By David
I was about to write a story on the email written by Mike Byrne telling us that the current Swimming New Zealand Board rejected all ten Annual General Meeting remits proposed by the Bay of Plenty, Auckland and Waikato Regions. In fact I had written the first 399 words. I had written about the exclusion of any mention of a Project Vanguard remit and wondered whether the omission was another example of Coulter and Byrne treachery. I pointed out that the culmination of Coulter’s 10 years on the Board, with 24 other directors, was the most damming organisational report any of us has ever read. I said the Regions seemed to identify the need to ensure SNZ never ended up in this mess again.
And then I recognised I was making a huge mistake. The heat in this debate is increasing daily. The Annual Meeting and Special Meeting are very close. There is a noticeable increase in tension. Swimming New Zealand is plastering their website with all sorts of new information. Memos and emails are jamming servers all over the country. The Chairman of the North Shore Club has waded into the debate telling us that his club has the largest membership in the country and whinging about the Auckland Region not asking his permission to govern. In fact there are four clubs in New Zealand bigger than North Shore and the role of an elected Board is to govern, not to conduct weekly referendum seeking North Shore or West Auckland’s approval. Without question the tensions and heat being generated is damaging the quality of the discussion. Emotion is replacing logic. The benefits of reform are being lost in a maze of accusations. In the vacuum created by Coulter’s indecision, confusion is rampant. The need for leadership is at a premium.
Without question this is not the time for Swimwatch to add to swimming’s problems. Whenever I have been in a stressful situation I have found that by slowing things down; by quietly reflecting, the problem is best solved. A few years ago I was flying myself from Auckland to Wellington. About 100 kilometres north of Wanganui, at 9000 feet, the engine of my Piper Arrow burst an oil pipe and the engine seized. I was lucky. I found a convenient barley field and landed safely. All the way down I recall reminding myself to slow things down, to remember the goal, to never lose sight of the objective, to achieve the original purpose, to bring this airplane down safely.
I was reminded of that occasion when I read the North Shore letter and some of the other correspondence on Swimming New Zealand’s website. An oil pipe had burst and this organisation was descending at 700 feet a minute. It was time to slow things down; time to focus on the purpose of why we were here; time to bring the sport in for a safe and welcome landing.
Bronwen Radford’s email explaining how swimming has arrived at this point is an important document in this regard. She has detailed an unfortunate history that could no longer be ignored. If the Regions had not responded to the deteriorating standard of management at Swimming New Zealand they would have been guilty of neglecting their duties as owners of the organisation.
Several years ago the Regions stood by and watched Swimming New Zealand make an expensive and aborted effort to standardise data management in swimming. During that exercise the Regions became suspicious of the motives of Swimming New Zealand management. Was this simply an exercise to gather additional revenue? The concern of the Regions expressed itself in a remit that became known as the Manawatu Remit being presented to and passed by the 2010 Annual General Meeting. This was aimed at improving Swimming New Zealand’s communication with the Regions.
And from that point the relationship between Swimming New Zealand and its members lurched from one disaster to another. Instead of looking at the reasons that prompted the Manawatu Remit and learning from them and working harder to improve communication and trust, the Board of Swimming New Zealand decided the Manawatu Remit was grounds for a fight. They would show a few rebellious Regions that this Board was not to be taken lightly. They refused to ratify the Manawatu Remit and called a Special General Meeting to overturn the new rule. And they launched Project Vanguard; a whole movement aimed at eliminating Regional power. The Board of Swimming New Zealand declared war.
The Regions agreed to withdraw the Manawatu Remit but strongly resisted Project Vanguard. They saw the disaster a similar structural change had caused Surf Life Saving and Girl Guides in New Zealand and said, “Not for us, thank you.” Swimming New Zealand’s response was another disaster. They altered Annual Meeting minutes. They progressed Project Vanguard way beyond the approval given by the Regions. Without authorisation they closed a Project Vanguard Committee established by an Annual Meeting. It was impossible to imagine behaviour designed to alienate the owners of the sport more. It was just awful management aimed, as always, at accumulating naked power.
Finally, and way too late, SPARC realised there was a problem. SPARC had invested $16 million in Jan Cameron’s folly and she had returned them nothing. And now the grass roots of the sport were telling them that sector was in disarray. SPARC commissioned the Ineson Report. I never thought Ineson would reveal the shambles in swimming. I thought his report would be a cover up. I was wrong. Ineson laid bare a picture of conflict and disharmony. SPARC ordered the Board to reform.
The Board responded. They formed a Committee and wrote another report. Nothing else changed. They pushed on blindly with a dying Project Vanguard. They spent money on gala events at the Mirimar Golf Club. Jan Cameron toiled away behind the scenes, undermining the National Coach’s position, preparing personal grievances, wasting the few months left before New Zealand’s best swimmers have to compete in the London Olympic Games.
Bronwen Radford saw all this and could wait no longer. She asked the Board of Swimming New Zealand to resign. She did that, not as a punishment, or as final push in long standing war. I believe Bronwen Radford did that because she realised the relationship between this Board and the owners of the sport was irreparably broken. There simply was no way that Coulter, Byrne and Cameron could win back the trust of the Regions. That was gone forever. Swimming New Zealand’s war had caused too much damage. It was time to begin again. It was a time for healing.
The best way to do that was to form a new Board in which every Director had the full support of the membership; a new Board with a fresh mandate to govern. She recognised it was the only option. And that’s where we are today.
Bronwen Radford has done a fine job. She has guided us well. She has found a great barley field. We are on finals with good height and good speed. We should elect a new Board and get this craft safely home.