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Dragon Boat Canada


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Canoe Kayak Canada

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[kmcvay]

Darrell Bellaart, Daily News

Infighting erupted Tuesday evening between a group of dragon boat paddlers and board members for Nanaimo's largest and most successful festival.

About a dozen paddlers attended the Nanaimo Dragon Boat Festival Society's annual general meeting demanding membership and immediate voting status at the AGM. It's the meeting where societies vote in a new executive.

Among the group was Karen Addison, who was ejected from the board three weeks ago.

http://www2.canada.com/nanaimodailynews/news/story.html?id=747e943b-fd46-48ef-a03b-5d307632e53b

Use the link for the full story.

[paddlemonkey]

I read this...

The article has some poor wording in it that obliquely suggests that the paddlers in attendance were wanting to reduce focus on the breast cancer fundraising aspect of this event. I think the real message was that fundraising should be focused around cancer in general...

[kmcvay]

Different people expressed concern about different issues. I am one of those who believes that the focus upon breast cancer is excessive and damaging to the sport, particularly here on the Island. (At this point I should probably mention that I am a prostate cancer survivor, and have lived with the disease since 2003, Cancer is up close and personal for me.)

The Society’s Constitution says that one of the purposes of the Society is to, “provide financial assistance to research facilities, Foundations or Societies involved in the development of cures for, and life extending treatments of all types of cancer in humans.� Given this clause, I have difficulty understanding why the Society has made small donations to our local hospice society. While I support the hospice, I don't think it fits within the constitutional mandate quoted here.

One of the problems identified at a recent meeting of Island coaches and stakeholders was that - because of the focus on breast cancer - the public perceives dragon boat racing as a fundraising activity rather than a sport. (This is even reflected in the way the press reports our local festival.) The folks who attended that planning meeting (not the AGM) believed that this overwhelming emphasis was one of the reasons it was difficult to recruit men to the sport.

Another issue was race management - although the question was asked as to whether or not the race management contract was put out for competitive tender, no answer was given. I don't believe the Society has ever requested bids, and that could very well mean that they are spending more than they need to to secure boat rentals and race management. Why would a society devoted to doing such good work fail to take advantage of the competitive bidding process?