06/08 I read in the WPA minutes that PNZ has not replied to the letter sent by WPA about the irregularities which took place at the April 2008 PNZ AGM. PNZ has only provided an acknowledgment. I wonder how many more months we have to wait for a written explanation.

31/07 I posted the following comment on the PNZ Blog: Yes, Liz is correct, someone did leave a comment without a name on our NZPC Blog - it was removed by me. It is interesting that PNZ allows anonymous postings despite clearly stating: “However all comments must be attributed (no anonymity)” at the top of the PNZ Blog page. I would have thought that PNZ would know by now that saying one thing, and doing another, does noting for credibility.

On top of that the unknown blog administrator posts this item: “The identity of the mysterious M is known to us. Technology is a powerful tool. True to form, mischief making.”

As an expert bloger and computer internet person can I make it clear that the identity of an anonymous posting is not traceable. Simply getting the IP address is just not enough. An IP address it not static, and can change each time one connects to the net (depending on your setup). An IP address, at best, will show a region in the world - certainly not and street address. PNZ is dishonest with this statement. Dishonesty does nothing for credibility. Tom van B. You see, signing off with your name doesn't hurt a bit.

30/07 Someone on the PNZ blog has signed off with just a “M”. I too thought that this was Myles. Myles had to post some text explaining it was not him. We can see what can happen when one allows anonymous comments on a potential “controversial” topic. Was this comment placed to deliberately connect Myles to it?

I am surprised PNZ allows anonymous comments - have we forgotten all the trouble we've had over this very issue. It is not right to suggest that this may be okay as the author may feel uncomfortable about giving his/her name. People who feel uncomfortable should go to a place in which they feel safe, and not cast suspicions onto others. Why do some people live in so much fear?

23/07 “Hear, hear, Graeme! The team have done us very proud indeed and formed long term bonds which I'm sure will benefit NZ long term and yet, like you, I have been astonished at the lack of comment/support here. It seems to prove that the NZ petanque community in general is only interested in the negative.
Claire Matthews”

Some people have taken part in cowardly attacks on the editor and contributers of our NZPC Blog - branding the contributions as “negative”. These same people find it impossible to say something positive about our Seniors during their trip to the USA. Below is just one example of this kind of attitude.

“How about it, regular readers of the blog. Before you fly into cyber print denigrating someone’s efforts, make a genuine comment about some of the good stuff being done as well.” Quote taken from this PAGE.

In fairness to the general petanque public, I also think that many people believe that they will suffer reprisals if they declare their opinions, be they “positive” or “negative” on our Blog. And some people are simply not interested unless they are affected by whatever the topic is - not being selected for something would be a good example of this.

Our NZPC Blog has been the only platform that has extensively covered this international Senior event. -Tom.

16/07 PNZ has made available a Blog! This Blog allows people to ask questions and make comments about the new coaching and selection process. On our NZPC Blog we have had players ask questions about this process. These questions have as yet remained unanswered. The authors have apparently chosen the wrong Blog or platform to ask their questions - I love it. Will we now see the same negative troublemakers from the NZPC Blog “frequenting” the PNZ Blog? -Tom.

21/06 It will be interesting to see where the 2009 World Championships are going to be held now that Holland is unable to pay for it. Read views from Australia, Germany, USA, petanque.org and NZ.

22/05 I am having terrific difficulty with the letter which was sent to PNZ from the players in the Wellington region. The file format is not recognised by my machine. I also received a PDF and so can read it, but it seems to be an image file as opposed to a true PDF. This means I cannot open it in my browser and copy the text from the PDF - don’t you just love computers?

What needs to happen is for someone to open the letter on a computer and copy and paste the text into an email and send this to me. I have read the letter and it is very good, asking a number of pertinent questions about the irregularities that took place during the PNZ AGM and Council meeting. Update: You can now read the letter HERE -Tom.

15/05 What's nice about our Wiki is that it records things as they happen and this remains on our Wiki for ever. It keeps a record of who says what, and who is not saying anything at all. The April AGM and Council Meeting Minutes is a case in point. -Tom.

09/05 A vote is in danger of going the “wrong” way. The CEO states that if it does he will have to reconsider his commitment to the organisation. A vote is taken and noted down (it has gone the “wrong” way - it was a “No” vote). A Council member who was one of the two delegates that caused the vote to go the “wrong” way is spoken to during the lunch break. On return to the meeting later in the day this Council member (who was spoken to) requests from the meeting that her vote is changed from “No” to “Yes”. This was granted without anyone blinking an eyelid. The CEO and other Executive members are now happy again and no longer need to threaten their withdrawal of commitment to the organisation. All this is possible under the constitution (this in itself is unbelievable). Could it be that the delegate who was spoken to during lunch was placed under duress from the people who made the threatening ultimatum earlier in the day? Remember, she was under instruction from her large membership in Auckland to cast a “No” vote. Can we all see the picture? Is this the foundation and building block from which we will embark with the new initiatives for 2008 and beyond? -Text taken from this PAGE.

