I would be really careful dissing former committee members left right and centre; it's too easy to let conspiracy theories run away with all of you.
When I was on the committee, so far as I know, no-one was doing anything illegal, most people were working very hard for the club. Some were working in different directions than others, but most if not all had the club's best interests at heart.
Here's are some examples:
- I wanted to diversify the fleet into other makes, since I thought it would give members more options, more flexibility and better experience. Others - KL included - thought that was a really bad idea since they felt pilots would not be brave enough to change types, and it would introduce currency problems.
- I wanted to have a look at how we did currency, feeling that the 28 days on type rule was too restrictive. So that the TB-9 and PA28 were not interchangeable. Others felt this was not a good idea.
- I wanted to introduce a "short and grass strips" course, but others weren't interested
- I wanted to concentrate on "the flying side" but others felt we still had to cater for keeping "the social side" going and the people there happy.
None of this is conspiracy, but it is a sympton of a "business" which has no organised direction, and which will, when things get tough, very quickly feel it.
What has happened since I left I do not know, but I rather doubt that anyone on the committee was paying themselves a salary (unless they were an instructor, which I continually argued should disqualify someone from being a director of the company.) Anway, on the margins that existed in 1998 or so, the club could barely afford to pay the instructors and the woman behind the counter, let alone the directors.
With the flying rates as they were recently, I would imagine that it would be possible to rack up a significant loss even in the best run company! Another flying school could have rented NELI and sub-rented it to their own customers and made a profit!
So - in summary - while I can not comment at all on whether or not there has been any kind of inappropriate activity - all I want to say is that in the absence of any real leadership, and any strategic direction, it would have been possible to balls things up by sheer inattention and lack of organisation. It wouldn't have needed anything illegal!