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What's new2

Page history last edited by Tom van Bodegraven 12 years ago

 

 

 

What's New

News, tips and information

Anyone can write their thoughts on this page. Don't be shy.

 

10/03/2012 I recieved a nice email today:

"I really enjoyed your blog Tom... I have forwarded your link to our club members (I'm the treasurer of Subiaco Petanque Club in West Australia) and friends of petanque. A few of us have been fighting and struggling to promote junior petanque, and so it was especially interesting to read your article concerning the poor design for the World Junior Petanque Competitions. We have the same problem here, all of our brochures show a group of oldies on a sunny afternoon, lazily playing a social game of petanque. This is all very nice but it doesn't help to attract new, younger members. Anyway, a great blog and you should be hearing soon from our PWA Junior coach. I have sent him your details and I'm sure he will have plenty to chat about...
Keep up the good work Tom and, if you're ever in WA do drop in for some games... cheers, John"

 

 

28/03/2011 It's interesting that my suggestion way back in 2006 "Maybe for serious offences a red and yellow card system would not be such a silly idea." may now become a reality. -Tom.

 

30/01/2011. During an idle moment today I came across this General Business item on the WPA website. It relates to the Horowhenua submission,

 

"Submission From Horowhenua

 

Clubs are to write to PNZ on their own behalf to express views re the decision regarding National Tournaments. Masterton and Wanganui East expressed their full support to Horowhenua. Members were reminded that WPA has no formal relationship with PNZ. Clubs have a greater relationship as their members are affiliated to PNZ direct."

 

WPA has no formal relationship with PNZ? What does this mean? Is this saying "well, we would like to help you but we can't". I belief that WPA should have taken a clear position on thisHorowhenua submission, instead of remaining on the fence and let one or two individual clubs write to PNZ. Despite not having a "formal relationship" with PNZ, the WPA was OK with writing this letter to PNZ during May 2008. All very poor. -Tom.

 

 

21/09/10. Why has PNZ removed the blog item where they ask players to provide feedback on the Caversham Petanque Club Remit? Instead of thanking those that have made contributions, and explaining what PNZ will now do with this feedback, PNZ simply removes the topic and all associated comments. This is not nice towards those who have taken the time to put pen to paper. It is also not nice to treat the  Caversham Petanque Club like this.  The PNZ Blog is empty again - no thank you, no nothing. The most prominent link "Forum" on the home page of the PNZ website is a link to an empty Blog page! Even the "Previous Posts" and "Archives" links have been disabled. When will PNZ learn the basics of PR and transparent communications? -Tom.

 

14/08/10. After a short time and with already 60+ tweets to our twitter page we have recieved a big increase in visitors to our blog. The twitter page requires little effort once I installed one or two simple tools. We will be able to keep you up-to-date with news as it happens. -Tom.

 

09/07/10. I am getting really tired with people commenting on the NZPC Blog without a name or with a falls name. I know of at least one person who has commented regularly on our NZPC Blog in the past but now only does so on the PNZ Blog. Some people live under a burden of fear. Some fear excommunication from PNZ if found commenting on the NZPC Blog. These people in my view are simple and fearful souls. The kind of person that would betray others in order to save themselves.

 

I will from now on publish their comments on this page two weeks after they were made and removed from the blog by me. This way they will not be part of a thread, but we can still see what these cowards spout. If you are one of them please - I do not want your opinion on our NZPC Blog.  -Tom.

 

09/04/10 Bryan Wells gets the inaugural 2010 Petanque Blog Sheriff Award for a great piece of writing on our NZPC Blog. -Tom.

 

29/02/10 Good evening fellow players. After many years of playing Petanque at all levels. I have decided to walk away for some timeout. over the last three to five years i have watched the sport go backwards because no one has the game at heart. there are just so many personal agenda's that are trying to be satisfied and i can no longer be botherd putting up with all the bullshit. Very shortly if you already havent you will or could make a decision that rocks the very structure of Petanque. think wisely before your club votes. Good luck everyone I might see you again one day. -Myles Cowper.

 

03/02/2010  I have told a number of people over the last couple of years that replacing the @ symbol with (at) in an email address is useless. Email harvesters are programed to turn (at) into @. Instead of masking you should have a good spam filter. The following is taken from this page.

