Aug 25, 2024
Don’t tell Jeff, I’m borrowing his blog page. Just kidding, he knows.
This is Karen Spiers, Jeff has been too busy to publish a blog so I thought I’d take a stab at it.
Over the last few years, information has been shared with Aforza, which illustrates that Tennis Alberta and Tennis Canada are the rightful owners of the board seats at the Tennis Alberta Acadia Tennis Centre (TAATC), otherwise known as Osten and Victor Tennis Centre (O&V), Acadia Tennis Centre (ATC) or Alberta Tennis Centre.
After reviewing the documentation provided on this website, Aforza, a staunch advocate for fairness and transparency, enthusiastically lent our voice in support of Tennis Alberta in taking their rightful seats on the board. In addition to showing our support, we requested that the board follow a process so that the membership would feel comfortable with the result, no matter the outcome.
This facility was built with public funds and donations so it is important to have public oversight (intended to come from Tennis Alberta and Tennis Canada). Government of Alberta gave TAATC $2.4 million dollars, Tennis Canada’s first round of funding was $750,000, and the City of Calgary offers an annual in-kind subsidy for the TAATC lease. Not to mention the numerous other grants and donations from organizations like Parks Foundation Calgary.
Why do we care? We followed the Acadia project from the beginning, way back in 2012 when Glen Scott was TA President and my husband, Jeff, whose blog page I’ve hijacked, was working at Tennis Alberta. We celebrated that Tennis Alberta would finally have its facility and, ultimately, the ability to generate income rather than relying on government grants, casinos, and income from member-hosted tournaments.
If the board of TAATC had Tennis Alberta in mind they could pump some of the revenue back into Tennis Alberta and that income could go towards hiring more TA staff, subsidies and scholarships for high-performance juniors, tournaments, socials/events, social programs, and promoting growth and grassroots tennis. The potential for improving and growing tennis in Alberta would seem endless.
We’ve sent multiple communications to the Tennis Alberta board on this matter, please read below and let us what you think. Do you think Tennis Alberta and Tennis Canada should govern this facilty?
Via E-Mail: info@tennisalberta.com
June 15, 2024
Tennis Alberta
11759 Groat Road Edmonton, Alberta T5M 3K6
Attention: Board of Directors
Re: Legal Obligations of the Board of Directors
I am writing to you as a Full Member of Tennis Alberta (“TA”) to address my concerns with respect to the future of Tennis in Alberta and TA’s ongoing relationship with the Tennis Alberta Acadia Tennis Centre (“TAATC”). Like all of you, we want this issue resolved but we want to ensure that the resolution is in the best interests of Tennis Alberta and its stakeholder clubs and players-essentially every tennis player in the Province of Alberta.
By way of background to my concerns, TAATC (Tennis Alberta Acadia Tennis Centre), operating as Osten and Victor Alberta Tennis Centre, was built by Tennis Alberta with massive public funds and donations in cooperation with Tennis Canada and with a $10/year City of Calgary lease. The intent of TAATC was to operate as a not-for-profit organization for the benefit of the public, and in particular for the development of young players with potential to play at a high level in Canada and internationally. However, since its opening in 2015 not a penny of TAATC’s profits or programming has been given to Tennis Alberta. Last year’s excess was more than $600,000. All of which should have gone back into supporting our athletes, promoting tennis through programs and camps, or anything in support of Alberta’s entire tennis community.
At the direction of the City of Calgary, after City Council was told by Ron Ghitter during the development application phase that the board of the TAATC would be appointed by the boards of Tennis Alberta and Tennis Canada, the articles of association for TAATC were amended in October 2014 to contemplate oversight on its board by members of the Board of Tennis Alberta and Tennis Canada.
Despite this amendment, Tennis Alberta has never had any form of representation on the Board of TAATC since it opened in 2016 and Tennis Alberta until recently (2023) was unaware of its rights in conjunction with Tennis Canada to appoint board members to TAATC. Tennis Alberta asked TAATC to appoint its President to the board in the summer of 2023 and instead TAATC appointed a board member from Newfoundland. The TAATC attempted to change its constitution over a year ago to delete the requirement of the board being appointed by Tennis Canada and Tennis Alberta (without any notice being given to Tennis Alberta) and Tennis Alberta obtained a court order preventing this from occurring. As a result of Tennis Alberta now fully understanding their rights, in conjunction with Tennis Canada, to appoint the board of directors to the TAATC (and as a result all operational activities of TAATC), now is a critical time in the history of Tennis Alberta to act upon its rights and in conjunction with Tennis Canada to control the governance and oversight of TAATC.
