Open Letters to STTA Executive and Board Members

8 November 2021

Open Letter

Dear Triathlon Victoria Executive,

Via Email: Grant Cosgriff TV CEO 

CC: State and Territory Triathlon Associations (STTA) Executive

As my STTA, I contact you.  I am writing on behalf of concerned Triathlon Australia members.

Members first asked Triathlon Australia on 26 October and have raised the question a number of times since, regarding the latest amendment noted as ‘September 2021’ on the cover page of the TA Constitution.  There are a number of changes that have been made also noted on the cover page, but the most recent is the most pressing concern to members, due to the lack of advice or announcement regarding its detail. 

The document can be found here.

Members have not received any information or reply from Triathlon Australia, but in the meantime have reviewed, in accordance with (IAW), the Triathlon Australia Constitution, The Companies Act 2001 (Commonwealth) and The Associations Incorporations Acts of the ACT, NT, SA, Tas, Vic and WA.

Members have studied each of those references in detail, and have established:

a.         Triathlon Australia cannot make any change to its Constitution other than by a Special Resolution passed by a General Meeting (which means by an Annual General Meeting or by a Special General Meeting) under the Companies Act.

b.         Only the eight STTAs can vote at any General Meeting.

c.         Neither the Triathlon Australia President, nor the Chair of the TA Board, nor the Board members (Directors) can cast a vote on a Special Resolution, but they can speak and debate the Special Resolution before the vote is called to be cast.

d.         The Triathlon Australia Board is responsible for calling for, and taking and distributing draft minutes of General Meetings of its participants, calling for comments of participants on the draft, and promulgating the agreed minutes to the participants.

e.         The participants of the Triathlon Australia General meeting (the STTAs) are responsible for promulgating to their members (be they clubs or individuals) the detail of changes to the Triathlon Australia Constitution and, if STTAs see applicable, the ramifications thereof for their members as discussed in the General Meeting.

Given the above points, members would like to know - was Triathlon Victoria called to a Triathlon Australia General Meeting in September 2021?

Regards,

Emma Carney

13 September 2021

Dear Valued STTA Executives and Board Members, 

Via Email: State Triathlon Associations 

Thank you to individuals who have contacted me regarding their individual concerns regarding the One Management model Triathlon Australia (TA) is desperate to push onto the sport of Triathlon.

I am sure each of you saw the response from Triathlon Queensland (TQ), staking their claim to be in alignment with TA.  This reply was to be expected.  It is common knowledge TA and TQ are very closely knit.  So closely in fact, individuals hold roles in both, TQ receives the highest level of support from TA and the TA current president was on the TQ Board of Directors. 

Given the closeness of this relationship, once TA have undergone the scrutiny of a full independent review, TQ will be left extremely exposed.  

Understandably, many in positions in STTA’s have made their concerns known to me regarding the TA One Management model.  Thank you to the individuals who have the integrity and ethics for the betterment of the sport over their own self gain and have shared these concerns as feedback to me.  Thank you also to those who have provided the presentation Triathlon Australia distributed to STTA’s and clubs regarding the One Management future operating model proposal.

What is clear from comments and feedback, is there is a culture of fear in TA, where many are fearful of the consequences of saying something, the fear of retribution, reduced opportunity of selection, involvement, ostracisation…etc. 

This is not acceptable.  This should not exist in Triathlon Australia.  This must end.

As you would have all been provided the presentation Triathlon Australia distributed to STTA’s and clubs regarding the One Management future operating model proposal you will be aware that TA states in this that the One Management model has a – 

‘..vision is for a happier, healthier and more connected nation through multisport experiences ...

We are committed to work together for the betterment of Australian triathlon in a manner which aligns to our values and behaviours -
Unity Accountability Courage Enjoyment Inclusivity 

We will be unified in our pursuit of 250 clubs, 25,000 members, and 250,000 race starts by 2025’ 

despite noting, just 2 pages later that there is -

 “…a compounding 5% decline in annual membership"

This is an astonishing statement from a current National Federation with a compounding 5% decline in membership annually.  Simply making bold wishful statements doesn’t make them come true.  How are these 250 clubs’ numbers going to be achieved, particularly when membership is falling?