08/05 I am shocked to read that our CEO Mr Wells wants to “reassess his commitment to PNZ” when it looks like he and his band will not get it their way. His confrontational style has resulted in him being a most controversial and unpopular CEO. He has presided over conflict after conflict. He has not been able to resolve any of those conflicts - The fourth player debacle is a good example. He has as yet failed to explain to the membership what happened around this issue. We've had to rely in Liz Rock's analyses and explanation. He has only attacked people who dare ask a question. I became a victim of a nasty and cowardly email attack in which Mr Wells took part last year (the mob mentality). It is time we all reassessed our commitment to the executive. -Tom.

07/05 Over the last couple of years only people who felt personally aggrieved have spoken out publicly on the Web (missing out on a place within a team, expelled from a club or just not being selected for something, etc). In other words, if it does not directly affect us personally we are not really concerned. We have to start thinking about what it good for the greater petanque community and start working and acting for that. Only 5 or 6 people (out of 1400) have given opinions on things of a more general nature such as the April 2008 AGM and Council meeting. On the whole we as a petanque group are factionalized and have an inability to find common ground from which to build our game forwards. We seem to work in small isolated groups without any hope of coming together. I personally blame PNZ for a culture of fear and retribution they have created. PNZ has zero tolerance for members who express a different opinion or perspective. Combine this with an old-fashioned reverence from our membership towards authority (never question the Master) and we can see our current state of play - we are stuck.

In my opinion this being stuck can only be redressed if we actively encourage dialog within our community, without fear of retribution and punishment.

On this PAGE Andy Gilbert says:

“As I said earlier I really believe we need to rub out where we are today and start again with higher expectations of ourselves and our administrators. Any one else believe we need to raise the bar?”

I fully agree with this and call for the resignation of our entire PNZ governing body in order to facilitate such a fresh start. -Tom.

05/05 Why is it that PNZ still has not published the Minutes, Financial report, Ceo's report and council Chairman's report from the April AGM and Council meeting? -Tom.

29/04 The PNZ AGM and Council meeting took place on April 19 and 20. Some bits of information and flowcharts have been released in a kind of Winston Peters drip-feed. Things missing are a record of the minutes, the financial report, the Ceo's report and council chairman's report. One can only speculate as to why this is taking so long. The minutes of a meeting represent an honest and clear record of what took place, and therefore, providing these minutes should be simple and straightforward. This is what PNZ announced on their website soon after the AGM and Council meeting: “Full minutes of the AGM will be available shortly.” A number of people are awaiting these minutes with great interest. Come-on PNZ, lets have it. -Tom.

21/04 On Sunday evening (the final day of the PNZ AGM & Council/Executive Meeting), PNZ published this single item on their site:

“PNZ AGM & Council/Executive Meeting

Changes to the PNZ governance structure passed.

Full details will be published on this website.”

I am puzzled as to why only this item from this two-day meeting was singled out for publication. This was done at the end of the meeting (Sunday) all very odd and out of character. I get the feeling that something is not quite right here.

-Tom.

17/04 I have been really surprised that the Trans Tasman has not received a mention on any of the Australian websites before or after the event. I asked a group of Australian players around the breakfast table on Friday morning if and how this event was being followed in Australia. I got sad faces with this line: ”No, no one knows about it, only our family members know about it”. As any coach or sports psychologist will tell you, supporters, and knowing that people take a real interests helps athletes perform better. -Tom.

17/04 This morning I ordered my copy of the French Champions DVD. I like to be on record here about my amazement with the way PNZ has handled the end stages of this momentous event. On the one hand we have an excellent record in the summer issue of the PNZ magazine, and on the other, mere lip-service on the PNZ website. The web site does not even mention the Masterton section of the tour. The website and magazine do not mention the foresight of the Otaki club for producing the one and only DVD with video footage. Why does PNZ promote motels around the various districts on its website, but not this fantastic initiative by one of our own clubs (Otaki) - I just don’t get it. The WPA website, in contrast, has made a real effort with promoting the DVD. Thanks again Otaki - I have set up a special page about the DVD for you (see link above). -Tom.

Update 19/04/08: I am happy to report that the PNZ website, as of today, has a good promotional page for the DVD up. Brian Smith also makes a request for more photos and photos from Masterton. Speaking out has had the desired result. All good news. -Tom.