I understand from Patrick Thomas’ June 10, 2024 correspondence to the Alberta Tennis Community that TA has negotiated a form of partnership with TAATC “in perpetuity that will benefit the tennis community for generations to come” and that the partnership is not yet finalized.
Prior to finalizing any partnership with TAATC it is incumbent upon the Board of TA, and in keeping with its duties of diligence and loyalty to very carefully consider the scope of the partnership to confirm that it has been negotiated in good faith and with the best interests of TA in mind. To that end, we demand that TA commit to the following courses of action:
• Act upon the written recommendation of the President of Tennis Canada (Michael Downey) just over a year ago to have a third party mediate the outcome between TAATC and TA on the operation of the TAATC and the benefits to be derived by TA.
• Obtain a legal opinion on whether TA has ever in writing waived its rights to appoint the board of the TAATC. Given that TA has only recently learned of these rights this will be critical as no one has seen any evidence of this occurring. If this has not occurred, why would TA give up its rights?
• In respect to the above, why did TAATC try to amend the Constitution (the corporate documents) of the TAATC if Tennis Alberta and Tennis Canada had somehow already waived their rights to appoint the board? The reason is that Tennis Alberta has never waived these rights and should not do so as part of any settlement and TAATC knows that the TAATC is supposed to be run with the oversight by Tennis Alberta and Tennis Canada.
• Retain and instruct competent legal counsel to advise on the partnership and other ramifications including board appointments and related;
• Engage a third-party business consultant to assist with concluding the financial terms of any partnership;
• Avoid conflicts of interest;
• Provide full disclosure of all of the particulars of the proposed partnership with TAATC and put it to a vote of the Full Membership of TA by way of special resolution at the upcoming AGM pursuant to Article 5.1(d) of the Bylaws;
• Ensure that TA and TC appoint the board of directors of the TAATC Board in accordance with TAATC’s articles of association.
I look forward to your early confirmation that the matter of a partnership with TAATC will be put to the Full Membership for vote and revision if necessary.
Yours truly,
AFORZA TENNIS INC.
Karen Spiers
President, Business Operations
Feb 15th , 2024
Tennis Alberta
11759 Groat Road
Edmonton, AB
T5M 3K6
Attention: Board of Directors
Dear Sirs/Madams:
Re: Complaint respecting the governance of Tennis Alberta
Aforza Tennis, wish to file a complaint pursuant to section 7 of the Board of Directors Code of Conduct (the “Code of Conduct“) respecting the actions taken by the Board of Directors of Tennis Alberta (the “Board“) that we believe are not in the best interests of Tennis Alberta. Specifically, we request greater transparency and dialogue between the Board and Tennis Alberta stakeholders, as well as the declaration of any real or perceived conflicts of interest of Board members.
Greater transparency and dialogue with Tennis Alberta stakeholders is required with respect to the decision making surrounding the Osten and Victor Tennis Centre (the “Tennis Centre“). We request that the Board continuously educate stakeholders respecting decisions that have been made by the Board and request feedback prior to making decisions that would benefit from stakeholder input, including on topics such as the allocation of funds from the Tennis Centre.
We also request greater transparency respecting the termination of key staff members of Tennis Alberta in order to maintain trust with the tennis community. Frequent staff turnover of talented staff members is detrimental to the tennis community and can cause reputational harm to Tennis Alberta that we wish to avoid, particularly before entering the busiest tennis season.
Lastly, we request the declaration of any conflicts of interests of Board members pursuant to Board of Directors Code of Conduct – Conflict of Interest Guidelines (“Conflict of Interest Guidelines“). Sections 1(f) and 2(i) of the Code of Conduct require members of the Board to declare and avoid any real or perceived conflicts of interest. Conflicts of interest are defined in section 2(d) of the Conflict of Interest Guidelines as including a conflict that may exist “when a reasonable, well-informed person has a reasonable belief that a Director has a conflict of interest, even if there is no real conflict”. Such declarations also further the trust and transparency between the Board and Tennis Alberta stakeholders.
The above requests are in line with Directors’ obligations to demonstrate good faith, prudent judgment, honesty, transparency and openness in her or his activities on behalf of Tennis Alberta. We share the common goal of wanting to promote tennis in Alberta and support Alberta’s entire tennis community and believe our requests would work towards this goal.
If you have any questions or would like to discuss further, please feel free to contact Karen Spiers by telephone or email (403-243-6717/karen@aforza.ca).
Thank you,
AFORZA TENNIS
