DID YOU ALL HAVE A GOOD ANNUAL MEETING?

by Pierre Filion pierrefilion@bell.net

Ah, annual meetings have always amazed me; and I loved then. I have attended 43 Canadian Lacrosse annual meetings in my time with the Québec Lacrosse Fédération. Some were outstandingly interesting and obviously some lacked life and were simply boring. And I have always wondered why delegates come from all over the country to, so often, sit, listen, vote as they are told to vote and rubber stamp whatever is presented to them by an organized Board of Directors.

After positive annual meetings the delegate leave totally gung-ho and have a vivid feeling of being part of a developing national association; they take this feeling home, speak positively about the national association and get their provinces to support national projects or decisions. And here we go because WE are the CLA.

On the other hand after a lackluster meeting the delegates leave with a feeling that nothing good will ever happen, that the Board of Directors knows it all and is more concerned with the well-being of the Association rather than with the members’ needs. And they bring that feeling home and the provincial members start ignoring the national association as if it had plague. And start mistrusting their national association.

Last weekend Lacrosse Canada held its annual meeting with such discretion that no one other than the delegates knew that their national association was holding an annual meeting. LC’s website never ever mentioned anything about the upcoming meeting as if secrecy was a democratic strategy. Don’t take my word for it; look at LC’s posts on the website and try to find anything about last weekend’s annual meeting. Now why would a national association hide its annual meeting from its paying members? Your answer is as good as mine. But asking the question, somehow, is answering it.

What, also, is really unbelievable is that Lacrosse Canada elected to hold its annual meeting BEFORE the provincial member association had the opportunity to report on the number of their registered players and thus collect the legitimate number of votes in relationship with those numbers. An annual meeting is a political meeting and delegates are expected to vote on proposals and issues with the number of votes corresponding to the number of their registered players. These numbers are usually sent to LC in October and a grid is established and everyone knows how many players were registered in each province and how many votes will be allocated. Holding an annual meeting before the national grid is established is pure undemocratic folly. Now why would Lacrosse Canada do this?

There was, thus, no national 2026 grid available in an annual political meeting. No one knew how many votes they had and how many the other provinces had. Usually this is a public information and an obvious procedure within a democratic association.

So, in its wisdom Lacrosse Canada decided to use the 2025 grid which was full of mistakes as THINK LACROSSE reported last year. Some provinces had votes they did not deserve while others had less than they should have had. Between 2025 and 2026 the mistakes were not corrected and Lacrosse Canada looked ridiculous with their proposal. And showed that it lacked wisdom and respect for their members. Hey, someone at Lacrosse Canada is sleeping on the job. Now why did Lacrosse Canada wanted to look ridiculous and disorganized? Imagine if reporters from some national media had attended the AGM! Imagine the article in the paper: ‘’Lacrosse Canada is preparing for its highly expected return to the 2028 Olympic Games but can’t even run a proper election’’.

To its credit, after two huge deficits, Lacrosse Canada declared a surplus for the 2025-26 fiscal year. The surplus was 13,455$. The initial budget proposed revenues of 2,426,884$; Larosse Canada declared revenues of 2,817,331$. Great. While everyone is probably relieved with the declared surplus no one knew how LC managed to create this surplus and what were the revenues and expenses for every item usually reported on in a public audited statement. A credible national association presents the totality of its audited statement, not just a word on ‘’our’’ surplus. Lacrosse Canada clearly failed in withholding the totality of its audited statement to its paying members. Now why would Lacrosse Canada do this? A secretive annual meeting with a one-line report on the association’s finances. When will the full audited statement be placed on the association’s website? Now, imagine again if some media had been in attendance!

In fairness there were good moments at the annual meeting. The reporting process by the president and the association’s different committees is straightforward and informative BUT nowhere can we find the expressed priority of increasing the number of registered players across Canada. LC runs events and trusts and hopes that the events will draw new players. LC is concerned about itself and its improved processes and functionality. Never about increasing the number of players. This is highly disappointing as many fear that the games played in different events will be great games but the strategy to bring in new players will be inexistent.

When the circus comes to town how many new lion tamers emerge?