Alberta Soccer Dispute Continues ON

[oc64]

I wanted to familiarize myself more with volunteers and the law in Alberta...yeesh, the judge could really, really, put it to a few people involved in this soap opera:

http://www.volunteeralberta.ab.ca/vollaw/volunteeer/sections_chap5.html

Interesting. My understanding is that Colin left the room for the vote about Skillstorm. Did he participate in the discussion?

The duties of honesty and loyalty require that directors put the interests of the organization ahead of their personal interest. For example, suppose XYZ Society is considering painting the drop-in centre and volunteer director Jones happens to own a paint store in town. In such a case, it is easy to see that volunteer Director Jones has a financial interest in the matter of painting. Even if Director Jones wants to be helpful and offers to give the organization an extra good deal on the paint, she still has a conflict of interest. Thus, she has an absolute obligation to refrain from voting because of her conflict of interest between her own monetary interest and that of the organization. But suppose Director Jones’s brother or husband worked at a paint store that someone else owned. In such a case, the conflict of interest is not as clear-cut. However, in practice, a volunteer director should avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest by not voting in such situations. In case of doubt, the director with the possible conflict should explain it to fellow directors, and then abstain from involvement in discussion or voting on that issue.

[1867]

CSA and FIFA are not above the laws of Alberta. Good luck with all that CSA.

[oc64]

Ok here's the deal, CSA is going to take disciplinary action in 2 days if court action isn't dropped. They say they have consulted with FIFA and can go ahead and do it. That's why Innes and Hayne went to Nationals and they are doing whatever they want. They now believe they are above the law.

It just keeps getting uglier and uglier. Sure, I guess they can suspend someone from Soccer but can they dictate terms to courts regarding Alberta Societies? I hope they are prepared to be pulled into court as well.

I guess this means there will be no interim agreement. A judge will make the ruling.

[a_coach_in_ab]

Ok here's the deal, CSA is going to take disciplinary action in 2 days if court action isn't dropped. They say they have consulted with FIFA and can go ahead and do it. That's why Innes and Hayne went to Nationals and they are doing whatever they want. They now believe they are above the law.

source?

[oc64]

source?

probably best to keep that under wraps for now, but KJ52 will know for sure if the source can be revealed.

My best guess is that CSA sent another threat letter to Billings and company.

[oc64]

Ok here's the deal, CSA is going to take disciplinary action in 2 days if court action isn't dropped. They say they have consulted with FIFA and can go ahead and do it. That's why Innes and Hayne went to Nationals and they are doing whatever they want. They now believe they are above the law.

To the best of my knowledge CSA has had no luck using their influence to get the bank accounts released. I rather doubt a judge will respect their wishes either. I'm thinking this is CSA's last ditch effort to get the court action withdrawn so that they can continue to pursue their own selfish agenda. What else do Billings and company have to lose? Haven't they already been suspended?

[oc64]

What does it say about soccer in Canada that CSA would rather back someone with an alleged direct financial interest in hanging onto his various board positions than Billings and his group? Does Billings have leprosy or some other ailment I'm not aware of that is the cause of his exile?

[jasonm]

Has anyone talked to their local MLA or MP in Alberta about this situation? I would think that if the CSA is above the law then maybe withhold all Provincial and Federal funding.

[yeg51]

Ok here's the deal, CSA is going to take disciplinary action in 2 days if court action isn't dropped. They say they have consulted with FIFA and can go ahead and do it. That's why Innes and Hayne went to Nationals and they are doing whatever they want. They now believe they are above the law.

Are you kidding me? This is an absolute outrage. I think if this kind of leverage were exerted anywhere else it would be called obstruction of justice, or more simply blackmail.

Here my advice - do not drop the court action, have them suspend and then let's see the Prov Gov and the Courts get some juice and find CSA in contempt of court.

[oc64]

Are you kidding me? This is an absolute outrage. I think if this kind of leverage were exerted anywhere else it would be called obstruction of justice, or more simply blackmail.

Here my advice - do not drop the court action, have them suspend and then let's see the Prov Gov and the Courts get some juice and find CSA in contempt of court.

The problem is the legal costs are piling up. One group actually cares about the financial burden and one group is oblivious because they currently have security guards sitting at the ASA office to ensure they maintain financial and physical control of the organization.

I have stated before that I am willing to donate to a legal fund. I don't have a lot of cash, but I can give a few hundred bucks.

