anyone get this email re APIA?

[annaspanna]

interesting.....



Dear


We believe this weekend’s Herald on Sunday is running an article on the Auckland Property Investors’ Association.

Early this year the Board of APIA had a concerned member Barry Bridgman write to ask us about some rumours in the market about APIA. Sue Tierney and Tony Steindle met with Barry to discuss those concerns. Now, the same false accusations have been raised with the media. We would rather be the ones to tell you about what the accusations are, rather than you finding out by reading a Sunday newspaper.

1.There has been speculation that APIA is financially distressed and does not have up-to-date financial records. APIA is in a sound financial position, but like many of its members has had a fall in income with today’s economic climate, and has successfully cut costs;
2.Rumours are also about that some board members are there only to benefit themselves financially. Each board member gives his/her time free of charge and on average each spends between 50 and 150 hours a year on APIA matters. Some board members have legitimate business dealing with APIA and charge only the time incurred by their staff. In addition, they do not vote on payments to their businesses.

There are other false allegations and we have gone to great lengths to explain to the media where they are false and have backed our responses with facts, figures and details.

Sue Tierney and Tony Steindle are willing to meet face to face with any member of APIA should they have any concerns. In addition, the board has resolved to ensure that we update members about our activities on a monthly basis.

Recent activities include:
1.Negotiating with two new sponsors of APIA;
2.A member discount at Noel Leeming and Bond & Bond;
3.An excellent new website;
4.A monthly newsletter.

There is a lot more to come including Conference 2009 - Buck the Trend. As a board we want to focus on the way ahead and provide members with tangible and industry-focused benefits.

Please feel free to call either Sue on 09 914 7555 or Tony on 09 361 5563.

Kind Regards,
The APIA Board

[Dean@Massiveaction]

Barry is just one one in a long string of people with concerns.

Apparently they are all entirely wrong and APIA is without fault :-)

[annaspanna]

Where theres smoke theres fire.
Should make for some interesting weekend reading.
i notice the new " Q & A section" of their website isn't working at presant.... how ironic.

[k1w1]

I always knew that Frank Bananarama was a dodgy geezer. Oh hang on, that's Fiji. This is Samoa we're talking about.

[Heg]

Just received it -and I'm not even a member

[fpl]

A couple of thought........

1) Why not simply answer the question in the email as to how up to date the financial records are.

2) Board members are there only to benefit themselves financially. Financial benefits don’t only come in terms of direct fees to APIA.

For example in a recent email from APIA the Q&A section was introduces. I asked the following question: “Would you please tell me how one becomes “one of the best person possible” to respond to these questions?

And that’s the responds. “It simply means that when I get a question that is related to say mortgage breaking or financing a buy etc etc then I go to the board members and other long term apia members who have been in the property game for a long time and ask them to recommend someone to whom I should forward the question onto. In certain circumstances I may have to forward questions onto a few people just to get a balanced answer and all the answers will be posted. Several members have already put their hands up with their areas of expertise and given me some of their credentials and volunteered to answer questions."

Is this a best process, in the best interest of ALL member and which would benefit ALL members equally?

The Traders – now PropertyPlus may be not that much different in terms of self interest. However, they run it as a business for profit.

[whitt]

History has shown to get recommended by APIA you need to be a board member or have a strong affiliation with one.

Does it not seem unusual to readers here the questions being raised are from the only independant board member at APIA?

Maybe there is some truth to the rumours and the APIA email may just be an attempt to soften the blow about to be delivered in Sundays Paper?

[fpl]

Would a limited time on the board be a good idea? EG 1 or two terms? Wouldn't get the same direction (and conflict of interest) for >10 years. Surely experienced and professional members can be found within APIA.

[whitt]

Would a limited time on the board be a good idea? EG 1 or two terms?

Certainly a option worth looking at if things are not sorted.

I had hoped much of these issues would have been fixed following the last APIA breakdown/ Shake up. Apparently issues still exist.

If any one has concearns please send your comments to board members. If members stay silent then they will never get true feedback how people feel.

[NZGEMS]

Probably a matter of finding enough people interested if you are going to change the board every couple of years.

I was on the Waikato committee for two years a few years back, that was enough for me but some of them have been there for 20 or more years I understand. Still I guess if you want to make it your life fair enough. Not for me, infact I am not even a member right now, didnt join last year again, it is almost time again this year, may go back not sure will have to think about it.

Probably will stay out another year at least I hardly ever go to the meetings anyway. and never use their discount cards, should I know the one time my husband tried (at placemakers) they wouldn't let him. Still now we do alot of our own maintenance it may be worth joining again. will have to look into it I think if you join now it takes you through till next May when it is due again anyway.

[fpl]

Feed Back

If any one has concearns please send your comments to board members. If members stay silent then they will never get true feedback how people feel.

Here may actually be a better place so it's in the open and doesn't get silenced. Furthermore, all get to see how other members think and feel about these issues.

