(Mis)adventures with Mr. Tay WDSF

(Mis)adventures with Mr. Tay
By Jody Frease Meijer in Freedom to dance

I'm posting the following because the process we've gone through to get ourselves banned by WDSF is....odd.....compared to the experiences of others I've spoken to, and also in case it might be helpful to anyone who is pondering a legal challenge to WDSF or a member organization.

The story up until last week: my husband and I danced at WDC-AL Worlds at Disneyland Paris in December of last year. As we had represented the US at three WDSF World Championships and hoped to do so again, this was not a decision lightly made, as we knew we would certainly be banned for doing it, but we were sufficiently disgusted with the way things were going with WDSF that we didn't care. Immediately after Disney, we started hearing about banning letters going out to couples who had done the same events we did, but we received nothing. In February, after seeing a tongue in cheek challenge from Fred Bijster on Facebook, I wrote Shawn Tay directly to call to his attention that we had done a banned event and that we felt it only fair that we should receive the same punishment as our competitors. This was the response:

Dear Andreas and Jody,

Thank you for your email, I am sorry to have you in such a position. Unfortunately, as an International Sports Federation we need to adhere strictly to our rules and regulations.

The names were gathered by the Sports Commission through a series of checks with the RLS. They bound to be human errors. Thank you for your reminder and we will continue to improve the system.

I hope in the near future we will have the support of all our athletes and that there is no necessity to issue such letters for any infringement.

Regards

Shawn Tay

WDSF General Secretary


This was followed in short order by the standard letter threatening suspension, offering us a short window of time to make a defense, and then the promise that WDSF would let us know what punishment, if any, we would be subjected to.

And there we sat until last week. I made no response to the letter, and received no further communications from WDSF. I might have let it rest there, but had a minor confrontation with someone who thought I was crazy to care about any of this Freedom to Dance stuff since "no one cares about Seniors, and no Seniors have been banned." I knew this to be untrue, but thought it would give me special pleasure to prove this person wrong personally, so decided it was time to get back in touch with Mr. Tay. Here was my letter of April 2:


Dear Mr. Tay,

As we are now some weeks past the deadline for response to the attached letter, and have not heard further from you, can you please advise what sanction, if any, has been imposed on us? See the relevant section of your letter below:


"The WDSF Presidium shall endeavor to notify you of its decision concerning the Alleged Code

Violation and, in particular, any applicable sanction as soon as reasonably practicable following the

receipt of your written submissions or the expiry of the deadline."


Please note that we have participated in a second unregistered event since Paris, the Open Essex Championships in Romford, UK, on February 26, 2012.

We appreciate your rapid response.


And the response on April 3:



Dear Jody and Andreas,

Just curious to know what is your expectation? Are you more comfortable dancing outside the WDSF system?

I found this bizarre, so wrote the following:



Dear Mr. Tay,

I'm frankly baffled by your response.

My only expectation is that WDSF will follow its normal disciplinary procedures as laid out in the letter I received, and quoted below. We have been threatened with suspension for the infraction of dancing in an unregistered event, and given a period of time in which to respond in our defense. That time is now past, and according to the warning letter, the next step is for WDSF to advise us of their decision, which, as your letter points out, may be influenced by additional infractions after the first one that triggered the letter. Accordingly, I have advised you that an additional infraction exists. What I expect at this point is to be informed of the following:


1. Are we under suspension?

2. If yes, how long is the suspension, and what are the beginning and end dates?

3. If not, does this mean that these *two* infractions have been deemed minor enough not to warrant suspension now or in the future, and if we registered for an upcoming WDSF event, we would be allowed to participate?


These are fairly simple questions, and I had assumed this process was fairly mechanical, so it should be a simple matter to answer them. If more time is required on WDSF's side to make this decision, I can understand, but it would be helpful to know when we can expect a decision to be made, however you define "as soon as reasonably practicable".

If you are not the proper person to answer these questions, please let me know who I should contact.

Thank you,

Jody Frease Meijer





This finally generated a more normal response, followed, this morning, by the official notification of the ban via USA Dance. Our suspension commenced on April 6.



Dear Jody,

You will receive a suspension letter by this week. It will be a 6 months suspension for the first breach of code.

Though I appreciate the fact that you have contacted us to inform us of your participation in an unregistered event. I am at the same time disappointed that you have again competed in another unregistered event. This prompt me to ask you if you would like to remain in the WDSF competition system or you prefer to be out.

Regards


Shawn Tay




In the meantime, however, I also received the following, which is strangest of all:



Dear Jody,


I was told that you both have being a loyal athletes of WDSF. Will you consider signing a letter of undertaking that you will not participate in any more unregistered event so that I could apply for your suspension to be lifted?


Regards

Shawn Tay



The answer to this is, naturally, no. I won't sign such an undertaking, and would anyway break it, since we have several forbidden events on our 2012 calendar already.

I continue to be baffled by how gently we have been treated, compared to other couples who committed the same "crimes" as we did, compared to children in Iceland, and even compared to the couple pulled off the floor and suspended mid-event this weekend in Spain. It makes no sense, and really points out the completely whimsical--and grossly unfair--nature of this banning program. I don't know if it's because we are from the USA, so it's a country bias, or because I have made myself visible on Freedom to Dance, or if it's just pure administrative incompetence, but we have had to more or less insist on being banned the same as everyone else. And I haven't heard of this kind of offer to lift the suspension in return for signing (essentially) a loyalty oath being made to anyone else. It is, as I said, odd.


Anyway, we are happy to have joined the growing fraternity of ex "loyal WDSF athletes", and hope that this will be of interest, or of use, to someone.

Anthony Hurley
Hi Jody. My comment may be a little late but like the others who have deemed it necessary to support you I congratulate you on your perseverance wth the incompetence of the WDSF and the "fluffing" of Shawn Tay.It is interesting to note that many of the couples and organisations who have challenged the rules and legalities of the WDSF have won in principle. Certainly a clear case of "HE WHO DARES WINS"