Dreams of winning gold
 

(VANOC = Vancouver Organizing Committee, a public organization supported by the Canadian, provincial, and Vancouver City taxpayers, and established for the purposes of "planning, organizing, financing and staging the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games" in Vancouver and Whistler, Canada)

 

When, in the act of sharing our enthusiasm for the Olympics we approached VANOC with the song, Nicole was sent a one-page “Unsolicited Proposal Agreement” (UPA), signing of which would not only strip her from ownership of the song, but it would also oblige her to waive “…any and all moral rights and rights of authorship…” to her song.

 

Moreover, signing of the UPA was required as a condition of VANOC just listening to the song, and would hold whether or not VANOC actually later ends up using the song! So if, after listening, VANOC decided that they do not like it, VANOC would still maintain the song's ownership and Nicole would not be able to present it as her song anymore anywhere!

 

Check for yourself, the VANOC's whole one-page Unsolicited Proposal Agreement.pdf

 

There is practically no way of initiating creative work to VANOC other than by first signing the UPA (see NOTE below). This request appears to be in contrast with VANOC's claim that “it is a key objective of VANOC to ensure that all Canadians and others around the world are engaged in the 2010 Winter Games”, as stated in a VANOC email to us attempting to present some rationale for their request to sign the UPA.

 

 

Here are a few humorous twists to the story:
 

* Alison Dennis, a Richmond Olympic Oval’s Manager, who at the time was probably not aware of the existence of the UPA, left us a message saying “everybody loves the song" ...and... "we would love to incorporate the song into our promotional material”. Unfortunately, since that message, Ms. Dennis has chosen not to answer any attempts of communication with her that we initiated.

 

Listen to the recording of Alison Dennis's message

 

Officially, the Sea To SkyWay CD is sealed and kept by Caroline Lötter, responsible for VANOC’s 'Ceremonies', and thus is not available to other VANOC’s employees. (Keep in mind that the song has been available to the rest of the world through this and other websites!)

 

* Both, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson and the BC Premier Gordon Campbell provided us with very positive responses and suggestions that we send the song to VANOC or to its CEO John Furlong, which we did.

 

* A letter containing the song as a gift and sent to VANOC CEO Mr. John Furlong was intercepted by Marine King, VANOC's Assistant Records Manager. We have no idea whether Mr. Furlong was informed about the existence of the letter.

 

    NOTE:

    VANOC classifies its dealing with the public as either “solicited” or as “unsolicited”, depending on whether VANOC asks or is asked for goods or services to be provided to it by outsiders. Since VANOC did not explicitly 'ask' for a song about the Olympics, it considers our presenting of Sea To SkyWay to them as "unsolicited" and hence subjected to all the draconian rules of the VANOC's Unsolicited Proposal Agreement (UPA).