Temperatures rise ahead of AusCycling SGM on April 23

Tensions have been bubbling away in the background for a while.

And now with AusCycling officially calling a Special General Meeting (SGM) for Thursday, 23 April, the temperature is rising even further.

Passions are high on all sides and while there are myriad individual issues at play, the overall frustration between AusCycling, clubs and its members can largely be traced back to dissatisfaction at the way the sport has been governed in Australia since the at-times tumultuous formation of AusCycling in late 2020.

While four motions were put forward by 32 AusCycling clubs for the upcoming SGM—representing five per cent of the AusCycling voting rights held by member clubs—only one will be voted upon on April 23, the removal of Craig Bingham as AusCycling Chair and Director.

The three other motion requests were rejected by AusCycling as they were considered to be invalid, a decision that has been met by yet more criticism from several outside parties.

The rejected motions were:

• The removal of Marne Fechner as Chief Executive Officer with immediate effect and initiation of an open, transparent recruitment process for a new CEO
• The election of Chloe Hosking as a Director of AusCycling with effect from the close of the meeting
• An expression of support from voting members for the appointment of Chloe Hosking to the position of Chair and a call upon the Board to give due consideration to the clearly expressed will of the membership in electing the Chair of AusCycling

Late last week, one of the key figures from within AusCycling, CEO Marne Fechner, took to LinkedIn to provide her thoughts on the current situation.

While Fechner acknowledged the frustrations being felt by many clubs and members, she also pointed to the highly unusual timing of the SGM which will take place just weeks before the AusCycling AGM.

“We are caught in the curious situation of holding a meeting to vote on whether to remove Craig Bingham as our Chair and Director – mere weeks before his term is due to conclude,” she said.

“In normal circumstances, his position would become vacant at the AGM and, if he chose to stand again, this would go to a vote.”

Fechner also said AusCycling hasn’t been formally provided the grounds for the request to call an SGM, but understood some clubs have ‘felt frustrated by a lack of clarity from AusCycling about our progress.’

She ended her statement with an invitation.

“I’m very happy to work with any club that wants to understand more about our plans, our goals – and how to get involved,” she said.

“This sport is not about one person or one perspective, but about all of us… I’m committed to working with any and all clubs to tackle those challenges head on.”

Of the critics of AusCycling, one of the loudest voices has been that of Jack Lindsay, business partner and husband of former professional and Australian team cyclist Chloe Hosking—who is directly named in two of the three rejected motions.

Lindsay responded to Feschner’s statement last week raising questions around transparency issues.

“The resolutions relate directly to the performance of yourself (Fechner) as CEO, and the Chair. It is therefore critical to understand what involvement, if any, you and Craig Bingham had in the decision to prevent those resolutions from proceeding,” Lindsay posted.

With exactly one month to go until the SGM on April 23 what happens next is anyone’s guess. But once again its seems cycling in Australia is at war with itself.