The WAAA is a volunteer board that has existed many years and just 2 years ago I decided new blood and a boost of energy was needed so a board of 8 members took over the lease of the McDonald sports park and started a campaign to get a sports facility in the park. We meet at the call of the board chair to deal with on going issues, projects and funding requirements.We support the Cheema Club and the Shubenacadie Canal Commission. We are registered with joint stocks as well.

We will be meeting soon with a majorproject announcement and a community information meeting tenatively scheduled for March at the Waverley Legion.We will be expanding our board and developing sub committees.

Further, it is abundantly apparent that a little clique is trying run over the rest of us.

Time to get the pitchforks people.

Dear bloody god, what a shame you people have nothing better to do than get into cat fights over my money.

Give it back to me and I’ll decide where to put it. Maybe Haiti is appropriate. At least it would do some good.

You people on The Ratepayers association Baord need to all fired.

All people related to this mess are banned from future participation and a new generation of taxpayers needs to take over.

It is clear you do not represent OUR interests – only yours.

Every now and again things happen that do not make sense. If we remember there was a school board member, lets call her Peggy, who had an investment scam focused on a “tremendous” opportunity in Africa. A few of the notable fools who were scammed, for pretty significant $$$, resided in our community. Our Peggy is or was in jail for this Africa (mis)adventure Peggy might have had credibility at one time but she lost it.

One our local scammed fools went on to become an agent at an investment dealer. I always shook my head that someone who was so easily scammed over this Africa “opportunity” was qualified to advise others on how to invest their money. I wondered why any large investment dealer would even entertain employing someone with that history and image. So there is a credibility gap right from the start.

Now we have this same individual further degrading their image by engaging in activities, which many in the community believe were devious, and prevented the community from getting the accountability and transparency it so urgently wants. Many feel there is deception and are concerned about possible corruption in a community organization, and believe this individual ( a non member) conspired to prevent this issue from being addressed. Why, because friendship TRUMPS the needs of the community. Definitely a personal integrity issue. Even if members misunderstood this individual’s actions, they are left with a perception of a morally deficient person. Perceptions become reality.

Auhor Gwyn Teatro in her article Change & The Credibility Factor Sates: “The Thesaurus suggests that credibility is synonymous with trustworthiness, integrity and sincerity. I think that if these basic values are present, the chances of arousing the interest and respect of other people are pretty good.”

Apparently there are a few individuals at said Investment House more than a little concerned that our scammed individual has drawn unfavorable attention to themselves and the local offices. The general sentiment is that the individual’s reputation is a reflection of their reputation and they hope the individual is prepared to compensate them for any lost business. Remember as stated above Credibility cannot be switched on and off. One cannot say –well I may not have credibility in my community or my personal life but I do have credibility in my professional life.

Again I say to myself this does not make any sense. Why would an Investment House, which can only succeed if they have agents of impeccable qualification, character, and integrity, tolerate this kind of behavior from one of its own?

Then came the missing piece — I am told our scammed individual is a best buddy of the boss. Now does that create credibility for the individual or does it destroy credibility for the Investment House. Now we know why individuals at the investment house are upset! The old boss, best friend relationship raises it ugly head again.

I know one thing — neither this agent nor this Investment House will ever see any of my business. I must have absolute trust in the integrity of any firm managing my money. No buddy, buddy arrangement makes me feel comfortable. No investments in Africa for me! What is the first line of defense from a rogue agent— the supervisor!!!
And it is more than the issue of money. These organizations and their agents have a tremendous amount of your personal information. If there are concerns about credibility, about trust, about devious actions, about conspiracies, about friendship being paramount, I would be very concerned about my personal information being used to achieve other agendas. Now that is one risk I am not prepared to take.

Gwen Teatro goes on to state: “Here’s what I think it takes to earn credibility:

· I own up to being human and making mistakes. And, when I make mistakes, I apologize and then do my best to make amends.
Making excuses for the mistakes we make is simply unproductive and, well, not very attractive either. In general, we do not adversely affect our credibility when we make mistakes. We adversely affect our credibility when we try to cover them up, rationalize them away, or otherwise pretend that they didn’t happen.”

So what will our individual do. Set the record straight, apologize and make amends or look for more friends to continue the delusion in the hope their credibility can magically be switched back on.

Who is eligible to serve on the Waverley Amateur Athletic Association Board and when are their meetings. I used to be involved raising funds by helping with a golf tournament years ago.

How does one get involved helping today.

Is it by invitation or can you simply volunteer.

Thanks

Chris Banescu- an attorney, entrepreneur, and university professor

Our community is deeply concerned about the lack of accountability, the secrecy, the apparent conflict of interests, and allegations of conspiracies at the Annual meeting, planting of non- members to rig the vote, etc. associated with the activities of the LWFRA.

You cannot get more unsavoury controversy going than this. I have heard from several people and I have read the notes associated with the annual meeting. There is definitely a perception and feeling among many that one individual (a non- member) was there to protect the status quo, and to insure the demands of the members for accountability and integrity were blocked by retaining the same leaders.

Surprisingly this individual works for an organization where integrity is spelt with capital letters. If this individual conducts their personal life in this manner what conclusions should we reach about their “professional” life. If the community has concerns about the integrity and fairness of this person can we trust them with other things?

And what does this say about the individual’s employer. They have an employee caught up in controversy involving the very issues that are critical to their success.

I think this individual should come clean and clearly spell our their relationships with the Board members, their role at the annual meeting, and what they knew in advance,,,, and given they were not a member what they were doing at the meeting advocating the things they advocated. If the individual decides to remain silent I guess perceptions become reality, for sure.

Maybe I will ask the Company involved for their code of ethics, while we await the response.