Here’s a quote from the front page of Swimming New Zealand’s website.

“The swimmers including Emily Thomas, who last year became New Zealand’s first medalist in 23 years at the Pan Pacific Championships.”

Who writes this trash? I coached Toni Jeffs when she won a bronze medal at the 1991 Pan Pacific Games. And that was twenty years ago. If I remember correctly Anna Simcic and Phillipa Langrell won medals at the same meet. In the 1995 Pan Pacific Games, I think, Danyon Loader won medals in the 200 and 400 meters freestyle and the men’s relay team won two medals as well. And all that was sixteen years ago.

So what’s all this about twenty-three years? There wasn’t even a Pan Pacific Games twenty-three years ago. You just can’t believe a word that organization says.

In previous Swimwatch articles, I’ve mentioned an old swimming friend of mine who lives in Australia. She has a mole in Pelorus House who provides her with a pile of information about Swimming New Zealand. Today she sent me an email that the Swimming New Zealand Chairman, Murray Coulter, has sent to the sixteen member Regions.

It begins, “Dear Regions”. That’s the first lie. This is the guy who is leading the charge to abolish every Region in the country. He wants to strip them of their money and their fixed assets and then he wants to see the Regions relegated to the oblivion of swimming history. How dare he address those he wants to obliterate as “Dear Regions”.

Coulters next paragraph tells us a lot about how a Post-Vanguard Swimming New Zealand will act. Here is what he says.

The Board has received a recommendation from the Project Vanguard Committee that with the delivery of the Operating Options Report, associated with the summary of the second regional consultation phase, that the Committee’s mandated tasks have been completed. It was unanimously recommended to the Board that a fresh governance structure would be appropriate to support the project as it moves forward. Accordingly the Board Committee which has steered and governed the project until now will be dissolved.

The problem here is that the committee that was set up to steer Project Vanguard was set up by a vote at an Annual General Meeting. Its creation was ordered by the members of Swimming New Zealand. It can only be disestablished by the same members. It is not for Coulter or his Board to dissolve. They have no mandate to meddle with that Committee. But Coulter does not care about that. He’ll do it anyway. It is unconstitutional. It is arrogant. Little wonder the New Zealand Olympic Committee saw through this upstart and dumped him back onto the streets of Wellington after one season on their Board.

In an amazing burst of gobbledegook Coulter then delivers this gem.

“The Board remains resolved to deliver improved services through the organisation, by improving governance and management capability and driving for an outcome of increased participation. The next steps will focus on this and we are looking to support an accelerated delivery.”

So there we have it, a Coulter admission; Coulter’s Easter confession. Project Vanguard is moving into a period of “next steps”. Coulter knows he’s not allowed to do that. He might manipulate Annual Meeting minutes and alter properly passed remits but he cannot escape the truth. He was ordered by the Regions to obtain their approval before moving on to “next steps”. And he is not doing that. He is blatantly ignoring a properly passed instruction. He is treating every Region in the country with contempt. However his day will come. Swimwatch has employed New Zealand’s best sports attorney to look at the Swimming New Zealand action of altering the minutes of the Annual Meeting. Like President Nixon, President Coulter would probably say, “I am not a crook.” Let’s see what a good firm of Auckland lawyers have to say about that.

“The Vanguard Committee have led the foundation stages in preparing the organisation for what will be significant change. No doubt we still have some difficult times ahead as our country faces a number of major changes forced by financial and geographic events. We are fully committed to finding outcomes which avoid duplication, reduce the financial and people costs of service delivery and consistently provide high standards through efficient systems and processes.”

Well Coulter, our advice is, don’t you count on introducing “significant change” just yet. You might have power on your side but the Regions have right. You may be able to bulldoze on, distributing largess, forming committees and workshops to massage your message, but “we the people” are not done yet. Your organization is corrupt. It has lost the moral authority to govern. We are determined to see you fail. How can you possibly say Project Vanguard will “reduce the financial costs of service delivery”? You are about to start paying people to do work volunteers currently do for free. How can that possibly reduce the cost of anything? It’s just rubbish. How can you claim that your Project Vanguard is going to “consistently provide high standards through efficient systems and processes?”

The only thing you’ve been in control of for a decade is the High Performance Program and it’s a shambles. Scott Cameron barely talks to Mark Regan. Swimmers chop and change between the two coaches in a bizarre game of musical swimming chairs. Regan takes half the New Zealand team to Queensland to prepare for the World Championships and Scott flies off with the other half to the United States. Regan doesn’t even get picked to go to the World Championships until SPARC steps in and orders some sanity. The only thing you currently run is the subject of a full performance Review ordered by SPARC. Clearly they are not too impressed by your current “systems and processes”.

