Over the past 6-9 months there has been a lot of upheaval and disgraceful/unbecoming behavior in the UQA (Upper Queen Anne's) Youth Sports (non-profit 501.c3) organization. The goal of this petition is to request the adults that have purported and be a part of this abhorrent, power lust like, potentially bullying behavior, step down from all their positions within the program for a period of at least 1 year. And, in accordance with the laws of the program itself, hold a vote for new board members to take positions and bring the program back to the focus on the children and the community, that it once had. Since all current members have been appointed by their friends and not voted in by the parents of the program.

 

These board members have led the program into taking legal action (a temporary restraining order) against 2 of its prominent volunteers in order to quiet them from speaking about their concerns with the program board members. They also sought to (and did) prevent them and their children from participating in these youth programs as a family. These board members also sought to stop the same people from participating in a newly formed youth football program (Bay Bulldogs of Grasonville) when these same board members had already removed them from their tackle football program.

The current board members seemed to undermine the new program in such a way that it made it nearly impossible for the program to grow and prosper. Citing concerns over not having enough players for both programs. When in fact the UQA program has so many players that it has a waiting list. Instead of finding these players a place to play the sport, they preferred them to sit on the bench and or not participate at all, simply to prevent another local program from succeeding and from families speaking out about the disfunction of the UQA Youth Program. And again, in the laws of the UQA program they are supposed to support other programs of the local community.

Now is the time to act to request the board of directors of UQA Youth Association to step down and take a step back from the program. There are many capable parents, volunteers, and community members that want to help but are blocked from doing such if they do not go with what the current board members wish. It has been uncovered that the laws of the organization state that all board members must be voted into position by the parents of the program. None of the current board has been voted in and when individuals have challenged this (amongst other concerns), some of those individuals were either ignored, banned from the program, or had law suits filed against them (see example Maryland Case# C17CV23000096), or other bullying type tactics taken against them.

This request is for these adults to do the right thing, because if it is really about the kids then they won’t need to fight to keep their positions of power. They will simply be good with supporting the kids as they play the sports they love.

We think that everyone could benefit from a cooling off period. The request is being made to have all current serving UQA Board members as of July 1, 2023 and all board members listed below that were part of the board during this time referenced; step down from all of their positions in the organization for a period of 1 year.

Furthermore, it is requested that voting only be held to fill the proper positions of the UQA Board, as noted in the laws of the organization. Currently there are 12 (TWELVE) appointed board members that were never voted in and there are only supposed to be 5 (FIVE) board members. We request that the positions be filled in accordance with the laws of the organization as they were written out.

Thank you to everyone that is supporting this movement to focus on the kids playing the sport and not the adults wielding the power. We also would like to pre-emptively thank you the board members for what we assume will be their support of this movement and their support of doing right by the program and the community.

Board members that were serving on the board during the time in the behavior that the organization took that is believed to be unbecoming of their position in the organization and the community:

1.       Dale Walls (President)

2.       Jody Walls

3.       Brian Aikin

4.       Jason McDonald

5.       Buddy Custer

6.       Jack Wilson

7.       Ted Jackson

8.       Denise Banning

9.       Michelle Riley

10.   Rob Morris

11.   Laura Livingston

12.   Stephanie Kevan