[oc64]

I wanted to familiarize myself more with volunteers and the law in Alberta...yeesh, the judge could really, really, put it to a few people involved in this soap opera:

http://www.volunteeralberta.ab.ca/vollaw/volunteeer/sections_chap5.html

Another interesting and potentially applicable tidbit (thinking specifically about the former ED but also about all terminated and current employees)

IV. DUTIES TO EMPLOYEES

Boards of Directors have a duty to ensure that the organization meets its responsibility as an employer.

Employer responsibilities are detailed in many federal and provincial statues. For example, some employer duties include:

•duty to pay full wages, including overtime and vacation pay;

•duty to provide paid days off for statutory holidays;

•duty to make employee deductions (CPP, EI, and Income Tax) and to send these deductions to Canada

Customs and Revenue Agency (CCRA);

•duty to provide a safe workplace, and

•duty to protect employees from discrimination.

Directors should ensure that appropriate measures are made to comply with employer responsibilities — this duty cannot simply be delegated to administrators. In some cases, directors may be held personally liable for the organization’s failure to meet it obligations to employees. For example, if the board of XYZ Society is having funding difficulties and decides to avoid paying wages owed for overtime, the employees may sue the Society and its Board of Directors. Similarly, an employee who has been mistreated or wrongfully dismissed may sue the Society and, in some situations, directors may be personally liable (for example, if they haven’t put proper hiring and firing procedures in place). If an organization becomes insolvent, directors may become personally liable for the unpaid wages of employees or unpaid employee deductions to CCRA.

[fishman]

A lot of numbers are bandied about regarding the legal fees incurred by the ASA, but what is clear is that the Association has wasted into the six-figures.

[oc64]

A lot of numbers are bandied about regarding the legal fees incurred by the ASA, but what is clear is that the Association has wasted into the six-figures.

I have heard a lot of numbers (some specific and some estimates). Based on the legal wranglings of the last couple of weeks I estimate that Gowlings alone has received or is owed close to 100K. That is only one side of the fight.

[xtreme]

Today the EMSA site announces that the EMSA position of Program Director is vacant. Is this any way related to the ASA fiasco?

Crystal had held the position previously.

Part of the EMSA Program Director duties include... " acts as liaison person before Alberta Soccer for provincial and national competitions".

[oc64]

Today the EMSA site announces that the EMSA position of Program Director is vacant. Is this any way related to the ASA fiasco?

Crystal had held the position previously.

Part of the EMSA Program Director duties include... " acts as liaison person before Alberta Soccer for provincial and national competitions".

I wonder is Mario is hiring her to work at ASA and further cement his influence there?? I know he had been actively recruiting some former ASA employees to return and fill positions vacated by his streak of terminations.

Of course, please note that I am just throwing out ideas here. I really have no information about why the position became available. She may have just decided to move on.

[Guest Ed]

Sent to my club today:

As you might know, I am a long time volunteer coach (11 years and counting) with Calgary SWU and Southfour prior to the amalgamation.

I have been following the dispute between the fairly elected ASA board of directors and the deposed board (led by Mario Charpentier of the EMSA) and am frankly disgusted by the actions of Charpentier and his henchman in Calgary, Innes.

Does Calgary SWU have any position on this? I understand the CMSA is a main backer of the deposed board and any soccer body that supports attempts to cancel tournaments, withhold trophies and medals and generally puts their personal interests above what is good for the children playing the game is only worthy of contempt in my eyes.

I would like to know whether you are aware of what is going on (google Edmonton Journal, Dan Barnes and Alberta Soccer for a refresher).

I was up at my cottage near Stettler and volunteer coaches from across Alberta are absolutely disgusted by what has transpired. Add me to that list. If we officially support these people with all that has been going on, you can rest assured I will be looking for another club or another president (no offense to the existing one) if we don't voice our concerns.

Thanks,

Ed xxxxxx

[oc64]

Sent to my club today:

As you might know, I am a long time volunteer coach (11 years and counting) with Calgary SWU and Southfour prior to the amalgamation.

I have been following the dispute between the fairly elected ASA board of directors and the deposed board (led by Mario Charpentier of the EMSA) and am frankly disgusted by the actions of Charpentier and his henchman in Calgary, Innes.

Does Calgary SWU have any position on this? I understand the CMSA is a main backer of the deposed board and any soccer body that supports attempts to cancel tournaments, withhold trophies and medals and generally puts their personal interests above what is good for the children playing the game is only worthy of contempt in my eyes.

