5.15PM: NZAF Board chair Clive Aspin has resigned his position while all seven existing board remembers have decided to resist resignation calls and have elected previous deputy chair Simon Robb as their new chair. Aspin remains on the board. The controversy over the board's competency started in the wake of bungled board membership quota proposals and public calls for resignations plus revelations of inaccurately used information in a research paper presented by Aspin. The board's announcement of a proposal for 50% of its members to be Maori to reflect Treaty of Waitangi commitments and to mandate two positions for HIV positive people sparked a flurry of outrage from gay and HIV community members. The board responded by hurriedly announcing a series of regional meetings to discuss the proposals, then backed down from those proposals at the same time as it was revealed that its new - and first Maori - chair, Dr Clive Aspin, a researcher at Auckland University, had selectively and misleadingly quoted material from GayNZ.com in research papers on glbt racism presented at a conference in Mexico after he became chair. A spokesperson for the seven board members says they concede mistakes have been made and they have learned from them. They say constitutional issues have been raised which they will “thrash out” and then consult widely with stake holders. But they stress that process will be taken slowly and deliberately. Responding to a number of calls for mass resignations the spokesperson said the board feels they are the best people, “having been through the mill,” to continue. In an exclusive interview with GayNZ.com's Chris Banks minutes after the board ended its meeting new chair Simon Robb said the board will need to be sure every step of the way “that we are bringing our stake holders with us” in the future.