The St. Maarten Carnival Development Foundation (SCDF) met with Minister of Culture Rhoda Arrindell recently to apprise her of the preparations for Carnival 2011 as well as the actions undertaken by the foundation to regulate its finances.
Foundation members also wanted to hear from the Minister what her thoughts and vision was for the further development of Carnival on St. Maarten. "We’ve been looking forward to meeting for Minister Arrindell for quite some time, but schedules did not permit for an earlier meeting," President of the SCDF Stuart Johnson said.
"We know the Minister is passionate about culture and that passion was clearly on display in a very open, honest and down to earth discussion with her. We presented the Minister with our schedule, apprised her of the work thus far by the foundation and assured her that the SCDF is, as usual, working hard towards ensuring a successful Carnival season," Johnson said.
According to Johnson, key to the discussion was an update for the Minister on the financial reports of the foundation. Johnson said he was happy to inform the Minister that the report should be in government hands by the end of January and, in turn, "we will work on paying our outstanding fees and prizes with subsidy funds." A new structure for subsidy disbursement was also discussed.
"We will maintain close contact with the Minister’s office as we continue to work towards Carnival 2011. After Carnival, we will seek to intensify those meetings and put more content to many of the issues that were raised by us as well as the Minister. We are grateful for the time she devoted to the SCDF and the support she showed," Johnson said.