Dear D Krewe Masquerader,
Carnival 2008 is over and while some of us are still experiencing “withdrawal symptoms” others have simply picked up where they left off.
D Krewe’s 2008 presentation “Love Is” is now no more than a memory, pleasant for some and not so pleasant for others. To say that the season was way too short is an understatement, especially for those of us with direct involvement in the planning and production of our first ever band.
Let me begin by saying thank you to all those who contributed to making “Love Is” happen, particularly those masqueraders who showed their concern and provided support and encouragement to us, you are truly what love is.
As an organisation, we have to admit that we experienced some problems, which inconvenienced our masqueraders. While we delivered in most areas there were some critical areas we identified for serious improvement, the major one being the inability of some of our key suppliers to deliver on time, for this, we would like to sincerely apologise to you again.
We thought our distribution system worked fairly well in terms of the time between final payment and collection. To counteract this however, because of the problem identified above, several sections were not ready on time and either there were no costumes or partial costumes to distribute. To compound the problem, several of our section leaders lacked the skill necessary to provide the level of customer service required in the situation. For this we sincerely apologise.
Let me state for the record, that all requests for refunds were honoured on the spot. In the face of this also were the masqueraders who refused to accept refunds and waited or collected their costumes as late as Carnival Tuesday. To these masqueraders for your patience and understanding we thank you.
Then there was the situation where some of our masqueraders did not get lunch on Carnival Tuesday. Again we had the facilities well laid out, arrived in good time for the meal and lo and behold some very selfish masqueraders took the opportunity to grab as much as they could demonstrating some very “selfish love”, to them we wish to say shame on you. To those who were disenfranchised we wish to say sorry and forgive them. Even when we replenished the lunches the feeding frenzy continued.
The experience on the road was wonderful and we were generally able to visit all judging venues easily, with the exception of a minor incident where Neal and Massy Trinidad All Stars cut across us, and delayed our downtown party. When we eventually crossed the stage however, as late as seven o’ clock in the evening we had a very large band enjoying themselves thoroughly with the music provided.
All in all D Krewe was able to present its first Carnival Band and for this we are grateful to you our masqueraders. As an organization we now have to sit down and plan for Carnival 2009 and to help us with that plan, below we are sharing how we “scored” ourselves with our first project.
| Category | Rank | Remedial Measures |
| Costume quality | Fair | Source better suppliers Change suppliers Change producers Stricter quality control |
| Distribution | Good | Seek to improve final payment to collection paper trail. Improve collection of ID bands |
| Customer Service | Poor | Review section leaders and sever relationships if necessary Train key personnel |
| Lunch | Poor | Introduce lunch and snack chit bands |
| Bar | Good | Review and make necessary adjustments. |
The above are our perception, should you have any other area/s for improvement you wish to highlight, please feel free to call or e-mail us, we welcome your comments.
We thank you once again for your support for 2008, with the hope that we can get it so right next year that the only tears you will cry are around 6 o’clock on Carnival Tuesday 2009 when you realize that the Carnival is coming to an end and you would have to wait another whole year before you can experience “Loving the Mas” with D Krewe.
Yours sincerely
Roland St. George