“The working groups being established have a specific task to complete over the next few weeks in order to provide process level data that will support a high level design for an optimal operating model to be evaluated. They have been selected especially for their knowledge of existing processes and volumes and they will be dissolved following this step.”

Did you ever read as much meaningless jargon as those 59 words? “A high level design for an optimal operating model to be evaluated.” Murray Coulter, we are not the sort of people who are impressed by your complicated sentence construction. We know you have failed to win a medal at a world class swimming event for a decade now. We know your organization spins the truth. We’ve seen you alter meeting minutes. We have watched you ignore the instructions of the Regions. Right now, we see you as long on words, short on performance. We are not of a mind to give your Resume more power and our money.

Actually this paragraph provides the best laugh I’ve had all week. Coulter is so full of MBA speak and yet he writes this sentence – “They (that’s the Committee members) have been selected especially for their knowledge of existing processes and volumes and they will be dissolved following this step.” The picture of Coulter stirring a barrel of sulphuric acid behind Pelorus House while Toomey drags out used up Committee members to be dissolved is hard to resist. Anyone asked to be on that Committee; you have been warned.

“The Board in the meantime will assume the project governance function directly, with a group of Mark Berge (Chairman), Humphrey Pullon and Dominic Toomey supporting our Chief Executive Mike Byrne and the Project Manager Cathy Hemsworth in completing the current phase.”

At last a glimmer of truth – “The Board in the meantime will assume the project governance function directly.” Here is an insight into Coulter’s post Vanguard world. “The Board will assume” – and that’s what this is all about. They want power. They have no right to disband the current Steering Committee and appoint themselves in charge of the process. That’s what dictators do.

Only the Regions can approve that structural change. We are being treated with contempt. But on a personal level, there are two things I find upsetting? Dominic Toomey is young, he comes from a family steeped in swimming history and he is a lawyer. I would hope those qualities would produce a man prepared to do what is right. Is Dominic Toomey going to be a man that does what’s right or a lawyer who finds legal loopholes to justify his organization altering the minutes of an Annual Meeting? Agreeing to act on what could be seen as an unconstitutional “group” is not an auspicious sign. I’ve been to a couple of meetings where Project Vanguard Committee member Suzanne Speer has spoken her mind with courage and concern. She clearly has fears for the direction Project Vanguard is taking. As a result of Swimming New Zealand’s unauthorized restructuring she has been dumped. It appears dissent will not be tolerated in Coulter’s new world.

“We will settle on a new engagement model for the following step/s over the next month or so which will see us designing a fairly detailed model for the delivery of all services offered by the organisation to members which will form the bones of a business case for change.”

This seems to be a pretty stark confession. Coulter intends to move this process on without any recognition of the order that he first obtains the approval of the Regions. The Swimming New Zealand organization is arrogant beyond belief. Every fibre in every decent person’s body says. “They cannot possibly do this. They must obtain approvals. They cannot alter minutes. They cannot dissolve Annual Meeting ordered Committees. They cannot assume unchallenged “governance” without the approval of the members.” And yet, in Coulter’s Swimming New Zealand they do this stuff all the time.

“The board thanks the Project Vanguard Committee for its work. It has been a trying environment, facing into necessary change, and they have provided the guidance and leadership to run significant consultation across the membership enabling the identification of the opportunity as outlined in their report.”

Murray: committee is singular – “it has provided”, not “they have provided”. It may have been beneficial to invest in a basic English course before you took on the task of leading Swimming New Zealand down the Project Vanguard path. I was at a meeting recently and listened to a presentation on Project Vanguard. I was told the swimming world was about to become a better place. Swimming New Zealand would be able to impose “uniform standards” on everyone so that we all could teach learn to swim the same way. We could all coach champions according to a Swimming New Zealand set of standards. Wasn’t that fantastic? Honestly I can’t imagine anything worse. I have no wish to coach the same way as Gary Hurring or Jeremy Duncan or Jon Winter. I certainly have no wish for them to coach the same way as me. In the United States, their coaching diversity is their strength. Our goal must be to strengthen the component parts; to have Gary, Jon, Paul and me express our coaching personalities in our own way, not force us all to participate in Coulters vision of having Swimming New Zealand “assume the project governance function directly”.

Murray Coulter

President

Murray Coulter, ex-member of the New Zealand Olympic Committee and, with an ounce of luck, soon to be ex-president of Swimming New Zealand.