Fredericks and Equine Canada are parting ways

[Blugal]

[QUOTE=spotlight*;8947485]
EC members choose the Board. Board chooses the Officers (so, President/Vice President).
Just remember - under old Bylaws, each PTSO and/or Sport License Holder got 1 vote.
Somehow (I will NEVER understand why), that membership agreed to go to the current Bylaws, where there are 27 members and the rest of us are simply “Participants” with no vote. There are 9 members that represent Provinces/Territories, 9 that represent Sport and 9 that represent “national organizations”… they hold the vote. And somehow those groups seem to handpick their members.[/QUOTE]

I asked about this at our provincial HT AGM this weekend, and was told that the bylaws were changed to conform to a legislation change. I have no idea if that’s true, but I felt the vibe (both at the time the bylaws were under revision, and when this question was answered on Saturday) that I was being told not to worry my pretty little head about it. To be fair, I was also told on Sat. that the best bet for our organization and members was to petition our provincial horse council, which has a vote at EC, and which is a really terrific organization.

Which means… as much as I hate reading society bylaws, I guess I will go find out what this all means and how it might be changed.

[spotlight]

[QUOTE=Blugal;8947957]
I asked about this at our provincial HT AGM this weekend, and was told that the bylaws were changed to conform to a legislation change. I have no idea if that’s true, but I felt the vibe (both at the time the bylaws were under revision, and when this question was answered on Saturday) that I was being told not to worry my pretty little head about it. To be fair, I was also told on Sat. that the best bet for our organization and members was to petition our provincial horse council, which has a vote at EC, and which is a really terrific organization.

Which means… as much as I hate reading society bylaws, I guess I will go find out what this all means and how it might be changed.[/QUOTE]

Yes, the bylaws had to change due to the new NFP act, but we didn’t have to give up our vote. That was NOT required by the new legislation.

Make sure you also read the governance policy manual, as it explains how the 9 sport members are selected. Every time I read it I think “holy closed shop”

[LadyB]

[QUOTE=brindille;8943351]

On another note, the EC convention is taking place in Vancouver (where I now live). I wonder if an open letter calling for the President’s resignation due to conflicts of interest would be in order? I mean, he’s suing one of Canada’s most promising eventers and now owning horses for another country’s WEG hopeful. Surely there’s a case here! Anyone???[/QUOTE]

I would 100% be behind a letter demanding his resignation. Its been done before with another organization and was successful, we are totally capable!

[LadyB]

http://horsenetwork.com/2016/11/three-members-rio-olympic-team-just-called-canadian-federation/

I know its Show Jumping, but another knock at EC. Come on… the media needs to be contacted. People need to start speaking up and out and complaining to EC. This is insane!

[Encourage]

I have to say it’s definitely heartening to see 3 top riders speak out against EC. Hopefully it gets the ball rolling with other top riders of other disciplines to air their issues with EC.

[Jealoushe]

Good for them!!!

Let’s get this going…

Also, Eric Lamaze is sexy as hell…god lol

[Sticky_Situation]

So showjumping got switched to the three man team/no drop score/penalty for using reserve format as well? I would guess that means it also affects dressage?

Guess it’s time for not just eventing but ALL equestrian sports to leave the Olympics. Unless they maybe want to substitute a 2’6" hunter class it its place … you know, so they can increase the number of countries able to send a whole team of capable riders :rolleyes:

[spotlight]

http://www.horse-canada.com/horse-news/new-brand-same-dysfunctional-ec/

[Blugal]

[QUOTE=spotlight*;8949383]
http://www.horse-canada.com/horse-news/new-brand-same-dysfunctional-ec/[/QUOTE]

Thanks, spotlight*, EC members need to read this to see how bad it really is.

From the article:

Two-thirds of the way through EC’s fiscal year, the board still does not have a clear understanding of the organization’s financial position. Given that EC reported a 2015 loss in excess of $450,000 during CEO Eva Havaris’s first year and that Unrestricted Funds showed a loss of almost $340,000 in 2016, the current unknown status is particularly concerning.

Great, so that is over $750,000 in losses that are known, and EC currently doesn’t know how its accounting system works.

Then we have commentary on the term limits for EC board members:

Shockingly, both [CEO] Havaris and [President] Bernhard insist they know what the terms for each board member are, but would not share that information.

