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An Example of Miskimmin Management

By David

I am conscious that the author of a blog such as Swimwatch needs to be careful that the blog remains positive. It should not become a constant source of complaints. During this period of mismanagement of swimming in New Zealand it has been difficult to avoid the whingeing label. Someone needed to say something. The behaviour of the Board and senior management could not be ignored. And, again today I noticed a report on the Wellington Capital Swim Club’s website that is of concern. What is it that the CEO of SPARC, Peter Miskimmin, is allowing his subordinates in Swimming New Zealand to do? Here is the report I found on the Capital Swim Club’s website.

Update from the Chair

Hi

Wellington Regional High Performance Unit

Last night your Board met with the CEO’s of SNZ and WhiPA to finalise the lane space that will be used by the CSC and HPU. The Board agreed that the formation of a Wellington Regional HPU was in the best interests of swimmers and the sport and has no detrimental effect on the CSC. It sees some of the overall benefits as:
A net gain for swimming including Capital swimmers

Swimming has more lanes

Swimming has more 50m set ups

Swimming has a first opportunity to run a complete HPU in Wellington in accord with SNZ strategic direction to form regional HPU’s

Greater opportunity to get leading edge swimming equipment

Greater opportunity to recruit sponsorship

Parents and swimmers of members of the CSC HPU were recently briefed by the CEO of SNZ and Gary Hurring on what this means for them. All members of the CSC HPU will transfer into the Wellington Regional HPU. It will be operational from 16 January 2012 and based at WRAC. (subject to written agreement with the WCC -see below)

The formation of the Wellington Regional HPU will mean a restructuring of our squads and a change of pool for training from WRAC to Freyberg. Timon and Luke are currently working through the squad changes and these will be advised as soon as the exercise has been completed and confirmed by the Board.

The last remaining thing that is required before this can proceed is confirmation from the Wellington City Council on the lane space and the signing of a 3- 5 year written agreement between us on lane space at WRAC and Freyberg. We are hoping to have this in place by 16 December 2011.

If you have any feedback you wish to provide please do so by Friday 6 December 2011.

Regards Greg Crott

I am not concerned that a High Performance Unit is being established in Wellington. The merits of that decision can be debated at another time. What is of concern is the decision making process employed to arrive at this announcement. Miskimmin effectively runs Swimming New Zealand these days. This announcement is his responsibility. How has he performed? Not very well is the answer. He has demonstrated a liking for autocratic rule. He occupies a powerful position and wields that power with little concern for procedure or process. Just consider the following list of factors that should cause unease among swimming people.

  1. A new Swimming New Zealand High Performance Unit is a major structural change. And yet it is not even reported on the SNZ website. Swimming New Zealand enters into a five year contract with the Wellington City Council for pool space and they tell no one. Miskimmin gets his hired help to hide the decision. A geek like me has to find the announcement of a major structural change in an obscure corner of a local swimming club’s website. Like many of his agreements, for some reason, Miskimmin seems to want to hide this one. And I think I know why.
  2. I can find no record of this decision being discussed or approved by the Board of Swimming New Zealand. The organization is about to sign a $300,000 contract for five years pool space without Board approval. Evidently that’s not required these days. Get Miskimmin’s verbal approval – I hear he commits very little to writing – and Byrne and Butler scurry off to do their master’s bidding.
  3. As we all know Swimming New Zealand is currently in the middle of a hugely expensive “Period of Review”. What will the future structure of Swimming New Zealand look like? Will the organization continue to directly manage New Zealand’s high performance swimmers? Will the structure of Swimming New Zealand be based on a centralist model or be founded on what Swimwatch has called “rugged individualism”. The whole place is up for review. Miskimmin has said all the options are on the table. The future, he says, cannot be constrained by the organization’s past. The best solutions, whatever they are, must be found for this sport. And yet while Miskimmin is saying all this stuff his employees are making structural changes and financial promises that will commit Swimming New Zealand to the Miskimmin unspoken plan for another five years. It is a slight of hand of Houdini proportions. Miskimmin has never wanted to reform swimming. He just wants it moulded to his image.
  4. A key to the Miskimmin plan is to have Swimming New Zealand enter into long term structural changes and financial contracts that the Review Committee must take into account. Far from all the options being on the table, Miskimmin is putting in place structures that guarantee the Review Committee can only come to one conclusion – the Miskimmin Conclusion.
  5. I am concerned about the position of Gary Hurring. In another typical example of Miskimmin duplicity Gary was appointed to the Swimming New Zealand Review Committee. The announcement of the new Wellington High Performance Unit means Gary will be paid a portion of his income by the Swimming New Zealand high performance organization. How can Gary possibly sit on a Committee charged with possibly abolishing Swimming New Zealand’s involvement in High Performance swimming when his income is so dependent on Swimming New Zealand preserving its high performance role? He has a serious and obvious conflict of interest. I suspect that will cause Gary some concern – it certainly should. I don’t think it will worry Miskimmin. He could see it simply as a tricky way of buying another vote. Gary should get off the Review Committee before his reputation and standing are compromised beyond repair.

