Mardi Gras Tells The Truth

Local News, By Christian Taylor, 20th August, 2009

New Mardi Gras has a new board after last night’s lengthy Annual General Meeting which went for five hours, during which Steph Sands admitted that the organisation lied about the reasons behind the parade and party split.

Joshua Keech, Tony Knight, Kirk Muddle, Nicholas Parker, Rob Partos and Steph Sands were all re-elected to the board for another term. Lynne O’Brien, who served on the board in 2002 was re-elected, as well as former treasurer Michael Douglas.

There were some 80 voters in attendance, but nominees brought 135 proxy votes with them to the AGM. Mardi Gras could not confirm whether nominees were re-elected based on the large numbers of proxy votes solicited by nominees. Former Chair David Imrie did not attend and was therefore unable to provide answers to the numerous questions coming from the members in attendance.

According to reports from Sydney Star Observer, the new board will meet in the next week to decide whether there will be a single Chair, a co-chair arrangement, or if there will be no chair at all, a move that would see the responsibilities shared across all eight members.

According to Same Same’s source at the AGM, former Chair Marcus Bourget suggested that questions from the floor be deferred until after the election of the new board, due to the often lengthy process of vote counting and the fact that the venue was only available until 11pm.

“This suggestion was put to the meeting by the chair of the meeting. No objections were moved from the floor and the suggestion was adopted,” said Bourget.

Once the votes had been cast there was a lengthy Q&A session with members, during which Steph Sands admitted that the parade party split was in fact the result of a scheduling error, an issue that New Mardi Gras had vehemently denied up until now.

“It came to the board’s attention in February that there had been a scheduling error,” Sands was quoted as saying in the Sydney Star Observer. “It was a genuine mistake. We had signed contracts and the board takes full accountability for the fact that we did not have the appropriate checks and balances in place to ensure those contracts married off against each other. And it was a genuine mistake.

“The board sat down and we worked out the best way forward – and we acted really responsibly. But instead of saying we made a mistake and put the sponsorship agreements in jeopardy or at risk we sold the benefits of a different type of season,” said Sands.

It’s a very different tune to the one David Imrie was singing back in June this year, when he told Same Same, “The planning was deliberate and strategic. There was no oversight, no error. Some have also theorised as to the ‘real reasons’ we have redesigned the Festival. These ‘real reasons’ are quite simple – the desire to evolve and change, to create energy and vibrancy, and to ensure the prosperity of Mardi Gras in the future.”

“Steph claimed that two thirds of those surveyed indicated they supported the change, but members angrily commented that despite being long term members and parade volunteers, they never received the survey, or such an email,” a source told Same Same. “They also questioned whether the email specifically referred to the split, or a change in the format. It was acknowledged that the question may have been vague. In the end only five people in the room could confirm that they received the email. A member said that by the time the question was even put to a portion of the members, the decision had already been made.”

Damien Eames, Head of Marketing at New Mardi Gras told Same Same that the parade and party split has already been reported on extensively by the community media and that NMG “will no longer be answering any further questions on this matter”.