 

"About two thirds of the email address protection methods tested are not effective at stopping spammers. Surprisingly, many popular methods are not effective, including:

  • Obfuscating an email address with ASCII character codes.
  • Replacing “@” with “at”, “(at)”, or “[at]” in an email address.
  • Embedding HTML tags within an email address.
  • Using “robots.txt”, meta tags, and URL “nofollow” attributes to stop web spiders from visiting site pages.

 

29/01/10 A person under the name Eloisa Jones has been doing some editing on our Wiki. She has been inserting links to her own business website. I have reverted the pages back to their original state - no harm done. - Tom. 

 

04/01/10 I see that Dirk is not on the final 2010 rep list. Readers familiar with his Open Letter will know why he is not on that list. Standing up for something you believe in and ready to accept the consequences for not wavering from those principles is always hard and difficult. To simply always comply without question is of course the easy route to take. This is especially so if there is some self interest at stake. We all know how much Dirk loves our game and how much he has given from his time and private resources for the betterment of our game. Despite all this I would not be surprised if his fellow top level players sacrificed him (if they haven't already done so), for their own self interests and rewards. Have a nice 2010. -Tom.

 

01/01/10 The WPA website has been moved to a new location on the Web. It also has a new URL. This new address means that a good number of links from our NZPW to the various pages within the WPA website no longer work.I will endeavor to update all these links over time. Have a great 2010 from your tireless petanque web volunteer. -Tom.

 

28/11/09 "....I answer to the TD Coaching who answers to the board and neither I nor the TD's have to answer to a shit like you - we answer to the Board, that is why it is there..." (quote from Mau to me - taken from this PAGE). It seems the TDs do not answer to the board and this is the reason Dirk has written an Open Letter to the NZ petanque players. -Tom.

 

28/11/09 For many years now I and others have stated that a culture of fear has been maintained and cultivated by successive regional and national administrations within our sport. If your view is not liked you will by punished - not being selected is the most used reprisal. We have often been ridiculed for trying to expose this nasty fear tool. Now, finally, we have a PNZ administrator openly admitting the existence of this nasty rot within our game "....Naturally many players fearing retribution through non selection have complied...." This quote is taken from this 2009 PAGE. -Tom.

 

27/11/09 "....We were threatened with being taken to Sparc because we were not acting in the interests of the game...." (quote taken from this PAGE). What would Sparc think if they learned about the absurd goings-on within our game. They would surely withdraw all funding. -Tom.

 

09/10/09 Lorraine Brock, President, Petanque New Zealand has placed an item on the PNZ website stating that rumours of her going on a PNZ paid trip to the Women's World Championships in Thailand are incorrect. The rumours must have been strong for the President to make this special announcement on the PNZ website. –Tom.

 

31/07/09 It is important to understand that when you want to delete a page you let me know and I can do this for you. Recently we’ve had all the content of a number of pages removed without a comment explaining why this was done.

 

Please remember that there may be links from the Blog or from other Wiki pages to these pages which no longer have any content. If this was to go on without anyone removing these empty pages and removing all relevant links on Blogs and this wiki, things would deteriorate and our Wiki would become a place with lots of empty pages. Visitors would soon get enough of this and just stay away. -Tom. 

 

20/07/2009 Bryan Wells is no longer our CEO. Some saw him as a divisional force, and others as “our great leader”. Whatever your view, I think we all agree Bryan spoke his mind. He explained his views and aspirations from the beginning. He did the same when he campaigned to be reelected with his informative candidate profile.

 

The NZ membership has this time decided to elect a new person at the helm - Lorraine Brock. She has done exactly the opposite. Lorraine did not provide us with an informative candidate profile or, after having been elected, given us any inkling of how she saw our game over the next 12 months.

 

It will be interesting to see how she is going to put her stamp on our game. My own take is that I find it strange we elected a person who has not campaigned or given us her view of where our game should go. Maybe this is all part of the general apathy within our sport. Good luck to Lorraine, she has a difficult job ahead. -Tom.

