Letter to the President

I'm writin you because, sh*t is still real f*cked up in my neighborhood

[Apologies to 2Pac]

A twitter conversation with AA board member Nick Moore prompted Percy to pen this missive. I publish it in the belief that poor governance and sub par practices thrive in the shadows afforded by lack of scrutiny.

Open Letter to AA Board and Management

As the post Olympic period affords a natural respite for reflection, please allow Percy to detail his concerns about the administration of athletics in Australia.

Governance.

DO’B went on holidays in the lead up to the Olympic Games, the most significant event in funding and performance terms in the four year calendar

• Were there concerns amongst the board about the timing of the holiday?
• Who was in charge of AA in the interim?
• Was it a board member?
• Were they in the role full time?
• Would this comply with any level of good governance?
• Was it considered that there was no one within AA who could fill the acting CEO role?
• When Andrew Demetriou was on leave as CEO of the AFL, it was clear that Gil Mclachlan was acting in the role.

Percy has heard that board members regularly get involved with the management of AA

• Including that two board members were heavily involved in team selection (especially Eloise Wellings in the 5000m and Steve Solomon in the 400m)
• Good governance dictates that the board speaks to the CEO and the CEO runs the organisation
• How widespread is this breakdown of governance?
• Does Fildes have any plans to improve governance standards?

Communications

Percy understands that AA’s Communications Manager was denied London Olympic accreditation by the AOC

• Was this because of ongoing ill feeling between elements within the AOC and AA?
• Why was this not resolved at a Fildes-Coates level?
• What value did AA get from having a Comms Manager in London with no accreditation?
• This reflects poorly on all involved.

The Comms team at AA seem disconnected from the organisation

• DO’B appears in this video looking like he’s on his way to the beach
• Who let that happen?
• Comms should be involved to ensure that athletes are presenting a positive image of the sport and the team
• for eg. Working with Dion and HP during the 400m saga 

The athletes are the greatest media resource the sport and AA have.

• Promote them all.  Sally will be famous, regardless of what you do.

Work out how to use Twitter

• The AA twitter account is stultifyingly insipid

Innovate

• As an example Dan Jones is doing amazing work at Orica Green Edge operating alone

Management

More than 10 staff have left AA in the DO’B era.

Good leaders enforce high standards on their employees (see Jobs, Steve).  This is not the same as a workplace where employees can be brought to tears:this is bullying and could exposes the organisation to significant liabilities.

Are there concerns about this at board level?

Strategic review

DO’B mentioned in this interview that the board was involved in a strategic review.  Percy respectful submits that to only talk to those on the inside misses a significant opportunity.  Talk to everyone, seek opinions from all facets fo the sport.  AA has for too long been disconnected from wide swathes of its constituency.  Consultation has benefits of its own but much good would flow from a broad knowledge of opinion within the sport.  Hiding in the bunker has got AA nowhere.  This would be an opportunity to get the athletes back on board too. 

Building the sport

There has been no progress in the last ten years in building the sport in a commercial sense.  If the capacity to build the sport commercially doesn’t exist within AA, and Percy strongly suggests that it doesn’t, what is the next step to allow the sport to grow and support athletes? One of our overarching strategic challenges is to create a framework where athletes can earn a living from the sport. How can we move towards this goal?

High Performance and selection.

My views on this are expressed at some length here. Some further points:

Is the board concerned that the HP manager doesn’t speak to some of the athletes under his authority?

HP and AA in general came back from the Olympics with a reputation for being less than helpful in facilitating the efforts of athlete's personal coaches.  Is this a concern?

From this week’s Insight program on the Olympics and funding.

One must separate the inspiration individuals get from the Olympics from the broad, societal implications.  Research strongly suggests that there is little benefit to grassroots participation from elite funding.  Improvements in grassroots participation will come from programs designed for that purpose.  We should not delude ourselves that HP funding can have a dual effect of HP and improving participation.

Please excuse the scattered nature of this communication.  Percy has many disparate concerns about our sport and what is occurring at AA.

PC