Evan Pegden - Waikato Times

Last updated 12:00 22/05/2009

Bowls New Zealand CEO Kerry Clark

Claudelands Bowling Club members Brian Haskell and Bruce Hill said a growing number of Waikato bowlers were against the One Bowls: One Vision proposals.

They claimed the proposed changes were driven by Sport and Recreation New Zealand (Sparc), tagged to significant high performance funding and would mean large capitation fee increases for all bowlers, an extra and expensive layer of administration and forced amalgamation of small clubs.

Clark said the BNZ board would make decisions on any changes, at a meeting on Tuesday, based on feedback it had received on various options outlined in One Bowls: One Vision, which was presented to a large number of bowlers throughout New Zealand via a series of road shows over the last couple of years.

But he was adamant none of the options to be voted on by the national board were being driven by Sparc and no Sparc funding was dependent on making certain administrative changes.

"Sparc's involved purely and simply as a member of our task force, which was set up involving the six chairs of our current regional advisory committees, which represent the clubs and centres, three representatives from our board and Sparc had our relationship manager and one other, who were purely and simply there to be a participant at that level," Clark said.

"Sparc, like they do for all sports, make an investment into our sport and we're very pleased that it happens into development."

But the sum had not changed significantly for a number of years and was not dependent on certain administrative changes being made, he said.

"They see this initiative as something that should be happening across most sports and they're trying to assist the clubs to deliver things better."

Clark said Tuesday's decision would not bring about a substantial increase in capitation fees for bowlers, would not add another layer of administration, would not force amalgamation of clubs and would not introduce an expensive 16-week inter-club competition.

The $10.73 increase in the fee was just one of a number of options and was mooted if a major national inter-club competition was wanted.

"That was but one scenario put forward but that is the one being talked about all the time. Our board has to consider a sign-off for budget next year at the meeting next week, and I can tell you right now that in terms of any increase it won't be anywhere near that $10.73, which I would agree is substantial."

Clark said the road show approach had been taken after "abysmal" responses from clubs to information being fed to them and opinions asked for by traditional means.

Now the task force was making recommendations to next week's meeting based on the feedback received from the road shows.

While the future was likely to see fewer but stronger clubs, with 80 per cent of New Zealand clubs having fewer than 100 members, that issue would not be forced on clubs.

Instead models and tools would be put in front of clubs to show what could be done if they wanted and if they were struggling to survive due to shrinking income.

No part of members' fees went toward the high performance programme, which was funded mostly by Sparc, plus sponsorship.

Instead those fees helped pay for turf culture, marketing and communications (mainly the BNZ magazine), development officers, international levies, the bowls museum in New Plymouth, national competitions, administration and governance.

Clark said BNZ was working hard to boost participation in the sport of bowls and had been successful through programmes to take advantage of a surging interest in casual play with 48,000 bowling club members almost matched by another 43,000 younger, casual bowlers in a pay-to-play situation promoted by a percentage of clubs last year.

One Bowls: One Vision aimed to arrest the steady decline in traditional membership numbers by building strong clubs and increasing participation.

"What we're seeing is the trend away from being a traditional member of clubs and whatever that means to come along, pay something up front, have a go and then go away again.

"It's the same issue as golf has had."

Clark said BNZ was assisting clubs to run and promote its "Mates in Bowls" programme to take advantage of the increasing interest in the sport from casual bowlers, while working with more than 70 clubs to provide a programme of better planning, better budgeting and better governance.

The key decisions to be made on Tuesday involved working with the clubs and provincial centres to strengthen the club network.

But they would not be final decisions, with recommendations then going out to all the centres and constitutional changes being officially made at the September annual meeting.

has hit back at accusations from disgruntled Waikato lawn bowlers, claiming they have got the national body's initiatives for change all wrong.

