This 2nd phase of our beginning will see the baton passed to additional members of Tobago’s Civil society comprising of many Youths and others, let us call their names; Xavier Edwardz, Dr Ryan Allard, Latoya Roberts, Shenell Felix, Shaun Biggart-Hutchinson, Shirley Cooke, and Rodney Piggott.
With the Youth onboard at this time, and faced with COVID-19 restrictions, the natural innovative instincts of the Youth kicked in, we shifted our meeting to virtual, the name Tobago Civil Society was coined, and we partnered with Tobago Channel 5 to stage the ‘Public Conversations with the Candidates’ during the General Elections of T&T for 2020 (GETT2020) Campaign Season in August 2020 for those vying to represent Tobago East and Tobago West in our Nation’s Parliament.
During these GETT2020 Public Conversations, candidates from the Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP), People National Movement (PNM), One Tobago Voice (OTV), and two Independent Candidates, were staged in the studio of Tobago Channel 5, where well moderated conversations were aired on the TV station of Tobago Channel 5, and livestreamed to their facebook page, to a virtual Townhall setting, where persons were able to send their questions and or comments to the candidates.
In November 2020, we changed the name to Tobago CivilNET and began staging well moderated Virtual Panel discussions in Zoom livestreamed to Facebook on the then upcoming THA 2021, which was carded for January 25th, 2021. We eclipsed the Election season with ‘Conversations With The Leaders’ on January 18th, 2021, whereby the Leaders of Political Parties, and or those vying to be Chief Secretary, along with the Independents, were staged in a Live, moderated Conversation, broadcasted from the Tobago Channel 5 studio, and livestreamed to their facebook page, as well as the facebook page of Tobago CivilNET, this is regarded as a pivotal event on the usual campaigning methods, and offered Civil Society an opportunity to have a voice in the way they are campaigned to.
Following the now historic 6-6 tie between the PDP and PNM, and the resulting ‘stall’ in the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) being constituted, CivilNET remained in the trenches, staging Virtual Townhall conversations, running Polls and Surveys, providing Tobago’s Civil Society with a ‘safe space’ to voice its concerns, ask questions of known experts in our space, and identify how Tobagonians wanted this 6-6 tie prosecuted.
It is instructive to note that since July of 2020, the seven of us had been meeting weekly running operations from the GETT2020, into THA 2021 Part 1, into the 6-6 tie, and then in April 2021 the Tobago Autonomy Bills, we maintained a stage for Civil Society to be informed and to have a voice.
Sometime in August 2021, after about a year of weekly meetings and various online panel discussions, we took a breath from that rigorous schedule, and began prosecuting our Byelaws, NGO/NPO Registration, Organization Stamp, Bank Account, and growing our membership. We accomplished all of the necessary processing, elected a Steering Committee, and then the bell rang.
The date for the THA 2021 Part 2 was set, we once again went back to weekly meetings after a short recess, we established a calendar of online panel Conversations with some of the candidates, and Conversations with Civil Society, once again, these forums dovetailed into a call to the leaders to face each other in a well moderated conversation, guided by questions very relevant to Tobago Civil society. In this Leaders Conversation, we focused on those vying for the position of Chief Secretary, this was again broadcasted live from the Studio of Tobago Channel 5, to their TV station, s their facebook page, as well as the facebook page of Tobago CivilNET.
The ‘Working Group’ of Tobago CivilNET being those who actually did the work of providing the technical and other Human Resources to provide for a professional stage, this includes but not limited to; sourcing panellists and moderators, getting pics and bios, crafting the flyer, securing the Zoom link, setting media promo-interviews, sourcing someone from the group to do the interviews, attending to the Zoom back-stage, gathering data from the forums, to name just a few that we managed without a budget. Now that the THA 2021 Election season has concluded, the question is;
Where do we go from here?
With Registration complete, a Steering Committee was formed to guide the organization into its first AGM, wherein the first 2-term officers will be elected, let us call the names of the Steering Committee; Interim Chair: Mr Rodney Piggott; Co-Chair; Mr Xavier Edwards; Corporate Secretary: Mr Shawn Biggart-Hutchinson; Treasurer: Mr Ryan Allard.
Our goals for 2022 are to engage Tobago Civil Society in all Areas of People Activities. The next chapter in Tobago CivilNET’s journey is unfolding as our journey passes the baton to the first 2-term officers, and the members-at-large, to innovate on the work done thus far, we now have much more than 7 members in our ‘Working Group’, some more active than others, but all come with the same words on their tongue
LET’S ALL PULL TOBAGO TOGETHER
Tobago CivilNET 