[cube]

Correct me if I'm wrong, APIA, but I don't think Barry is a board member any longer.

It would be a bit of a worry if the organisation was not able to turn to it's elected board members to answer members questions!

I had hoped much of these issues would have been fixed following the last APIA breakdown/ Shake up. Apparently issues still exist.

Of course they exist. I don't think that there would be any not-for-profit organisation in the world there aren't some members with issues over the way things are being run.

A for-profit organisation can say to its customers "stuff off, we'll things our way for the sole benefit of our share holders", but an NFP has to do things more democratically, which means allowing members to air their grievances in any way they see fit.

I respect Barry and what he has done, and suspect that he will have some valid points, but that doesn't mean that APIA has gone to hell in a hat basket and is about to disappear quicker than you can say 'Lehman Brothers'.

cube

[Kerry Christian]

Emails to members

I remember last time there was conflict - I received two emails from different factions at APIA promoting their respective point of veiws - I have a business, (and am not a board member) - can I promote my business through the APIA database to promote my cause - NOT!!!

Yes it is a whinge -

So heres a question - Has anyone from NZ largest property education company - "Richmastery" ever spoken at an APIA event.The APIA should be totally devoid of conflict and bring in Leaders of Property - regardless of wether they like them or not.

I have been told I have been baned from RM events but the question stands Do the APIA memebers get the chance to see "all the sides of Property"

and why have I not been invited to show my side of Property to the APIA - (self seeking here)

HMMMMM

and Barry Bridgman - I say to you - you are not self seeking and you see a problem and I personally will support you

APIA do have a problem

[Propoholic]

APIA: Herald on Sunday 22/2/09

Property politics boil over
4:00AM Sunday Feb 22, 2009
Andrea Milner

A member of the Auckland Property Investors Association's board is calling for a vote of no confidence in the organisation's "autocratic" president, Sue Tierney, amid allegations it is on the brink of insolvency.

Board member Ron Hoy Fong says he has no confidence in Tierney's leadership and that the organisation's financial position is "dismal". He estimates the not-for-profit organisation is losing between $10,000 and $18,000 per month.

Hoy Fong is not alone in his concerns about the association's current management.

A former board member, Dianne McAteer, who resigned earlier this month, wrote to the other board members in January referring to "the financial issues at hand"; stating the board was "in serious trouble" and that "the membership would have a good case for a vote of no confidence".

Its former chief executive David Baty has just resigned as well, also claiming the association has hit financial dire straits.

Board secretary Tony Steindle, the association's honorary solicitor, confirms it is solvent. He responded on Tierney's behalf as she is currently overseas. Funds held by the APIA as at March 31 last year were $134,000, Steindle says, and at the end of this financial year the accounts are likely to show funds of $78,000.

Yet on March 31, 2007, funds held for the association were $262,000. The association's profit and loss statement to November last year shows a loss of more than $81,000.

Baty says association members are unaware how badly the organisation's financial status has deteriorated: "They're still accepting membership fees when in essence they're very close to insolvency."

Feedback indicates association members are dissatisfied with a lack of communication from the board, Baty says, and membership turnover is more than 30 per cent.

The board's minutes of June 23 last year show Tierney noted member feedback indicated "concern about the state of finances for APIA". On August 18 last year, board treasurer Ann Loudon was "very concerned at the loss of $38,000 for the year to date", but the minutes record that "It was agreed that we should not go to the members at this point."

In a discussion document appended to the minutes, under the heading "Finances", it was noted that "Financial sustainability is of critical concern. We are currently using capital reserves. Expenditure needs to be reviewed and limited."

McAteer noted that legal and accounting expenses were high early last year. These services are provided by the legal and accounting firms of which Steindle and Loudon respectively are principals.

Legal fees of $17,000 were charged by Steindle Williams, the firm in which Steindle is a partner, over a two-year period. Steindle says he and Loudon have both declared their interest to the board in terms of their firms being lawyers and accountants to APIA.

Steindle says the association's financial losses result from an expo it organised in November 2007 and the Christmas dinner function held that year, together with costs associated with the departure of a former chief executive, Ashley Church. Board meeting minutes from December 18, 2007 show the association lost $12,000 on the dinner. The total cost of the expo was more than $120,000 and the income was $90,250, with Tierney noting that she was "not expecting" this loss.

Baty asks: "How do you lose $12,000 on a Christmas function and $30,000 on an expo?"

Since then, Steindle says further losses have resulted from dropping membership. On November 3 last year, Loudon noted the projected loss for the year to date was exceeded by $30,000. But Steindle says the board has undertaken cost-cutting measures and negotiated new sponsorship agreements, and now "is in a sound position financially".

One board member, Simon Shreeve, is also a shareholder and director of XLR8 Events, which has owed the organisation $5625 since November 2007, and is now in liquidation. Steindle says the association is pursuing recovery of this amount with the liquidator and that Shreeve did not vote "on matters relating to this debt".

