I have been told of a few issues going on within this BBS regarding rumour and inuendo etc. Having just registered, I have read as much as I can, but cant find a posting a friend has told me about. I don't propose to get drawn into this, but offer the following:-
I will simply clarify the facts which I will stand up in any situation and re-confirm.
A couple of years ago I undertook to look after the bbs and web site of the PFA because the CEO had fallen out with the then supplier (or the otherway around cos i am not trying to make a point here, tho maybe I should have guessed).
This work was done as an emergency and at the time was not seen to be long term by ourselves.
We unknotted huge problems and aquired most passwords as needed from the PFA or the hosts Griffin Systems.
Over the next year or two we did a huge amount of work and reworked the site as requested.
At some point during this period I became an EC member.
I begun to be concerned about the proffesional reliability we experienced and my staff became increasing disillusioned with the work for the PFA. Frankly we become concerned about payments and reliability of payments and in the 'attitude' of 'our contact'. It is fair to say that we never felt fully respected for the work and effort we put in.
Brought to a head by a personal health issue we decided to not risk working for the PFA in a professional capacity any longer. We continued to help them in any way that we were capable of doing, a) as a favour, b)Free of charge
This was around a year ago and any suggestion that the PFA did not have passwords for the web site and associated parts, eg BBS is a complete untruth. We passed them several times, when and if they were requested. I have logged in several times to extract information directly requested by the PFA office. In fact as far as the BBS is concerned, it is hosted by Griffin internet systems, and they, as a PFA supplier, can also use the main Admin passwords if required. Apart from my own emails, there is more than one office member that can confirm the BBS password was known soon after my ceasing work for the PFA(1 day after it was requested).
My EC membership clearly continued although I obviously realiesed I did the PFA no favours by withdrawing our internet and web services.
After some months of increasing concern at EC about what was happening, treatment of staff, and involvment in trying to 'fix things', I was asked to undertake to 'sort' the engineering department out and its relationships with others. This was done under the specific guidance of expert consultants employed specifically for the purpose. At the beginning of this process the EC were reaonably commited to do whatever was required. During this process however some of the EC members (NB. EC includes the then chairman) become obstructive, petty, and in my view naive to the extreme in their actions as they begun to rubbish the hired experts. Despite those concerned having failed 100% to sort anything out in the 10 yrs or so of their own EC service they blocked any attemped change by others.
They continue, and I see at least 2 possibly 3 individuals that in no way should be EC members-they are simply not fit.
As stand in 'Engineering director', trialling the position for a full time employment (now done)the PFA and myself understood were 'protected' against prosecution (if there was a serious incident) because the very problems that were identified by CAA and consultants were actively being fixed. Additionally, as we were following some of the best advice available, the CAA were completely 'on-side'. They were fully informed and fully involved. In-fact, at that time they suggested they might like to use the 'systems' we were finalising as models for other 'approval organisations' similar to the PFA. In view of this I ensured that the PFA owned the interlectual property aspect of the work so we might be able to recover some of the costs later on.
This turned out to be a dream following totally devisive interference from 2 or 3 on EC completely stalling the proceess. This came after a period of enforced inactivity by the consultants due to the PFA not honoring previous payment agreements.
The end result is that the review project stopped dead, the EC were not willing to do the very things that were clearly needed (interestingly they are now following those very recommendations). Additionally, I felt very vunerable because we were no longer actively addressing known problems, and having witnessed first hand the atrocious behaviour of an EC individual regarding Lord Trefgarne just before the AGM I wondered what I was part of - I resigned.
I could say more about this (there is much) but won't.
Back to BBS.
It failed and was down for a short while. Having noticed this I spoke with Griffin systems and PFA office. There WERE NO PASSWORD ISSUES WHATSOEVER in the events that followed. I noticed the message still said that the server was down - surprising since I knew it wasn't, which I also felt was unfair to the hosts 'griffin'. I was told by PFA office that there was no hurry to return it due to recent BBS content. At this time it was simply left 'switched off' whilst the flack died down.
At some point a decision was made to upgrade the 'infopop' bbs software which again has NO BEARING on BBS being on or off. Infopop will simply turn the board off, upgrade it, and switch it on again shortly afterwards, as they did last upgrade. Given infopop is american based, this happens in the middle of our night and is not useually even noticable. The fact is that the BBS could have been available a long while before.
Again about these issues there is much more, but it helps no-one to dredge them up.
However, given somewhere on this forum I have apparently been critised, or possibly by implication, I hope I have said enough to despute those statements and show the facts. To anyone, please ensure statements are accurate before publicising them, because I for one get pretty pissed when I discover I am being used to 'obscure' or at least cloud, events. Don't do it - otherwise I will get really verbose!!
Best regards,
Tim Goodwin ex PFA webmaster
