CASA subsidiaries ask executives to clarify their limitations and benefits
Clarifications about sponsorship contracts that the Commerce and Administration Students’ Association (CASA) has with companies were requested at a board of directors meeting last Tuesday.
The association has 15 subsidiaries, including six associations and nine committees. CASA has also entered into sponsorship contracts that affect all its subsidiaries. However, the presidents of these associations were unclear about the conditions and limitations of these contracts.
Claire-Madelaine Kelly, co-president of the John Molson Competition Committee (JMCC) association, started the discussion on the need for more transparency with regards to what these contracts mean for CASA’s subsidiaries.
Kelly said potential sponsorships aren’t discussed openly between the board of directors, which includes CASA executives, and the presidents of the subsidiaries, because it is considered a win-lose situation. “I think it can be a win-win situation where you are sharing tactics, sharing where you are, sharing not necessarily sponsors that you have just signed but you are sharing general info” as to how they were signed, said Kelly.
Kelly tabled the creation of a document so all sponsorship information that subsidiary presidents of CASA need to know be condensed into one place. Additionally, Kelly said she would like it if “any clauses that affect us as subsidiaries as a whole are brought before the board so that we are all aware of what is going on.”
JMCC recently came into agreement with a company for a sponsorship, which infringes the contract CASA signed with Molson Brewery two years ago. The contract made all the subsidiaries exclusive to Molson. This agreement was the result of a misunderstanding of the limitations of that exclusivity between CASA and JMCC. However, the details of these constraints cannot be discussed publicly.
Vice President External of CASA, Keira Baldwin, said that a blacklist of sponsors does exist. “That’s my error for not sharing it with you and making it more public,” said Baldwin. According to Baldwin, there was a lack of conversation regarding what subsidiaries can and cannot do when it comes to sponsorships. “We will make it more clear and I think [Kelly’s suggestion] is a great idea,” said Baldwin.
Over an hour of the meeting was dedicated to questions about the restrictions and benefits of the sponsorships CASA has in place. Many members of the board of directors had misunderstood the matter.
Baldwin said it was the result of miscommunication between the subsidiaries and CASA. “We are young professionals but we are still students that are learning as we do these mandates,” said Baldwin.
Karina Bosca, president of CASA, told The Concordian that a presentation was made earlier this semester to discuss these sponsorship contracts by a former executive of CASA. “It was verbally stated but we learn from it,” said Bosca. “As proposed, we are going to have something written so that everyone is on the same page.”
Photo by Mia Anhoury.
