Following the resignation of three members of the MATT executive on December 13 2021 from the posts of vice-president, assistant secretary and treasurer the MATT executive, after deliberations that included the advice of MATT elders, has voted in a unanimous quorum to abide by our 35-year-old constitution and follow its guidelines for the appointment of members to the vacant posts.

Their appointees met with the MATT executive last week and agreed to serve.
The new executive members are Kandace Jackson, Vice-President, Clayton Clarke, Assistant Secretary, and Robert Taylor, Floor Member.
Mark Lyndersay will take on the role of Treasurer.

Two of the new executive members are journalists working in Tobago and the third is a news photographer, in keeping with the MATT executive’s pursuit of inclusion across all practicing arms of local journalism.

Under pandemic restrictions, news photographers have been among the most excluded doing their work at Parliament and State press conferences, and we hope to amplify our advocacy for on behalf of his colleagues.

In the circumstances which prevailed in the first two weeks of December, the executive had insufficient time to plan a general meeting, likely to lead to wide attendance with everyone busy and unavailable with Christmas and the New Years preparations.

The executive is asking the membership to accept a move of the quarterly general meeting to Saturday, January 8th, 2022, from 10.30-11.30 am in these circumstances.

At that meeting the new appointees will be formally presented to the general membership and we will report on our work for the first quarter of our term in office.

The MATT executive will continue to be available to the general membership through our 125-member strong chat group and keep you informed many of our actions on behalf of practicing journalists in Trinidad and Tobago.

We look forward to your attendance and participation at the MATT general meeting on January 8th, when new executive members will be introduced to our journalism fraternity. We hope you welcome and endorse them as we have.

Robert Taylor is an award winning photographer and the current Photographic Editor of the Trinidad Express Newspapers with over 28 years of experience.

He loves sports photography and capturing traditional Carnival characters.

Kandace Jackson, née Chulhan, has worked in media for nine years.
She spent seven years with Tobago Channel 5 and is now a producer with Tobago Updates.

She has a passion for reporting on tourism, history, the environment and politics.

Jackson was born in Siparia, but her family moved to Scarborough when she was nine and after attending school there, made Tobago her home.

Clayton Clarke began his journalism career in 2005 with i95.5FM. He has worked with the Trinidad Guardian, Newsday, Tobago Channel 5, KLAS Sports Radio and Radio Tambrin, most recently reporting for that station.

He has covered assignments in the Bahamas, Barbados, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, St. Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, Turks and Caicos, El Salvador, Venezuela, India and South Korea.

The decisions and actions of the MATT Executive are guided by its constitution.

MATT-ConstitutionDownload