They Say Small and Single bands are hustlers and should not have the same voting rights as others. Congrats to Power Stars.
As leaders, we must be careful what negatives we communicate about our members in the public because it emboldens the public to disrespect the members we were elected to serve. Just recently, Power Stars Steel Orchestra’s delegate band was referred to as a paper band (meaning only existing on paper) in the most repugnant way, on national radio (I95.5) by Beverly Ramsey Moore, the illegal president of Pan Trinbago (PT). Power Stars, who in December hosted a hamper drive for the impoverished members of their community and recently took part in the Pan Show in the Queen’s Park Savannah for Medium and Large bands. They too were featured on the gazette only last week for installing solar lights and potentially acquiring a sponsorship deal for the band for the next two years. However, the damaging words uttered by Beverly on that interview will forever remain in the minds of the nation that Power Stars is an illegitimate steel band.
In that interview, Beverley talked about adjusting the constitution so some member bands such as Power Stars orchestra and others, would have less of a say in the organisation. This discussion is gaining traction amongst certain large bands, their executive members and influential members of the public. However, the conversation’s target is to diminish the voting rights of the small and single pan bands. Due to what is being said and the actions of this PT’s executive for the past two years, member bands that are considered to be Small and Single bands are expressing their concerns to us and some of our members are asking for certain decisions to be reconsidered.
Oswald Alexander, manager of Nu Tones Steel Orchestra, asked for the executive of Pan Trinbago (PT) to revisit the hosting of an online competition for Medium and Large and allow for all bands in the various categories to participate. Winners from this online competition would make an extra 20,000 to add to what is already promised. Instead of revisiting it or offering an explanation why the other categories were left out, he was accused of promoting division by an executive member.
To put things into perspective, according to PT’s constitution, there are different categories of membership. All steel bands that are in good financial standing are considered to be ordinary members. With equal say and equal rights to benefits which are collected by the executive on behalf of the membership. Distribution of what is collected must not be discriminatory at no time. Here is the article on Ordinary membership.
SECTION A. - ORDINARY MEMBERSHIP
- This form of membership shall be restricted to bona fide Steelbands.
- Each ordinary member shall be entitled to hold office in and to attend and vote at all meetings of the Association and to enjoy such other privileges as may be extended by the Central Executive Committee
In light of this, according to the PT’s constitution, the notion of single, small, medium and large does not exist. The categorization of steel bands only comes into play for the purpose of the Panorama competition. If so, and we all can agree on this, how come we did not have Panorama in 2021 and 2022 but PT decided to distribute wealth by categories?
In 2021 the president and her executive got some finances on behalf of all the members of the organization but chose a few bands from the Medium and Large category to participate in a show. This year (2022), a new competition was introduced to encourage bands to improve on their online presence. Although small and single had their show, the online competition was not open to bands in the Single and Small category. This competition was sponsored by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) whos mandate is to "REDUCE POVERTY AND CREATE EQUALITY by helping underprivileged groups and communities develop. It is ironic that the $20,000 went to a steel band which has a sponsor.
In all of the discussions I had with persons arguing the case that some of Pan Trinbago’s members should have less of a say in the organization’s affairs, none of them could refer to an existing model where there is an organization where some bona fide members are equal but “some animals are more equal than others”.
Aquil Arrindell
President of Pan Moving Forward.
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