HIGH EXPECTATIONS

HIGH EXPECTATIONS BUT REAL PROBLEMS AT LACROSSE CANADA

There we are, there we are. Halloween is behind us! Now is the time for Lacrosse Canada’s annual meeting. November 15^th and 16^th will be time for costumes and candies, significant hopes but real fears.

Yes, there are high hopes and important expectations

Moving from a ‘’working board’’ to a ‘’governance board’’, though not perfect, can be a very positive step forward if the membership, in its wisdom, elects the best people to govern the national association and if the staff is competent, respectful of democratic processes and efficient.

Because Lacrosse Canada now has a nine person staff; you have read correctly; there are now nine employees working at the National Office in Oshawa. Long gone is the time when there was only one staff member trying to cover every base.

One staff member is the Executive Director; two are involved in administration (Darcy McKeown and Sarah Utting); two are involved in sponsorship and partnerships (Josh Dawick and Samantha McKenzie); two are in the technical field (Wendy Dobbin and Rachel McKinnon) while one is with High Performance (Ashley Bull) and the other is in communications (Kealan Pilon). This in itself is a major change and could be a great step forward if, and only if, all the available human and financial resources are not invested uniquely with and around the National Teams. As there are other people involved in lacrosse who are not on the National Teams. And quite a few, that is.

But reality will strike quickly. Lacrosse Canada has little to offer to national sponsors other than the National Teams, based in Oshawa! Dawick and McKenzie have their work cut out in front of them. They will face real challenges but at least they will be working full time at it contrary to the board member who, as a volunteer on a ‘’working board’’, had the same tasks and responsibilities. And faced the same challenges.

The three staff members involved with High Performance and technical programs will be challenged by the huge inequalities between the provinces as partners, consumers and producers of resources and talent. Look for the dominant provinces (Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta) to again control the National Teams, National Championships and national expenditures. The challenge here will be to integrate the smaller provinces and keep them hoping for better days until they can afford to pay for those better days…which might take ‘’a little bit of time’’.

The two staff members involved in administration will tell us if Lacrosse Canada can become a professional national association or if it will keep on ‘’playing political games’’, fooling around with deadlines and rules and setting members up for irrelevant conflictual discussions and debates. The challenge here will be to present budgets that are in line with national goals (if they exist) and to ensure that there is something FOR the paying members; not just something FROM the paying members. In a very short period of time, we will all know if Lacrosse Canada is in it for itself or if it’s in it for the members.

The lone staff involved in communication will face an important challenge; promote Lacrosse Canada or supply the members with the tools and information they will need to grow the game and to give it provincial visibility. With the information and the tools, they will need to get more and better involved in the administration and politics of the game. Communication is more than just scores of games and color of medals. Its an educational tool, not just a scoreboard or a list of athletes or coaches from Ontario on the National Team.

Sure, there are high expectations but there are also real problems to be dealt with; not just by the staff but also by the Board members.

Yes, there are real problems

Lack of accountability; Hey, this is Annual meeting time; time for reports, discussions and decisions. Time for democratic concerns. But mostly time for accountability; for which Lacrosse Canada has shown a total lack of. Nowhere do you ever find reports of annual meetings and board meetings openly circulated to the members on the website. It is absolutely impossible for interested members to know what the Board has discussed and mostly how each Board member has voted on the issues discussed at their Board meetings. The same holds true for Executive committee meetings, meeting of members or other committee meetings.

The Board members elected at Lacrosse Canada’s annual meetings are accountable to no one; they are elected and sit in awe of their own silence. No one reports on their discussions and decisions. Case in point; the decision to move the National Office from Ottawa to Oshawa. No one has come forward to clearly and openly explain the corporate advantages of such a move. The decision was never even mentioned on Lacrosse Canada’s web site. I have touched base with 30 Canadians involved in lacrosse (from all across the country) and no one knows for sure why the National Office was moved to Oshawa. No one could tell me what were the corporate advantages for the move. Not even Lacrosse Canada’s interim Executive Director to whom I have asked the question twice. No answer. No accountability.

There are dozens of decisions made at the Board level every year and no one knows anything about them; about the issues, the options, the challenges and about those who made those decisions and voted on them…Enough said; those who can understand will have understood.

Lack of information; At Lacrosse Canada information is like an iceberg. One tenth of the iceberg is above water while nine tenths is under water. Lacrosse Canada informs only on the visible part of the iceberg and does not explain what supports what is seen. Why things are the way they are? What explanations should be brought forward for all to understand the state of affairs? Which decisions have led to things being as they are now? What were the results of the votes and who controlled the votes? What were the options for the decisions which were made?

Nothing of this nature ever appears on Lacrosse Canada’s website. We are fed with scores, results, lists of athletes, champions, medal winners and mostly non-political irrelevant stuff. Case in point; some months ago, the website presented a list of Canadian females playing in NCAA’s Division 1; that’s all great but it might have been interesting and enlightening to know how the Ontario Lacrosse Association (where over 80% of the players came from) managed to create such a feat. What was the strategy? What was the lobby? What was the cost? Who organized the process? Just functional information which could have been helpful to other provinces who might want to try their hand at it! What you see is only what you see.

We are also fed with a French version of the website which would be laughable if it was not so despising. Case in point. As of November 4^th Lacrosse Canada, on its French version of the website, indicated that the National Office was still in Ottawa, that Jane Clapham was still the Executive Director in charge of a five person staff; (Jane Clapham has left Lacrosse Canada in February! Nine months ago!!! The man in charge of Lacrosse Canada’s communication listed himself as a female (in French ‘’coordonnatrice’’ is used for females) while Ashley Bull was presented to everyone as a male. And all this is on the website since February. In the last nine months no one at Lacrosse Canada has even come close to reviewing the French content of the website. Say no more; say no more!

Low low registration numbers; Lacrosse Canada’s everlasting challenge is to deal with the low number of its participants. Lacrosse is a marginal sport in Canada. And the only way to deal with it is to draft a national plan with the sole purpose of increasing the number of players throughout Canada. Winning a gold medal here and there will not increase the number of registered players. It has been proven. Investing in our seven National Teams will not increase the number of registered players; it has been proven. Trying to locate a national sponsor will not work until the game increases the number of its registered players across the country, not just in Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta.

This is annual meeting time; one real question will remain. Will the provinces stand together and demand that Lacrosse Canada builds a national plan to increase the number of registered players. Or will they be entrapped and engage in fruitless discussions about needless changes to the rules and operations? Or the color of our National Teams’ jerseys! Or helmets?! Or shorts! Or gloves!

The time is now. Those who will remain silent on this issue will carry the blame for lacrosse progressively becoming a nice folkloric sport…That is why democratic associations have annual meetings; to make decisions and to move forward. Not just for fighting over petty or irrelevant issues.

Have a good annual meeting and put the report on the website!!! If you have time.