TOPIC:

Sure it is delicious:)

But a stew is one thing I don't need.

Have not been stewing, have very happily let go of the old place. Nothing to gain. Nothing to prove. And yet I know and love The Bell and would rather not see it harmed or changed into something that it is not.

It has just come to my notice that the thing that led me to break silence - the final straw if you like - has now been made public, so I can mention it here.

At the last Board meeting, two people who are closely involved with The Bell, who love it as I do, both Members, one of whom works for the place and is in my view pivotal to its success, attended the meeting in order to catalogue a list of their grave concerns. They were told that they had been listened to, and invited to "trust"... and were both offered co-opted places on The Board to help change things from the inside. Immediately after their departure from the meeting a vote was rushed through on whether to lengthen the new GM's probationary period or to confirm his post permanently. This was a split vote, but passed in favour of ending the probation and making the post permanent.

No inkling was given to the two Members that this was going to happen. I wonder if it was already on the meeting schedule?

Minutes should give a full account of all of this.

Again, make of this what you will.

I will now bow out of this debate unless invited to do otherwise. There should be plenty for people to mull over. I ask only that anyone contributing puts any ego out of the way and thinks simply of the wellbeing of The Bell

As befits a published author Patrick has a way with the words, and with the plot! Conspiracy theories make good reading (sometimes) but they rarely accord with the facts. Possibly the major fact to note in this debate is that every member of the Board is one of Patrick’s “so many” who rallied round the “Save The Bell” cause. We represent a variety of the memberships’ views but we all have both an emotional and a financial investment in the place, and everything we do is aimed at keeping it successful, prosperous and central to Bath’s creative and musical life. If there was a “unique formula” for doing so the job would be a piece of piss – we’d just plug in the numbers and out would come the vibe. Sadly there is no such formula, so we feel our way cautiously forward, taking advice where we need it, co-opting additional Directors to bring in their experience and expertise and following the rules written by, amongst others, Patrick himself. If his real beef is that he’d do it differently, well – ain’t that always the way with critics? We’ll find out at next year’s AGM what the membership thinks of our efforts. If it doesn’t like them we’ll be fired. That’s co-operative democracy at work. So unlike Facebook.
No-one who saw Patrick in action during the run-up to our buy-out can doubt his genuine commitment to The Bell at that time, but that was then and this is now. Patrick baled out of his own free will, and he took our thanks with him, but we’re still flying, egos parked, thinking of the wellbeing of The Bell and working to keep it successful. Patrick’s offer to now bow out of the debate is entirely in keeping with this season of goodwill. We should accept it with gratitude.

Interesting times.

It would be nice if Patrick's post could be answered, especially...

At the last Board meeting, two people who are closely involved with The Bell, who love it as I do, both Members, one of whom works for the place and is in my view pivotal to its success, attended the meeting in order to catalogue a list of their grave concerns. They were told that they had been listened to, and invited to "trust"... and were both offered co-opted places on The Board to help change things from the inside. Immediately after their departure from the meeting a vote was rushed through on whether to lengthen the new GM's probationary period or to confirm his post permanently. This was a split vote, but passed in favour of ending the probation and making the post permanent.

No inkling was given to the two Members that this was going to happen. I wonder if it was already on the meeting schedule?

John's reply of

As befits a published author Patrick has a way with the words, and with the plot! Conspiracy theories make good reading (sometimes) but they rarely accord with the facts.

suggests paranoia but gives us no facts. (Although he has received 3 'thanks' for the post already - for what?)

Perhaps transparency is lacking.

Oh, another thing -

Quoting John

Possibly the major fact to note in this debate is that every member of the Board is one of Patrick’s “so many” who rallied round the “Save The Bell” cause

I think he meant the original board...not the new additions to the current one.

'Not You' - are you the bloke who turned up to the first AGM wearing ski-goggles, a burkha and camouflage? If not, then forgive me for any suggestion that your request for transparency in any of this is utterly irrelevant.

If so (or even if not), then perhaps you would like to be a little more transparent as to why you think that the latest people who stood for the Board and were voted in by any member who could be bothered to turn up - a pitifully tiny percentage, but a quorum nevertheless - are not suited to carry out the unpaid work on your behalf so that you can carry on with your looney conspiracy theories as you see fit?

Perhaps you should take advantage of some of the award-winning hypnotherapy techniques that are being offered by ex-managers in order to get over your OWN paranoia?

(The above opinions are entirely my own, have nothing whatsoever to do with any administrative office of The Bell, and are given with the utmost vehemence and disrespect to whoever calls themselves, 'Not Me'.)

Oh, and one or two other things whilst we are on the subject:

If you come to The Bell between about 5.00 and 6.30pm and ask for 'Bushy', someone will point me out to you and we can continue this discussion face to face - if you have the guts. I don't know who you are (he lied) so you will have to find me.

If you are so keen on keeping The Bell as a familiar going-concern like it has been for the last 25 (370, actually) years, then either stand for office next Summer, or just shut up and let others do it for you, in a much more constructive way.