11/04 On April the 9th I emailed this to the web-masters of the WPA web site and the PNZ web site with a CC to our CEO.

“Dear web-masters,

If you would like to display the TT Progress Score spreadsheet on your website (same as NZPC Blog), simply copy and paste this small amount of code into your page:

<iframe width="457" height="300" frameborder="0" src="//spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p_UbV5ArzJzW5ocf0ZxsPAw&output=html&widget=true"></iframe>

I suggest that if you decide to put it on your web site, you at least increase the width from 457px to, say, 500px to better utilise your available space. You could also consider increasing the height.”

I received a positive reply from our CEO but no replies from the web-masters. The two websites (WPA and PNZ) have decided to not even provide a link to the updates. All my work does not seem appreciated or valued, an opportunity lost. I find not replying to a polite offer of help extremely rude. -Tom.

05/04 "Wiki process used to overhaul police law attracts interest. By NZPA - 12 March 2008.

Hundreds of people clicked edit and told the police anonymously online how they should do their job.

The use of Wikipedia-type software to "have a conversation with New Zealand" when law governing police was being overhauled went so well that New Zealand Police are passing on how they did it to foreign law makers.

The team that ran a "wiki Act" consultation last year have fielded calls from the Japanese Diet, from Germany, the British House of Commons, and the Department of Homeland Security in the US. The French Law Commission has also cited the New Zealand experiment in its publications.

The use of the internet was seen as complementary to traditional methods of consultation on law changes like public meetings, radio advertising and calls for submissions.

The review was of the Police Act 1958 and Police Regulations 1992. A new law is currently making its way through the parliamentary process.

Project manager Superintendent Hamish McCardle will brief the State Service Commission next month on the use of wiki software to engage people.

"There were edits around the substance of the act directed at improving police," he said.

"But there was a second trance of discourse that went in another direction that was all about e-governance and cyber-governance and what the future might be for making laws through an open forum."

In essence the discussion was about the thought "wouldn't it be cool if the people who are governed by laws actually got to write them themselves". And about what ethics that raised and what integrity laws would have if it happened.

The interest from overseas institutions was about the process of consultation rather than what the law changes were.

Mr McCardle said even though the law was now being considered by Parliament, the use of wiki-type tools was continuing to create interest.

The wiki contributors were anonymous so police don't know if they got feedback from criminals.

Mr McCardle believed many of the contributors were young because of the kind of language they used.

Many of the suggestions were original but not all of them made it into the proposed law changes. They did get law makers thinking though, and the select committee can still decide to take up some ideas.

One suggestion was that New Zealanders awarded the Order of New Zealand meet regularly with police to be a sounding board for policy. The order is limited to 20 people and members included Sir Edmund Hillary before his death.

"One of the benefits of the wiki was that ideas came in that had never surfaced before," Mr McCardle said.

It was a matter speculation as to why "fresh" ideas came up in the electronic forum."

Good to see people so proactive and forward thinking - a bit like us really. It is good to see that this line: "...and told the police anonymously online how they should do their job." is seen as positive. If you changed the word “police” to “PNZ” we would have a riot. This is because the people within PNZ are unsure of themselves and in a perpetual siege mode. Text taken from this page: http://www.infonews.co.nz/news.cfm?l=1&t=0&id=16391 -Tom

30/03 Received a phone call this morning at ten minutes to eight from Monica Smiler to say that the Khandallah Open Triples (to be played today) is canceled because of rain. Bad luck for those that traveled all the way from Wairarapa to Wellington and back (220Km). One Wairarapa team received notice from the tournament organiser at 6:50am (this is one hour earlier) that the tournament could be canceled - lucky for that team. It is a shame that the tournament organisers of this event did not contact all those that had to make the 110Km journey to Khandallah. -Tom.

27/03 My contribution to the PNZ AGM 2008 as submitted to my regional representative.

Tom van Bodegraven

Masterton Petanque Club.

March 27, 2008.

I am concerned that the new proposed management structure moves more power inward. It centralises power and decision making, instead of sharing it. Taking away voting rights from the “regional representatives” does not encourage people to take ownership and participate. We must not alienate the membership from the process.

I would therefore like to see our “regional representatives” to be “national representatives” - a number of people selected by the NZ membership. In other words we must select the best people regardless of their location - a club in Christchurch can vote for a candidate who resides in Auckland. These elected representatives must have voting rights. Without voting rights, these national representatives are wasting their time, and they would be empty voices - tokenism.

Thank you for considering my contribution.

