Saving Pan Trinbago

Beverly Ramsey-Moore, one of eight people contesting the post of Pan Trinbago president in the organisation's executive election on Sunday, has experienced the highs and lows of life in the steelband movement.

As manager of Petrotrin Katzenjammers Steel Orchestra in Tobago, she has transformed the once quaint Black Rock-based outfit into a household name.

Under her leadership, Katzenjammers won the Tobago Panorama titles in 2009, 2011 and 2012. The band also claimed victory in the Pan in the 21st Century competitions in 2004 and 2008.

Katzenjammers' most fulfilling victories, though, have been its two national Panorama titles in the medium band category in 2011 and 2012.

However, her work in the steelpan vineyard has not always gone smoothly. Ramsey-Moore resigned as assistant secretary of Pan Trinbago's central executive some years ago after locking horns with the Keith Diaz-led executive over alleged breaches in protocol and financial mismanagement.

She told Sunday Newsday her decision to again contest the leadership of Pan Trinbago, the governing body for pan, is the result of mounting calls for her to do so.

"I am cautiously optimistic about this election. This is so because I really was not thinking about contesting the Pan Trinbago election this rounds. But there really was a call coming from leaders in the steelpan community and I responded," she said.

"I guess everything has now come to light that what I was preaching since 2012, they have now realised that I was correct."

She claimed the way the organisation was being run since then would have definitely thrown it into disrepute.

"I went to the members and I told them we need to take to hold the executive accountable for the spending of funds, the haemorrhaging that was taking place. They (the executive) were not accounting to the members. There were no financial rules. They were just operating by vaps."

The former Tobago House of Assembly (THA) secretary said based on her experience in government, she knew the organisation was being mismanaged.

"If it is that Pan Trinbago is the world governing body for pan, they were not behaving like such. They were just milking the cow and today, they have killed the cow dead."

Saying she had always had the vision for a better Pan Trinbago, an emotional Ramsey-Moore claimed she had been "demonised" by the Diaz executive "for speaking the truth."

She added: "They even got the members to move a motion to label me and others who supported me as persona non grata in the steelpan movement. That is as far as it went."

If elected, Ramsey-Moore said, her first order of business would be to amend Pan Trinbago's constitution to place the power in the hands of the membership.

"As much as there is going to be an executive, we have to respect our members, and so through the collaborative effort with member bands, we will sit and take another look at our constitution.

As long as we look at our constitution and clean up our constitution, then we can prepare for the long road ahead. It will not be easy, because Pan Trinbago is broke. But our greatest resource is our members and we can rebuild Pan Trinbago."

In this regard, Ramsey-Moore said her team has put together a ten-point plan to steer the revival process. The plan, she said, would not entail initiatives to help prepare for festivals, but will delve fully into the realm of civic responsibility.

"Pan Trinbago is an NGO and unless we recognise how powerful NGOs are, then we will not be able to go anywhere. I know for a fact that we are the largest cultural organisation in TT. It is not only about the pan. Pan impacts on communities and when you think about the amount of people the steelpan movement impacts on, then government and private sector ill support us if our initiatives are the right one.

"We have to change the focus from only about developing the festivals, but we must also develop our people using the national instrument of TT as a vehicle for social transformation. Unless we move in that direction, nobody will take us seriously."

She said the organisation must play a fundamental role in job creation, poverty reduction and crime reduction.

"It must not always be, 'Gimme, gimme, gimme.' It is about what we doing to help ourselves. That is the newness that I want to bring - the development of human capital. We too must play a role in that and unless we see that as part of our responsibility, then we are going nowhere."

Ramsey-Moore said she does not want to be president for a salary.

"I want to be president so that we can help the ordinary man out there, especially those who are living in vulnerable areas. I want to impart knowledge and develop people through the national instrument. That is not what I am about. I am a people's person."

Regaining the trust of both government and private sector would be the key to success.

"Once you present honest leadership, then it is easy. Beverly Ramsey-Moore and the other members of this team are names you can associate with transparency, accountability, openness and fairness. And as long as you have clean, true and honest leadership that you can trust then obviously, the world will notice us."

Looking ahead to Carnival 2019, Ramsey-Moore said while Katzenjammers will participate in the Panorama competition, the jury is still out on sponsorship. Petrotrin has sponsored the band since 2010. Now Ramsey-Moore cannot say if the state company's sponsorship of Katzenjammers would continue in the Government's new dispensation. Petrotrin has been replaced two new state entities – Heritage Petroleum Company Ltd and Paria Fuel Trading Company.

Ramsey-Moore, who has managed Katzenjammers since 2003, told Sunday Newsday: "We don't know what is happening with our sponsors. But definitely, we will be going to Panorama in 2019, although we have not selected a song.

"Petrotrin is our sponsor and we know definitely there is a turnaround with respect to the company.

"I am hoping that whatever happens there will still be support for not only the sponsored bands, but for those that require assistance."

She also hoped the new companies would support the national instrument.

"I hope they know that it will not be just about giving bands money, but it is about developing the artform and helping those communities to chart a new course for the young people, so regardless of what happens with Petrotrin, they will give that support to our youth in culture."