This arrived today from the Executive Director - the ACNA complaint policy, apparently a final version adopted (I'm guessing) on 2009-01-11 (from the date at the end of hte policy which statues 11/1/08). Here's the test of the policy, verbatim as received:

Policy: Resolution of Issues
Code: ACNA (To Be Assigned)

It is important for ACNA members to remember that we are a car club and the purpose of our activities is to enjoy the Audi marque and the friendship of our colleagues.

The purpose of this policy is to address issues of dispute that arise between chapters or members that are recognized by the ACNA Board of Directors or a written request for intervention and resolution is received by the ACNA Board. In such cases, the Board of Directors of ACNA will determine if the issue is one of national importance affecting matters of policy, fiscal responsibility, personnel, media or risk management. Matters not pertaining to national interests will be delegated to the Boards of the associated chapters. If the chapters can not find agreement, the ACNA Board or its designee may choose to mediate. Disputes between chapters or individuals are best handled at the chapter level and the ACNA Board encourages appropriate dialogue to be conducted amongst the parties involved to achieve resolution.

1) Letters of complaint involving issues of national importance or involving members of the ACNA Board of Directors, while acting in their capacity, will be directed to the presiding President of ACNA. The Executive Committee will review the letter, define the issue(s) and rule on whether or not it warrants a presentation before the entire ACNA Board. If the issue is deemed not relevant, the Executive Committee may reject the complaint. Deliberations regarding the issue will be conducted according to Robert's Rules of Order.

2) Letters of complaint from a chapter's member involving the chapter governance or the handling of a member related subject will be addressed with the presiding president of the chapter. It is the responsibility of chapter boards to properly, fairly and expeditiously process complaints and resolve issues within their membership. If a the compliant is not resolved to the satisfaction of both parties then upon a formal filing of a letter of complaint by the member to the ACNA Board, the Executive Committee will conduct a review and make a final ruling on the compliant.

3) Letters of complaint from a chapter that are not of national importance involving chapter governance or members of a chapter will be directed to the presiding president of the chapter. It is the responsibility of chapter boards to process complaints and resolve issues within their membership.

4) Letters of complaint involving issues between chapters will be sent to both presiding chapter presidents with a request to resolve the matter. If repeated attempts to resolve the issue fail, the chapters may mutually request the intervention of the national board. The national board will offer mediation services to the chapters and pay for the service if it deems the issue of national importance. If the issue is not of national importance, the mediation costs will be borne equally by the two chapters. All parties must make a genuine attempt to agree to the mediator's findings.

The ACNA Board is responsible for providing direction and action at a national level.
Issues at the chapter level are to be resolved by the chapter boards and officials.
It is recommended that chapter boards use Robert's Rules of Order and consider this format for handling issues and disagreements.

The ACNA Board of Directors may choose to assign a mediator to resolve issues with a timetable for the completion of the process. The Board may impose conditions on the process, including the method of allocation to pay for professional services. If mediation fails to result in an agreement within forty-five days, the ACNA Board has authority to
(i) hold the hearing itself in front of the board as a whole;
(ii) assign a hearing officer to review evidence and recommend a decision;
(iii) send the parties to binding arbitration.

Procedures

1. Direct the complaint through the proper channels. Go directly to the parties involved or the chapter involved.

2. Succinctly state the issue, the parties involved, the previous case history and the remedy sought. It is permissible to submit witness statements and other primary evidence.

3. Complaints are to be submitted by the people involved within (60) sixty days of the incident or decision being appealed. If late, the Executive Committee may reject the complaint. Items of hearsay will not be considered.

4. State all issues in summary form and resist straying from the point. Seek to clarify and not to posture.

6. Act to resolve the issue, not prolong the debate.

7. Let the spirit of the ACNA Code of Ethics guide your communications. Publishing or distributing communications that are defamatory, malicious, derogatory, false or libelous may be sufficient cause for immediate suspension or expulsion from the ACNA.


Adoption: 11/1/08

I've put a number of unresolved issues up against this policy and it comes up very short of protecting members' rights. In fact, at least to me, it does a fair job of passing the buck and keeps the National Board from having to enforce its own code of ethics when it comes to local chapters. The language of this policy is confusing as well and leaves way too much room for ignoring problems at their root cause. It's really a shame. I can't help but wonder if the ACNA Board could have possibly put any outstanding issues up against this policy to "test" it. It would have failed miserably.

