Proposed sale of Britannia Rescue to LV (Liverpool Victoria)

tomstickland

Is this CSMA?

You are eligible to join csma if you work, or have ever worked in the Civil Service, a company with its
roots in the Civil Service or if you are directly related to a current csma member.

rowancott

mindthepennies wrote: »

Whilst I suppose it may be best in the long-term for CSMA to sell Britannia to LV, I think their way of pushing the vote through is highly undemocratic.

You may be right on the sale (and are right on the voting method), but I'm mostly worried about the terms of the sale. the CSMA letter says there's a document with fuller terms on the Internet but I for one can't find it. And the terms as indicated in the letter suggest that Liverpool Victoria will be paying part of the purchase prices as a commission on income from CSMA members who continue with Britannia Rescue - an obvious financial inducement to LV to persuade CSMA members to leave Britannia Rescue (or rejoin but NOT as CSMA members) as soon as they can and by whatever means they can.

The net result will be reduced income to CSMA, reduced membership for CSMA and an inevitable spiral down towards the demise of CSMA - which, in my opinion, would be a shame.

phalanx

Thanks for all the PMs (both here and at RPoints) - I think I've replied to them all now, and will of course try to give a proper report back after the EGM.

tomstickland

I assume you're aware that Liverpoool Victoria is still a mutual?

phalanx

It was a very long day yesterday, and I'm travelling now over the weekend, so apologies for not a long report, BUT I have posted a short one over at RPoints giving an outline.

Thanks to the 9 people here and there who ended up giving me proxies - we may not have affected the outcome (due to the 1000s of proxies the Board had stashed away) but I did my best to give a Board who decided to "do their own thing" and have exclusive talks with LVic rather than consult the members or have an open sale for the best price/outcome a very hard time.

Two things say it all about them:

1) They admitted "initial" expressions of interest from other parties, but still chose to hold these exclusive talks with LVic.

2) They admitted the LVic price offer was only "in the middle range" of the price valuation range done for them by their professional advisers. So they didn't even get the best possible price, and didn't know what others would have offered, for a type of business that rarely comes on the market.

3) When there was a prospect of the EGM being voted out at the beginning (in favour of a postal vote of the whole membership) the Chair argued that they should go ahead and hold an open debate at the EGM and then everyone present make up their minds and vote to get the decision. He said this knowing full well (as it later transpired) that they had thousands of proxy votes in their hands, so that the EGM and what was said at it made not one iota of difference at all to the result.

You may make your own judgements about people who see fit to behave in this way to achieve their ends. I have my own words too, but the Rules of this site would mean that if I posted them the post would be deleted...

One thing I do know - the loyal members of CSMA deserve far, far better.

phalanx

1) Motion from the floor to abandon the EGM and go to a full postal ballot of all the members:

(by show of hands) For: 93 Against: 94

2) My move to make this a poll as it was so close (individual votes without proxies):

For: 64 Against: 78

3) Their legal advice that as more than 5 people had voted "For" 2) above, they needed to do a proxy vote on this:

For: 102 Against: 8269

At this point it becomes clear that the whole EGM is a foregone conclusion as we now know how many proxies the Board and Board supporters hold.

4) Final vote at the end on the EGM motion to proceed with the sale:

For: 9628 Against: 45

Bear in mind that by the end several people had drifted away from the meeting anyway - obviously it had run on and the result was as we know already settled.

rowancott

This is just to express my thanks to phalanx for being at the EGM and representing our views on behalf of those members of CSMA who are still worried about the club's future.

Only time will tell if my prediction that this will lead to the demise of CSMA is proved true.

Best wishes to all, Alan Giles

robertb_2

Thanks to phalanx for attending the EGM and making our voices heard, although the outcome was inevitable.
I feel that the CSMA has taken another step which will lead to its service becoming less cost effective.

taylorpjuk

Apologies to coming very late to this debate; well the sale went ahead and presumably a large amount of money changed hands. Anyone know how much and where it went to?
I e-mailed the Editor of the CSMA Motoring & Leisure on September 19th asking these questions but my letter was not published nor did I receive a response to my e-mail. I have e-mailed again today.

Regards,
Pete.