Advisory Council

[kwatt]

We are going to setup and advisory council for UKW, there are loads of reasons to do this and I’m not going to spell them all out in this post as some of it has to do with what will be discussed, no doubt at length, in Stafford. However, I do think we should get the show on the road.

There are basically three levels to UKW that we are concerned with for this:

Members/Subscribers
Advisory Council
Major Shareholders (Directors)

As you can see, three directors, three levels…not an accident.

What we want is some kind sould to be elected to an Advisory Council, three in fact. One with many employees, one with one to five employees and one with no employees so that it has the best chance of a good spread of opinion. It’s also three again, so no hung votes, that’s why the number three. 😉

The full role of this will become clear in time but it is not expected to weigh heavy on the member’s time as it is designed not to.

So we need to basically elect this “council” (for want of a better term as I really don’t like that) as an integral part of the workings of UKW in the future.

I have thought about this a a fair bit for the initial outing of the notion over the past couple of weeks and my choices as nominees would be the following:

Alex Reed
Del
Penguin45

I have my reasons for choosing each of those names and a lot of thought went into it. That said, if anyone else wants a crack at it please step up now, or if you think that there should be someone else in the running then post it here please.

This is important and the people on this board will represent the subscribers to a degree, so make wise choices please.

Thanks

K.

[admin]

Re: Advisory Council

hi kwatt,

fraid its a bit vague and you need to elaborate a little or at least invite anyone interested to speak directly to you, its going to be an important role and a little more clarity is needed.

Nowt wrong with your 3 though but others might be interested….tell ’em a little more!

kevin

[kwatt]

😳 Sorry a lot of this goes on my head and sometimes it doesn’t quite translate well to the ramblings at the time. 😉

What would happen is that any complaints or problems that came in as being unresolved by the member would be dealt with by the AC. If it really needs kicked up then it’s easy to do so and very scaleable the way I’m thinking. As far as I am concerned their decision on matters such as these are the final word and they will have the power to sanction some measures if they feel that a member has acted against the best interest of UKW and/or a consumer/client, it’s that simple.

The reason for using an elected body is that we all have the chance to cast our vote for who we want to see there. Since there are essentially three (well four if you count the national repairers, but we won’t ;)) different business classes in our industry then, broadly speaking, it makes sense that one from each sits on the AC IMO. No director can sit on that body, ever! For one simple reason, the two make up different facets with different viewpoints and I think that having a situation where there is debate and someone to challenge any idea is great and makes us stop and think. That’s the bones of it.

There is a bit more on it, but I have to keep my gob shut until during and after the Stafford meeting.

By all means if anyone else wants to give me a shout for more on this then feel free to do so.

K.

[Alex]

Re: Advisory Council

Would I be right in surmising one role would be to step in when a debate gets either overheated, or too personal.

Seeing my name doesn’t present a problem, (I hope) & I’m sure I can run with it, but of course will need more detail beforehand. I’m flattered in a small way.

Is is a shame I’m out the country for the Stafford meeting.

[kwatt]

Re: Advisory Council

Alex wrote:Would I be right in surmising one role would be to step in when a debate gets either overheated, or too personal.

Pretty much in some ways.

The other point is that, as I have said, UK Whitegoods is a limited company now and I feel we need to have checks and balance so it retains its independent views whilst being able to effectively self-govern itself from within. I and the other co-conspirators, also wish there to be a number of features in place to ensure that it remains a free voice in the spirit of which all this is being carried out and to serve the members, this is a part of that proccess.

So, with that in mind having elected representatives, each with a different perspective on the industry makes an awful lot of sense to me and offers a degree of intervention where required. It also allays any fears of a director/s favouring anyone if squabbles over petty things are settled there, should they ever arise, as we have no control over what the AC thinks or says as it is independent.

I did say that yes, it is a company, but not as we know it! 😉

K.

[kwatt]

Re: Advisory Council

No, I haven’t forgotten this topic and there has been a LOT of interest shown in the subject outside of our little sphere as well.

IMO this is vital and could well lead to being a paid position if I get my way so we need to have a bit more input on it.

K.

[admin]

Re: Advisory Council

The Advisory Panel.

It is now time to bring this idea to fruition, as e-jobs is in its final stage of production.

The Panel will have an important role to play in the arbitration of any dispute between customer and a UKW member. Being realistic, we hope to do this and never run into a problem, however having this mechanism in place is what makes UKW unique. So UKW wants to promote good service by including extremely effective after sales and support for both parties.

We already have some nominees for this position, but as some time has passed since we aired this subject it’s only fair to open this debate to all subscribers, our number having grown since the last meeting. We would appreciate you all joining in this nomination event, Ken will publish a job description, along with a list of all subscribers, and you can, in complete privacy, nominate your candidate to admin@ukwhitegoods.com

As you will all have a chance to nominate, you will also be asked to endorse the final 3 candidates at the feb05 Sibson meeting, those of you who can’t attend will have the opportunity to endorse, on the site for 48 hours before the meeting, through this forum.
It is also intended to rotate the panel and we need to decide the duration of appointment (UKW prefers 12 months). Of course not all of you will want to serve and it has to be that Ken, Dave and myself can not hold this position due to our directorships of UKW. At this time there is no remuneration for this position, although that may change in the fullness of time.

To allow you all time to discuss this in open debate we ask that all nominations are received by 14th jan05, allowing us to proceed to the next step.

Remember that all recipients of e-jobs will have to adhere to the UKW charter and have signed it and must accept the Advisory Panels decisions.

[kwatt]

This is a subject that is very close to my heart, so here’s a bit more explanation on how I see this subject.

Any member of the AC will in effect view any grievance between a UKW member (subscribers only and e-jobs customers) and A.N. Other party be that a customer or a corporate client if the need arises. Essentially it is an arbitration service that is run by us, for us.

When a complaint is received it would be passed to the AC to deliberate on a remedy and to apportion whatever action/judgement they see fit to. The powers will be available to stop people from using e-jobs for set periods or, ultimately, to remove them from that as well as the directories in serious cases, the choice is down to the AC. It will also be their call on whether we publish the complaint as well as the remedy along with the names of any offenders.

There is not anticipated to be a lot of take up on this in the short term but it may well come to pass that it becomes a vital element of the industry, offering a totally unique and totally independent arbitration service.

Time wise, I don’t expect that it will be very costly at all and most things in this industry are pretty clear cut, we’ve seen it all before. I certainly do not expect a deluge of complaints in fact we’ve not had one about our or our member’s services since UKW started!

It shall hopefully display that we are capable of self-regulation without the requirement for an outside body to regulate us, such as a government agency and, if we already have a working system, why change it? I should think it better if we control our own destiny instead of a bureaucrat.

K.

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