The Board of Sheffield's Learning Light resigns en masse

Updated 4/5/2007

Donald Clark reports with anger that the Board of Sheffield's Learning Light a Government-funded not-for-profit company set up with Government and EC funding to serve as a "centre of excellence in the use of learning technologies in the workplace and in organisational learning best practice"  resigned en masse at Learning Light's AGM.* From the tone of Donald's post you might think he was at the AGM: apparently this was not the case. New board members have now been appointed.

See also coverage of:

• Learning Light's March 2006 absorption of Jane Knight's wonderful E-Learning Centre web site;
• Jane Knight and Vaughan Waller's December 2006 departure from Learning Light; 
• the genuinely useful material written for Learning Light by Itiel Dror. (Get it while you can.)

*Disclosure. Prior to the establishment of Learning Light I bid for got some interesting work from PA Consulting to write two "research reports" which formed some of Learning Light's initial resources; and I am now on Learning Light's list of qualified consultants, though no work has come my way as a result.

Comments

[Donald Clark]

I wasn't at the AGM as I was attending another board meeting on the same day. I know what happened because I spoke to all concerned; the Chair and the CEO. Note that I was still a board member after the AGM (contrary to the misinformation in their press release). It was the ousted Chair and myself who had to point out to the CEO the illegal nature of the AGM. He promptly hired lawyers to confirm his position, only to receive advice that we were right. He was then 'forced' to declare the first AGM null and void.

After desperately trying to get us back as Board members (we all refused), for a second AGM, he failed. and has had to recruit a board from scratch. In short, he hadn't a clue what he was doing and had to pay lawyers to confirm that we were right and he was wrong. By this time the board members (all doing this for free) were disgusted and had resigned for good.

A magnificent shambles! If this was anything other than a Yorkshire Forward project, there would have been an investigation, and the CEO would have resigned/been sacked.

Donald. Thanks for this extra angle. Seb.