Page 8 - CAMPAIGN Spring 2021

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CAMPAIGN Spring 2021
TRUSTEE STATEMENT
We are informing the associate membership that Alan Owen has posted defamatory posts and comments on Facebook concerning the BNTVA. This is not the first time we have witnessed such behaviour by Mr Owen in misleading the associate membership and BNTVA supporters.
Since June 2020, the BNTVA Trustees have been subjected to attacks on digital platforms by Mr Owen in the form of blogs, posts and comments, and, more recently, by former Trustees Susan Musselwhite and Eric Barton. We therefore permanently sever and distance the BNTVA from Mr Owen, the aforementioned former Trustees and Labrats International CIC, as these actions are detrimental to the Association and in conflict with the purposes of the BNTVA.
Mr Owen instigated a Small Claims Court action on 3 March 2021 against the BNTVA. The BNTVA had agreed to pay the actual outstanding amount relating to the All-Tests Reunion, backed up by financial documentary evidence from 2019. However, Mr Owen submitted his claim regardless, despite us trying to reach agreement, giving the Charity little over 16 hours' notice before entering his claim to the Court. Contrary to what Mr Owen has relayed, the BNTVA Trustees are not withholding ties or blazer badges with the Grapple cormorant. For information, the BNTVA paid Mr Owen money online to the bank account he had given details for on 4 March 2021, yet Mr Owen’s post of 10 March 2021 makes no mention of this fact, and therefore misleads his readers.
The Trustees would like to take this opportunity to update the membership
on happenings last year. In March 2020, Susan Musselwhite resigned, along with Mr Owen, Alison Walker and Eric Barton.
Robert McCann assumed the role of Interim Chairman, and immediately ordered Alexandra Hern to resign “for the good of the Charity”. Mrs Hern immediately resigned, and the four Trustees returned, reinstating themselves without informing the Charity Commission about their resignations and return.
In late April, six new Trustees joined the BNTVA board. On June 1, a grievance was taken out by a Trustee against another Trustee.
Mr Owen took the grievance from the grievance procedure, and invited voting on the validity of the grievance, rather than deal with the actual grievance. He requested voting to himself by email under the breach of conduct process. When questions were asked by six Trustees and a meeting called, Patti Cunningham resigned, followed by Mr Owen, Susan Musselwhite, Eric Barton, Alison Walker and Robert McCann over the next two-week period.
We faced the difficult task of coming to terms with what had been happening within the Trustee board. It became clear from examination of records that the Charity had been subject to the overbearing influence of what the Charity Commission defines as one or more Rogue
Trustees. Ron Watson and Shelly Grigg distanced themselves from the previous happenings and gave great assistance to the Trustees in identifying and resolving the issues.
The Trustees have been working hard to put in a Governance structure in line with Charity Commission requirements, as this was severely lacking within the BNTVA. We divorce ourselves from the decisions the previous board took as Directors of this Charity, as part of due diligence.
On 24 June, we realised that Mr Owen had taken control of the BNTVA Nuclear Veterans Worldwide project website and Facebook group, rebranding it Labrats International. The ensuing behaviour of former Trustees in making statements on digital platforms, sudden withdrawal of the BNTVA’s relationship database, and threats of litigation from Mr Owen to the current Chair in the weeks following his resignation, along with discoveries we were making about the medal campaign and its rejection, has caused great concern with the board.
We have also examined some of the books supported and promoted by the previous board and found them to be fictitious, misleading and damaging to the credibility of our heritage as a nuclear test community. During the past months, we deduced the identity of Slaine