Triathlon Australia have provided STTA’s with an out clause by providing a ‘what is we have concerns section’.  In this TA provide, that no one need worry, because TA currently have – 

• …existing systems, common practices and agreed behaviours that provide the solid foundation for transition

• …..benefited from the learnings of other sports who have made this transition (sailing, golf, cycling, etc) and the project expertise from external agencies to develop our model

• The change will be documented in a formal Service Level Agreement (SLA) with Triathlon Australia and set out clearly the performance expectations and a monitoring framework tailored to each state/territory.

Triathlon Australia fail to notify STTAs that their current TA existing systems, common practice and agree behaviours are failing dismally. The Triathlon High performance program is a failed, broken structure providing a culture where athletes of the sport are treated without respect or dignity and are subjected to bullying, discrimination, harassment and abuse.  World Class performances in this culture are becoming increasingly difficult for the athletes.  Athletes have contacted me to call TA out on this. 

In this time of decline of the sport, Government funding provided to triathlon Australia has increased substantially.  The allocation of this funding has increased in the areas of administration and employee benefits with no demonstrable positive outcome in athletic performance. During this time TA have removed any level of transparency in reporting, fail to measure accountability and do not have clear performance standards or review processes for so many of the failing areas of the sport.

TA make a comparison to sports that have moved to a One Management type of operating model.  They mention sailing, golf and cycling.  On reviewing the restructure of these sports, not one made the move without first undertaking a thorough and strong review process which led to significant structural changes.  Most restructured Board Director Positions, removed the President, CEO and HP Director.  None simply bullied their STTA’s (or similar) into agreeing, otherwise funding will be ‘restructured’ (cut).  Looking at the individual sports, Sailing has a level of transparency and reporting that TA could only dream of if they had the ethics and integrity to do so.  Cycling moved to combine all disciplines of cycling into one federation, not simply steamrolling STTA’s out of existence.  Golf too replaced staff with new more appropriate leaders.

Triathlon Australia is not prepared to make these changes in leadership, so is clearly it is not ready for a One Management future operating model.

In considering the One Management future operating model, STTA’s also have a very large decision to make.  Members – 

What do members think?  

Will members desert the sport in even larger numbers that at present? 

When will members be provided with the information on the One Management model?  

Will members be allowed to have a say?

Triathlon Australia have washed their hands of members, providing the STTA’s via clubs (except WA – I admire your stance WA!) need to notify members.  Once the STTA’s agree to One Management, TA has provided that the role of the STTA’s will move to a

‘..formal Service Level Agreement (SLA) with Triathlon Australia and set out clearly the performance expectations and a monitoring framework tailored to each state/territory..’

The TA membership is 60% QLD / NSW based, with 40% based out of all other States and Territories.  Currently TA is QLD centric having previously been NSW centric.  

What will happen to the State & Territory members in smaller States and Territories?  Given the culture of fear permeating from TA, does anyone care? Almost certainly they will be treated as second class citizens.   

With little knowledge of the remaining States and Territories, from those sitting at TA HQ on in QLD, those States and Territories will be largely ignored and memberships decimated.  

And

‘The SLA will be for a set period of time (anticipated three years) and have an exit clause should service delivery not meet the agreed performance standards ..’ 

Do you have any idea what this will be?  What is the exit clause?  Who is exiting?  Have you just lost all power in Triathlon for your STTA?? How can you exit when all staff will be TA employees?..

All State structures will have been scrapped and as TA provided in this glossy presentation 

 ‘…membership decline (revenue) would need to be addressed by the individual STTA’s…’  

The message is clear - there will be no way back to supporting local membership.  TA don’t consider it their role, and you cannot argue with this – remember the overriding culture of fear presiding at TA…

There is a lot of self-serving decisions around these statements.  I hear my STTA CEO has secured himself a role in this future model, One Management.  Members in my STTA have no idea what it is though.  The lack of transparency continues….

In closing, my concerns remain with the impending independent review of TA that is looming.  Sport and Integrity are working through the flood of complaints from members.  There is an increasing call for the TA Board of Directors to all stand down.  