 

18/07/2009 Our Boules to You Sponsored NZ Petanque Wiki now has 339 pages of New Zealand petanque history. Thanks for all your contributions so far. -Tom.

 

07/06/09 It's great to see the WPA will be doing a SWOT Analysis next month. A long time ago (2006) a number of players from throughout New Zealand made suggestions for such an analysis on these pages. -Tom.

 

06/06/09 It's always great to get the NZ Petanque magazine delivered, and the 2009 Summer Autumn issue is no exception. I do however wonder why some of the major articles in this issue do not state who the author is. The four page article about the "Representation Process" (p6/p9) is a case in point. -Tom.

 

23/05/09 If you've not made a contribution or comment on this wiki during a two month period, the system will delete you from the list of editors. This means you will have to re-resister next time you want to contribute. This is to prevent us from building up a large number of editors who actually never do any editing - who do not contribute. -Tom.

 

21/05/09 It's great when people can write their own stories without having to ask anyone. The Hawks Bay is doing just that on their HB news page. -Tom.

 

02/05/09 The new PFA president Sylvio Jolicoeur has released a statement showing a new direction for petanque in Australia. We wish him and his team all the best. -Tom.

 

13/04/09 This is what Grant Hacket wrote in 2008: 

"Yes it is fair to say the minutes contain several inaccuracies which will be addressed at the next PNZ meeting. Remember minutes of an Annual General Meeting are only "draft" until ratified at the next AGM - 12 months hence. A problem in itself but common to all Incorporated Societies. -Grant"

I wonder what Grant has to say about the "several inaccuracies" now that PNZ has deemed the 2008 minutes correct after all. -Tom.

 

06/04/09 Now that we’ve had the PNZ AGM it’s time for PNZ to come clear over the minutes from last year which PNZ claims are incorrect. When will they now publish the correct version? -Tom. 

 

02/04/09 If you are loged in and would like to know how to "Star" (a kind of bookmark) pages on our Wiki, go to our Editors only page. -Tom.

 

31/03/09 Our New Zealand Petanque Wiki (NZPW) will soon have more features added to it. If you are interested in these new developments, follow this external LINK.  –Tom.

 

29/03/09 Our Wiki allows the inclusion of footnotes and these are normally indicated with a numeral. There are two ways you can read footnotes on our Wiki. You can click on the number indicating that there is a footnote, and you will be taken towards the bottom of the page so you can read the footnote. Another, easier way, is to hover your mouse pointer over the number - this will display the "hover text" of the footnote (something you cannot do in printed publications). Here is an example of a footnote.[1]  -Tom.

 

20/03/09 One of the candidates states “....I am not interested in factions and self-interest groups....”.

What does this mean? What is a “faction” and what is a self-interest group? Could any group be seen as a faction with self-interests? Is a group whose actions or views we do not agree with, a factional group with self-interests?  Something to chew on.  –Tom.

 

05/04/09 Looks like our friends in Australia are now engaged in a full-blown mutiny. The Blog they are using for this can be found HERE  -Tom.

'Each time someone stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope' - Robert F. Kennedy. 

 

02/04/09 On April 18 the PNZ AGM will decide whether the 2008 minutes are correct or incorrect regarding the perceived 2008 voting irregularities. The WPA had written this letter to PNZ raising concerns at what took place at the AGM. This letter was based on eye and ear witness accounts, and the official minutes released by PNZ. After receiving the letter, PNZ claimed that their minutes are incorrect after all and this can not be looked at until the 2009 meeting ratifies the 2008 minutes. All of this gives the impression that we are working with smoke and mirrors again. It will be interesting to compare the two versions. -Tom.

 

01/04/09 The quoted text bellow is taken from an Australian blog page and typifies a situation we have here in NZ. Many people are fearful of not being selected or left out in some other way, if they speak out, or simply have a different opinion. -Tom.

 

"Is this what he constitutes as his version of freedom of speech? Accusing someone of being “gutless” because they have the foresight to anticipate disciplinary action that could possible ostracise them from a community that they fear is being torn apart by this dictator?"

