BASEM Blogger Exclusive! – RCSEM followers reach 253 – all thanks to the Blogger!
Just to avoid confusion. James Bilzon has never been on the BASEM Exec and could not have been involved in a Vote of No Confidence. It must, therefore, have been Patrick Wheeler.
Always a good idea to read the question first?
So, we had the worst PR disaster in the history of sports medicine when the Joint Position Statement was issued on 19th June. Merger frenzy broke out and a democratic postal vote was launched of all the 884 voting members in BASEM.
67% of the members eligible to vote, deliberately decided to abstain consigning the idea back to the place it deserved.
However, the already hassled BASEM members went straight into an Exec election, with merger candidates everywhere and temperatures on the rise.
It rapidly became evident that the voting mechanism was fundamentally flawed, and this was brought to the attention of the Chair, Nigel Jones, in writing, by a senior BASEM Trustee on Friday 4th September. The Chair consulted with the Secretary, Robin Chatterjee, and as a result of this dialogue, a decision was made to continue with the election in the full knowledge that it was faulty. In the view of the lawyers this constitutes a de facto breach of trust.
The election process was not halted by those in charge so, as a last resort, a legal challenge was mounted by a veteran BASEM member at noon on the last day of voting – Friday 25th September 2020
The voting continued till midnight, but the results were not announced the following day, and the membership were left totally in the dark until the Chair resigned on 5th October.
On 9th October, The Secretary, Robin Chatterjee, finally announced the postponement of the AGM and the plans for a new election but no one had actually communicated with the lawyers who were trying to establish due legal process! Yet another letter was sent to BASEM on 13th October 2020.
Finally, on 20th October 2020, a letter was received from Hempsons (solicitors) –
The last Minuted BASEM Exec meeting was held on 17th August 2020 and at the AGM on 15th October 2020, the majority of the BASEM Exec were informed by the President, Roger Hawkes, that they had been removed from office (leaving the Exec ‘not quorate’ and therefore unable to make any decisions). However, BASEM Trustees who were in office from 17th August to 15th October have no knowledge of the appointment of Hempsons to represent BASEM in any capacity and clarification is awaited from Hempsons in this regard.
The BASEM Blogger will be the first to let you know how Hempsons got on the BASEM payroll – ignore fake news and stick with the Blogger.
Up next – why would anyone want to be a BASEM Trustee?
The BASEM Blogger has been monitoring every tweet, blog and webinar and will be posting update for months to come.
The Basem Blogger 