I have not been in New Zealand for quite some time. Unless I’ve missed something Swimming New Zealand’s communication with its membership is about as forthcoming as asking Donald Trump to admit he’s wrong. However this week I got an email from the Swimming New Zealand CEO that might indicate a change for the better.

The email explained that Shannon Courtney and Kent Stead were leaving and that Swimming New Zealand was in the process of deciding what to do about covering their work. I don’t know Shannon Courtney but I have had to contact Kent Stead on several occasions to help with an event or a membership problem. There were times when I dialled his number wondering whether my Swimwatch activity would influence Kent’s willingness to assist. But there was never a problem. Kent was polite and helpful – sometimes above and beyond normal service.

Writing Swimwatch stories has been an interesting experience. Some people stop me at swim meets to say how much they enjoy the website. Others, like the Swimming New Zealand Chairman, dismissively say they have heard I write a blog but they have never read it. One official in Hawke Bay denied any knowledge of the existence of Swimwatch. That was strange because the company he worked for had its own server. Their company’s internet address appeared everyday on my analytics report. But Kent was different. I never detected whether he even knew about Swimwatch – whether he approved or disapproved. It was not relevant and he treated me accordingly. I will always be grateful for his professionalism and wish him well.

And on the subject of the Swimming New Zealand Chairman, Bruce Cotterill, denying he had read Swimwatch – I doubt whether that’s true. If it is true, in my opinion, it demonstrates a mind closed to ideas different from his own. And if that is true it is not good for our organization. A lot of what is written in Swimwatch is open to argument and a fair portion could be flat-out wrong. But the blog is read by an average of 150 New Zealand swimming people every day. Cotterill might do a better job if he came into contact with what some of us are thinking.     

So thank you Steve Johns at Swimming New Zealand for communicating these staff changes. The openness it represents will garner loyalty and support from your members. The silence practiced by the Swimming New Zealand Board encourages suspicion and mistrust.

Let me give you an example.

On the 1 December 2016 the Chairman of Swimming New Zealand said in reaction to the decision to reduce swimming’s government funding.

“We’re still going through the process to understand the rationale. The reality is the funding decision is made, but what we would like to understand is ‘why?’ and ‘what do we need to do to get back in the good books?”

It has been four months since Cotterill said he was “going through the process to understand the rationale.” So what has he come up with? Four months is long enough for him to find out and tell us how he is going to turn Swimming New Zealand around.  

But no, nothing, silence until on 10 March 2017 the NZSCTA Board emailed its members with the news that the Chairman of Swimming New Zealand, Bruce Cotterill, had written to all the Regional Chairpersons to announce that due to the HPSNZ funding decision announced in December 2016 the positions of the High-Performance Coaching Director and the High-Performance Athlete Development Coach were to be disestablished and removed.

NZSCTA also announced that the NZSCTA President, Nevill Sutton was meeting by Skype with the Swimming New Zealand CEO, Steve Johns, during week commencing the 13 March 2017 and that the NZSCTA Board would meet to discuss future Swimming New Zealand plans on Sunday 19 March 2017.

So, what has happened? We want to know. Cotterill has been on the lookout for rationale for four months. Has he found any? What conclusions has he come to? He must have come to some decisions. After all he clearly thought he knew enough to sack Gary and Donna. We have a right to be told the basis on which Cotterill decided to let them go.

And then Nevill Sutton met with Steve Johns. What was discussed and what conclusions were reached? We need to know. The sport belongs to the members. There is no justification for autocratic rule.

Finally NZSCAT held a Board meeting four days ago. We were asked to contribute ideas. We did that. But their feedback in return has been nil, nothing, silence.

Anyone looking at this would conclude that the communication is just not good enough. The definition of mushroom management is – keep them in the dark and feed them shit. Well we are not members of the fungi kingdom. We want to be informed.

But do not insult our intelligence by claiming that the weekly newsletter is evidence of Swimming New Zealand’s willingness to communicate. Of course it is good to know that “water babies are making a splash for Plunket” and that “community support strengthens water safety on Great Barrier” but we need a lot more than that. We need to be involved in the “rationale” that is going into managing our organization. For five years the Board of SNZ has been left alone to do their thing in secret. The result is such a mess that HPSNZ has slashed funding by close to $1.0 million a year. Now we need to be involved in the decision making process. We need to see minutes of Board meetings published in the newsletter. To coin a phrase from American politics, “What did the President know and when did he know it?” And I would add, “What does he plan to do about it?”          

It appears as if Johns may want to do the right thing. It would help if he could educate his boss on the meaning of communication and the benefit of good manners. For we know that Cotterill is not going to read about it in Swimwatch.