tidings
Janelle De Souza
Having had no full Carnival celebrations for the past two years, ahead of Carnival 2023 the organization representing the mas is in disarray after members of the TT Carnival Bands Association (TTCBA) successfully applied for an injunction to ban a special meeting that was supposed to be held on Saturday.
On Thursday, TTCBA members Joanne Thompson, Rose Marie Sandy, Earlika Thompson, Margaret Bailey, Wendy Ann Hodge, Junes 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 organization, to be responded to by 3pm the following day.
According to the court filing, in an emailed response, the TTCBA said it was “unable to accept your request at this time as we are in the process of seeking legal advice.” As a result, the meeting, which was scheduled for Saturday at 2 pm at the Queen’s Park Savannah VIP Room, was cancelled.
It all started on March 23 when gang leader Rosalind Gabriel resigned as president. Almost three months later, on June 14, Thompson wrote a letter on behalf of the 23 members saying they had lost confidence in the five remaining board members to properly run the affairs of the TTCBA.
She requested that a special meeting be held so that a resolution could be passed that the membership had lost confidence in the remaining board members. She also called on the board to call an early general election to elect a new board.
She sent two more letters, on June 30 and July 16, to follow up on the request, but received no response.
However, on July 14, the TTCBA issued a notice stating that acting president Andrew Allen had tendered his resignation effective July 11.
He added that Article 9.5 of the TTCBA Regulations stated, “The Executive Committee may meet for the dispatch of business, adjourn and otherwise arrange their meetings as they may think fit and five (5) members of the Executive Committee shall be a quorum. .
Aleng’s resignation left the board with four members, so there was no quorum of directors, and the bylaws said “the directors in office shall immediately call a special meeting to fill the vacancy.”
On July 20, the TTCBA acknowledged receipt of the demand letter and one of the follow-up letters, but declined to call the special meeting requested by the applicants, saying the board could not do business because there were not enough board members for a quorum.
He added that he was investigating the validity of the members included in the list and was calling a special meeting to “correct the deficiencies” in the number of the board of directors.
On the same day, it sent a notice to the general membership that a special meeting of the TTCBA would be held to remedy that deficiency on August 13 (Saturday), to which the applicants presented the order.
“The respondent (TTCBA) in doing so effectively sought to avoid the just and proper consequences of the letter of demand which, had the respondent complied with the by-laws and called the special meeting (as duly requested by the Applicant), would have placed a resolution before the membership asking it to determine whether the Membership had no confidence in the remaining board and called an early general election.
“Instead, and in an attempt to prevent the airing of matters relating to the competence of the board and the confidence of the membership therein, the respondent attempted to escape from the same by robbing and unlawfully removing the membership from its rights to call into question the propriety of the existing board and have these matters aired in accordance with the bylaws and in accordance with due process and principles of natural justice, and in breach of its fiduciary duties to the membership to act honestly and in good faith with the aim of the best interests of the association.”
Two days after the notice of the meeting, Thompson wrote back to the TTCBA saying her request for a copy of the minutes of the April 30 general meeting had been ignored. He also questioned why the membership had not been informed that Mark Ayen, the public relations officer, had resigned days before the acting president.
The letter was not accepted.
Lionel Jagessar Jr, Glendon Morris and secretary Sparkle Braithwaite remained on the executive.
When Sunday Newsday contacted Jagessar, he confirmed that an injunction had been filed and the meeting canceled as requested, but would not say more as “the matter was before the courts”.
However, in an email, the TTCBA sent some “facts about the TTCBA” to the media.
He said that during the pandemic, one of the directors, Balnarine Benny, died and his vacancy on the executive board was never filled. Contrary to its by-laws, two non-members were elected to the executive and Gabriel took the positions of secretary and treasurer.
He said Gabriel resigned in March under pressure from other TTCBA executive members. The National Carnival Commission (NCC) was informed of her resignation and the new appointee, but the CCC never responded, removed Gabriel as a commissioner on the CCC board, or placed the appointee under the laws governing the KKK.
When Ayen resigned, the executive was left powerless.
“A resolution demanding the immediate calling of an election was sent by a number of people, whose checks revealed that there were non-TTCBA members among the signatories. Mrs. Gabriel and Mr. Ayen are among the signatories of the resolution.
“The Secretary of the TTCBA responded to the letter, albeit belatedly, stating that there is no quorum to do anything other than fill vacancies to be able to conduct the business of the TTCBA, including attending to said letter.”
So the remaining executive members of the TTCBA gave the required notice of a membership meeting to fill the executive vacancies so that the business of the organization could be conducted.
He added that Gabriel was re-elected as president in 2020 “in a meeting whose legitimacy has been challenged and is now the subject of a high court action”, and the largest group of those represented on the paper were under the tribal banner.
In response to the TTCBA’s statement, Gabriel said most of it was untrue and could easily be dismissed.
She said that, according to clause 13 of the organization’s bylaws, a special meeting may be called by the executive committee to request 20 members of the association in good standing.
She said Thomas was the person who started the action because he didn’t like the direction the TTCBA was going. A total of 23 members were represented in Thompson’s June 14 no-confidence motion.
She said only six of the 23 signatories were from the tribe’s family, that the high court case was brought by Dune Ali, who was not a board member, against her and the TTCBA, and that the statement that non-TTCBA members were among signatories. it was a lie.
“The people who requested the special meeting are all financial members with receipts to prove it and have been given to the lawyers defending our case.”
She added that she was never secretary, but was approved as interim treasurer at a board meeting held after Benny’s death. As treasurer she performed her duties as well as updated the organization’s accounts.
“The four-year finances that the previous treasurer never did, 2018-2021, are in the KKK because of me. We were appointed to the KKK board in 2018 and I made sure those accounts were in the KKK.
“And when I resigned from the TTCBA, I didn’t just resign. I continued to do the math. I accounted for every cent at NCC until March 2022 and left my record clean as a whistle.”
Thompson, head of Jo’Mas and Associates, said she started having problems with the board when Gabriel resigned and, instead of hearing from the board, members got the news when the TTCBA announced it on social and traditional media. She later became upset when the board took $6,000 of the organization’s funds to hold a copyright seminar without asking or informing members.
“I asked them to hold a meeting to call the election, but instead they want to appoint people and hijack the organization. It doesn’t happen like that! The man behind all this is not even in the executive branch! We strongly vote for it.
“Call the members, announce what is happening and call the elections. If you win correctly, I have no problem with that. If you are doing things, do the right thing. I’m disappointed in them.”
The TTCBA displaced the National Association of Carnival Bands in 2017 when it was appointed by then culture minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly as the statutory body for regulating the crowds at the Trinidad Carnival.
