By David
A week ago Gary Caffell of the Wairarapa Times-Age wrote an interesting article on Swim Wairarapa’s attitude to the call by eight Regions and NZSCTA for the Board of Swimming New Zealand to resign. It was called “Swim Wairarapa Hold Fire”.
Caffell summarized Swim Wairarapa’s position as follows:
Swim Wairarapa, however, have taken a different tack, preferring to wait until SNZ’s annual meeting next month to decide what, if any, actions need to be taken against the current board.
“The problems they are talking about now haven’t just surfaced, they’ve probably been with us for the best part of the decade or so,” Swim Wairarapa general secretary Maryann Corrigan said yesterday.
“Obviously everybody involved in the sport is keen to get things moving in the right direction but we want to hear the full story before we make a move and the annual meeting would seem to be the best place for that to happen.”
While Corrigan was “not surprised at all” that the Sparc review should talk about a culture of distrust in the SNZ high-performance environment and a lack of confidence in its leadership she said it was noticeable that those now calling for the board’s sacking had not come up with any options or alternatives to the present set up.“They are acting as if everything will come right if you sack the board and simply start again but you have to question whether that would be the case,” she said. “Aren’t there are a lot of other things which need to investigated and corrected before that would happen?”
The argument expressed here is probably sincere but is certainly stunningly naive. In the first two paragraphs, Maryann Corrigan asks us all to wait for the Annual General Meeting in order to hear “the full story”. Of course that’s going to be miles too late. No gathering on this planet is as scripted or controlled as an Annual General Meeting. Maryann is in an Alice in Wonderland dream if she thinks she is going hear “the full story” at an AGM controlled by the Coulter gang and Kerry McDonald. Annual General Meetings are the bread and butter of this crew. They have controlled these get-togethers for years. They have handled the shareholders of Comalco and the Bank of New Zealand. Maryann has no chance of getting the truth out of this lot at an Annual Meeting.
The time to act is now, outside the formal confines of an Annual Meeting, when there is no formal script, when McDonald and the Coulter gang are in unfamiliar territory. I find it strange to hear that there are swimming people like Maryann who insist they need to hear more. What is it that they do not understand about a Board that alters the minutes of an Annual Meeting? Maryann was at last year’s Annual Meeting. She knows the wording of the remit that was passed. She knows the minutes on Swimming New Zealand’s website do not reflect that wording.
She knows Swimming New Zealand have lied to her. She knows Swimming New Zealand have progressed Project Vanguard way past the approval she gave the organisation at last year’s meeting. She knows Jan Cameron’s Swimming New Zealand has never won a world class swimming race. She knows Swimming New Zealand’s press releases about the New Delhi and Shanghai Games were full of lies and spin. She knows the leadership of Swimming New Zealand has just been the subject of the most damming report ever written about a sport in New Zealand. She knows that New Zealand’s leading sport’s lawyer, Maria Clarke, has prepared a report expressing the view that the Board of Swimming New Zealand may have acted illegally in respect of Project Vanguard. Isn’t that enough? How much more do you need to know? Do not offer them the life line of the Annual Meeting. It is time for them to go now.
Maryann’s next point is that no one is coming up with options or alternatives. Here is what she says, “Those now calling for the board’s sacking had not come up with any options or alternatives to the present set up.” It is amazing how often you hear that allegation. Just the other day Swimwatch reader, Molly, said almost the same thing. She said, “If one can ask when you are going to post the solution to all the moaning that you all do – when will put on the table the new plan for swimming so that regions can get on with talking to the clubs and their membership. So are you part of the solution or part of the problem?” Could have well come from the same pen. In fact…
It is surprising how often the most aggressive commentators prefer to hide behind anonymity, but what is more surprising is how few measures they take to ensure their anonymity. Molly, you appear to have the exact same email address as Maryann: imagine that! It’s quite the coincidence, don’t you think?
The accusation that those who oppose this Board have no solutions is not true and is most unfair. Maryann, (Molly) you should really refrain from repeating that dishonesty. Here at Swimwatch we have offered numerous ideas for you to consider. You probably think that because they come from Swimwatch they are not worthy of your valuable time. However it would do you well to remember that most of the suggestions made on this blog came as a result of many hours of conversations with coaches in the USA and UK and leading New Zealand coaches such as Arthur Lydiard, Arch Jelley and Duncan Laing. We would refer you to the following Swimwatch posts that contain numerous “new plans for swimming”.
- The Good The Bad and the Very, Very Ugly
- Swimming New Zealand – An Independent Review
- Nothing to Lose But Your Chains and a World to Win
- Rugged Individualism
The list is not complete but should be sufficient to put an end to the argument that those of us who do not agree with the current Board of Swimming New Zealand are devoid of solutions. I do hope Maryann (or is it Molly? Both?), enjoys our offering.