Hoy Fong says he has "brought up the issue of conflict of interest" recently. Five of the seven board members are actively employed serving the property investment industry and Baty says that on the board "they can control a database of business. You're talking a multi-million dollar industry within this captive market."

The organisation has churned through four chief executives in the past 18 months. The first, Ashley Church, resigned following the last board election when Tierney became president.

Dianne McAteer stepped in as acting chief executive until a permanent replacement could be found. Jane Bollard was then appointed to the role, followed by David Baty who quit after three months - as Bollard had.

Baty says he left because of undue interference with his role from the association president and other board members and says his predecessors left for the same reason. Steindle says Bollard told the board she chose to leave the role "as based on the strategic plan she had presented to the board she did not see that she wished to take on the role of its implementation".

Regarding Baty, Steindle says the board "had concerns as to prioritisation of work and his dealings with third parties".

But McAteer, who joined the board once she was no longer the acting chief executive, wrote to the other members in December last year saying: "We have failed to give clear direction to Jane [Bollard] and now David [Baty]. We are still confused between governance and management, and are doing neither well at a strategic level. There is a lack of commercial maturity being shown around personnel management."

In January, she wrote again to the board members saying: "I can't see a way forward with the current make-up of the board ... I have to say a whole new board might be the answer as this one appears to have too much history and bad blood to be able to move forward. The politics are ridiculous."

"If the current president resigns, I think the organisation can go forward," says Hoy Fong. "If it continues the way Sue has managed the [association], nothing will happen."

WHO'S WHO ON THE ASSOCIATION

The Auckland Property Investors Association (APIA) is an independent, non-profit organisation formed to provide professional development and networking opportunities for its members, who are property investors and other professionals involved in the property market.

The current board comprises:

Sue Tierney - association president and head of Ponsonby mortgage broking business Mortgages by Design.

David Whitburn - association vice president and head of property development company Fuzo.

Tony Steindle - association secretary and principle of Ponsonby property law firm Steindle Williams.

Ann Loudon - association treasurer and director of accountancy firm Streetsmart.

Simon Shreeve - director of a home staging, interior design and property makeover company.

The other two board members, Chris Marston and Ron Hoy Fong, are property investors who do not also run businesses directly serving the property industry.

Ructions behind closed doors

The association has been dogged by difficulties at the top since before August 2007 when they first spilled beyond the boardroom during electioneering for board appointments.

Andrew King was then president and Ashley Church chief executive. Only days before members were to elect a new president, Church said he would run for presidency.

Members then received two bizarre emails.

The first, sent on August 14, by Sue Tierney and supporter David Whitburn, referred to issues between board members and problems between the board and Church. "Both Ashley and another board member have strongly objected to Andrew King standing for the board, which has now resulted in Ashley standing ..."

The email denied King was the source of the issues, claiming debate related to "the extent to which the APIA is a profit-making venture".

Hours later, Church supporters - John May, Garth Melville and Annette Kann - emailed members, denying problems between Church

and the board over the association's commercial activities but acknowledged "deep-seated and fundamental problems within the organisation". They said debate related to King's attempted management interference, culminating in an attempted no confidence motion in his presidency.

On election night, Tierney was voted president and King was elected to the board. Church resigned days later.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10557966

[Lincoln]

Wow! If the rumours are even slightly true, we have a problem. This year APIA hosts the National Conference, and if there is any possibility of being anywhere near insolvent, there needs to be urgent action, if not change. Assuming per Sue we are in good shape, can I propose as a paid up member;

The books are opened (selectively if needs be, to a small group of INDEPENDANT professionals who can then confirm to everyone that they are up to date and with good savings and therefore shut down the rumour)

Re allegations of conflict of interest and self- interest, I started a thread last year entitled APIA VS ASHLEY CHURCH after I attended a meeting and was absolutely shocked and disgusted by the behaviour of then board members Tony Steindle and Andrew King... in my opinion if I was to serve selflessly on a board and give my time voluntarily there is always the natural question "WIIFM...whats in it for me?" For some it is acknowledgement; for some it is giving something back or knowing you made a difference; for others it may be credibility, which brings in extra work or opens doors... but I repeat it is my opinion that a board member owning a legal firm should not be acting as the APIA lawyers as there is a huge temptation to persue frivolous legal action (In the case of APIA vs Ashley Church) where APIA coffers are drained financially and the only winner in the end is the Lawyers and board member who owns the company. Unless of course the lawyer/ board member is prepared to act for FREE so there is no potential conflict of interest (and no one would expect one to work for free... therefore easier to just USE ANOTHER LAWYER!!!)

Maybe this time around there will be transparency not cover up. Changes to the constitution which make the running of APIA more open and accountable so we dont lose good hard working people like Barry Bridgeman, Ron Hoy Fong and others who feel they are tainted by the actions of certain other self serving.

Heres hoping