Geologists, We Need You! What Should GIA Members Do?!

The Guild of Independent Adventurers (GIA) has always prided itself on being a transparent and democratic organisation for professional explorers, geographers, and survival experts.

Each year, members vote on new Guild Council representatives, and for the most part, elections have been smooth every year.

But last year, something strange happened...

The first hints of something odd began when the Council suddenly announced that the GIA logo was changing. No explanation. No consultation. One day, our beloved logo based on the Australian map was simply... gone. In its place? A strange, unrecognisable shape that looked suspiciously like a platypus doing yoga!

GIA members rose up in defiance, putting a stop to the logo change. Tempers flared, debates got heated, and one particularly passionate member summed up the mood perfectly:

"What’s next? A koala doing pilates?"

Then came the elections...

Three seats were up for grabs, but unlike previous years, the election results were never shared with the members. Instead, the winners were announced at the annual Guild Assembly—without vote counts, without details, just a statement that "the results are final".

Then, in a surprise twist, GIA's President, Larry Gore, announced his resignation immediately after the results were revealed.

However, instead of appointing the fourth-place election candidate to fill the vacancy left by Gore, the Council chose three non-elected members to join instead—all of whom had actually been candidates in the election but did not win the top three positions.

Gore had months to step down but chose to do so only after the cameras were turned off at the Assembly.

In the following days, the Council installed Guild Secretary Gayle Simons, who had personally phoned each election candidate to announce the results, as the new President—one of the only people who had known the election results beforehand.

Shortly after, three non-elected members were mysteriously appointed to the Council, under a constitutional rule allowing "specialist appointments"—but the Council never explained what expertise these new members supposedly brought, as required by the constitution.

For the first time in GIA history, SIX members united to file an official complaint, demanding transparency of last year's election results and wanted to know who knew the election results. The GIA's Ethics Committee took almost six months to respond and finally admitted that the secrecy surrounding last year's election was a problem—but they still refused to release the results from last year.

Most disturbingly, the Council in recent months announced a new rule:

Any Guild member who criticises the organisation on social media could face reprimands.

This decision comes despite the fact that the recently launched 'new and improved' GIA website has completely erased the historical records of past GIA activity logs, effectively wiping out the only documentation of the Guild's collective activities of its professional members.

Recently in rapid succession, FIVE of the ELEVEN members of the council have mysteriously resigned, but the GIA members are still in the dark as to why they resigned because instead of being open to its membership, the GIA Council has kept the reasons a secret. One more resignation of a Councillor, and there would not be a quorum for the Guild Council to make decisions as set out by the GIA constitution.

At the recent Rugged Unchartered Innovators (RUI) Explorer's annual meeting in the town of Frolicmantle, rumours were abuzz amongst the GIA members wanting to know what is going on with the GIA Council amidst a wave of sudden, unexplained resignations. Some were voicing whether they should jump ship to Mapping, Money & Influence – Oz (MMIOz), a competing much larger professional society known for serving its members well.

What should a GIA member do?!

So, put yourself in the shoes of a GIA member who has been paying their annual fee religiously for many years, thinking that they are part of a competent professional organisation.

Should a members’ organisation like GIA be:

·?????? Allowed to keep election results secret from its members?

·?????? Override constitutional rules?

·?????? Silence its members by imposing a ban on free speech, and

·?????? Should they be shielding the reasons for the recent mass resignation of the Councillors?

Can you decipher what is going on in the Guild Council?

Can you help, as a geologist, to connect the dots?

What would YOU do to respond as a member to these series of unusual events?

What would you expect from the President and the remaining Guild Council representatives to do?

Share your thoughts in the comments section on what you think GIA members should do in this situation.

Disclaimer: Any resemblance to actual persons, organisations, or events is purely coincidental. The characters, institutions, and scenarios presented are entirely fictional—unless, of course, you happen to know an organisation that keeps election results secret, mysteriously appoints losing candidates, and suddenly enforces gag orders on its members without any discussion. In that case, well… that would be such a freaky coincidence!!

---

Jun Cowan is a structural geological consultant, specialising in interpreting mineral deposits at the deposit-scale. He is the conceptual founder of Leapfrog software, which is now used by many international mining and mineral exploration companies (Leapfrog software resulted from private R&D collaboration undertaken by a joint venture between SRK Consulting Australasia, where Jun worked, and New Zealand company, ARANZ). Out of his home in Fremantle, Western Australia, he consults to mineral industry clients around the world and enjoys sharing his crazy ideas with his clients, and with online colleagues. This and other articles, mainly focused on geological subjects, are available from LinkedIn.