Now is NOT the time to agree to a One Management future operating model for Triathlon. TA is not up to the task with its current leadership lacking in so many areas. 

Now is the time for a full independent review of TA.  

In the future, when a rebuilt and restructured TA is in place, when the sport once again has a growing and re enthused membership base, when there is full transparency, when there is real and genuine inclusion for all members, when there is integrity and accountability from TA, when Athletes - Able, Para and Age-Group - are again part of a positive, successful sport and when the culture of fear is history.

That will be the time to move to a One Management model.   

Regards,

Emma Carney

3 September 2021 

Dear Valued STTA Executives and Board Members,

Via Email: State Triathlon Associations 

Thank you for passing my letter dated 31 August to your respective Board Members. 

In my 31 August letter, I outlined concerns regarding the lack of transparency of Triathlon Australia and the effect this will have on the success on the One Management model – 

‘At this crucial stage of transferring to a One Management Model, TA MUST be fully responsible and accountable for the overall management, direction, control, regulation, promotion, development and sponsorship of Triathlon in a manner of upmost transparency in order to maintain a level of integrity and ethical governance of our sport – Triathlon. If this high level of integrity and ethical governance is not met, then STAA’s will simply hand over the governance and control of the sport of Triathlon to the detriment of growth in every state, for agendas and direction which no one can be certain other than the individuals of the current TA executive. 

Those small number of sports who have made the transition successfully to a federated model have done so with a full transparent process in their governance, management, direction and control. Triathlon Australia is not showing this level of Transparency. This suggest Triathlon is not ready for this.’

This week, and one can only assume in response to my letter, Triathlon Australia has announced that Board Director positions will open soon.  This is not something Triathlon Australia normally does. 

The link to the documentation is here – 

https://www.triathlon.org.au/About/Latest_News/Triathlon_Australia_Board_Director_Nominations_Open_Soon.htm

In my letter to you all of 31 August 2021, I outlined the importance of you as STTA’s to act in the best interest of members, because State and Territory Associations (STTAs) are the voting delegates of Triathlon Australia. They represent the members, who are clubs, in their states (except for WA where individual members, not clubs, vote). The TA Constitution is the remit of STTAs to approve, not the organisation nor directors of TA.

Therefore, all STTA’s on behalf of members, should now make a call for Triathlon Australia to contact all members with the call for nominations, publish the CV’s of each nominee and then arrange for an independently scrutinised vote from members and publish the results.  Then the STTA’s should follow the voice of members and vote at the AGM.  

These types of steps taken for member input are vital in proper governance of a sport.  You would all be aware AFL team Collingwood is currently undergoing a review of its governance.  On the subject of new board members, interestingly, interim Collingwood AFL President has made some clear statements of intent and changes - something that should be adopted by Triathlon Australia.

Among other amendments to its constitution, interim President Korda said the club plans to limit the maximum tenure for directors to nine years and for club presidents to six years.

Four current board members will be up for election at the club’s annual general meeting on December 16 - 

‘This is to ensure that as we enter season 2022 all of the current board of seven will have been elected by members,’ Korda explained.

And

‘This validation is important. Directors are accountable to the members and their mandate comes from being elected by them.’

The AFL, love it or loathe it, generally leads the way in Sport governance, and this is the future of Sporting Organisations.  Gone are the days of big brother bullying by National Sporting Organisations such as Triathlon Australia.

All STTA’s need to make this move so that a transparent and democratic voting starts this year and is fully in place from next year.  

As outlined in my 31 August letter –

‘As an STTA you are the only voice your state members have. As an STTA you could make a move for members, and submit a motion to have the Constitution changed to enable members to attend and voice options at the upcoming AGM. 

Please do the right thing by your members and wait until a better time in Triathlon to sign the One Management Model and not at this point in time under the current TA CEO, President and Board. They have shown they are not up to the task of looking after our sport into the future.’

And

‘Giving up power is always so much quicker than retaining or gaining power. Power and your voice should never be offered up easily.’ 

The sport of triathlon needs all STTA’s to protect the future of our sport.  Please do the right thing by your members and call Triathlon Australia into action now.

