PUPPETS, STAMPERS OR LEADERS?

BRIGHT PUPPETS, RUBBER STAMPERS OR GENUINE LEADERS???

by Pierre Filion  pierrefilion@bell.net.ca

October is a quiet month for lacrosse players but a very exciting time for administrators and volunteers interested in the organization and development of the game. It’s decision time. Time for Lacrosse Canada’s annual meeting (in mid-November) and the debates and discussions surrounding proposals to better the game. Late October and November is lacrosse’s time for political activity and improved governance. A very interesting time.

It will also be election time as Lacrosse Canada has sent out on September 13th a notice to all that there were four positions open on the Board of Directors. The communiqué also indicated the needed qualities for candidates to have or to develop in order to become Board members. Please take the time to locate the September 13th communiqué on Lacrosse Canada’s website www.lacrosse.ca 

The important change presented to all is that Lacrosse Canada will move from a working board to a governance board.

A working board is one in which, because of the small size of the association, Board members are tasked with responsibilities, dossiers, and areas of intervention and are expected to work and perform in those areas and to report to the membership upon an array of areas such as administration, national championships, marketing and communication, Indigenous affairs, high performance, etc.

A governance board is one where Directors are free from operational roles and concentrate on the establishment of a multi-year strategic plan, annual goals and objectives, vision and budgets. This is easier done when an Association has a significant number of employees (Lacrosse Canada has nine) but is almost impossible within an Association that has only one employee or contractual resource (such as The Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame).

The move from a working board to a governance board is part of Sport Canada’s vision to establish uniformity amongst Olympic sports, to improve organizational performance and to upgrade governance. Sport Canada has presented its vision for governance in a document called ‘’Governance code’’. The document was produced in 2021 and national associations who wish to still receive Sport Canada’s funding must adhere to the code before April 2025. ‘’Any National Sport Organization who seeks funding will be required to confirm it is in compliance with the code’’ (page 2).

https://nso.olympic.ca/canadian-sport-governance-code

Lacrosse Canada has been in receipt of this document since 2021 and is somehow moving along trying to adjust to the changes. The first change will be in the election of the four Board members at the November annual meeting. The candidates will NOT emerge from, nor represent, as in the past, large provinces or small provinces. They will be Board members tasked with responsibilities of governance towards the Association and the game. They will not be ‘’Directors at large’’ representing a large or a small province within the Board. In itself this is a first and important step towards the independence of Board members and the move towards improved governance.

In other upcoming elections, in upcoming years, the candidates will be elected according to their capacities to govern an Association and NOT to manage a certain portfolio or defend the best interests of a provincial association. If things work according to Sport Canada’s vision and plans Lacrosse Canada would become a better governed association with a credible long term strategic plan, with identified goals and objectives and with a series of programs managed by the staff.

That’s the vision. Now back to the real world.

Questions beg to be put forward:

- Can the Canadian lacrosse community come up with enough qualified candidates to act as credible Board members tasked with clear responsibilities of governance?

- Will the Board be able to act with the CEO (Executive Director) in an open and transparent manner or will it progressively surrender its decision-making responsibilities to the CEO and to the staff?

- How will the President (a volunteer) be in a position to ‘’work’’ with a paid CEO? Will distance between the president’s residence and the National Office be an advantage or an important disadvantage? And for whom?

- How will information circulate between the Board members and the CEO (and the staff); where will information start from (emerge) and where will it go? Will all Board members have the same information? At which frequency will the Board members be in a position to share information together?

- Who will determine the dominant narrative within this new governance model? Will it come from the Board or will it come from the CEO and the staff? How will conflicts in narratives be solved? Remember; he/she who controls the narrative controls the options and the decision-making process.

- Will there be a smooth takeover of power by the CEO and the staff and will the Board members be the useful bright puppets required to project a positive image of good governance?

- Will the CEO and/or the staff create conditions where the Board members will be rubber stampers of decisions, they have had no input into but will happily ratify ‘’because they trust the CEO and the staff’’. Remember; Hockey Canada’s Board members were not aware of the special funds to coverup ‘’deviant behaviors’’ and all resigned.

- Will there be a disconnect between ‘’white collar Board members’’ and ‘’blue collar paying members’’ of the lacrosse community? Will the Board members be seen as intellectuals shoveling clouds and dealing in theories and concepts far away from the real problems of the game? Or will they be seen as genuine leaders with no conflicts of interests and with one sole motivation; the betterment of the game through better governance?

- Who will claim to know what’s best for the game? The Board members or the CEO and staff? How will this ‘’battle’’ for legitimacy play out in time between volunteer Board members and the full-time paid staff? What would happen if the staff decided to become unionized?

All questions that beg to be asked while they can still be asked.

In the meantime

Those in the lacrosse community who are interested in transparency and circulation of information within a democratic association will be happy to know that the Governance Code put forward by Sport Canada in 2021 requires that National Associations must post on their website:

  • Articles of incorporation
  • By-laws
  • Annual financial statements
  • Minutes of meeting of members (the Board of Directors and committees)
  • Board mandates including roles and responsibilities concerning the development of a multi-year strategic plan and a succession plan for the CEO
  • Annual report on diversity

It will be interesting to see, in the coming days, how Lacrosse Canada whose actions in terms of opacity and lack of transparence are highly problematic, will cope with these requirements of the Code. Lacrosse Canada has been aware of the requirements since the Code was published. So far it has given no indication of improvement in terms of transparency…but April 2025 is a deadline coming up to confirm compliance with the Code or lose federal funding.

The 2024 annual meeting will be a great opportunity to see if Lacrosse Canada will move forward with the ‘’suggested changes’’ or if it will move backwards in the future.

We are talking about the future of the game here.