By David
On Monday nine of the seventeen voting members of Swimming New Zealand sent an ultimatum to the SNZ Board. It said that the Board should accept responsibility for the organization’s shortcomings. The Board should resign at the 2011 Annual General Meeting. Individual members could stand for re-election but the organization needed to begin the new year with a new Board with a fresh mandate to manage the affairs of the sport.
A copy of the “resignation” letter is shown at the conclusion of this post.
I have huge respect for Bronwyn Radford from Bay of Plenty. She is most likely horrified at that bit of news. Being admired by David Wright is probably her worst public relations nightmare. However, she’s the one who put her name on the letter demanding the Board’s “resignation”. I was reading another letter today, sent recently to Swimming New Zealand. This one was signed by fifteen of the sixteen regions and told Swimming New Zealand that their Zeus data base system was unacceptable to the New Zealand regions. That letter too was signed by Bronwyn Radford. For a couple of years it seems she has played a leading role in keeping Swimming New Zealand marginally honest. And now she and eight others have asked the Board of Swimming New Zealand to resign.
So, how will the Board of Swimming New Zealand respond? What will the Coulter gang do? My guess is they have three options.
- Accept the terms of the ultimatum. Agree to resign at the Annual General Meeting and provide the sport with a new Board and fresh mandate to govern. That would be the honourable thing to do. That’s what honest directors of the organization would see as an appropriate response to the region’s letter and the management disasters of the past two or three years. However honesty and honourable have never been strong suits of this Board. So, I doubt this option will see the light of day.
- Break ranks and have some Directors agree to resign while others hang tough and call the Region’s bluff. I doubt this option will happen. Coulter knows the importance of gang loyalty. Faced with their current problems, Coulter knows that any division in the ranks would be suicidal. No, I can’t see this Board turning on itself. The members are cut from the same cloth, tarred with the same brush.
- They could ignore the letter; give the nine voting members a middle finger salute and march on as though nothing had happened. Of course they will dress up their dismissal to look better than I’ve described, but the effect will be the same. They will probably question the Region’s voting power, debate the constitutionality of the resignation demand and claim that the immanent prospect of the London Games compels them to hang onto power for the good of the swimmers. Have you ever noticed how often the world’s dictators stay in power “for the good of the people”? My guess is the Coulter gang will go for this option. Why? Well firstly, because it suits their collective arrogance. They have never acknowledged the importance of the regions. Fundamentally they despise the good, honest, salt of the earth servants of this sport that populate the regions. And secondly, history tells them they can ignore the regions and get away with it. They didn’t like the Manawatu Remit so they ignored it and it was withdrawn. They altered the minutes of an Annual Meeting and ignored the outcry and it went away. The regions are populated by good people who have been shafted by their Board.Unfortunately the Coulter gang have been allowed to get away with too much too often; and they have learned. Just ignore the regions and the regions will give in. The SNZ Board believes the regions have loaded a gun but will never have the bottle to pull the trigger. Coulter, Byrne, Cameron, Berge and Butler fundamentally believe that if they call the region’s bluff and the regions will fold. Yep, given the flaws in this Board and the organization’s history I’m picking this is the option the Coulter gang will choose.
Before we print the “resignation” letter, have you ever noticed how the Wellington region never support initiatives supported by the other regions? The Zeus letter was signed by every region except Wellington. The capital’s signature was also missing from the “resignation” letter. Clearly Berge has his region under control. One does wonder whether the Board of the Wellington region is exercising its constitutional duty to promote the interests of the region or is simply a Berge sycophant. The evidence is not good.
However the lap dog obedience of Wellington highlights the courage and importance of the Bronwyn Radfords of this world. Every member, every swimmer involved in this sport owes her a huge debt of gratitude. It’s a lot to ask – but I just hope that having loaded the gun Bronwyn Radford and her supporters will have the courage to pull the trigger when the Coulter gang ignore their warning. For that, I am sure, is what is going to happen.
Here is the “resignation” letter.