With regards to the 27 voting members of EC: nobody’s emails addresses are listed on the EC website, so even if you as a member want to get hold of the voting members, it’s not possible. By the same token, the representatives do not have a way to communicate with their members, being simply members of the industry, such as Cara Whitham (dressage judge). There has to be some kind of ethical issue whereby individual members shouldn’t really be communicating with her as an active dressage judge, and vice versa.

Also regarding those 27 voting members, there are 9 votes for sport, of which eventing has none.

[brindille]

There are some online platforms for petitions, and you can then print the list of signers and/or electronically send them to the body you’re petitioning. If someone has the energy to write the petition calling for the President’s resignation, I’m happy to post it (or send you the link to the platform to do so).

Also, approaching the media has to be done carefully. I work in campaigning and communications - the equestrian world is generally seen as a crowd of elite bourgeoisie and I’m not sure that a scathing article would do more than amplify the view that we’re all a bunch of rich dysfunctional people :lol: But if one of Canada’s top riders was to get behind the drive to rid EC of its president, or if there was a campaign to withhold membership dues, or something that can frame the story as regular people fighting a corrupt and twisted organization, there may be interest imho…

[SnicklefritzG]

There’s a long line sistah…:lol:

[QUOTE=Jealoushe;8949264]
Good for them!!!

Let’s get this going…

Also, Eric Lamaze is sexy as hell…god lol[/QUOTE]

[JER]

This really needs to be brought to Sport Canada. EC is an opaque organization and will continue to do as it pleases unless forced otherwise.

The stuff about the finances could be addressed through the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre. They’re quite helpful if you call or email. This may require a group of EC members getting together as ‘persons affected’ and getting an attorney on board. The SDRCC has heard a lot about EC lately, so this would be a good time to take action there.

[LadyB]

And we know we’ll still have no information come Jan 1st, when they want us to renew our memberships.

They’ll ask for more money, yet they wont provide a list of finances for the 2016 year.

[Fred]

Update on the mess that is EC. It seems Torchy Millar has resigned or is resigning as well.

[vineyridge]

http://www.horse-canada.com/horse-news/terrance-millar-resigns-from-equestrian-canada-board/

On the resignation with some interesting comments.

[LadyB]

If only more would follow suit of Torchy and resign.

Good on Torchy for getting out of there, just a little late though, wouldn’t say you’re resigning with dignity, its been a mess for too long.

I hear people are having quite the issues getting their EC memberships online, I haven’t even tried yet, and I’m in not rush to.

[Jealoushe]

[QUOTE=Fred;9001122]
Update on the mess that is EC. It seems Torchy Millar has resigned or is resigning as well.[/QUOTE]

“I was not happy with several things,” he commented. “In my opinion, the management is sidelining the disciplines from any meaningful authority over their owns sports. It appears that the direction they are going is to run High Performance for the various sports directly from the EC office and I don’t think they have the knowledge, background, skill set, or capacity to do so.”

Such a huge loss for all of our horse sports. Happy to see he spoke out publicly. I think the showjumpers are getting pissed. Wouldn’t be surprised if they passed on the team to instead do the circuits.

[Equibrit]

Financials;
https://www.equestrian.ca/cfs/files/resources/7LNEE3xTFSCj4sp9B/2016-03-31%20Equine%20Canada%20Final%20Signed.pdf?token=eyJhdXRoVG9rZW4iOiI5ODRWTWdmblc2dUZfaUwzdWlETU5MVE1vS2YzSm51N1dfWUdkZDJoMnRTIn0%3D

[Equibrit]

If you look here there are email addresses for all board members, except Jorge Bernhard.
https://www.equestrian.ca/about/contact

[Synthesis]

[QUOTE=Equibrit;9002548]
Financials;
https://www.equestrian.ca/cfs/files/resources/7LNEE3xTFSCj4sp9B/2016-03-31%20Equine%20Canada%20Final%20Signed.pdf?token=eyJhdXRoVG9rZW4iOiI5ODRWTWdmblc2dUZfaUwzdWlETU5MVE1vS2YzSm51N1dfWUdkZDJoMnRTIn0%3D[/QUOTE]

Those are the financials up to March 2016 and pre-dating the exit of the previous controller.

None have been issued since. They are supposed to come out monthly or quarterly, I can’t remember which. Certainly someone can chime in