POST SCRIPT

It appears there may be more to the SNZ transfer request story, reported below, than I thought. Ailing Cui is indeed a swim teacher at the West Wave Pool. Recently the Pool Manager, Alex Calwell, embarked on a crusade to grow his empire. In particular he decided the Auckland City Council should get involved in coaching competitive swimmers. Previously Auckland City had restricted its swimming tuition role to teaching learn-to-swim. Quite rightly the Council believed that coaching competitive sport was not one of their duties.

It seems however that Alex Calwell may be a law unto himself. Recently Ailing Cui was appointed to coach the West Wave venture into competitive swimming. Nothing should be said to diminish the seriousness of that decision. Where will it stop? Will private clubs everywhere be taken over by Council Calwell clones?

However Ailing Cui faced a problem. She couldn’t coach swimmers at a competition unless she had a coaching membership pass from Swimming New Zealand (SNZ). To get a SNZ membership she needed to be a member of a club; hence the application to join West Auckland Aquatics. What we don’t know is whether the transfer request is simply a mistake by someone unaware of West Auckland Aquatics’ demise or does it signal a move by Calwell and his mates to resurrect the old club under Auckland City Council control? If it is the latter I would be asking the Registrar of Incorporated Societies to look into any liabilities left behind by the club. They should be transferred to Auckland City. In addition, if the club is renewed, I am still a Board member. I never resigned. I would require my position to be recognised by the resurrected club.

 I know there are many members of Swimming New Zealand (SNZ) who support the current management. I imagine that supporters also feel the criticisms made in Swimwatch are unfounded. Even when we provide example after example of incompetence Steve Johns and his mates prefer to blame the messenger rather than message.

Perhaps the critics could explain events that occurred yesterday. Some readers may remember that there once was a swimming club based in the West Wave Pool in Henderson. It was called West Auckland Aquatics. The club had been coached successfully by Ross Anderson and Donna Bouzaid. Most recently I was the Head Coach.

Sadly three years ago conflict broke out in the club. You can read all about the events that tore West Auckland Aquatics apart on Swimwatch. Here is the link – http://www.swimwatch.net/?s=West+Auckland+Aquatics

SNZ got involved in the conflict. Chairman Cotterill attended four meetings in an effort to bring peace to the west. In my view he did a good job. He maybe got involved a little too late but once he was there Cotterill seemed determined to find a solution to the club’s problems. He made a proposal that I thought should have been accepted. However the West Auckland Aquatics’ Chairman was not one for compromise. Ridiculously, she rejected the Cotterill peace offer. Eventually SNZ had no option but to expel the club from SNZ membership. And that is what happened.

Christian Renford was the CEO of SNZ at the time. On the 14 December 2015 he advised WAQ members that the club’s membership was permanently terminated. Renford told me it was the first time in SNZ’s 125 year history that a club had been expelled from the organization.

After attending four meetings on the subject; after expelling a member club for the first time in swimming history you would think SNZ and especially its Chairman, Bruce Cotterill, would remember the name West Auckland Aquatics. But apparently not.

You see yesterday SNZ sent me the following email.

As you can see there are several things wrong with the email. First they sent it to my personal email address. I stopped working for West Auckland Aquatics before the club was terminated. Clearly SNZ email contacts have not been upgraded for three years. Second the swimmer is asking to transfer to a club that hasn’t existed for three years. The SNZ list of member clubs clearly needs updating. And third I have no idea where the club Course Contacts is based. I doubt that a club of that name even exists.

Several years ago SNZ demanded the power to approve all inter-club transfers. They said it was to make sure the rules were being followed. They wanted to avoid swimmers being poached – that was ironic when you consider, for 20 years, the biggest poacher of swimmers has been SNZ. For years the Federation openly advertised their poaching intentions on the SNZ website. I have always been suspicious that their real motive in approving transfers was to eventually make money out of the transfer market. I suspect that is still to come.

However, even SNZ must admit that their oversight role looks a touch ridiculous when they let emails through to a non-existent coach from a non-existent club to another non-existent club. Does the swimmer even exist? I suspect not. Miss Ailing Cui is a learn to swim teacher at the West Wave Pool and the mother of Elizabeth Cui, a west Auckland diver, currently studying at Louisiana State University in the United States. SNZ oversight? I doubt they have even read the transfer request. Too hard at work on the Francis Folly perhaps.

I have not approved the transfer. I would be grateful if SNZ could tell Miss Ailing Cui that the Waterhole Club and the Diving Waitakere Club are both reasonably close. They are better options than RIP West Auckland Aquatics.