Interim Steel Bands Committee launched
Former Principal of the Grenada Boys Secondary School (GBSS), Victor Ashby has been named as head of a six-member government-appointed Interim Committee to take charge of the steelband movement pending fresh elections in September for a new executive.
The interim members of the body were presented to the local media Tuesday, approximately two months after the resignation of Jason Skeete as President of the Steel Bands Associations in the midst of bickering with a breakaway faction.
Culture Minister Norland Cox moved to set up the interim committee as relations deteriorated between the Skeete-led body and a rebel faction involving members of the larger steelbands on the island.
The Ashby-led committee has been put in place three months before the hosting of Spicemas 2019 in which the annual Panorama competition is a key component of the festival.
Apart from Ashby, the other members of the committee are Principal of the Presentation Brothers College (PBC), Dominic Jeremiah as Deputy Chair, Principal of Alpha Junior School, Stephanie John as Recording Secretary, Lew Smith as Public Relations Officer (PRO), Leary Barry as the committee’s representative on the Spicemas Corporation Board and Andy Chichester as Treasurer.
Ashby told reporters that the committee is also tasked with ensuring that there is a platform for the succeeding elected executive to build upon.
He identified the priority areas of the interim group as branding the Grenada SteelBand Association, to lead in the association with its major engagements with Spicemas Corporation, putting the association on a good footing administratively and with its management and ensuring that proper and timely democratic elections are held, for a new executive to be in place by September.
By The New Today Grenada
