Thread by @WeDietitians

Morning Followers,
Easter weekend marks the 7*-year anniversary of my "public rejection from the @DAA_feed".

*it could be 6, there was never a date put next to my name on website

What's that? Why can't I just leave it alone & get on with my life? Oh I got on with my life, thanks for your concern. This 👆 is part of my life, as is my commitment to the vocation I signed up to....which, ICYMI....

is: to use my knowledge & trusted position in society (as a credentialled health professional) to create social systems where food is celebrated, loved, and in favour of good-health. To be part of an agile & responsive profession to achieve "food-health for all"....

The gap between what I signed up for, and what I got, was jarring, but, like every do-gooder, went for the "change from within" bc, we've "got this"...look at our collective mission! Who wouldn't want "healthy people healthy nations [thru food]"....

I took many committee positions, within & aligned to the DAA, I published, I lectured, I discussed, I listened, I had frank conversations direct with the CEO (c2008/9) which was about the time I realised...

a) members were not being given full information and b) the current governance structures had created silo's where all power was with one person (even though on paper the by-laws, the flow of info, the sharing of power) seemed reasonable.

I still continued my support for the DAA, responded to surveys, wrote in when they asked (or didn't ask 😉) - that's the silo by the way....the selective publishing of survey results, the sanitised newsletter, the encouragement to "take your issues to the board and/or CEO"...

...which, took me 13 years to realise....when each person takes their issue through these single-line structures, we don't get to see what others are thinking, what they are challenging...so you sit quietly thinking, maybe I am the only one who thinks this...

...then DAA updated it's website, and we had these "discussion groups" (c2010)...I started my PhD in 2011 so got to indulge in the profession...I was still starry-eyed about the DAA, ADG, HSR-style campaigns...

...the PhD gave me space to talk to dietitians, & I realised many thought as I did, and we'd all "written directly to the DAA" and did the "no one else seems to think it an issue so I'll drop it"....Bebi Juice, AHPRA, Coke letter to us...we'd all asked WTF...separately

I made a commitment to self, I was going to brave up, and to bring these ideas to our IGs as they came up - not intentionally provocative, but used what I had written to the DAA in my responses. Politely critical, solution-focused...

Anyone part of those discussion groups over that time saw the DAA moderators become more heavy handed in reminding us what we were/were not allowed to talk about, including how we talked about it. It wasn't "just" me either...far from it...

I learnt heaps in those months, and valued the information coming through. The president of DAA piped up a few times too to "quell the masses". The thing is, up in DAA HQ, they'd have clocked I was using stuff I'd written to them directly about in my responses...

Feb 2012, I was cut off from all groups without notice....I was lead of the Research DG at that time too....I emailed DAA...only then did they reveal a "letter of notice of my cutting off was on its way"...me: ok, no biggy, 3 month suspension...for what...?

Letter was lame...reiterating "the rules"...still - I did write to CEO to have on record my disagreement with the rationale, decision, and the unprofessional BS of post-cut-off-notice....thought I'd politely sit out my time....

Little did I know at that same time, a DAA staff member lodged a formal complaint about me "making unsubstantiated comments in a public forum that..reduced morale in their team.." citing they "had an ethical duty to put in formal complaint bc [she is being] unprofessional [IMO]"

FTR - the specific statement cited by complainant was not even mine....but lets not split hairs right...I received the letter in due course. Responded to the letter of the "DAA Laws"...offered solution even...thought that'd be the end of it

Sent my response, reg post as per....Post-mark says DAA HQ received letter Thursday arvo (Good Friday was next day)...but SOMEHOW...as per DAA By-Laws, the CEO & Pres squeezed in a conference to "review my response & the evidence submitted to decide to reject my response"...

Which means, the matter is escalated to the Complaints & Disciplinary committee...I'll explain a few thing before we get back to "the story"....

Thursday afternoon would have been a) the FIRST TIME the president was privy to the "body of evidence" & b) the evidence to that point was collected and investigated by the one person, the CEO... and yet, together, they decided my unprofessionalism was so obvs bad - escalated it

...I don't know any of this by the way at that point....all I knew was DAA HQ got my reg post. Good Friday, Saturday, Easter Sunday, Monday public holiday....Tuesday...I'm in bunnings car park with sausage, text from buddy says...

"Hey MV your name is up on the DAA website...what'd you doooooo"?? Me...WT? WHY??

There ON THE FRONT PAGE OF THE "FIND AN APD" is me. The screen grab earlier is not the original, and yes, bc I have gotten on with my life i'm not going to spend time searching for the orig

Of course I emailed DAA (CEO) to say WT? Now, here's the shitty(ier) part...in that correspondence, not once did the CEO tell me there was a) a letter on its way to me to explain, nor b) they'd made a decision to reject my response. Instead I got this cat & mouse By-Law dance

Next day....got the letter to say "rejected response, escalated to next level" but how did that then translate to name on website in a special section just for me?....oh but wait....Easter Saturday...midnight....my membership expired.

First up, that was no different really from any other year for me, except every other year I got personal email reminders, & even phone call from DAA to pay over the phone...not this year...and really, I didn't even notice under the stupidly stressful circumstances of the moment

But "my membership expiring" AFTER the DAA CEO & President decided they were escalating the matter (Thursday arvo...before good Friday) gave the green light for the CEO to show that I had disengaged from the process (as per DAA Law) which somehow legitimised my public naming??

Remember, I'd still not received the letter of the decision to escalate the case, even though I had actively sought to work out what I had/hadn't done direct with CEO....couple of other fun facts here....

There is NOTHING in the DAA Laws to say "public naming on our website is what will happen if you disengage"...."disengaging" being naughty is there, but not the naming publicly as the outcome. I pointed that out in my correspondence. But meh.

Then the letter came, and I realised what had happened, and why CEO was being so smugly legitimised. I HAD to get a lawyer... $5k it cost me, for one letter (that I drafted myself) to ask DAA to take the name down please.

Without admission, DAA MOVED the naming page from the first page of the "Fin and APD" to one more click away. But there it stayed. Lawyers advice was "the DAA appear to have unlimited funds, you will not win, you are better to just do as they ask and follow the process through"