Beware – although this announcement is presented to you in the guise of all that’s good for Wellington swimmers, it is probably a deception assembled by skilled operators to manipulate the work of the Review Committee. Right from the beginning I have consistently warned Swimming New Zealand’s regions that they were being conned and silenced by skilled operators. That is still my view. Why else has Swimming New Zealand made this change in secret? Why else hasn’t Miskimmin told you about it?

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 3rd, 2011 at 12:53 am and is filed under New Zealand . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

  • James T

    Yep … as I mentioned before in an earlier post, there is hardly a week goes by that there isn’t another stupid inane decision made on SNZ’s part. And yet again, who is in the middle of it? You bet … Byrne the imbecile, and Butler the insurance salesman. Of course they just slip this through because they have absolutely no respect for process, no respect for good governance, no respect for prudent financial management of an organization that survives on handouts. I would guarantee that none of this went through the Board (not that the Board is effectual in any case). I also guarantee that they will try to justify this on the basis of it being an ‘operational’ issue, therefore not needing approval of its Board or it’s owners.

    As if one disastrous High Performance Centre wasn’t enough, they want to create another one! I guarantee one thing David – if Gary Hurring is naive enough to be lead down this path, it will be the ruin of him as a coach. Just look at Scott Talbot since he became a SNZ employee!

    So they are effectively giving the fingers to any review process by pre-determining a strategic outcome? They are making long-term decisions and effectively binding an organization, it’s Board and members without a mandate to do so. Good leadership would have ensured that the moment agreement for a second major (and arguably more encompassing) review was in place, any medium to long term commitments would be on hold, pending the outcome of that review. They are making some serious commitments far beyond what is appropriate or prudent. For goodness sake, they have been on ‘drip feed’ funding from SPARC in the last year, even the Budget they presented to the AGM for the next financial year was apparently rejected by the members because it was so full of nonsense and fairy tales that they were told to go away and do one that was accurate (they apparently even admitted in the AGM that they ‘knew the Budget was not accurate’ but they still presented it any way -that’s another story for you David). They are lending long and borrowing short – even Butler would understand that. No point expecting Byrne to understand that because he his a fool.

    This is bad, bad leadership and management … yet again!

  • David

    While I agree with the comments of JamesT it does need to be remembered that the Regions have only themselves to blame for all that is going on in SNZ right now. They had the organization on the verge of real reform. They had demanded the resignation of the Board. They had the Consitution and real power on their side. And then they went to Wellington and were conned blind. They acted like naive babies. They let this sport down. Eight years some of us spent getting this sport to face up to reform and in eight hours in Wellington the leaders of the Regions sold us down the road. And so, while we will fight on, while Miskimmin and his hired help get their way – we should remember it should never have come to this. Swimwatch warned you – and you ignored us. We are getting what we deserved and it is all so, so sad. Sad because another generation of Palmers, Ingrams, Marsdons, and the like are going to pay for your lack of courage.

  • Sensible Swimming

    The reactions of readers to Swimwatch (as measured by the comments made) is quite fascinating to me. Sometimes I read one of David’s posts and think, “that’s interesting, but probably not that important” and then follows a whole series of comments all of which add to the interest and debate. On other occasions I will read a post like this one from David and think how important the points raised are and yet other readers do not seem to engage at all.

    This post ‘feels’ important to me. We are standing at the beginning of the most important review of the sport for a generation. Like it or not, this review will determine how the sport is delivered for years to come and we will get from it what we deserve. Unlike Project Vanguard (remember that?) there is some requirement and necessity for this review to follow good process. What David has exposed above is yet more evidence of the same duplicity, deceit and lack of process that marred and corrupted Vanguard to the point where we all despised and distrusted what it represented.

    I am curious, did Ross Butler disclose to the steering group when members of the working party were being considered that a new High Performance Group was about to be established in Wellington? I very much doubt that he did.

    Did he make full disclosure to the SNZ Board, if so are we going to read about that disclosure in the SNZ Board minutes? Not likely given his form to date.

    Did he disclose that this would create a probable conflict of role for Gary Hurring if he were appointed to the working group? Almost certainly not. That is the type and level of deception which has been a hallmark of administrations with which he has been involved for six years at SNZ.

    This man (Ross Butler) is just quite simply a crook. It is quite right that a majority of the members of the SNZ Board should have rejected his application for continued membership of the Board. Not only was his reappointment not constitutional but he proves yet again that he is not a fit and proper person for a function which requires someone of greater integrity than he has shown during his entire time on the SNZ Board. It is also quite wrong that Misskimmin and his buddies should have interfered in the decision to reject Butler’s application for a further term of unconstitutional reappointment. That they should see nothing wrong with it and describe it as being important to preserve the status quo is quite disgusting.

    I read this comment from someone the other day. The correspondent is obviously close to and affected by the decisions made by these rogues. It is a good message for Butler and all of his crew who have not made the sport a better place and who have betrayed the athletes who make us proud:

    “…I take my hat off to each and everyone of them [swimmers] and wish them all the best of luck with their preparations for Olympics, Age Groups, Juniors, Club Champs etc and hope for their sake, that of our sport and my sanity, that someone with a brain takes the SNZ fat cats to outward bound and leaves them there.”

