Jon Winter’s great new Raumati Pool

I see the Wellington Region have published a 2020 Strategic Plan. As I expected, in a report prepared by Mark Berge, someone who calls himself the quintessential consultant in jeans, it is largely a maze of bureaucratic gobbledegook.

Berge was on the Board of Wellington Swimming in 2011 and is there as the Chairman in 2018. Before looking at the Wellington plan through to 2020 I thought it would be fun to prepare a term report on Berge’s performance since 2011. His website tells me:

“Mark sees the bigger picture rapidly, balances his conceptual thinking abilities with practicalities and therefore you don’t just have good ideas, you have good ideas that work.”

Clearly he has a pretty remarkable opinion of his own talents. But has the performance of Wellington Swimming matched that remarkable opinion?

Let us examine that question in terms of some of the goals Berge has set for Wellington Swimming in the Strategic Plan.

Berge’s opening subject is participation. The aim, we are told, is to “increase participation in swimming in the Wellington Region”. The table below shows the term results in the subject called “Participation”.

In every relevant participation measure Berge’s Wellington Region is poorer in 2017 than it was six years ago. His report card is going to say, “A poor result. Mark needs to apply himself more in this subject.”

The second subject is revenue. The aim, we are told, is to reduce the cost of participation and at the same time Increase revenue streams. The table below shows the term results in the subject called “Revenue”.

So what does all that mean? Well it means effectively total revenue has remained static. So the performance in terms of “increased revenue streams” has not been good. Six years of the same revenue is definitely in need of attention. For some reason Affiliation fees have reduced by 40%. Part of that is the result of a 5% reduction in membership. However a 40% reduction certainly earns Berge a pass mark as a student of “reducing the cost of participation”. The shortfall in Affiliation Fees has been made up for by an 11% increase in Meet Entry Fees and a 91% increase in Donations and Grants.

The increase in Meet Entry Fees compromises the Berge performance in Affiliation Fees. It could be that Berge is simply giving with one hand and taking away with the other. Lower Affiliation Fees but more Meet Entry Fees all from the same cheque books.

The increase in Grants and Donations is exceptional. Berge gets an “A” in this subject. However Grants and Donation income does come with reservations. Grants and Donations tend to be very volatile. They can be taken away on any one of a dozen whims. Relying on this source of income to the extent that Wellington is in 2017 means that the core activities of the business are not paying their way. A sound business would have the core activities paying for the business and grants and donations as the cream on top. That is not the case in Wellington. Without grants and donations Wellington will have real financial difficulties.

And the final subject is performance. The aim is to improve the performance of the region’s swimmers. The table below shows the term results in the subject called “Performance”.

There are a dozen ways to measure elite performance. I have chosen to measure the number of medals won by Wellington swimmers at the New Zealand Open Championships. Six years ago Wellington swimmers won 9 medals and last year that increased to 10. Joy at the one medal improvement is compromised by recognising that at the NZ Open Championships 102 medals are presented. For a major centre, like Wellington, to win only 10% of the medals on offer, is not good enough; not be a country mile.     

And so is the performance of Mark Berge a pass or a fail. The next table shows how I would mark his test results

I guess members of the Wellington Region need to decide whether a “C” grade is good enough to take them through the next two years. For me I’d want better.