Until this Spring, the local branch and region of the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) ran a series of well attended events for their members - we attended networking events and informative sessions of various sorts, meeting a wide variety of people; a real benefit to our business.

But in the last couple of months, these activities have dried right up. I can find at least six that have been cancelled, some very close to the time they were due to run. We were informed of one event that wasn't happening with less that 48 hours to go before it ran, and I understand that some attendees actually turned up at the "Vision for Trowbridge" venue to learn more about the plans for the town's development ...

"The FSB is a member led organisation" says the organisation's web site, and six months ago you would have found a list of the local and regional committees and members on there. But now [written 9.07 / page now changed] you'll find that the regional page just gives you a contact number of a person in Blackpool (that's where the FSB has its headquarters) and a local contact for the Regional Organiser - a paid employee who takes direction from Blackpool as to how to provide local assistance. "Please remember that there is only me and my 40 hours each week, and there are 8 branches and nearly 8,000 members in our region" she wrote to me recently. Yes - it would be impossible for any one person to run the whole region that was formerly run by an active and keen committee, delegating to branches and all working together. And it would be doubly hard for one person who's very new to the job, and triple hard when you consider that there's likely to be a lot of unhappy people and politics effecting the changes through which the regional officer has to try and work.

So what has happened? I only know part of the story, and indeed the FSB's secrecy rules would limit what I could say if I knew the full Monty. I can tell you that we all supported our dynamic regional Chair when she stood for the election to the role of National Vice Chairman, but as a first time candidate she was less known than others who have been around longer. "Building bases" is how I would describe it. I can tell you that it is that same person who won the Vice Chair that is now in charge of the whole areas, with the regional commitee suspended and the AGM, I have just learned, cancelled. I am unable to tell you whether or not this is all above board, or whether it's a conflict of interest, or a case of the Victor rubbing the nose of the vanquished in the victory, but I know what it looks like to me personally.

Really it's very sad. In just a handful of short months, a dynamic region has been closed down. The member's money wasted for events that have been cancelled, and that is a shame. The committee member time wasted on things other than the membership is sickening. The lack of regard shown by the people now in charge for their member is ... well, at this point words start to fail me.

I was taught that a manager's role is to facilitate the operation of his staff - to provide a helping hand and an oiling of the wheels of systems so that they can do their job, and in turn service their customers. And that's a good lesson. In my view, the board members should be helping and assisting the regionally elected committees, who in turn should be helping and providing services for their members, each of whom pays a considerable sum each year to "The Fed".

Personally, my time is limited. I have served on the local branch commitee for the last year and we certainly managed some wonderful events for members - at no cost to the central coffers either in most cases - early in the year. But I don't have the time to "play politics" on this scale and won't be offering myself for the committee for the next year. If you're an FSB member reading this, and want to ask your local officers what's going on, here are the contacts listed on the web site. If you would like to ask the local active members, have a look back at some of the older materials you may have for their details ... or if you drop me an email, I can forward for you.

This is, perhaps, a good post for me to post an "addendum" on to, reminding my readers that although I speak here officially for my own work / company / employer, I do not speak in any officlal capacity for others. So in the post above you're reading purely my own views EXCEPT in my comment that the FSB's local events have been of great benefit to the company. That's official

P.S. To complete the record - here's a link to my open letter explaining why I'm not standing for the FSB local commitee elections again.
(written 2007-09-13 19:08:35)

 Z300 - Extras - Politics
Z401 - Extras - Federation of Small Businesses

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