I would like to know whether you are aware of what is going on (google Edmonton Journal, Dan Barnes and Alberta Soccer for a refresher).

I was up at my cottage near Stettler and volunteer coaches from across Alberta are absolutely disgusted by what has transpired. Add me to that list. If we officially support these people with all that has been going on, you can rest assured I will be looking for another club or another president (no offense to the existing one) if we don't voice our concerns.

Thanks,

Ed xxxxxx

Very nice. I think in the end this will be the best way to effect change in Alberta. This court battle is required to deal with the current fiasco, but long term change will be driven at the local level.

[kj52]

probably best to keep that under wraps for now, but KJ52 will know for sure if the source can be revealed.

My best guess is that CSA sent another threat letter to Billings and company.

Source can't be revealed yet, but court should be very interesting on Wednesday.

[River City]

I took the Alberta pre-B Assessment this spring (pictures on the ASA's facebook site) and Peter Malakoane was one of the 4 assessors. On the Sunday when the assessment was done - they split the 21 coaches into 2 groups with me being put in Peter's group.

Going into it we knew that on previous pre-B Assessments, only 2 of 19 coaches had gotten a sufficiently high grade to be able to enroll in the B course. Once the Assessments started, you could kind of tell why the passing average was that low with some coaches definitely not being up to par. But....most of the coaches had a good idea and within our subgroup there were at least 4 coaches (myself included) that ran their session on topic in an organized manner and with appropriate breaks to explain the progression of drills. We were definitely miles ahead of some of the other coaches.

But at the end of the day when everyone gathered together, David McCarthy and the rest of the Assessors gave us all a dressing down. It was as if all of us had no clue or concept of the game. This is when my red flags finally went up (as I thought all weekend that I had a legit chance at passing the Assessment).

- The ASA has been strongly encouraging the Mentorship program where aspiring coaches work with an assigned ASA staff coach in preparation for the Assessment. This was a running theme throughout the weekend.

- I was particularly frustrated in that the topic I received (receiving the ball with the chest as a technical session) was fairly simple to put together given that the ASA's own website features the same topic and gives line drills. So for my coaching plan, I incorporated a warm-up, a few drills progressing in difficulty leading to the final which I could make a competition of between the players. Except that in having Peter take a look at my plan in our 'Assessor/coach' meeting time - he was adamant I have no line drills whatsoever. Regardless of progression. I was pissed off as I now had to redo the entire plan the night before the Assessment rather than relax and have a few bevvies.

- During the Assessment itself, there were no breaks given for the coaches during the Assessment other than sitting out the previous session - a coach that went 5th in the group, sat out the 4th session so they could prepare theirs, would coach their session and would then play the remainder of the sessions. I went middle of the pack which was good, but the first coach, coached his session and then played in the remainder of the sessions. No coach worth his salt would put his/her team through something like this. Grabbing a quick drink while moving from one 20 minute session to another might be fine if you only have a handful of sessions but not for 11 sessions.

I was still shocked though when I received my Assessment in the mail with the only progression available to me being enrolling in the Mentorship program. I'm not even good enough to apply to the pre-B Assessment. So I touched base with what I thought was the strongest coach in our group and he received the same assessment. And speaking later with one more coach who was in the other group - again the same assessment.

I am planning on enrolling in the Mentorship program during the Indoor season as I do want to work towards the B license, but of the competent coaches I spoke with, that I wouldn't hesitate to bring on my team, the whole experience left a bitter taste in our mouths. I've been reluctant to criticize the program as I obviously have a very subjective opinion, but finding the info on one of my Assessors....

[a_coach_in_ab]

I took the Alberta pre-B Assessment this spring (pictures on the ASA's facebook site) and Peter Malakoane was one of the 4 assessors. On the Sunday when the assessment was done - they split the 21 coaches into 2 groups with me being put in Peter's group.

Going into it we knew that on previous pre-B Assessments, only 2 of 19 coaches had gotten a sufficiently high grade to be able to enroll in the B course. Once the Assessments started, you could kind of tell why the passing average was that low with some coaches definitely not being up to par. But....most of the coaches had a good idea and within our subgroup there were at least 4 coaches (myself included) that ran their session on topic in an organized manner and with appropriate breaks to explain the progression of drills. We were definitely miles ahead of some of the other coaches.

