Ann: Quarterly Activities Report, page-96

Multi-award-winning investigative journalist and MPC president Adele Ferguson, ABC News Breakfast host and vice-president Michael Rowland and former Fairfax editor and journalist Mark Baker (who served as the body's CEO) all abruptly vacated their positions on Tuesday and Wednesday.

This followed a mediation that took place on Tuesday between several members of the Melbourne Press Club's volunteer board, including Ferguson, Rowland and lawyer Richard Leder, and former The Age editor turned PR operative Mike Smith, a life member of the club who had concerns over several of its recent actions and direction.

Following the mediation, Rowland resigned. The next day, Baker was unwilling to accept the recommendations for resolving the long-running dispute, which involved an apology to Smith. He resigned and, the attempt to mediate the dispute having failed, was soon after followed out the door by Ferguson.

The speed and finality of the resignations shocked the rest of the board, and leaves the body without much of its senior leadership weeks before Baker, a former China correspondent, had been scheduled to take six journalists to China on exchange. Other prominent initiatives from the club include the annual Quill awards, a new series of scholarships in the memory of The Agereporter Michael Gordon, and the Australian Media Hall of Fame.

It's not the first time tensions over the club have spilled into public view this year. In March, Crikey and The Guardian reported that the Commonwealth Bank had expressed an interest in sponsoring the Quills' Young Journalist of the Year award, in the process dislodging the long-standing arrangements the MPC had reached with the widow of journalist David Wilson to sponsor the same award in his memory.

Our Director Mark Baker has other things (other than LNY) on his mind, from the AFR, 23 Oct 2019.