By EVAN PEGDEN - Waikato Times

Last updated 05:00 16/05/2009

A growing group of Waikato bowlers are fighting Sport and Recreation New Zealand-led changes being proposed for their sport by Bowls New Zealand, saying their sport needs to be viewed differently to any other with a heavy emphasis on recreation. INCORRECT: SPARC are not leading the changes being proposed. The ONE BOWLS: ONE VISION project is a BOWLS NZ initiative driven by the strategic direction set by the Board of Bowls NZ after consultation with it’s key stakeholders. SPARC supports our strategy to increase our playing numbers and to build strong, sustainable clubs.

Their initiatives, which have included meetings with both BNZ chief executive Kerry Clark, a Bowls Waikato's oversight sub-committee and a letter written to 652 bowling clubs throughout New Zealand, have been in response to the national body's initiative "One Bowls One Vision".

The One Bowls – One Vision project aims to provide leadership at all levels of the sport to provide a legacy so that future generations can continue to enjoy the game of bowls at what ever level of the sport they may choose.  This means getting more people playing bowls more often and providing pathways so that people who have the talent and desire can compete at higher levels of the sport. 

That initiative is aimed at devising a new direction for the sport in response to falling player numbers and the need to meet the requirements of Sparc, the national sports funding body, in order to attract high-performance funding. INCORRECT: The ONE BOWLS: ONE VISION project is based on building STRONG SUSTAINABLE CLUBS. We intend on doing this by providing the best possible leadership, administration and service delivery structure to our clubs and  developing, delivering  and implementing BEST PRACTICE in all facets of the game eg greenkeeping and education, coaching, Umpire education and recruitment, talent identification., club planning

The initiative has been driven out of the fact that as a sport we need to change what we are doing if we want the sport to survive and prosper in the future.  For bowls to be relevant in today’s society, we have to embrace the opportunities/trends being presented to us such as the increase in casual players, the decline in traditional members, the myriad of choices people have today in regards to their leisure and recreation time, the time challenges people face etc etc.

But the bowlers of whom 22 from 14 different clubs attended a meeting with the Bowls Waikato sub-committee say a proposed 50 per cent increase in BNZ capitation fees for all bowlers and 30 per cent increase by Waikato would adversely affect club membership retention and recruitment.

TAKEN OUT OF CONTEXT: At the roadshow, we presented a number of options to be considered that took into account various fee increases and structures and the relative services that would be delivered back to clubs. 

As quoted by our Chairman, John Carter, in a letter dated 13 May 2009 to all clubs:

“There is no plan to substantially increase the fees paid by bowlers to Bowls New Zealand.”

 Bowls is one of the most affordable sports around. The Bowls NZ capitation fee for 2007/2008 was only $23.17 (excl GST) for a full member. A 50% increase in the capitation fee would be just over the $30 mark for the year which as a percentage seems high, but in dollar terms is still very affordable.

They argue too much time and money was spent on the high-performance section of the sport even though it accounted for only one per cent of all bowlers, amalgamation was to be forced onto unwilling small bowling clubs and an extra and more expensive tier of bureaucracy was to be added to the running of the sport at regional level.

INCORRECT: The investment into High Performance from the Capitation Fee is NIL. Again as quoted in the 13 May letter to all clubs form our Chairman, John Carter:

·         “There is no plan to create another layer of administration within the sport. 

·         There is no plan to force clubs to amalgamate.”

Past Claudelands Bowling Club president Brian Haskell, a retired former group general manager (finance) of the New Zealand Dairy Group, is adamant the initiatives take bowls away in the wrong direction, because they are being navigated by Sparc. INCORRECT as outlined previously, SPARC is not the navigator. This is a Bowls NZ initiative driven by the Board of Bowls NZ.

"Sparc is full of youngish enthusiasts who are used to dealing with sports where the players are relatively young and who are not the administrators of the clubs or organisations of that sport," said Haskell, who penned the letter to clubs. SPARC is not a driver but are interested because what we are doing aligns with their strategy of more people participating in sport more often. The description of SPARC staff is an insult to them - our Relationship Manager is an experienced Sports Administrator who is middle aged and is a valued member of our development team

"But in bowls we're packed full of people with piles of lifetime experience and we don't need to be molly-coddled or supported. We can look after ourselves."