 

13/02/09 Was surprised to see that the good people of Auckland (wikipedia link) have been “sweltering” in an all-time record temperature of 32. Early January (08/01/09) we had a top of 41 here in Christchurch (wikipedia link) The HB and Wairarapa get into the high thirties for most of Jan. and Feb. Are Aucklanders just a little bit soft? -Tom.

 

10/02/09 Ian Baker has a new venture on the way.

Bring your memories to life and preserve them for the future. Family stories, which combine photography, video footage and memorabilia with interviews to produce a customised documentary on DVD.

 “Everybody has a wise or funny story to tell.

Today technology allows us to create a lasting record, a digital scrapbook. Imagine now your family timeline being studded with the most precious moments.

Dig out your shoe boxes of photos, dust off your albums, prepare your older family members for telling their fascinating stories and get ready for a stroll down memory lane.

Do not miss your grandma’s cooking secrets and your grandpa’s favourite books. 

Their voices and images are the soul of your family saga. 

Just imagine….”       

www.familystory.co.nz

 

01/01/09 All pages on this wiki have comments enabled. If you are not logged in you will see this message: “You don't have permission to comment on this page.” If you want to be able to make comments, or otherwise participate, simply create an account or, if you already have an account - login. Similarly, If you wanted to read my profile Tom van Bodegraven when not logged in you’ll get this message: "Access Denied. You don't have permission to look at TomVanBodegraven." This is because I have set my personal profile to be read only by people with an account.  -Tom.

 

24/12/08 We now have a folder for editors only (look under folders in the right-hand column). If you are an editor (and logged in) you'll see it and have access to it. If you are not an editor or simply not logged in - you will not see the folder – it will be invisible. Our Wiki now allows the creation of private folders for small groups who want to collaborate on a project in private, and without the need for a webmaster.  All the documents within your private folder will show all revisions. –Tom.

 

22/12 If you would like to be an editor of this sponsored Wiki you can now simply create an account. -Tom

 

20/12 We have migrated our sponsored NZ Petanque Wiki and as a result we have a much better looking design and many added features for you to use and enjoy. Have a play and explore so you can get to see how it works. When it comes to space taken up by pages and files (photos, MS and PDF documents) on our NZPW, we have lots of room for all of us. At this point in time we’ve used 114 MB of our total allocation of 110 GB. -Tom.

 

Tip: Towards the top of all pages you’ll see a very small triangle pointing to the right. Click on this if you want more space. Click again on it (it will have moved to the right and is now pointing left) to bring your screen back to normal. -Tom.

 

10/11 Venue: Kapiti Pétanque Club, Aorangi Road, Paraparaumu
Date: Thursday 13 November 2008 Time: 7:30 pm

Under General Business we read:

 

“a) Clubs to comment on what should and should not be included on the WPA website”.

 

I am extremely puzzled as to what this might mean. The WPA website is an example to all of Petanque New Zealand when it come to information structure and content. I cannot think of anything that should no longer be available on it. I also hope that members are not going to suggest that some items are first posted by traditional snail mail, before it appears on the web. You will not find a self-respecting webmaster who would want to comply with an absurd policy like that. Users would stop going to the WPA website if this delaying policy was indeed implemented. Items should first appear on the WPA website and important items should immediately be distributed to clubs by other means such as email and print. We have to be carful that people without expertise are not going to make policy decisions about electronic media and web publishing. Don’t put wooden wheels on your BMW. -Tom. PS. please also read item 05/10 further down this page.

 

03/11 When Ricardo wrote: “Herr Murray” in a recent comment on the PNZ Blog, Andy Gilbert sprang into action with this reply: “….Ricardo has the bloody nerve to intimate the Murray is acting like a nazi.…”

 

When Joanne Lippard wrote: Chairman Tom, he stayed silent. He did not think that Joanne had a “bloody nerve to intimate" that I was acting like the Chinese dictator responsible for the death of millions up on millions of Chinese people. Of course I never had a problem with Joanne’s letter, I have a problem with people who attack one person, but not another, over the same thing. We all know that this has nothing to do with nazis or Mao Tse-tung. It is simply about people we like and people we don’t like. The human mind is marvelous. -Tom.