    Well said.

  • Chris

    Ah, the oldest political trick in the book. Push through major political change with some obscure and oblique announcement that is public, but impossible to find, when everyone is completely distracted i.e. Rugby World Cup, Elections, holidays and Christmas.

    To be charitable, I have listed for the convenience of Byrne/Butler/Miskimmin, their possible excuses:

    1. It is an operational decision, so Byrne can make these decisions on his own.
    2. It doesn’t affect governance, so Byrne can make these decisions on his own.
    3. The Board has some new members on it, so Byrne can make these decisions on his own.
    4. The Constitution gets in the way of CEO doing his job, so Byrne can make these decisions on his own.
    5. It was all Jan Cameron’s fault, so Byrne can make these decisions on his own.
    6. This is an example of SNZ democracy at work, so Byrne can make these decisions on his own.
    7. We are tracking toward a Gold medal in London, so Byrne can make these decisions on his own.
    8. We’ve signed a contract promising to pay money that we don’t have for the next 5 years, but it’s not real money, so Byrne can make these decisions on his own.
    9. The review is going to get rid of Byrne and the Board anyway, so Byrne can make these decisions on his own.
    10. Byrne isn’t allowed to talk to the Press because he’s stupid, so Byrne can make these decisions on his own.

    Any others that I’ve missed out?

  • David

    Sensible Swimming – I agree 100%. While the effect of West Auckland Aquatics swmming an 8000 medley and who coaches Ingram may be fasinating, in comparison to what has gone on here they are meaningless to the long term health of swimming. This structural change is impotant because it speaks to the integrity of our leaders. It shines a light into the condition of their soul. And they have been found wanting. They manipulate circumstances and people. Miskimmin and those who report to him can not be trusted. What other possible conclusion can you reach.

  • Sharon

    Chris…#11

    If Koru sounds stupid, looks stupid, acts stupid the quite probably Koru is …!

  • Tom

    Sensible Swimming – you make an interesting observation. Could I suggest the reason posts about officials or training programmes get more comments, is they appear more tangible to the larger swimming community. We all have an opinion on these subjects, and many of us are comfortable commenting on them.

    Understandably, the intricacies of the governance of New Zealand Swimming appear complicated or restrictive. Rightly or wrongly, perhaps many people don’t feel qualified to comment. Many others probably think – I don’t care about the politics, I just want to focus on the swimming.

    While understandable, like you I think this is unfortunate. This is exactly what SNZ wants. We’re all stakeholders of the sport, and we are all entitled to have our say.

    I’m not sure if you’ve ever read the book (or seen the documentary): Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room. A common theme throughout is that people with concerns about what was happening at Enron were afraid to say anything – because the leaders of their organization (the smartest guys in the room) must have known what they were doing.

    The directors of Enron deliberately cultivated the notion what they were doing was too complicated for ordinary people to understand (it was simple accounting fraud).

    While I might not always agree with David, I think he does a pretty good job of cutting through the fog to get to the heart of what is going on in SNZ governance. I hope his ability to frame the issue in an accessible manner encourages more people to have their say.

  • James T

    Tom – you may be right about commentators’ posting habits, but I don’t think that should be interpreted as being uninterested in the more esoteric subjects. I know many of my swimming friends who chat about the latest ‘David’ post and follow all of them intently – not always agreeing, but nevertheless interested.

    As far as governance issues go, every one I know has at some time been to and experienced formal meetings, been on a committee or Board, at school, other sports, work etc. and if they aren’t interested in the finer detail of pages of constitutional clauses, everyone has a basic innate instinct for honesty, for democracy, for the social behavioural norms that are inherent in group dynamics, for due process, and a sense of fair play.

    And this is where things have fallen apart. It doesn’t matter how closely you are involved in the sport, there are just too many things about the way our sport is governed and managed (and as Sensible Swimming above has used the term) it just FEELS wrong.

    (And also borrowing from Chris’ rhythmic phrasing above). It just FEELS wrong that our sport is led by people who don’t know our sport. It just FEELS wrong that unelected people can overturn legitimate decisions. It just FEELS wrong that the President of SNZ was neither voted for by our community or by the Board, and is someone who is universally viewed amongst our people with suspicion and distrust. It just FEELS wrong that our CEO who is being paid way too much is such a fool. It just FEELS wrong that people more interested in clinging to power than resigning for the good of the sport, are still in situ behaving like nothing has changed. It just FEELS wrong that our sport’s governing body has become one big PR machine spinning its virtues on a daily basis. It just FEELS wrong when Wellington tells us what is good for us.

    No, we at the grassroots know when we are being lied to and manipulated because it just FEELS wrong.

  • Tom

    You make a good point James T. I didn’t mean to imply the swimming community is uninterested in what happens in the halls of power. That was inarticulate. In fact, I’ve recently spoke with people in other sports who have taken an interest in Sparc’s interference in swimming. What I was trying to say is SNZ would have you believe you can’t make a difference. That is a fallacy.