If you have come for news from Grenoble, you will find it on the PNZ websiteIt appears that a group of people in NZ are receiving SMS progress reports from Grenoble. The two webmasters (Pete from the Hawkes Bay, and yours truly from Masterton) who last year made a real effort in bringing you news items (and photos) as they came to hand, are evidently not part of this SMS group. If we don't get it, we can't bring it. -Tom.
PS. I am sure that most of us understand that it would make no sense for webmasters to individually hunt for New Zealand material from Grenoble - we have lives too.
Update 25/09: Please note that the comments to this post are now out of sequence. For an explenation see "Note from the editor".
- Tom.
10 comments:
Hi Tom.
I am watching the world petanque championship results on http://www.fipjp.com/
They get put up as soon as it happens.
Results so far NZ lost to Tahiti 10-13
Luxembourg 8-13
Benin 2-13
won against Malaysia 13-3
Cheers REX
Thanks for that Rex - much appreciated. Another good place for people to go to.
Remember - self serving individuals don't stop. All they care about it is themselves.
The words "conflict of interest" and "cronyism" and "nepotism" don't exist for these people. Instead they get mortally offended that you/we would even suggest that they are acting in their own best interests, rather for the good of the game.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely. This action by Liz could be termed small-fry stuff, but given the size of the playing population its actually quite momentous. And it will have a negative impact on those people who made themselves available for selection but did not get picked. However that will all be brushed aside when the excuses come out.
There is a case for using the excuse that when Christian was team manager, he used to act as the fourth player (and that piece of crap will probably be trotted out as the reason Liz "allowed" herself to be included). However, I have not seen Liz in a major competition, with the appropriate results for almost 2 years - so you can't tell me she is upto or capable of playing at a sufficient level to be representing NZ at the World Championship.
Gee can't the PNZ see that the selection policy and the actions of the selectors and bringing themselves and the game into disrepute?
-Margret
Let's call a spade a spade, shall we?
Looking back to the last 12 months of our little petanque world in New Zealand, I would like to express my sincere congratulations to Khandallah Petanque Club (wellington).
Out of 5 playing members (Michael, Dirk, Brian, Peter and Morgan), one imported member from Hawkes Bay (Sharron, to make the number, otherwise they wouldn't be able to defend the Jacques Cochonnet), and a non-playing member (Liz), they nationwide scored:
- 1 acting CEO (Michael),
- the 2 national selectors (Liz and Brian),
- the national treasurer (Brian),
- the team manager (Liz),
- 50% of men's team to world champ (Michael and Dirk),
- 50% of women's team to world champ (Sharron and Liz),
- regional and national tournaments organiser (Brian),
- and they all are the people in charge of apointing new positions,
- and I probably forget some other charges...
I wish that, in the mean time, they spent as much energy to promote the game of petanque in our country and our sucess overseas as they did to satisfy the interest of their own club.
To who it may concern.
seb merval,
sebmerval@hotmail.com
Keeping Web-masters Up-to-date.
On Friday September 22 at 18:50 hours I received this message:
To Clubs and Members
Early this morning (5.30am) I fired off a large number of group emails to clubs and individuals with updates on the World Champs. On checking my group emails I realise some individuals and clubs were missed. My apologies. Attached is the latest updates and reports from the World Champs.
Brian Smith
PNZ Executive
It is great news about this "large number of group emails to clubs and individuals with updates on the World Champs." went to all these people. Is this for real, or is this damage control?
Would it not be simpler to email people about news on the PNZ website, instead of sending this "large group" one PDF file on September 22 and one MS Word file on Saturday, September 23.
Hi, guys, Seb here.
I was on the official "fipjp" website, looking for some results, and I've been surprised to notice that Elisabeth Rocks is the official fourth player of the women's team.
I can't remember she's been selected, she's already selected her CEO husband, is selector, and so on, so on...
Here is the link, you can check:
http://www.palais-des-sports.com/petanque2006/index.php
Where will they stop?
Note from the editor Tom van Bodegraven: It is great people are making contributions to this blog. It is however important that you stick to facts. In the above comment by Sebastien Merval, I have taken the liberty to remove a line of text stating that Liz had elected herself as team manager. This is highly unlikely, and potentially a difficult statement to defend. My action has also resulted that the comments are now out of sequence - this in itself is not a big deal. Cheers, Tom.
If it is true that Liz as team manager became the forth team member, I would like to asked the following: Was this a known position (plan) before our teams left? If yes, is this the reason we had 3 women and 4 men? Was this done as a cost saving measure? Has a female player missed out on a spot on our women's team? Would there have been a reversal if the team manager had been a male?.
The points raised in other comments on this topic are very valid. There are some questions that PNZ will HAVE TO ANSWER to quell the building resentment against the way the organistaion is being run. Even if it is not intentional, some people in important positions need to step back to avoid a conflict of interest and even if things are done in an innocent manner, people will wonder, and ask. It is human nature. Here is another doozie to ponder. Why was Michael the NZ representative in the shooting competition at the world champs.
The answer I have been given from a PNZ executive member is:
We didn't want to enter our top shooter in case he didn't do well and he lost his confidence for the main competition. I was also told that Ian and Christian didn't want to do it.
Excuse me? Lose your confidence? Diddums!! tough!! If you can't handle it, don't go. Why would you put your least qualified shooter in a world champ competition? What about his "confidence"? and if you have been selected for your shooting skills you bloody well get on and do it.
If this is the kind of decision that is being made at this level, I will be strongly opposing sending any teams next year. I want value for the money that I pay to PNZ and I am not getting it.
Questions also need to be asked as to who attended the main meeting of all the countries representatives. I have heard that no-one was going to attend. (Graeme Morris has attended the last 5.)
With the acting CEO, National selector and team manager present, I would hope that someone did in fact go.
I have long been a critic of the way that PNZ has been run and the lack of fairness that is very evident. It has been suggested that as I am so vocal about it, I need to put my momey where my mouth is, so I have decided to stand at the next election as the local rep on the PNZ board.
I don't really want to do it but I suppose one cannot continue to criticise without offering an alternative.
Graeme Burnard
In the light of my previous comment I have one more question: Were the players (three women and four men) selected before a team manager was appointed?. If the answer to this is "yes", did male applicants for the position of team manager have a realistic chance of getting the job?
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