 

01/11 It is good that PNZ has finally replied to the 15 comments on the PNZ Blog. It is not a good idea however to first remove all the relevant comments before doing so. This is a surefire way of discouraging any future comments to the PNZ Blog. It does not seem that long ago when I as editor of the NZPC Blog became the victim of unfounded allegations and a dirty attack from PNZ, et al. I was wrongly accused of not posting comments, of not making a financial donation to Georgio and all sorts of other things. It seems ok for PNZ to remove 15 comments before answering any questions raised in these comments. -Tom.

 

28/10 The quoted text is taken from this WPA minutes page.

 

“Claire Bradburn said that the APA response dated 2 June 2008 to the WPA email indicated that Lorraine Brock, the Upper North Island delegate, was not given sufficient riding instructions for the AGM. Claire added that the WPA must accept what the APA said. The minutes cannot be corrected until the next AGM in 12 months time, so the WPA will have to wait and see what happens then.”

 

The Upper North Island delegate was not given sufficient riding instructions for the AGM. What does this mean? The question whether she was or not, is interesting in itself but is WPA losing sight of their own letter?

 

The main question was about perceived irregularities at the PNZ AGM, not about “riding instructions”. This letter was based on the accounts of people at the AGM and the subsequent PNZ minutes. I am aghast at reading “The minutes cannot be corrected ”. Corrected? Corrected from what? Is WPA now implying that the minutes are indeed wrong and need correcting? Could it be that the minutes are actually correct? Apart from the odd typo here and there, they should be correct. They have never been wrong in the past.

 

We effectively have a situation where people at any AGM can do what they like, and if questioned, claim that the facts and minutes are wrong. This in turn would buy 12 months for people to forget, or simply lose interest.

 

Serious allegations were made by WPA but we have to wait for an entire year to find out what did take place. In my view this is a totally unacceptable situation. Many people will indeed wait and will put the final versions of the minutes side by side and see how far apart they are. If they turn out to be completely different, we have a whole new set of questions. What a mess. -Tom.

 

20/10 Things on the PNZ Blog are not going well. I think Murray Porter means well, but it looks like a PNZ officer has told players one thing, and Murray is telling the players another. A classic case of not communicating. The officer in question has no doubt seen what Murray has written on the PNZ Blog and knows it does not tally with what he has told an Auckland player or players. He nevertheless elects to stay silent and this in turn makes Murray look bad. PNZ is taking a long time to respond to the concerns raised, and they are thereby fueling the rumor-mill. Remember, whenever you create a vacuum, people will fill it. PNZ should come clear soon before real damage is done.

 

Update 21/10: Some twenty four hours have past and PNZ still has not provided any answers to the questions and concerns raised. All we have is Andy Gilbert barging in with his usual moralizing (and other difficult to understand ranting), without of course providing any answers or opinions on the actual topic (but he does state however, that he is willing to explain where he is coming from via private emails - not in public!). In my opinion it would have been better if people had left Michael's comment - and not commented over it. This thread is now disintegrating and going completely off topic. Stay concise and stay on topic. -Tom.

 

05/10 In the minutes of the WPA Committee Meeting held on Thursday 26 June 2008 we read this:

 

“Barrie Sinclair said that the PNZ CEO's report has been out for 4 months but he had just read it in the PNZ Newsletter. The report might have been put on the PNZ Website, but not everyone had access to the internet Brian Smith advised him to contact the PNZ secretary and hard copies would be sent out. Claire commented that important matters should be sent out by email or hard copy before they were included on the website. Myles Cowper said that in this day and age, it was assumed people had access to the internet and it was up to clubs to contact PNZ to send material out in hard copy.”

Barrie is right of course, but the solutions provided in these minutes are wrong and rather complex and convoluted. Way back in 2006 I provided this simple solution. “Common sense is not so common.” -Voltaire. -Tom.

 

25/09 With pleasure I announce that Cam Calder has agreed to fund this New Zealand Petanque Wiki (NZPW) project for a further year. For those not sure who Cam Calder is: Cam formed the N.Z. Petanque Association in 1993 and over the intervening years he was elected to the Federation International de Petanque et Jeu Provencal executive committee and wore the silver fern, at a World Championship, representing N.Z. He also runs Boules to You. -Tom.

