By David
I am concerned. I have no doubt that the Coalition of Regions wants the best for swimming in this country. It wants to see a change in the management of the business. It wants a diversified approach to the coaching of elite athletes. It does not want the socialism proposed by Project Vanguard or whatever its new name might be.
We have seen Swimming New Zealand and SPARC portray these legitimately held views as “smears”, as “chaos” and as a “battle”. SPARC and the Swimming New Zealand’s Board have declared war on the membership of the sport of swimming. They will use their financial power and political muscle to beat the sport into submission. The CEO of SPARC, Peter Miskimmin, has long and loudly proclaimed the independence of swimming to arrange its own management affairs. But he does not mean that. If it looks like the Regions are about to replace his mates, he will use taxpayer’s money to save their skins. He will lie of course and tell the world he is acting to prevent the sport descending into chaos.
But for the Swimming New Zealand Board and SPARC this is not about right and wrong. This is not about winning a swimming race. Most of the Swimming New Zealand Board has no idea what is involved in elite sport. This is about power and that’s a game Kerry McDonald and his minions have been playing for fifty years. Winning the Board Room is the only winning that matters to them. So how are they going to do this? With the majority of Swimming New Zealand’s membership firmly stacked against them, how are they going to save their disgusting hides? That is a question that has exercised my mind for the past week.
My guess is they will do what all Board Room bullies do. They will use threats. They will use money and they will use the law to kill off the legitimate changes wanted by the Coalition of Regions. The threat will always be the same. They will threaten to withdraw SPARC funding of the sport. That will scare many. It shouldn’t. All SPARC’s money is spent on the Wellington office and Jan Cameron’s barren folly in Auckland. The vast majority of swimming would not be affected by Miskimmin spending his dole money somewhere else. As Swimwatch have said before, swimming would be poor but would have its pride and independence intact; qualities that have won New Zealand more Gold Medals that SPARC’s money ever has.
The use of money and the law is an inseparable union. My guess is that legal counsel will be employed to challenge every move made by the Coalition of Regions at the Annual Meeting on 25th September. I’m picking special emphasis will be placed on the Coalition’s voting power. SPARC and the Swimming New Zealand Board will get some Judas Iscariot Region, like Wellington, to challenge everything. Were the remits properly submitted? Were the Region’s delegates properly appointed? Are the Coalition’s proxies correctly prepared? Is the number of members claimed by each coalition Region valid? Nothing will go unchecked.
I am especially concerned about the challenge to the number of members in each Region. Why? Because, in the same position as SPARC and the Swimming New Zealand Board, that is where I would concentrate my attention. I would make every effort to castrate the Coalition’s voting power.
My guess is the axis of power will contest the membership numbers, especially of Auckland, to rip the heart out of the Coalition of Region’s voting power. How will they do this is the question? They can’t dispute the fees paid by the members. Presumably they are paid properly. Then I wondered if there was any clerical process they could question. And this is what I think they will do. I think they will pick on some small clerical process required by the Constitution and will attempt to disenfranchise every swimmer who has not complied; or whose Club or Region has not met the letter of the Constitution.
For example the Constitution requires that Clubs and Regions submit membership forms each year in addition to the fees and contact details. For years this has never been done. The fees and contact details have been submitted of course but most Clubs, including ours, don’t ask members to fill out a new form every year. Will Butler, Byrne and Miskimmin challenge Auckland’s membership numbers? You bet they will. You bet they will use our money to screw a thousand Auckland swimmers out of their right to be members of this sport. They will do this to win what they call their “battle”.
Well, I have decided not to let them off without a fight. I have been to a benefactor who has helped me with swimming expenses before. We have put $60,000 into an account to pay for legal expenses. Next week I will make the first payment from the account. It will pay for a swimmer who has been a member of swimming New Zealand for seven years but who does not have a registration form in the Wellington office to ask the High Court to rule on the validity of her membership. Swimming New Zealand will be issued with the papers requesting High Court clarification next week. I wonder if they will oppose the action. They shouldn’t. Isn’t it a good thing to go into the AGM with a clear idea of who is a member and who is not? Our legal case will accomplish that objective and avoid the unpleasant spectacle of SPARC and the SNZ Board challenging the legitimacy of thousands of its members. The request of one swimmer will bring clarity for everyone.
I expect this week’s action will cost us about $10,000. The balance of $50,000 we will spend defending the right of the Coalition of Regions to represent their members. SPARC have a lot more money than that. Eventually they will spend more and they will win. In the process, though, our spending will be sufficient to prove them frauds and losers.