My perspective is from 15 years at a company that sold rigid packaging to the Pharmaceutical Industry. I lived thru all the seminars and buzzwords from Six-sigma, TQA, TQI, CQI,TQM, ISO, etc... But the philosophies and bonds to these concepts apply here. ANY complaint from a customer is a valid complaint, and deserves consideration and attention by all members of the organization.

The first step to working this downstream document, is a clear and refined Mission Statement. The tests of a Mission Statement are in the policies and procedures, including complaints from customers (ACNA members would be internal customers). These policies and procedures must properly pass the 'operation checks' applied to them as Paul points out.

There are a myriad of documents available to apply ISO/TQM procedures to business, Clubs and organizations. Since ACNA really isn't a product, but an organization, the ISO/TQM study would be defined as TRM (Total Relationship Management/Marketing). The concepts within it apply to policy and procedures ISO/TQM of people-products not production runs.

Being on the Seller side of TQM Complaints for many years, I see some obvious design flaws in the model presented. There is no unwarranted complaint, there are policies and procedures that may help validate a complaint. Those need a historical reference before they can pass that test. Read, you need data, and logging, and history of response. All Regional complaints are National Concerns by definition. Just like a quality complaint in different plant, affects the headquarters and all other plants individually and as a team.

The reason this doesn't appear to satisfy the requirements to be a good directive, it gives no clear complaint form, nor identifies it as a logged complaint. Policy and procedure comes from resolution history, not the other way around? And *all* members of the organization should be aware of the complaint, the actions on it, and the resolution of it.

I understand the goal of the document, but do feel without a clear mission statement of ACNA, including what you do and who your customers are, makes for tough Directive and Policy in a more general sense. The size of this ACNA organization is larger than many midsize companies that have the very same struggles.

Bottom Line: This Policy appears premature. It does not appear to support a clear and concise Mission Statement, has flaws in the application tests, has flaws in the National/Regional Bylaw-ed powers (eliminate a customer complaint, by eliminating customer?!), has no logging/history, and appears not to pass TQM/ISO/TRM normal and customary test references.

Me, I'd back up to a clear, concise Mission Statement of ACNA. Then make sure that's documented and the primary purpose of every Chapter. Then move on to fully documenting complaint procedures and full disclosure to actions on them. With those historical reference documents, modify the Policy and Procedures, or quite possibly the Mission Statement itself.

Procedures and Policy are good things, but need a specific purpose to validate them. For more on TRM in organizations, this link might provide some insight.

My .02

Scott J<ul><li><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=U7cFrtAZnjAC&amp;pg=PA11&amp;lpg=PA11&amp;dq=TQM+conc epts+to+clubs&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=qXP77_h_wb&amp;sig=Lu4vPGu QTZ4pl0MCKTM7MavITjE&amp;hl=en&amp;ei=j6KdSceQDoiiNfzGnZoF &amp;sa=X&amp;oi=book_resul

Very well put, and thanks for putting forward some very reasonable and constructive ideas.

An even more cynical man might look at it and say it is simply the work of Mr. Earley, who has had more formal complaints lodged against him than anybody in the ACNA. Yet somehow, none of them have been pursued, or even answered, by the multiple BoD's that they have been filed under.

This "Complaint Policy" came out partially as a result of a complaint that I filed against Mr. Earley. That complaint was completely ignored by the BoD because Mr. Earley stated that Robert's Rules states that they could not accept complaints filed by an advocate, which is, of course, not true. He lied directly to the BoD on a matter that was a direct conflict of interest and they listened. So now this comes out and absolves the ACNA BoD of any responsibility or participation in the multiple breaches of Ethics and Bylaws, as well as the abuse of office, abuse of power and dereliction of duty that he has participated in.

Nice deal Mr. Earley. Very impressive.

So, to the ACNA board, are you going to pursue those issues that were opened long before you accepted this complaint policy or are you going to sit there and state that you are no longer bound to do what is right because you now have this policy in place?

I think we all know the answer to this.<ul><li><a href="http://forums.audiworld.com/acna/msgs/286.phtml">March 2008 Complaint against Mr. Earley filed with the ACNA BoD</a></li></ul>