Swimming: Regions calling for mass resignations

Months of dissatisfaction and unrest in Swimming New Zealand's ranks came to a head in Wellington yesterday, with Bay of Plenty one of nine regions calling for the mass resignation of the national board.
Swimming Bay of Plenty president Bronwen Radford and eight other regional swim presidents are calling for all of the Swimming New Zealand board members to resign after the furore from a report, instigated by government funding agency Sparc. The report hammered Swimming New Zealand for having a "negative" and "dysfunctional" high-performance culture.
However, Swimming New Zealand chairman Murray Coulter said calling for a mass resignation would do more harm than good for the sport.
The report by former hockey Olympian and New Zealand Sports Foundation chief executive Chris Ineson revealed deep divisions in, and unhappiness with, the high-performance programme, and followed a disappointing return of medals at the Delhi Commonwealth Games last year.
On August 7, Radford along with the swimming presidents from Auckland, Southland, Hawkes Bay/Poverty Bay, Taranaki, Nelson, Manawatu, Swim Coaches and Teachers of New Zealand sent a letter to Swimming New Zealand chairman Murray Coulter, expressing their concerns about the position the sport was in.
In the letter they said there had been widespread disapproval from throughout the sport that the board's response to the "Ineson report" had been inadequate.
The letter asked Coulter and the board to resign so Swimming New Zealand could start with a fresh slate.
Radford said the letter came about out of frustration with what was happening with the sport and wasn't a personal attack on the individual board members.
"What we're all feeling, the nine who signed the letter - nothing happened in respect to the report that came out," Radford said. "I love Swimming New Zealand dearly but I just think it's a bit like when your carpet in your house is wrecked, you pull it up and put a new carpet down.
"I'm not attacking any body or individual, I'm not saying we don't have any confidence in the board. I'm just saying [Swimming New Zealand] has a problem, we need to fix it, here's a solution, start again."
Coulter said the board had been working towards the issues raised in the report and was also keen to find a resolution to the disharmony within the association.
"I guess that's what we are attempting to do [with a meeting]. We haven't come out and said 'yes or no' in direct response to their request for the board to resign. We've said 'well let's everybody get together and figure out what the issues are and what are the best ways to move forward'.
"For us I guess the first consideration is if the whole board goes then the entire organisation losses its wisdom at that level ... To see [the board] being ripped apart with a clean broom going through it as Bronwen has requested, would certainly not sit well with me or the board - that would be very, very damaging for the sport."
Radford said it had never been the intention of the members to make it a public battle and she was surprised Coulter had put the letter on Swimming New Zealand's website. "We were just trying to keep it contained among the regions and Swimming New Zealand. I'm at an absolute loss why Murray chose to put this right out into the media to be honest ..."
Coulter said he published the letter on the website because it was the best way to keep the members of Swimming New Zealand informed. "I'm surprised Bronwen said that because she was the one who pushed at the last annual general meeting for the board to be more open."
There are 48 votes in the SNZ electoral college. Using current membership numbers it is understood signatories Auckland, Bay of Plenty, Canterbury/West Coast, Southland, Hawkes Bay/Poverty Bay, Manawatu, Taranaki, Nelson/Marlborough and NZSCAT make up 29 votes. Twenty-nine votes out of 48 equals 60.4 per cent - a significant number because any constitutional change requires 60 per cent agreement.
Sparc CEO Peter Miskimmin says it needs to try to let SNZ work out its problems.
That is despite a scheduled $1.65 million of Sparc taxpayer investment into SNZ this year and $6.6 million over this Olympic cycle.
"We have been concerned but have two independent directors on the SNZ board in Nelson Cull and Kerry McDonald. Clearly we want to see sound governance and leadership again. We had heard people felt a sense of disquiet but hopefully having two directors there is protecting the government investment."