Regards, 

Emma Carney

31 August 2021

Dear Valued STTA Executives and Board Members,

Via Email: State Triathlon Associations

You would all be aware of the work Triathlon Australia have made on their strategy over the past 10 years in conjunction with Sport Australia toward a future operating model - One Management.  This model seeks to move Triathlon in Australia away from State Associations to a contemporary model in the key areas of

• Strategy

• Finances

• Resources/workforce

There is no doubt there is a future in this type of national governance of sports (and has been done successfully in a very small number of other sports), but in order for this to benefit the Sport as a whole nationally, the sport must be governed at a national level in a transparent manner. 

This means at this crucial stage of transferring to a One Management Model, TA MUST be fully responsible and accountable for the overall management, direction, control, regulation, promotion, development and sponsorship of Triathlon in a manner of utmost transparency in order to maintain a level of integrity and ethical governance of our sport – Triathlon.  If this high level of integrity and ethical governance is not met, then STAA’s will simply hand over the governance and control of the sport of Triathlon to the detriment of growth in every state, for agendas and direction which no one can be certain other than the individuals of the current TA executive and the current TA board members.

Those small number of sports who have made the transition successfully to this type of model have done so with a full transparent process in their governance, management, direction and control.  Triathlon Australia is not showing this level of Transparency.  This suggest Triathlon is not ready for One Management.

It is common knowledge only a small number of STTA’s are in complete agreement with the One Management Model, some are partially in agreement and some are not in agreement.  What is crucial, at this time when TA is subject to federal review and federal processes investigating the integrity, ethics, governance, member concerns and future funding models, is that the STTA’s remain in control and slightly independent of anything that may be uncovered through this investigation process.

While remaining at arms-length as TA is investigated and under review, it is also important to carefully consider what each STTA may lose with the One Management operational model.  

Some examples of losses to STTA’s include (noting this list is not exhaustive) – 

• TA has amended its constitution so that only STTA’s can vote.  If TA the takes over the running of STTA’s with staff reporting to TA, then TA will directly employ the STTA staff that will vote at AGM’s creating a closed circle devoid of all transparent and democratic processes.  Effectively it will be a ‘closed shop’ organisation with sham voting as all directives and instructions will be directed by TA.  It will be impossible for a brave STTA member, who is effectively a TA staff member working under TA direction at a State location to break rank for the benefit of their State.  

• Grants from Government come with conditions and regulations about how the money can be spent, used and allocated and if there is no independent oversight, who knows where and how it can be spent.  This will be closely looked at under TA investigation processes. If an STTA member votes as directed by the current TA CEO and/or TA President and they vote to authorise expenditure of Government Grants in a way that is prohibited, they may find themselves personally liable if they have not acted with reasonable care - and if they are just a rubber stamp, they clearly have not acted with reasonable care.

• The local State issues will most likely be ignored by a Corporate Head Office at TA because there will be less ‘feet on the ground’ that fully understands the local needs, the local issues, etc. Local race series will tend to decline still further and local race directors will tend to be either ignored, overlooked and racing for members will become overpriced by a head office group of people unfamiliar with local State issues. Nationally we are already seeing this in each state with biases and preferences affecting STTA’s ability to develop the sport in their state.

• State Junior programs will continue to drop off as athletes are forced into the rigid national coaching model.   Already it is clear that those Pre-Youth, Youth, Junior and U23 close to the Gold Coast receive preferential treatment from TA.  With a declining local presence these young generation of athletes will be lost to Triathlon and the decline of the sport will be even more dramatic.  TA is currently seeking National Talent coaches in areas, but it is the dismantling of the structured coaching system that is needed.  We need to move to a system of nurturing athletes in their home environment, allowing them to work with home coaches, and avoid forcing them to leave their natural state.

• State sponsors will decline or, in some cases disappear altogether.  National sponsors (if there are any) are often not the least interested in local State issues, in part because there are minor issue that are a nuisance to a corporate sponsor which are just irritating and cost time and money to embrace.  It is doubtful that a National sponsor would be prepared to increase the sponsorship spend to adequately replace the loss of local sponsors that will inevitably occur.  Clearly TA cannot source sponsors (there are currently no substantial sponsors sourced by TA, with only Government sport funding agencies of any value), so there will be even less interest in sponsorship and support at a State level. 

