Letters from Jacques Cochonnet
W.P.R.T. (Wellington)
Complete Wiki Index (21/06)
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15th of October, 2006.
To whom it may concern,
As you will be aware, I have recently posted my thoughts on the state of petanque on the New Zealand Petanque Wiki. This page has been up for a week and has been viewed 673 times at last count. An overwhelming majority of the feedback I have received has been positive with only one comment on the wiki being an exception to this. To me, this obviously suggests that there are issues that need to be addressed and questions that need to be answered urgently. This letter is not a re writing of my post on the wiki, rather it offers three suggestions for change within the PNZ that I believe will improve our current situation.
1. Tournament Organisation
As it stands, our national tournaments are organised and run by one person who also plays in the tournament and is supposed to be watching other players to fulfil his role as selector. It is great that he volunteers to do all of this but it seems to be too much for one person. What I propose is to make the tournament organisation more transparent so there is no room for players questioning the draws or results.
The draw should be done on the morning of the first day of play. The format can be drawn up with numbers instead of players’ names prior to the tournament and then in the morning, names are drawn out of a hat at random. This process must be done by at least two people and in the open so that anybody can clearly see what is going on at each stage. The results of the day should be calculated at the venue, again in plain sight of anyone who may want to witness it and following this, the scoresheets from day one of the tournament should be openly displayed on day two.
If these measures were implemented, there would be no room for questions or uncertainty from the players as everything would be done out in the open and with witnesses. This procedure should be put in place for regional as well as national tournaments.
2. Conflicts of Interest
As a body of players, we need to be able to have faith in our leaders and trust that they are making decisions based solely on what is good for the game. The selection of the teams this year has been the subject of many conversations between players and there seems to be a definite conflict of interest surrounding the Mens World Champ team.
National selectors should not be allowed to select their partners or members of their family, no exceptions. If a conflict of interest looks likely, one party needs to stand down from being a part of the process, either as player or selector.
It seems appalling that this issue needs to be raised within our governing body. To me, it is obvious that this is unacceptable from the most basic moral and ethical viewpoints.
3. Multiple Positions of responsibility
Any one person should not be allowed to hold more than one position of responsibility within PNZ. This issue could just as easily come under the second heading as it is completely understandable that one person holding many positions could be seen as having a conflict of interest. The likely response to this is ‘we only did it because no one else would.’ I strongly believe that if these issues, among others, were addressed and the current administration stood down, there would be many players willing to come forward and take their place.
I would appreciate a written reply and I look forward to reading the minutes of the next PNZ meeting and seeing that this letter has been brought up as a topic of serious discussion.
Sebastien Merval
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