 

22/09 “Be part of the solution not part of the problem” This has been parroted by a number of people again recently. I wonder if anyone knows what this little slogan actually means? Whose solution and whose problem is this slogan referring to. It seems such a hollow phrase - how do we know at any one time whether our actions are part of a solution or a problem, and who decides all this. Is driving a car or riding a bicycle being part of a solution or problem? Simplistic slogans are without meaning and are only devoured by the faithful believers. Something to chew on. -Tom.

 

14/08 A 10 member group of Victoria Park members just returned from a tour to French Polynesia (July 25th - Aug 10th 2008) playing some Petanque tournaments along the way. Read it on this PAGE.

 

It is hard to believe that this was not publicised - someone must have known about this. This should have been a BIG news item on all NZ websites. It would have been an opportunity to wish them well on their international journey. We must learn to celebrate our game and all our players, not just a selected group. -Tom

 

14/08 I have stated this in the past - for our women's team to go to the other side of the world to compete in the World Championships without a 4th player is a risk. I am sure the team and manager have done a risk analyses and weighed up financial cost and training against the possibility of a team member, becoming unwell through a tummy bug or sprained ankle, etc.

 

"If a player is ill or becomes incapacitated precluding that player from taking part in a scheduled game, a "reserve" will be called on to enable the team to continue in the tournament." quote taken from this PAGE. -Tom.

 

12/08 Because PNZ has suddenly removed a PNZ Blog posting, members have been denied a right of reply. You can not remove a post whenever you do not like the comments to it. I always make a point of leaving posts on the NZPC Blog which are attracting comments up for a while. This ensures people are given ample time to reply. PNZ is finding out the hard way that being a good editor of a Blog is not so simple. Ricardo has today exercised his right of reply on this PAGE.

 

11/08 This morning I felt I was in China when I discovered that PNZ had removed a post and left nothing in its place. Later in the morning we had an announcement from David and Murray stating that we must stay on topic - no explanation was given. It should be clear from reading this page (see link) who went off topic. I have created a permanent record of what took place. I will continue the work for reason and accountability within our great game.

 

10/08 Our CEO, after an exchange with members on the PNZ Blog says “I will now return to my "neither confirm nor deny policy.” and signs off with: 
“Sayonara” (I think this is a reference to some kind of war movie). This all sounds like a form of Bushism

 

In the same comment he also says “There are too many precious people in this world, who seem to be able to hand it out when they feel like it, but can't take a little bit of borax when it is poked at them”. It seems our CEO has conveniently forgotten this PAGE.

 

After seeing our COE in action on the PNZ Blog and elsewhere, I firmly believe we are not well served with this man, and it calls into question the way we select our CEOs. Two years ago I proposed a new system. -Tom.

 

09/08 It is nice to see that the WPA website is now also using Google maps to show the location of clubs. I started this almost two year ago by creating a Gmap of all NZ clubs, a Gmap of all Wellington clubs and a Gmap of all SI clubs. It’s funny, despite the fact these are entirely Google maps (no trace of a Blog or Wiki), neither the WPA or PNZ website have been willing to making a link to these very useful maps. This would of course help visitors to our shores to find out where all the clubs are. Maybe we really do not like sharing what we have with visitors to our beautiful country. Maybe it's simply because I created the maps. The human mind is marvelous :-) -Tom. 


 

What's New from 04/01/08 to 06/08/08. 60 items

What's New from 18/05/07 to 03/01/08. 48 items

What's New from 11/01/07 to 17/05/07. 22 items

What's New from 08/01/07 to 21/09/07. 36 items

What's New from 21/09/06 to 11/08/06. 22 items

What's New from 07/11/06 to 20/06/06. 34 items

What's New from 18/06/06 to 26/04/06. 33 items

What's New from 24/04/06 to 22/03/06. 31 items

What's New from 21/03/06 to 13/02/06. 33 items

 

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Footnotes

  1. Footnotes are useful as they can add clarity and additional information.

Comments (1)

sebastien Merval said

at 4:12 pm on Oct 27, 2006

Message personnel: Georges, quand tu auras fini de jouer avec mon traducteur, tu penseras a me le rendre, j'en ai encore besoin! Merci.
seb.

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