INCORRECT: When you take into account all bowling clubs in NZ, the signs are loud and clear that help is required in order for bowls to survive and that positive changes for the betterment of the sport are critical.  Our decline in traditional membership numbers can not be ignored, nor that 80% of our clubs have less than 100 members.  One Bowls: One Vision is geared to start arresting these sort of statistics by building strong sustainable clubs and increasing participation in a modern environment..

 

While Sparc aimed to get New Zealand sports up to the highest international level of performance, bowls was the only outdoor sport that catered almost entirely for retirees, the vast majority of whom were not interested in the high performance aspect, he said.

INCORRECT: There are a myriad of sports that retirees can choose from eg golf, petanque, croquet, etc etc. The reality is that bowls is a sport for ALL ages not just retirees.  We have seen a 77% increase in youth bowlers playing in school age competitions, our MIB (Mates in Bowls Social Summer league) is attracting the 20-45 year olds to the game etc etc.  This has been backed up with research undertaken by AC Neilsen in 2008 which shows the image of our game is changing. We asked the question:

Which of the following best describes the type of people who play lawn bowls?

 

 

Such retirees benefited their clubs with that experience and volunteered their time and skills to keep those clubs ticking over.

Sparc's high performance-related funding forced Bowls New Zealand to make major governance changes in order to meet the requirements of that body. INCORRECT: As outlined previously.

"What we end up with is 99 per cent of bowlers subsidising the one per cent very significantly through their affiliation fee and also incurring extra costs at their own clubs because Bowls New Zealand, instead of being the servant of the members, has now turned it around to be the boss and `you will do it our way or you're out'." INCORRECT: As outlined previously. If you require a copy of our annual report, please advise.

Haskell said the 37,000 New Zealand bowlers, who represented nearly one per cent of the population, had been going along quite happily until now. The proposed levy increases represented big increases for bowlers, the vast majority of whom were retired and on fixed incomes. INCORRECT: As outlined previously.

"The feeling out there is we get nothing for it. All we end up with is a set of new governance requirements."

Another former president of the Claudelands club, Bruce Hill, said one of his biggest bones of contention was the way BNZ had put the proposals to bowlers.

Despite a series of road shows around the country to present the proposed ideas to bowlers, who were all invited to attend, there had been no formal approach to clubs themselves for feedback.

"We're just individuals who are concerned," Hill said.

"While bowlers who attended have been told at these roadshows about what is proposed they could, and should, have presented each club with details of the plan and asked them through a meeting of members to consider it and give their feedback formally from their club to Bowls New Zealand, which is the democratic way of doing it.

"It is possible to set something like this up and manipulate it to get the result you want, and in our view that's what they've done."

The Roadshow that Haskell and his friends attended was part of a consultative process - it was not delivering a final decision

Bowls NZ makes it decisions through a delegate network which is similar to all other sports and is best practice  The accusation that Bowls is trying to manipulate an outcome is absurd - the suggested direction is the result of research and professional advice and is based on best practice in the sector.

 We have actually conducted a series of roadshows nationwide in 2008 and 2009 to keep our community informed and to present the options to them for consultation as well as held two national conferences where this project has been the main focus. Information is sent out on a bi-monthly basis to all clubs and we have information readily available on our website. At our last roadshow (Feb/Mar 2009) we had over 350 clubs represented. We have explored every communication channel possible to keep our bowlers informed.

Those who had attended the meeting with Bowls Waikato's sub-committee had not been actively recruited by the opponents, but had found out and got interested through word of mouth.

Hill said he had received a letter from the chairman of the BNZ board telling him to back off after submitting a critical article for publication in the body's email magazine after bowlers were asked for contributions.

INCORRECT: John Carter in his letter asked Mr Hill to refrain from making unfounded allegations until after the Bowls NZ Board Meeting on May 26 when decisions would be made for the way forward.