Dear Members,
For those of you who are registered with the World Dance Council (WDC) as competitors or adjudicators, you might have recently received a Disclaimer Form sent to you from the WDC. This might have also been accompanied by a Letter of Explanation.
It is highly unusual for documents to be sent directly from the WDC to its registered competitors/officials (registrants). Registrants are not members of the WDC – only national governing bodies are members of the WDC; in the case of Great Britain, this is the British Dance Council. In the past all correspondence between the WDC and individuals had to be routed via the BDC.
There are various reasons for the requirement for correspondence to be routed via the member body of the WDC and there are, of course, advantages and disadvantages to this system, as opposed to direct communication. However, one of the most important advantages is representation; for example, where an individual is concerned about something that is, perhaps, unethical or against some rules, the individual can report this to the BDC, which takes up the matter with the WDC rather than the individual themselves.
In the case of the Disclaimer Form that the WDC is requesting its registrants to sign, there are questions that arise and some of these are of a very serious nature. It is the view of the Executive Committee of the BDF that individuals should request that such documents are sent to them via the BDC and not directly.
By taking this route, the BDC could advise whether or not it recommends the signing of the Disclaimer. The BDC is also in a better position than an individual to seek legal advice, should it consider this to be appropriate.
Yours sincerely,
The Executive Committee of the BDF