Daughter's problem led to Halberg Trust post

HALBERG TRUST:Seeing the problems at close hand that his daughter Trisha Brice had in competing in surf-lifesaving was a major motivation in Graeme Taylor seeking the top post in the Halberg Trust.
Taylor has just resigned his position at Sport and Recreation Wanganui chief executive to start in Auckland on September 5 as replacement for previous Halberg CEO Dave Currie, who's going fulltime with the New Zealand Olympic Committee as team manager.
Currie will work with Taylor until the 2006 February Halberg Awards on that part of the job.
The Halberg Trust has a double task of not only organising the Halberg Awards, but also in making sure that people with disabilities are helped in being active.
This is Taylor's tale:
"My daughter Trisha was born with a severe hearing loss, and she's worn hearing aids since she was a baby. I saw at first hand some of the difficulties she had, particularly in sport.
"She was keen on surf-lifesaving, but she always had to take her hearing aids out to swim. When a race was due to start she couldn't hear the gun go off, so she had to be in a position where she could see the starter or see a flag drop ? in other words everything we take for granted puts these people at a disadvantage.
"I think the Halberg Trust has now come to a time where they should be advocating and becoming a little bit more political for these people. Even local authorities, when they design new subdivisions, they should consider how to change the environment so that people with such disabilities will be helped," Taylor said.
The Halberg Trust has started a Halberg Trust Sports Access programme with this sort of thing in mind. Taylor believes there's a lot of work to do:
"The major part is educating the community to accept these people; that we should see them as disabled people, that it is a social model and not a medical model.
"They have an impairment or a disability, but society has to change its attitude to see them as being disabled ? and that it's the environment that disables them. They can't participate in everything they should be able to, because of the way our environment is currently structured."
Taylor says the Halberg Trust has developed well, but this was an important part it could develop further.
And he will be involved heavily in the implementation of a new strategic plan for the Trust.
Chairperson of the Trust is Dame Susan Devoy, whom Taylor has had considerable contact with during sports trusts gatherings. Devoy is CEO at Sport Bay of Plenty.
Taylor is happy he leaves Sport Wanganui in good heart.
"When I arrived I wanted to get the business on a sound financial basis ? it was difficult at that stage because many of our contracts were 12-month ones and I worked to get them as three-year contracts."
These included the Horowhenua Pools, to change to a three-year one with Government funder Sparc, "and I wanted to initiate the redevelopment of the Splash Centre ? including make it a place where swimming was not the only physical activity, hence the rowing centre.
"And it was my first serious movement into the sport management industry, and allowed me to put into practice a lot of the human resource philosophies I have."
Taylor will resign from the District Council later in the year but still wants to remain part of a year-long review of sport and recreation in the Wanganui area ? with a view to making the most of what facilities and manpower there is.
"The first thing is we need to go through the consultation process with the stakeholders ? and we're just embarking on that. And what eventually comes out of that consultation will really depend on what the stakeholders want. But it is important for the stakeholders and council to work together to decide what the plan is.
"I don't have any pre-conceived idea of what the plan should have, but if we don't plan, it will all be just a mulligatawny soup?.."
Taylor says he would like to come back to Wanganui to take part in some of the discussion on "how we look after disability sector."
Taylor's career has been varied ? school teacher, policeman (detective), professional rugby coach, head of Sport and Rec Wanganui, and now the Halberg trust.
At the age of 52, Taylor said the change of job was a case of making a decision as to where he wanted to be in a few years.
"I'm always looking for a challenge. You have to weigh up the options ? if I was to sit here for another two or three years, what would have been my options at mid-50 or so, to progress forward in the (sport) industry?
"So it was very much a time-of-life decision."