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TTASA President's Report 2006-2008

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TTASA President's Report 2006-2008

Postby Duane 3NE 2NR » July 9th, 2008, 2:59 pm

[quote="Jameer Ali"]President’s Report 2006-2008


Mr. Chairman,
Honourable Members,

Upon the election of the last management team in July 2006, we immediately set about looking at the major issues and the challenges we were faced with. These being the status of Waller Field and the ongoing matter with Eteck.

With the pending deadline, we did plan to continue using the facilities at Waller Field to the max, hoping to stage events almost on a weekly basis. We also for the first time, appointed a Drag Racing Liaison officer in the person of Mr. Oswald Stoute, whose main responsibility was to liaise with the Drag racers and ensure our Drag racing events were well supported. This I must admit brought the desired results.

We also made every effort to work closely with the different promoters to satisfy our wish to stage continuous events on both the Circuit and Drag racing strips. This we pushed to the limit having events on Boxing Day and the last day possible for us to use Waller Field, the 31st December.

This newly-elected management team of July 2006, came into office with our bank account showing the paltry sum of $5,000.00. In spite of the challenges we have faced, losing the only permanent track we have had for well over 40 years, and not getting another to use until October 2007, today this Association has well over $100,000.00 in its account. If this is mismanagement, then I plead guilty. for having also battled with the last Minister of Sport Mr. Roger Boynes.

For the first time in the past forty years, yes I repeat, for the first time in the past forty years, this Association received A COMMITMENT IN WRITING, basically a WRITTEN LEASE for use of land as a racetrack at Camden. This was also accompanied by commitment in principle for another piece of land of approximately 65 acres at Waterloo, for the possible construction of a permanent facility for Motor Sport.

We also worked closely with several homes in our desire to assist the less privileged kids and let us not forget our Events to raise funds for the Cancer Society. Then there were the special events where we did special testing of vehicles for automobile firms and also held two training seminars with the Methanol Co with respect to Road Safety.

Then there was the International Drag racing event back in November 2006 when we invited Grenada and Antigua to participate. Who can forget the tremendous response for this night event which saw another overwhelming public response that had cars backed up way past the Cumuto junction for this night event. We did run a second event in December to cater for the Antiguans whose cars were stuck on the port when the first event was staged. Here again I was able to work closely with another promoter to successfully execute a grand event.

Going back to the securing of the Camden Drag racing track, this was achieved at a time when we all sought to capitalize on the then upcoming general elections and the no-track issues, using the electronic media to get our message across. This we successfully achieved with the added bonus, of also securing considerable funding to get this track operational. I must admit that when we continued to pursue this mater earlier this year again on the radio and TV media, we may have gone a bit too far in making our voices heard, and for this I do apologize. However, let us never forget everyone’s overwhelming joy with our achievements using a similar strategy in October 2007.

Going back to October 2007, we were faced immediately with a demand to stage a grand event in two weeks, and also having to work out many negative challenges with those in control of this track, the management of Briko. We did all that was humanly possible to stage one of the grandest opening functions with proper facilities for spectators, officials and even a special VIP area for special guests and sponsors. We catered for the children, had balloons and confetti and even a formal opening with the traditional cutting of the ribbon by the then Minister of Sport the Hon. Roger Boynes.

There is no dispute from those in attendance that this was possibly the largest ever supported Drag Racing event, both spectator and competitor wise. And may I remind everyone, this achieved within the space of two weeks! And not to be forgotten, this being done solely on the promise of payment, since no funds were released prior to the event, and the personal financial risk rested solely on the shoulder of the President.

Many attempts were made to work with the various disciplines, even though this had to be pursued thorough individual and personal initiatives, simply because of the negatives built up over the years with our Association versus one or more of the other associations. But we still managed to work with, get assistance from and jointly organize certain events. In January 2008 at our prize function we even made the bold step to formalize this with the issuance of certificates of Affiliation to three of these disciplines. At this function we also presented special awards to outstanding achievements to our local drivers on the International scene.

For having achieved all of the above, it was most unfortunate, disgusting and indeed clearly for selfish motives, that a petition with some nineteen allegations, should have been submitted to the Trustees with the clear unashamed intent of undermining the sitting President and by extension his Management Team.

And this Team, which had seen several prominent officers resign for valid personal reasons, thus leaving the grave responsibility with increased workloads on the remaining few, continued to stick together and battle to achieve the desired goals.

Following the submission of the petition together with a vote of no confidence in April 2008, the entire management team decided to step aside. At a meeting with the Trustees a few days later, we were advised that all of the allegations would have been investigated and we would be called back to discuss this matter. To date this has not been done.

But we, the management team up to that time, view with awe the close collaboration between the Chairman of the Trustees and the member who submitted the petition and vote of no confidence. We note with concern the assignment of certain responsibilities to this said individual, including his attempts at collecting monies from new members. We note with concern the inclusion of this member in meetings which he should never have been invited to.

And now seeing that this individual was the first person to submit himself for the post of President, we are expressing our concern whether due process can ever be achieved with this blatant abuse of power, lack of integrity displayed by both parties involved, and the failure to honor the agreement to investigate and get back to the management team. Were we immediately found guilty until we could prove ourselves innocent? Is this good management practices. Maybe we should adopt a similar stance of talking about Court and “Court clothesâ€

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Postby dragaholic » July 10th, 2008, 12:33 am

very interesting reading.

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