members.

Sincerely,

ICS Board members

OFFICERS

Bob Williams – ICS President – comanchegus@gmail.com

Av Shiloh – ICS Past-President – avshiloh@verizon.net

LaVerne Stroh – ICS Secretary – clstroh@yahoo.com

Bob Berry – ICS Treasurer – 300sl@lek.net

DIRECTORS

Alan Breen – Australasia Tribe Chief – alan_breen@xtra.co.nz

Kate Burrows – European Tribe Chief – kateburrows340@gmail.com

Bill Case – NW Tribe Rep – billcase01@msn.com

Mike Foster – CFF President – ditchdigger68@gmail.com

William Hughes – West. Canada Tribe Chief – william.richard.hughes@gmail.com

Bryan McDougall – East. Canada Tribe Chief – fly4fun@soonet.ca

Scott Myers – SW Tribe Rep – n9382p@gmail.com