Pan People should not run pan and the Queen of England should take back T & T.

 

by Aquil Arrindell

 

A friend of mine, who is a pan enthusiast sent an article to me recently. The article suggested that people from outside the pan community should run pan and not pan people. More than likely, the article would have been inspired by the crisis created by the current executive of Pan Trinbago (P.T.) with their poor management skills; their alleged corrupt activities; the 30million dollars debt and now, their unwillingness to leave gracefully. My friend, an accomplished person, tertiary educated, who is now making a positive contribution in the private sector, thinks that someone like him, in an executive position within P.T., can bring positive change to the organization. He became upset with me for disagreeing with that view.

 

My argument was that all the political parties, NAR, PNM, the UNC/COP/NJACK coalition, etc. had their chance to run this country and today we are in a worse state than we were in 20 years ago. We have not felt positive change and at present we are not hearing any real plan to take the country forward. Taking this into consideration, should we ask the Queen of England to take back Trinidad and Tobago because we are not running our country well? I am not hearing calls for that to happen. So why am I hearing calls for non-pan persons to run Pan Trinbago?

 

Something that is also worrying to me is the fact that there are people willing to lead something they do not understand. I have been asked on many occasions to throw my hat into the ring for presidency and my personal stance is, I still have some learning and understanding to do before I consider taking on that responsibility. It is a definite red flag, when someone is willing to lead an organization they are not tuned into. I would expect, if a person or professional in any field, thinks that they can make a difference in Pan Trinbago they should;

  1. Join their community steel band. Not necessarily to play pan but to assist administratively. Making a difference at that level will give an indebt understanding of the challenges steel band leaders encounter yearly.
  2. After understanding their bands challenges, then try understanding the challenges encountered at a regional level. Use your professional skills to help your region overcome its problems.
  3. Continuous assessment of one’s strategies and measuring one’s results, noting their bands and regions successes based on their intervention. This analysis would give them an idea of their potential effectiveness as an elected central executive officer when the opportunity arises.

 

If people are not willing to make those sacrifices, then they are not worthy of the office. Experiencing the organization at those levels, one would be a well-rounded candidate for the leadership positions at Pan Trinbago, as understanding your constituency is the most important ingredient towards giving good service.

 

Yes, we do in my opinion, need an immediate blend of both band leaders and professionals at the top level of PT. The C.I.P.’s a to z document of solutions addressed that.

https://whensteeltalks.ning.com/forum/topics/structure-of-organisation-suggested-a-z-solutions-for-pan

 

This is an extract of that document.

 

Structure of Organization: - 

  1. Separation of responsibilities. Executives must not hold administrative positions. E.g.

No more President /C.E.O.

No more Secretary / Office Manager etc.

No more Vice President / Events Manager etc. 

  1. Administrative arm (C.E.O, Officer Manager, Events Manager etc.) must have qualifications /experience and will be on short-term contracts. These contracts would only be renewed on a result-based assessment.

In the same document the C.I.P also suggested:

  1. A team willing to volunteer their expertise/advice to the executive would be created. E.g. (business men, lawyers, economists, educators, politicians etc.)

 

As we all move forward towards creating solutions for what is now clearly a broken organization, we should, on all sides, pan people and non pan people alike, be open to change because change is the only constant in any progressive organization.  

Aquil Arrindell

Power to pan people

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Replies

  • Donald may have just secured a Nobel Peace Prize.

  • Good one Claude, re Donald.
  • "we should, on all sides, pan people and non pan people alike, be open to change...."

    WARNING ON CHANGE: Don't forget that OBAMA promised CHANGE and THE CHANGE turned out to be DONALD TRUMP!!!

    • ha, ha ....  is there some thing wrong with Donal?

      the man made history Kim Jung un.

      now we will have work peace.

  • FOUR PEOPLE!!! That is all you need to run PAN TRINBAGO successfully!!!

    One TECH PERSON!!! One LOCAL MARKETING PERSON!!! One GLOBAL MARKETING PERSON!!! And one ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT!!!

    And you do not even need an office!!! Everybody could WORK FROM HOME!!!

    • Frugality reigns. I think a businessman is better equipped to handle a business, there's always a question of honesty, integrity and you know the rest.

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