HOW TO OPEN A CLOSED SHOP?

by Pierre Filion pierrefilion@bell.net

In 2023 Sport Canada, the federal funding agency for sports, wanted some changes in the governance of the national sport associations and established a ‘’report card’’ for the different national associations it was funding. Red flags were waived…

Lacrosse Canada received its ‘’report card’’ along with ‘’suggestions’’ for changes and appreciated that the suggestions came with a clear indication that federal funding would be in jeopardy if the ‘’suggested changes’’ did not occur before a prescribed deadline.

Lacrosse Canada enthusiastically (!) accepted the proposed changes to its democratic processes and met with the prescribed deadline; funding was secured and some changes started happening:

The Board of Directors is now made up of 40% females (someone will eventually help us all understand the progress that came with such a democratic (!) change)
The Board of Directors moved from a working board to a governance board
Minutes of the 2023 and 2024 Board meetings are now on Lacrosse Canada’s website
Lacrosse Canada’s strategic plan is now on the website (you have to look hard to find it but it’s there). Even the ‘’operational plan’’ is on the website.

I have had the time and interest to look at the strategic and operational plan (2025-2028). I would suggest that everyone takes the time to go to www.lacrosse.ca, and in the menu click on ‘’about’’, then on ‘’leadership’’ and finally on ‘’organization’’. It’s all there; one would even think that this could be some type of a first step in transparency and accountability. That’s what I thought anyway.

Yes, it’s a first step; it would have been appreciated, however, if the website had indicated, in an official post, that Lacrosse Canada had a strategic plan and helped the readers access it on the website. Let’s remember that this is ‘’our’’ national association’s strategic plan to govern and develop the game. This is an important document in the life of a democratic association. This is a document that could interest the paying members and their parents who are old enough to sign cheques, read documents and involve themselves within the game…if only they are properly informed.

The strategic plan is interesting, large and somehow motivating. Until one realizes that there are no measurable goals tied to the plan. This in itself raises an important concern in terms of accountability because no one will be able to say whether or not Lacrosse Canada has reached its goals/objectives. The goals are identified as ‘’strategic pillars’’ and as mentioned are highly motivating. But they are not measurable. Go see for yourself.

The plan identifies 4 pillars, 16 projects, 62 concerns and 133 activities to manage! But it fails to indicate who does what, who is in charge and when everything starts and finishes. And mostly at what costs. But it’s all there for everyone to see and probably to be turned off because nowhere will the paying members have an idea of what is really happening. Anyone bringing up an issue of transparency will be shot down because, if you manage to find the plan on the website, you’ll see that it’s all there. Nothing secret about this. Thousands of words if you read through it.

Yet my impression is that we are involved in an illusion of reality and in an allusion to transparency.

My impression is that Lacrosse Canada has become a staff-controlled association, concerned mostly with national teams and with a strategy to distance the members as much as possible from being involved within the game. The reality is that the democratic life of the association is now in the hands of a very limited number of people (the 11 provincial presidents) who are fed and informed by a staff of 9 who now reports to the Executive Director who, himself, reports to the president and to the 9 members of the Board of Directors. The 51,131 paying members are on the outside and know very little about the state of the game and the directions towards which it is taken.

Lacrosse Canada’s website could be the best tool to avoid a process creating a closed shop. And a closed shop is what Lacrosse Canada is and will remain until credible and relevant information starts to circulate. The website can and could start informing the members about the relevant issues within the game; the challenges to the game and the options that are open to the game. The national teams cannot and should not be the only or even the dominant focus point of the website if we are to engage the community, as a vibrant community, in the development of the game. Most of the paying members have parents who could contribute greatly if they were informed about the state of the game, the challenges to the game and the options it has.

Here is an example to illustrate our point. The website informs us all that the Board of Directors had a Board meeting on January 15^th and will have another one on March 19^th. As of March 3^rd there is no report as to whether or not the January 15^th meeting was held and no information concerning the minutes of the meeting. It could have been highly informative for the paying members to have been informed of the Board meeting, of the agenda and concerns that their elected Board members were to address.

Informing the paying members of what is at stake at the Board level would be a positive first step for the members to discover the realm of concerns that Board members have and the directions they give to the game. It would be a practical first step in transparency and a genuine effort in terms of accountability. And if the minutes of the meeting were posted on the website a few days after the meeting the paying members could get an education into the political activity of the association that they fund with their membership fees. That is a very simple process to follow if one is interested in ‘’cultivating a vibrant and inclusive community that engages participants of all ages, abilities and backgrounds’’. You will have gathered that this is the mission statement presented in Lacrosse Canada’s strategic plan. Obviously.

Contrary to Sport Canada (who could have withheld funding) the paying members are a tame group of docile followers who have little leverage over the democratic functioning of their association. They cannot create relevant and credible information; Lacrosse Canada can and should. Lacrosse Canada’s website should not be the meeting point of lacrosse cheerleaders engaged in a concert of applauses for anything or everything related to the National Teams. There is so much more to the game…

Information is the key towards the establishment of a vibrant lacrosse community where the state of the game is more relevant than the score of a game here and there. Maybe that is something the Board members discussed at their January 15^th meeting. If that is not the case then, maybe, they could address it at their March 19^th meeting! And maybe they can share their concerns with their paying members.