Bandleaders squabble over who runs Carnival physique
After having no full Carnival celebrations for the previous two years, within the run as much as Carnival 2023 the organisation representing mas is in disarray as members of the TT Carnival Bands Affiliation (TTCBA) have efficiently utilized for an injunction to cease a particular assembly that was alleged to be held on Saturday.
On Thursday, TTCBA members Joanne Thompson, Rose Marie Sandy, Earlika Thompson, Margaret Bailey, Wendy Ann Hodge, Juness Garcia, Mark Ayen, Tia Marie Sutherland, Kevin George, Rosalind Gabriel, Lisa Mollineau, Gerard Ramirez, Dean Ackin, Dwayne Nobriga, Solange Govia, Valmiki Maharaj, and Simone Medford issued a pre-action protocol letter to the organisation to be responded to by 3 pm the subsequent day.
In response to the courtroom software, in an emailed response the TTCBA mentioned it was “unable to accede to your request at the moment, as we’re within the strategy of searching for authorized recommendation.” Because of this, the assembly, which was scheduled for Saturday at 2 pm on the VIP room, Queen’s Park Savannah was cancelled.
All of it started on March 23 when bandleader Rosalind Gabriel resigned as president. Virtually three months afterward June 14, Thompson wrote a letter on behalf of 23 members saying that they had misplaced confidence within the remaining 5 board members to correctly run the affairs of the TTCBA.
She requested {that a} particular assembly be held so a decision could possibly be laid that the membership had misplaced confidence within the remaining board members. She additionally known as on the board to convene an early basic election for a brand new board to be elected.
She despatched two extra letters, on June 30 and July 16, to observe up on the request however received no response.
Nevertheless, on July 14, the TTCBA issued a discover saying the appearing president, Andrew Alleng, had tendered his resignation efficient July 11.
It added that clause 9.5 of TTCBA Bye-Legal guidelines said, “The Govt Committee could meet for the dispatch of enterprise, adjourn, and in any other case regulate their conferences as they could suppose match and 5 (5) members of the Govt Committee shall be a quorum.”
Alleng’s resignation left the board with 4 members so there was no quorum of administrators and the Bye-Legal guidelines said “the administrators then in workplace shall forthwith name a particular assembly to fill the emptiness.”
On July 20, the TTCBA acknowledged receipt of the requisition letter and one of many follow-up letters however refused to convene the particular assembly requisitioned by the candidates saying the board couldn’t do enterprise as a result of there weren’t sufficient board members for a quorum.
It added that it was investigating the validity of the involved members listed and it was calling a particular assembly to “rectify the deficiency” within the variety of the board of administrators.
On that very same day, it despatched a discover to the final membership {that a} particular assembly of the TTCBA could be held to rectify that deficiency on August 13 (Saturday), to which the candidates filed the injunction.
“The respondent (TTCBA) in so doing successfully sought to evade the simply and due penalties of the requisition letter, which, had the respondent complied with the bye-laws and convened the particular assembly (as duly requisitioned by the Applicant), would have had a decision laid earlier than the membership asking it to find out whether or not the Membership had no confidence within the remaining board, and would have had an early basic election convened.
“As an alternative, and in an try and stymie the air flow of the problems surrounding the competence of the board, and the arrogance of the membership in it, the respondent sought to flee the identical, thereby unlawfully robbing and stripping the membership of its rights to name into query the propriety of the present board, and to have these issues ventilated in accordance with the bye-laws, and in accordance with due process and rules of pure justice, and in breach of its fiduciary duties to the membership to behave truthfully and in good religion with a view to one of the best pursuits of the affiliation.”
Two days after the discover of the assembly, Thompson once more wrote the TTCBA saying her request for a duplicate of the minutes of the April 30 basic assembly had been ignored. It additionally requested why the membership was not knowledgeable that Mark Ayen, the general public relations officer, had resigned days earlier than the appearing president.
The letter was not acknowledged.
Remaining on the chief have been Lionel Jagessar Jr, Glendon Morris, and secretary Sparkle Braithwaite.