Tom van Bodegraven

27/03 Liz Rocks correctly pointed out on our NZPC Blog: "....the National Triples will be used as a selection for the World Champs 'for 2007 only'. For 2008/9 events, qualifying tournaments are to be held....". I must admit, I had not seen this. Looks like I jumped the gun - I apologise. I am however in good company with Murray Porter, and why such an urgent email from our CEO.

Anyway, I now read that the "Core Executive unanimously recommends" that we do not send a team to the world championships this year (2008). This will probably receive the proverbial rubber stamp in April. Update 20/04/08: The PNZ AGM and Council meeting took place on April 19 and 20, and it was rubber stamped. -Tom.

25/03 "Hi Everyone,

This email is to advise you that the National Triples will NOT be used as the selection for the 2008 Worlds.

The selection for the 2008 Worlds will be decided at the AGM and subsequent Council meeting in April. The exact format of this selection process will be communicated immediately after the AGM/Council meeting

Please pass this on to all interested parties in your region ASAP.

Bryan Wells"

The above email was sent to the regions on Thursday, March 20, 2008

I believe PNZ has received advise from the highly respected Victor Nataf about our best way forward with regards to the selection of our international representatives (World Team). PNZ had a formal meeting with Nataf on January 31 about methods of selection among other things. This is all very positive, but why email people only weeks before the National Triples in April, about the pending changes. The email should have explained more, it should have been more open. It could for instance reveal that a fresh look into this issue of selection is a direct result of the Nataf meeting. We will have to wait until after the April 19/20 PNZ meetings to find out more. In the meantime Murray Porter writes in the summer issue (March 2008) of the PNZ magazine that the winners of the 2008 National Triples will go to the World Championships. This now seems to be incorrect. The lateness of this email announcement by our CEO and the fact that the editor of the PNZ magazine did not know about the change, indicates that it was a sudden decision, and that people are not communicating again. -Tom.

06/03 Tonight Masterton plays Khandallah for the JC Cup. If the cup stays either with Khandallah or Masterton, these two clubs will have had the cup between them for a staggering seven years. The JC Cup has gone through its most precarious time during the end of 2006 when Khandallah did not defend the cup against Masterton as all matches were called off by the WPA executive. You can read about this terrible episode on this PAGE. I was at the WPA Special Meeting of Thursday 23 November 2006, and our Masterton club has never received a satisfactory apology or explanation about why and how the match was called off. Equally, the questions I posed have never been answered.

It remains to be seen if the damage caused by this episode can be repaired with the changes in format. I recomended changes in June 2006 (you can read my recommendations on this PAGE. -Tom.

23/02 I am a little surprised that the PNZ website drew attention to the rather silly "high heel" rule ("No high heel shoes permitted") by the Australians with: "If you have entered this tournament please make yourself familiar with the local rules, particularly the one on footwear". It does show however that PNZ finds the "high heel" thing a bit silly as well, otherwise PNZ would not write: "....particularly the one on footwear". I say surprised because it is possibly not very diplomatic of PNZ to publicly poke fun at our mates across the Tasman. Leave that to the NZPC Blog, it does it much better. PNZ removed the reference to the tournament and footwear on 17/03/08. -Tom.

19/10 It is a shame that the organisers of the annual Santa Fe Classic Triples in Tauranga have not made available a player list or any results. This tournament has become an important triples event in NZ, but it remains shrouded in mystery. This is not meant as a criticism, as the organisers may want keep it low key. -Tom.

15/02 "Instead of emailing a meeting agenda, put it on a wiki page and email people a link to that page. If changes need to be made, anyone on your team can do so and everyone will have immediate access to the same, up-to-date version." Another reason I like Wikis so much. (runtime: 1.14 min.)

Once you've seen the clip you can click on the "More" option. This will play a series of short clips about this fascinating topic. Working together in a effective way is vital for any organisation - Wikis really help facilitate this. -Tom.

30/01 Our NZPC Blog. has become immensely popular with many visitors from other shores also dropping in on a daily basis. Many NZ players tell me that the Blog is their first port of call when it comes to learning about what's happening in and around our game. One has to ask the question why the other three websites (West End, PNZ and WPA) do not make a link to it from their respective links pages - the Pétanque Australia Ltd. website does. Another mystery. -Tom.

04/01 I am puzzled as to why we often see the year mentioned in tournament announcements. This seems odd and superfluous to me. It would be the same as saying "Auckland, New Zealand". What I am trying to say here is that if a tournament is to take place in March we have to assume it is this year - not last year or next year. Mentioning the year, only makes sense if it is indeed a tournament for next year or some other year in the future. I think I will make this (getting rid of having the year mentioned in tournament announcements) my project for this year. -Tom ;-)