• State offices will lose identity, lose direction and the local needs not understood from the Head Office of Triathlon.  This is already taking place.

• Local State contacts will be lost, or at best, the relationships will become distant.  Local State government, councils will be less inclined to develop a relationship with a person who does not understand local issues.  Particularly when TA has a focus on a small number of state areas.

Furthermore – 

• TA membership is declining at an increasing rate each year.  This year, TA moved to a new membership system and failed to transfer members details adequately, losing even more members.  TA have resorted to calling past members asking them to renew.  Do we want this type of One Management model governance in each of our states?

•  Without STTA’s members will lose their voice This is clear from the present TA Constitution. 

 Some examples taken from the TA Constitution being - 

·      Rule 12.1 

(b)  Affiliated clubs have no right to debate or vote at AGM.

(c)  Individual members, may attend, but have no right to debate or vote at AGM.

And…

·      Rule 20.1

• TA appear not to have a constitutional obligation to inform individual members of the AGM, rather through the State Bodies.

•  TA has to notify the State Bodies at least 21 days before the AGM.   If the State Bodies don’t notify members, then members will not know the AGM date.

Comment:  without STTA’s how do any members know anything.  Why be a TA member?  The sport will decline further.  Members falling already prove there is no current confidence in TA from members.

And..

·      Rule 37.1 

• The Board may make By-Laws from time to time.   

Comment:  Currently the By-Laws are not available – where are they?

Do we want a One Management model where decisions are not transparent prior to commencing this model?  What are STTA’s agreeing to?  What will be the One Management constitution, by-laws and what are the projected changes?  Does this even comply with ASIC Company law?

• TA HP Programs have failed over two Olympiads.  This is despite funding increases.  This is not acceptable, and while this continues the sport cannot develop or inspire the nation to become involved.  Do we want a One Management model to develop out of these failings in this area to gain greater control?

•  TA staff is ballooning.  TA spending on staff has blown out from 17% of total revenue in 2012 ($636,668 / $3,812,852), to 52% in 2020 ($3,386,116 / $6,481,101), whilst at the same time, providing less support to its members.  (and before TA suggest these figures are factually inaccurate, they were taken from TA’s audited financial statements which are publicly available).  Do we want this type of mismanagement of our sport in a One Management model?

• I personally have written to all key levels of national sport governance in Australia my concerns outline funding mis-allocation concerns but also outline current TA High Performance Program Problems

  • Athlete Safeguarding Concerns along with current Athlete Comments

  • Triathlon Australia High Performance Program Integrity Concerns

  • Triathlon Australia High Performance Staff Ethical Concerns

  • Triathlon Australia Bleak Future – Athlete Development concerns

  • Triathlon Australia Gender Inequality

  • Triathlon Australia Coaching Concerns

Do we want a One Management model to develop and ignore these concerns to gain greater control?

I could go on.  There are more details on my socials and my website, because I want this to be an open discussion.  Transparency of issues needs to return to our sport of Triathlon.

As an STTA you are the only voice your state members have. As an STTA you could make a move for members, and submit a motion to have the Constitution changed to enable members to attend and voice opinions at the upcoming AGM.

Please do the right thing by your members and wait until a better time in Triathlon to sign the One Management Model.  At this point in time, under the current TA CEO, President and Board, TA is not up to the task of looking after our sport into the future.

The Triathlon Australia constitution has been manipulated and changed over time, so members cannot vote to remove individuals in these positions.  It is urgent - and vital for the athletes, members and our sport both current and future – every STTA steps in to stop this terrible decline of a sport that has the ability to inspire our Nation through world class sporting success, as it once did so proudly.

Giving up power is always so much quicker than retaining or gaining power.  Power and your voice should never be offered up easily.

For those questioning my purpose for sending this.  I have no interest in ever working for Triathlon Australia, nor do I intend to run the sport in Australia.  I will always be my own person.

Feel free to contact me regarding any of the above.

Triathlon in Australia needs you.

Regards,

Emma Carney