Bandleaders squabble over who runs Carnival body

After having no full Carnival celebrations for the past two years, in the run up to Carnival 2023 the organisation representing mas is in disarray as members of the TT Carnival Bands Association (TTCBA) have successfully applied for an injunction to stop 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, 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 next day.

According to the court application, in an emailed response the TTCBA said it was “unable to accede to 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 VIP room, Queen's Park Savannah was cancelled.

It all began on March 23 when bandleader Rosalind Gabriel resigned as president. Almost three months later on June 14, Thompson wrote a letter on behalf of 23 members saying they had lost confidence in the remaining five board members to properly run the affairs of the TTCBA.

She asked that a special meeting be held so a resolution could be laid that the membership had lost confidence in the remaining board members. She also called on the board to convene an early general election for a new board to be elected.

She sent two more letters, on June 30 and July 16, to follow up on the request but got no response.

However, on July 14, the TTCBA issued a notice saying the acting president, Andrew Alleng, had tendered his resignation effective July 11.

It added that clause 9.5 of TTCBA Bye-Laws stated, “The Executive Committee may meet for the dispatch of business, adjourn, and otherwise regulate their meetings as they may think fit and five (5) members of the Executive Committee shall be a quorum.”

Alleng’s resignation left the board with four members so there was no quorum of directors and the Bye-Laws stated “the directors then in office shall forthwith call a special meeting to fill the vacancy.”

On July 20, the TTCBA acknowledged receipt of the requisition letter and one of the follow-up letters but refused to convene the special meeting requisitioned by the applicants saying the board could not do business because there were not enough board members for a quorum.

It added that it was investigating the validity of the concerned members listed and it was calling a special meeting to “rectify the deficiency” in the number of the board of directors.

On that same day, it sent a notice to the general membership that a special meeting of the TTCBA would be held to rectify that deficiency on August 13 (Saturday), to which the applicants filed the injunction.

“The respondent (TTCBA) in so doing effectively sought to evade the just and due consequences of the requisition letter, which, had the respondent complied with the bye-laws and convened the special meeting (as duly requisitioned by the Applicant), would have had a resolution laid before the membership asking it to determine whether the Membership had no confidence in the remaining board, and would have had an early general election convened.

“Instead, and in an attempt to stymie the ventilation of the issues surrounding the competence of the board, and the confidence of the membership in it, the respondent sought to escape the same, thereby unlawfully robbing and stripping the membership of its rights to call into question the propriety of the existing board, and to have those matters ventilated in accordance with the bye-laws, and in accordance with due procedure and principles of natural justice, and in breach of its fiduciary duties to the membership to act honestly and in good faith with a view to the best interests of the association.”

Two days after the notice of the meeting, Thompson again wrote the TTCBA saying her request for a copy of the minutes of the April 30 general meeting had been ignored. It also asked why the membership was not informed that Mark Ayen, the public relations officer, had resigned days before the acting president.

The letter was not acknowledged.

Remaining on the executive were Lionel Jagessar Jr, Glendon Morris, and secretary Sparkle Braithwaite.

When Sunday Newsday contacted Jagessar he conformed that an injunction was filed and the meeting was cancelled as requested, but would say no more as the “matter was before the courts.”

However, in an email, the TTCBA sent several “facts regarding the TTCBA” to the media.

It said during the pandemic, one of the directors, Balnarine Benny, died and his vacancy on the executive was never filled. In contravention to its bye-laws, two non-members were co-opted onto the executive, and Gabriel assumed the posts of secretary and treasurer.

It said Gabriel resigned in March under pressure from the other TTCBA executive members. The National Carnival Commission (NCC) was informed of her resignation and the new appointee but the NCC never responded, dis-appointed Gabriel as commissioner on the NCC board, or installed the named person according to the laws that govern the NCC.

When Ayen resigned, the executive was left inoperable.

“A resolution requesting the immediate call for elections was sent by a number of people to which checks revealed that there were non-TTCBA members among the signatories. Mrs Gabriel and Mr Ayen are among the signatories to the resolution.

“The TTCBA secretary responded to the letter, albeit late, stating that there is no quorum to do anything save filling the vacancies to be able to conduct the TTCBA business, including attending to said letter.”

So the remaining TTCBA executive members gave the required notice for a membership meeting to fill the vacancies on the executive so the organisation’s business could be conducted.

It 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 in the letter were under the Tribe banner.

In response to the TTCBA statement, Gabriel said much of it was untrue and could be easily disproved.

She said, according to clause 13 of the organisation’s bye-laws, a special meeting could be convened by the executive committee on requisition of 20 members of the association in good standing.

She said Thomas was the person who started the action because she did not like the direction in which the TTCBA was going. A total of 23 members were represented in Thompson’s June 14 letter of no confidence.

She said only six of the 23 signatories were of the Tribe family, that the high court matter was brought by Dune Ali, who was not a board member, against herself and the TTCBA, and the statement that non-TTCBA members were among the signatories was a lie.

“The people who requested the special meeting are all financial members with receipts to prove it and they have been provided to the lawyers who plead our case.”

She added that she was never secretary but was approved as interim treasurer in a minuted board meeting after Benny’s death. As treasurer she performed her duties as well as updated the organisation’s accounts.

“Four-year financials that the past treasurer never did, 2018 to 2021, are in the NCC because of me. We were appointed to the board of the NCC in 2018 and I made sure those accounts were in the NCC.

“And when I resigned from the TTCBA, I didn’t just resign. I continued doing the accounts. I accounted for every single cent to the NCC up to March 2022 and left my record clean as a whistle.”

Thompson, leader of Jo’Mas and Associates, said she began to have issues with the board when Gabriel resigned and, instead of hearing it 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 organisation’s funds to hold a workshop on copyright without asking or informing the members.

“I asked them to keep a meeting to call the election but instead they want to appoint people and hijack the organisation. It doesn’t happen so! The man who’s behind all of this is not even on the executive! We vote him out resoundingly.

“Call out the members, let them know what is going on and call an election. If you win fair and square I have no problem with that. If you’re doing things, do the right thing. I’m disappointed in them.”

The TTCBA displaced the National Carnival Bands Association in 2017 when it was named by then culture minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly as the legal body for the regulation of mas in Trinidad Carnival.