By David

“Oh! What a tangled web we weave. When first we practice to deceive!” Swimming New Zealand should know. A week ago SNZ met the Waikato clubs in an effort to spin the tangled web that is Project Vanguard. Swimwatch were lucky to have a personal contact at the meeting. A close relative of my wife, Alison, happens to be involved with swimming in the Waikato and was at the meeting. I asked for her opinion of what went on. The balance of this post is based on her impressions.

However before discussing the Waikato meeting, we need to address an interesting curiosity of the Vanguard sessions. Why does Mike Byrne, the CEO of SNZ, never come anywhere near Auckland? He was in Waikato and half a dozen other Regional meetings but when the road show came to New Zealand’s largest population center and home of SNZ’s high performance Millennium Institute he was nowhere to be seen; the curtains drawn, he was locked securely in his Pelorus Trust office.

Do you think he’s scared? The appearance of ignoring Auckland is certainly not healthy. It is also at variance with the sermon of open communication being preached at Vanguard services. If Byrne is incapable of communicating with Auckland why should we believe he will be a paragon of disclosure dealing with 180 New Zealand clubs? But, you may say, communicating with New Zealand’s clubs is different. No New Zealand club is anywhere near as powerful as the whole of Auckland. That’s exactly right; which makes any and every club in New Zealand that asks Byrne an uncomfortable question so much easier to ignore, just as he currently scorns Auckland. If Byrne thinks it’s acceptable to disdain the Auckland Region, brushing aside a troublesome club will be of no concern. The problem with communication in Swimming New Zealand is not structural – it’s personal. And no constitutional change is going to fix that.

But back to the Waikato meeting. In her various presentations Cathy Hemsworth has managed to blame just about every imaginable sin on the current structure of Swimming New Zealand; if it’s gone wrong, the current constitution did it. Sponsorship problems, a gold medal drought and poor communication have all been blamed on vexatious Regions. In Waikato Hemsworth landed the current constitution with responsibility for diminishing participation. She told the meeting that, membership numbers of SNZ in 1991 were 22,000 versus 14,500 in 2010. She then went on to explain that, SNZ was looking at the Gymsports model. Gymnastics in New Zealand now has a Professional Services Delivery Structure. Their sport reinvented itself to broaden its base and now has 80,000 competitive members and 180,000 members in total.

The duplicity in all this is stunning. SNZ had a regional structure when its membership was well in excess of 20,000. Perhaps independent Regions should get credit for those good numbers rather than be blamed for the current decline. There is certainly no evidence that the Regions have had any responsibility for the decline to 14,500. Far more important was the Byrne promoted initiative to banish learn to swim participants from SNZ membership. If, like gymnastics, every young person learning the sport was counted as a member, swimming would have a membership way in excess of 180,000. That has nothing to do with constitutional structure. That’s a policy landed on us by Byrne and his Swimming New Zealand Board. Oh, and by the way, the Gymsports figure includes both rhythmic and artistic gymnastics, whereas Hemsworth’s swimming example does not include this sport’s other disciplines. Finally, Hemsworth would do well to address in more depth factors like the absence of swimming role models. Has the fact, that in twelve years and with 10 million dollars of our money Byrne and Cameron have been unable to produce an Olympic medalist, had anything to do with the sport’s declining membership? The last time a New Zealander won an Olympic medal most of the swimmers in my club weren’t even born. In Waikato Hemsworth partially acknowledged the importance of role models when she said swimming needs the medals earned by HP swimmers. She should do some research. I think she will find New Zealand has not won any Olympic medals in the ludicrously titled High Performance era. As we have said before, Byrne and Cameron should look closely at how well they do their job before they try to change ours.

Hemsworth seems incapable of holding one of these meeting without dropping the SPARC threat. In Hamilton she explained the reason for change was the SPARC requirement for modernization otherwise SPARC money may be at risk to the organization. This concern also applied to commercial partnerships.

Now, I have been to two meetings recently where the CEO of SPARC, Peter Miskimmin, was asked whether SPARC had any preference for a SNZ organizational structure and was SPARC pushing a specific option. His answer on both occasions was a firm and clear – no, that decision is for the membership of Swimming New Zealand alone. It seems that either Miskimmin is a real devious bugger or Hemsworth is gilding the truth to the point of deception – and I don’t think Miskimmin is devious at all. Put it this way, if Hemsworth is so certain that the funding of swimming is at risk unless the Constitution is changed, I challenge her to produce a letter signed by Miskimmin that says, “Change your Constitution to the Professional Services Delivery Model or we may stop your funding.” Oh, and while she’s at it, I would like to see a similar letter from State Insurance that says, “Change your Constitution to the Professional Services Delivery Model or we may stop your sponsorship.” Until she can put those two letters on the table she should drop the threats. You see Cathy, without the letters we don’t believe you.

The most brilliant question at the Waikato meeting came from the floor. My wife’s relative tells me someone asked, “Why can’t Mike Byrne run swimming?” Don’t you just love the courage of some swimming people? Unfortunately the answer did not exhibit the same sagacity. Byrne evidentially said something like, “Because we have autonomous Regional Associations.” You must to be joking! Is the CEO of Swimming New Zealand really saying that unless he is in total control, unless he makes all the decisions he can’t run the sport? Obama seems to be able to run 50 autonomous American States successfully but Byrne can’t run 16 autonomous swimming regions. It is probably a most telling insight into the character of this individual. With that admission it could be time for him to go somewhere where his form of mini dictatorship is appreciated.

But there was worse to come. Byrne offered an example of regional rebellion. He said that a Region could choose to have a sponsor which is in direct competition to a SNZ sponsor, for example the Absolute Insurance and State Insurance conflict. He was referring to the Absolute Insurance sponsorship of the prize money paid to the winning teams at the Auckland League competition and the State Insurance learn to swim sponsorship. Once again, I do not believe either company care in the slightest that there are two insurance companies involved with New Zealand swimming. If they do Byrne should table letters expressing that concern. Until then it’s great that this sport is big enough to have two fine insurance organizations providing their support. I’m told that Don Stanley, a Life Member of Swimming New Zealand wisely said to Byrne, “You will have to first show me that either sponsorship is at risk.” The wisdom of that comment should be echoed by every person involved in the sport of swimming.

Finally, there are some who may consider the views expressed in Swimwatch to be extreme. I’ve even heard Mike Byrne unfairly described Swimwatch as strident. However the Waikato meeting demonstrated an interesting trend. I’m told the meeting included a Swimming New Zealand life member and a dozen Regional volunteers. Most would never read Swimwatch and those that did, would disagree with most of what we have to say. But not when it comes to Project Vanguard – main stream New Zealand is equally concerned at Swimming New Zealand’s manipulation of the truth. When the main stream and the radical fringe start singing from the same page Swimming New Zealand has a problem.

Project Vanguard requires Swimming New Zealand call for a vote of the Regions to approve moving to the next stage. The vote has to be taken early in the New Year. The Regions need to make sure the vote is held. I wouldn’t put it past those involved to ignore the instruction of the Annual Meeting and attempt to move on without getting the approval of the Regions. Evading a vote would be unconstitutional. If it happened the Swimming New Zealand’s Board would be spending money without approval. And that’s illegal. Don’t bet that will prevent them trying it on. When there is a vote, the Regions must talk to each other and kill off Project Vanguard before it causes real damage and costs us all another $100,000.