Looks like the various USDBF board members and officials have bought boats and started a company. Looks like the US is about to head down the road that Canada is finally coming out of.

What do you mean finally come out of? Can you explain this further as I do not understand.

You know. Huge potential for conflict of interest. People in charge of organizations that stand to profit by being in charge.

By the way, when did we get out of it?

The '90's - TCBA Era - Sharifa in charge of DBC - Balmoral makes lots of money
Since 2001 - GWN Era - Mike in charge of DBC - GWN makes lots of money
Since 2005 - Post GWN Era - what looks like a pretty diverse Board of Directors and new Executive Director with no previous dragon boat involvment with no obvious conflict of interest issues.

"About to get ugly"? It's already ugly.

Check out http://www.usadragonboating.com/

That's your one-stop shop for everything dragon boat (except boats?)! Not just gear, but "new festival consulting" and "finish line operations".

The problem is that it's run by Jeff Campbell.

Jeff Campbell was on the USDBF board until very recently. In fact, he was in charge of the US Nationals in Tamps while running his for-profit "USA Dragon Boating."

Here's another potential conflict of interest. Suppose two sites are vying for the US Nationals in 2008, let's say Long Beach and somewhere in Seattle where no major races have occurred. Long Beach already has a kick-ass festival and needs no consulting. Yet Seattle has nobody who knows how to set up races. Jeff Campbell can make way more money by making sure his buddies at the USDBF hold the US Nationals in Seattle.

In other words, if you are a self-sufficient race site, you stand little chance of holding an USDBF sanctioned event.

It's sad that the USDBF raises NO money for U.S. teams that are travelling to international races while Jeff Campbell profits from U.S. dragon boaters. Hmm, I wonder what would happen if the US teams going to Sydney approached Jeff Campbell for some sponsorship money...

Welcome to the club USA.

Canadian teams have never gotten a cent (.87 cents US) from DBC despite some required, fairly profitable, qualifying events.

The Premier and even Master's Division has so few crews that even compete at the US Nat'l. I've competed at every Nat'l since it started and it's the same people practically every 2 years. I just view it as another race and I get to see the west coast paddlers that I've know for years now.

DB is a amateur sport and just like any other amateur discipline, you pay as you go, otherwise don't do the traveling.

Fundraising or sponsorship involves alot of time and most people don't want to do it.

As a participant of the Long Beach races a couple of years ago (only because PDBA races were part of the festival) I would have to disagree strongly about Long Beach being a "kick-ass festival and needs no consulting." The Long Beach race officials do not know how to run a race properly - they have teams deciding what division they want to be in through registration. What a joke. The location is good - lovely sandy beach, but, the floating dock doesn't work well enough - at our held start we were forced into boats next to us at the start more than once.

I agree that Seattle doesn't know how to run a race and they have no examples close-by (Kent is a community race only), but, I'd give the benefit of the doubt to people who want to hold a race and are open to legitimate suggestions on how to run a race well.

Jeff campbell should absolutely step down.

I received an e-mail from his company and thought it was the USDBF

So did I! I thought it was a survey for the USDBF. I have no problem with Jeff running a company but he HAS to step down from the USDBF.

If I were the USDBF I would also insist that he distance the branding of his company from having a national sport organization sort of feel.

"So did I! I thought it was a survey for the USDBF. I have no problem with Jeff running a company but he HAS to step down from the USDBF."

He can make more money this way. Why would he step down?

Yeah. Go ask the "National Dragon Boat Club" in Toronto.

We are not out of the woods yet in Canada as our national body still has as its president a person who owns a dragon boat company. The situation has improved though as a lot of the other "commercial" players that used to be members are now off the board and I think the reason Matt Smith is still president is that it is hard to find anybody good that wants the job.

You morons should be thanking Matt and Mike and the other "business" minded people who find the time to take the sport organizational side of dragonboat forward. Do you honestly think that with the BOD that is in place they can get away with any sort of conflicted interest behaviour these days? btw, thanks Matt for taking the time away from your business to slave away at DBC stuff. Good to hear you have a staff person now to help out.

Anon 2:59 you are the moron because you just do not get it. It is not about whether Matt does a good unbiased job or not it is the optics that we are talking about. If we want our sport to be validated by the rest of the sporting world we cannot have what we have today.
Would you take Swim Canada seriously if the president of SPEEDO was heading that organization?

Since they just got $200k from the province I don't think there's a problem with their credibility or with anyone recognizing that they are a properly governed sport organization. DBC has got its mojo goin' on and Matt deserves some credit for that. No matter that he's running a related business. You can audit any organization and you'll find conflicts. At least this one's in the open so it can be eyeballed by an engaged dragon boat community.

"Would you take Swim Canada seriously if the president of SPEEDO was heading that organization?"

why not if the president was not a swim canada board member hence didn't vote on key issues? this is the case with dbc if you read the bylaws. if for example an rfp goes out publicly to supply swim suits to the national team and nike has a better bid then president-speedo would have no say.

also i don't think any current dbc board member has direct links to either 22d or gwn or tcba so we're in pretty good shape.

not sure about the usdbf but if jeff is voting on issues then he should reconsider his position with usdbf. if he does not vote and is willing to do good work on behalf of usdbf then he should be welcomed to stay on. now i'm not saying he won't work harder within the system to forward certain agendas that may benefit his company and make him some money but this avenue is open to anyone so his competition is free to do the same. and if you're not doing any work then don't expect any decisions to flow towards your way of thinking.

If I were running swim canada I would actually want someone from Speedo on my board who may have access to potential sponsorship dollars. In DBC's case, equipment for this year's NTT was donated by GWN.

If things are done properly there is nothing wrong with business involved with sport. Actually, it can be a huge benefit. The problem before was that DBC was swallowed up in a Kerkmann/Sharifa spat and everything happened behind closed doors.

Jeff's company is a little to USDBF looking. I agree with above posters, he should relinquish his USDBF post.

If you do not like the way DBC is run (or any other volunter organization) get off your ass and volunter to help out.