When Sunday Newsday contacted Jagessar he conformed that an injunction was filed and the assembly was cancelled as requested, however would say no extra because the “matter was earlier than the courts.”
Nevertheless, in an e mail, the TTCBA despatched a number of “information relating to the TTCBA” to the media.
It mentioned throughout the pandemic, one of many administrators, Balnarine Benny, died and his emptiness on the chief was by no means crammed. In contravention to its bye-laws, two non-members have been co-opted onto the chief, and Gabriel assumed the posts of secretary and treasurer.
It mentioned Gabriel resigned in March below stress from the opposite TTCBA govt members. The Nationwide Carnival Fee (NCC) was knowledgeable of her resignation and the brand new appointee however the NCC by no means responded, dis-appointed Gabriel as commissioner on the NCC board, or put in the named individual based on the legal guidelines that govern the NCC.
When Ayen resigned, the chief was left inoperable.
“A decision requesting the fast name for elections was despatched by various folks to which checks revealed that there have been non-TTCBA members among the many signatories. Mrs Gabriel and Mr Ayen are among the many signatories to the decision.
“The TTCBA secretary responded to the letter, albeit late, stating that there is no such thing as a quorum to do something save filling the vacancies to have the ability to conduct the TTCBA enterprise, together with attending to mentioned letter.”
So the remaining TTCBA govt members gave the required discover for a membership assembly to fill the vacancies on the chief so the organisation’s enterprise could possibly be performed.
It added that Gabriel was re-elected as president in 2020 “in a gathering whose legitimacy has been challenged and is now the topic of a excessive courtroom motion,” and the biggest group of these represented within the letter have been below the Tribe banner.
In response to the TTCBA assertion, Gabriel mentioned a lot of it was unfaithful and could possibly be simply disproved.
She mentioned, based on clause 13 of the organisation’s bye-laws, a particular assembly could possibly be convened by the chief committee on requisition of 20 members of the affiliation in good standing.
She mentioned Thomas was the one that began the motion as a result of she didn’t just like the course during which the TTCBA was going. A complete of 23 members have been represented in Thompson’s June 14 letter of no confidence.
She mentioned solely six of the 23 signatories have been of the Tribe household, that the excessive courtroom matter was introduced by Dune Ali, who was not a board member, in opposition to herself and the TTCBA, and the assertion that non-TTCBA members have been among the many signatories was a lie.
“The individuals who requested the particular assembly are all monetary members with receipts to show it and so they have been supplied to the attorneys who plead our case.”
She added that she was by no means secretary however was permitted as interim treasurer in a minuted board assembly after Benny’s loss of life. As treasurer she carried out her duties in addition to up to date the organisation’s accounts.
“4-year financials that the previous treasurer by no means did, 2018 to 2021, are within the NCC due to me. We have been appointed to the board of the NCC in 2018 and I made certain these accounts have been within the NCC.
“And after I resigned from the TTCBA, I didn’t simply resign. I continued doing the accounts. I accounted for each single cent to the NCC as much as March 2022 and left my document clear as a whistle.”
Thompson, chief of Jo’Mas and Associates, mentioned she started to have points with the board when Gabriel resigned and, as a substitute of listening to it from the board, members received the information when the TTCBA introduced it on social and conventional media. She later grew to become upset when the board took $6,000 of the organisation’s funds to carry a workshop on copyright with out asking or informing the members.
“I requested them to maintain a gathering to name the election however as a substitute they need to appoint folks and hijack the organisation. It doesn’t occur so! The person who’s behind all of this isn’t even on the chief! We vote him out resoundingly.
“Name out the members, allow them to know what’s going on and name an election. In the event you win truthful and sq. I’ve no drawback with that. In the event you’re doing issues, do the proper factor. I’m disenchanted in them.”
The TTCBA displaced the Nationwide Carnival Bands Affiliation in 2017 when it was named by then tradition minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly because the authorized physique for the regulation of mas in Trinidad Carnival.
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