The St. Maarten Carnival Development Foundation (SCDF) has started the process of putting its various sub-committees in place to coordinate the various shows, parades and other Carnival related festivities.
The foundation’s board recently met with its general membership to apprise the members of actions undertaken thus far in preparation for Carnival 2011, to introduce new members and to designate responsibilities for next year’s festivities.
The SCDF is also looking forward to meeting with Minister of Culture Rhoda Arrindell to apprise her of the state of affairs surrounding St. Maarten’s largest cultural event as well as hear her vision with regards to Carnival. Contact has already been made with the Minister and a meeting will be scheduled sometime soon.
Committees were formed last week to coordinate the Junior Calypso & Road March shows, the Senior Calypso Eliminations & Finals, the Band-O-Rama, the Youth Extravaganza, the Junior and Senior Queen Shows and the Junior & Senior Parades and jump-ups. Other committees formed included financial, marketing and security committees.
Each committee is supervised by a designated lead coordinator who now has to convene meetings to plan the various events. Prior to that, the various sub-committees have to present a budget for their respective event to the board for approval. The SCDF will announce during the course of November when persons can start registering for the shows, parades, booths etc.
"We are rolling with or preparations for Carnival 2011," President of the SCDF Stuart Johnson said. "We released our tentative schedule in July of this year, earlier than ever before. We have been focusing on getting our financial house in order and that process is ongoing. But despite identifying the financials as our priority, we still have to prepare for Carnival in other aspects.
"We are fortunate to have a group of dedicated volunteers who decided once again to be back on board and have welcomed new, culturally minded people aboard as well. During our meeting we told our membership that SCDF members do what we do because of love for Carnival, no monetary gain. It takes dedication, long hours away from family and sacrifice. We are happy with the drive and ideas shown so far," he said.
Johnson added that the SCDF hopes to see record participation for Carnival 2011. "This is our festival. It can only grow with participation from all. We hope to have that next year because the ball is really rolling now," he concluded.