BackgroundThis whole sorry business started off with an email sent to all BVWS committee members by the Secretary, Jeremy Owen. This started it all. The email, copied below, stated the higher value B&B donations items could be filtered off to Mikes stall, and less desirable items from Mikes stores pushed onto the B&B. For those of you that do not know, the RetroTechUK event was purchased as a going concern by the BVWS, with the intention of providing funds from any profits to support the British Vintage Wireless and Television Museum (British Vintage Wireless Museum), at Dulwich.This was a decision that was taken by the entire BVWS membership and any change to this would need to go to the full membership for agreement. At RetroTechUK there is always a Bring and Buy stall (B&B), this was for those who wanted to donate items outright to the museum, or to sell with a percentage of the proceeds being donated to the museum. Filtering off valuable donations made to the British Vintage Wireless and Television Museum and pass them to the BVWS stall; replacing them with junk in itself showed, in my opinion, intent to defraud the charity. Jeremy Owen and Jeffrey Borinsky always ran the bring and buy stall as a team, and both should have been 100% for the museum. As well as being Vice Chair and membership Sec. of the BVWS I was also a trustee of the Museum, and it was my responsibility to see that matters were above board. When I explained to Owen that he was completely out of order and this type of behaviour was unacceptable he apologised and backed down. I looked into matters further and when I spoke to Borinsky I was shocked to discover he was no longer operating the B&B for the good of the museum, and had been collecting donations and using the Museum B&B to sell and raise money for his own interests in an entirely different organisation. I then dug a little further and no real surprise, I discovered that both Jeremy Owen and Jeffrey Borinsky were trustees of other, separate charities. I spoke to Hewitt about the matter and told him that Borinsky would no longer be operating the Museum B&B, also that he would be operating another stall raising funds for his charity – as long as it was not detrimental to the Museum then that would be fine. I did agree with Hewitt that he would ensure the stall was well away from the Museum one, and that Borinsky would not man one of the doors by the Museum B&B. After pressure from Owen, Hewitt folded and gave Borinsky a stall next to the museum B&B and let him act as doorman at the entry point in the same location. This would mean visitors bringing in donations would see him and automatically giving them to him as he was a known face. Now, why would Hewitt fold under pressure from Owen? Why did he say he was not giving me time to think about it but was taking my resignation as fact, instruct the rest of the committee not to talk to me and ultimately expel me from the society? As Vice Chair I would have stood shoulder to shoulder with the chairman against anything (as long as it was just). However, there is a darker undercurrent. I could not understand why Hewitt wanted to shut me down, but I have recently thought on this and can only think it was due to my probing into financial matters within the BVWS. For some time, I had been in discussion with the Treasurer - Simon Saunders about financial oversite at the BVVWS. The amount of money raised from subs, events and BVWS auctions is substantial. Most people are not aware that the last increase in subscriptions was due to costs producing the bulletin, and that a large part of that cost is the money the chairman gets the BVVWS to pay his son, Alex Hewitt. The chairman once laughed as he told me his son had a mortgage that needed paying and since then I tried to find out exactly what costs are attributable to moneys paid to Allex Hewitt. All committee members are volunteers and only receive expenses, or so I thought. I have been expelled so cannot take matters further but a member will need to formally ask the Treasurer a direct question such as how much money over the years of Alex Hewitts involvement with the BVWS has he been paid, also how much has he received in expenses, and what has been spent on equipment for him to use? My understanding is that it will amount to thousands a year, but I was shut down before I could get a definitive answer. In the menu bar above the exchange of emails is a great way to amuse yourself and see how the chairman simply folded under pressure from 'Jezzer' and took it upon himself to expel me from the BVWS |
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