But at the end of the day when everyone gathered together, David McCarthy and the rest of the Assessors gave us all a dressing down. It was as if all of us had no clue or concept of the game. This is when my red flags finally went up (as I thought all weekend that I had a legit chance at passing the Assessment).

- The ASA has been strongly encouraging the Mentorship program where aspiring coaches work with an assigned ASA staff coach in preparation for the Assessment. This was a running theme throughout the weekend.

- I was particularly frustrated in that the topic I received (receiving the ball with the chest as a technical session) was fairly simple to put together given that the ASA's own website features the same topic and gives line drills. So for my coaching plan, I incorporated a warm-up, a few drills progressing in difficulty leading to the final which I could make a competition of between the players. Except that in having Peter take a look at my plan in our 'Assessor/coach' meeting time - he was adamant I have no line drills whatsoever. Regardless of progression. I was pissed off as I now had to redo the entire plan the night before the Assessment rather than relax and have a few bevvies.

- During the Assessment itself, there were no breaks given for the coaches during the Assessment other than sitting out the previous session - a coach that went 5th in the group, sat out the 4th session so they could prepare theirs, would coach their session and would then play the remainder of the sessions. I went middle of the pack which was good, but the first coach, coached his session and then played in the remainder of the sessions. No coach worth his salt would put his/her team through something like this. Grabbing a quick drink while moving from one 20 minute session to another might be fine if you only have a handful of sessions but not for 11 sessions.

I was still shocked though when I received my Assessment in the mail with the only progression available to me being enrolling in the Mentorship program. I'm not even good enough to apply to the pre-B Assessment. So I touched base with what I thought was the strongest coach in our group and he received the same assessment. And speaking later with one more coach who was in the other group - again the same assessment.

I am planning on enrolling in the Mentorship program during the Indoor season as I do want to work towards the B license, but of the competent coaches I spoke with, that I wouldn't hesitate to bring on my team, the whole experience left a bitter taste in our mouths. I've been reluctant to criticize the program as I obviously have a very subjective opinion, but finding the info on one of my Assessors....

Nothing that was written above or linked to questions his technical or assessment abilities.

[jpg75]

River City, you might also want to consider looking into USSF certification. From what i hear the process and courses are alot more professional.

[YYC]

I can only offer from experience the following...

The ASA representative at a National competition does very, very little, at least from the perspective of assisting the provincial team. They are very visible in hospitality suites, but their attendance at matches, hearings or fulfilling other administrative tasks is pretty non-existent. At one National competition, I saw our representative at the field twice - once to give us the provincial flag at opening ceremonies, and once to get it back at closing ceremonies. The only other time - HONESTLY - that I saw him was in the hospitality suite, holding court over a LOT of drinks with clones and drones just like him.

Colin showed up at the All Stars in Richmond last year, handed over a bag of ASA pins to one of our young referees and disapperd wihtout a trace. Did not even bother to find out how our two appointed referees were doing. Probably gone straight to the hospitality suite (or to one of the customary back room meetings)!

[oc64]

Colin showed up at the All Stars in Richmond last year, handed over a bag of ASA pins to one of our young referees and disapperd wihtout a trace. Did not even bother to find out how our two appointed referees were doing. Probably gone straight to the hospitality suite (or to one of the customary back room meetings)!

money well spent. Priorities really need to be re-evaluated.

[River City]

Nothing that was written above or linked to questions his technical or assessment abilities.

Based on 1) my experience at the pre-B course 2) the assessment format and 3) the fact he was a member of the 4person assessment team, i just did. And I did send a letter to Neil Turnbull in June (if I recall correctly) to outline the concerns I had.

Both his (and any other coaches') links to specific soccer training programs as well as the ASA's push of the Mentorship program would have been appreciated bits of info to the coaches before we all decided to spend Mother's Day weekend in Red Deer, pay for the course, hotel, etc when all of us could've just paid our tribute to the ASAand it's employment justification program. It would've been cheaper and more convenient.

And jpg75, I will try the provincial route again, but both the USSF programs as well as a South American or Mexican program are all viable options

[Vic]

Ok here's the deal, CSA is going to take disciplinary action in 2 days if court action isn't dropped.

I was curious about federal/provincial association jurisdiction and discovered this grand sweeping claim about five layers down in the CSA rules on discipline:

The Association [CSA] shall have direct jurisdiction only in the following circumstances: [blah, blah, blah...] (f) Any other matter directly related to the Association which The Association in its sole discretion deems should be dealt with by it.

That is quite a statement.