SKI ADMINISTRATION UNWIELDY

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31449, 16 August 1967, Page 15

SKI ADMINISTRATION UNWIELDY

rr>HE uncertainty over the x New Zealand championships and the prospects of sending a team to the 1968 Winter Olympics in France has thrown into sharp relief the unwieldly nature of the present system of administering ski-ing on a nationwide level.

As the weeks of July and August went by without any snow, and prospects of the whole season’s programme having to be completely altered Increased, it became evident that New Zealand’s skiers, and particularly the racers, were waiting for some indication from the New Zealand Ski Council as to its proposed course of action. The council did not need to firmly commit itself —no-one expected this as long as the snow situation remained in doubt—but it ought to have outlined any alternative proposal it intended to adopt if there was no improvement That the council remained virtually silent during this difficult period is not so much the fault of its members as of the system under Which they have to work. It is now certain that many councillors had, as individuals, drawn up alternatives by the middle of July. But these never became official and so .the racers, unless they happened to be on sufficiently good terms with a council member to ask him outright, never knew what was being considered.

And yet skiers and racers throughout New Zealand ought to have known what

was happening. They should not have been left in the dark. It seems that the entire council system needs a thorough overhaul. At the present time the members of the council are drawn from north of Auckland to as far south as Dunedin. There is no standing comittee in existence so the seven members of the council have to either write to each other, or build up vast toll accounts, if they wish to discuss anything. They only meet twice a year. The secretary is a Wellington man and is centrally situated geographically. But the whole apparatus is most unwieldly to operate. What is required is a standing committee, either within tiie council or Instead of the council. The members of this would be able to take decisions effectively and quickly because they all lived within a small area. Decisions made by the standing committee could be confirmed by the twiceyearly council meetings, which eould also outline for the committee the policies it was to adopt If necessary, the council could meet more than twice a year so as to keep a closer rein on events, and it would assume all responsibility for the decisions of the committee.

This idea, or variations of it has been suggested before. The chief drawback has been that no particular centre seemed to have enough top administrators to make a standing committee work. However, the situation with the New Zealand championships and the

selection of an Olympic team this winter has made a reappraisal Imperative. Fortunately, Auckland now seems to be in a position where it could accept the responsibility of supplying personnel for a standing committee. Christchurch, and even Wellington, could manage at a pinch; but Auckland seems to be the logical choice. Three of the five members of the council selection committee live either in Auckland or reasonably near it The president of the New Zealand Ski Association (Mr A. Cooper) lives in Auckland as does the manager appointed to the New Zealand Olympic team (Mr S. H. Blakely).

These men could form the nucleus of a standing committee, particularly as both Messrs Cooper and Blakely appear to have the time to devote to ski-ing and have shown their willingness to spend many hours working for the sport