I was very disappointed to read last week the negative slant taken by writer Ryan Keen in your story on Snow Sports NZ – and inparticular, trying to haul up dirt on SSNZ boss Ross Palmer.

What’s Mountain Scene trying to do exactly? Under Palmer’s leadership, SSNZ has gone in a very short time from non-existence to finally giving direction to all New Zealand snow sports disciplines in a unified and coherent manner.

This has been recognised by Sport and Recreation NZ (SPARC), which you do state towards the end of the article – but you seem to want to put a negative spin on what are, in reality, minor matters to cloud SSNZ’s major achievements.

As a trustee of the NZ Snowboard Union, I couldn’t be more pleased with the progress SSNZ has enabled snowboarding and other disciplines to make.

I also note last week’s Opinion page carried a similar chastisement on this negative media focus, largely on the same issues.

EDDIE SPEARING
Wanaka

Bias

Shame on you, Mountain Scene. Your headline Harsh Audit No Blow misstates the intent of the SPARC report on SSNZ – as the balance of your article demonstrates.

Trouble is, few people read past the headline and first few paragraphs so this article does no favours to all who participate in snow sports and, by its misleading headline, no favours to governing body SSNZ or Ski Racing NZ.

From the very words in your article, alternative headlines could have been SPARC Praises Excellent Progress of SSNZ ... or SSNZ Board, CEO And Staff Commended On Progress And Results ... or SPARC Full Of Confidence In SSNZ.

Wow – would those headlines make a reader feel better about the organisation?

Of course. So that indicates someone in Mountain Scene has a bias against SSNZ or has lost objectivity through some personal relationship, as seen in this article and repeated attacks on SSNZ boss Ross Palmer over the personal matter that appears to have been settled months ago.

SPARC scoring SSNZ as “developing” with “evidence of some capability in place” feels about right to me.

The SPARC report’s comment about SSNZ being “below an effective standard, potentially inhibiting it from functioning effectively and/or exposing it to unnecessary risk” is, I believe, fair as well – but it’s not to be taken out of context as a damning revelation.

SSNZ is relatively new and is therefore growing – when you grow, you make mistakes to learn from. Let’s not wallow in organisational or personal mistakes.

Apologies have been made – let’s move on, Mountain Scene, and give SSNZ the chance to deliver a growing, funded support base for snow sports.

There are serious matters to deal with in some of the disciplines, requiring focused organisation without being distracted by person­­­al agendas or media beat-ups.

Let’s all stay focused on the real game – bettering support and promotion of snow sports and the athletes.

IAN SMITH
Wellington

Bad press

There’s recently been a lot of bad press about SSNZ. Many people reading these articles will be getting the wrong impression about all the good work this organisation is currently achieving and its impact on the community and the development of winter sports.

I think we should really be focusing our attention on how SSNZ is the strongest it’s ever been and the great job it’s doing.

In the past year, SSNZ has raised awareness of a wide range of winter sports through its involvement with the Winter Games. This has inspired and assisted many youngsters to get outdoors and become involved in these sports.

As an athlete competing on the world stage, I know personally I wouldn’t be there without SSNZ support. It just wouldn’t be possible.

One incident at a camp this year shouldn’t detract from all the good work achieved at the numerous camps and all the hard work put in by SSNZ and volunteers.

On behalf of all the other winter athletes, I’d like to thank SSNZ for doing such an awesome job. We all appreciate your support.

MITCHEY GREIG
Queenstown

Harsh

From Ryan Keen’s article last week, it’s easy to get the impression SSNZ isn’t in good shape – and that member sports organisations represented by SSNZ are dissatisfied.

I’m a steering group member of the Freeski Association of NZ, one of these member organisations, and I’ve worked with SSNZ people for 18 months.

In your article, you describe SSNZ as “embattled” – which seems a bit harsh.

You cite SPARC as saying most sporting groups, presumably including the mature ones, score 30-50 out of 100 so the average is, say, 40.

SSNZ scored 33 and this organisation is only 18 months old, operating in tough times, yet has achieved integration of all member groups, encouraged and assisted member organisations to develop long-term strategy and goals in a sustainable way, supported individual sports with admin­istration and media resources, created a focus on growth and development, helped introduce new events and opportunities…and secured greater Government funding through SPARC and the snow sports industry.

This couldn’t have been achieved individually by each member sport.

SSNZ have some great people working incredibly hard. The strategy of an overarching body to coordinate effort and resources to present and promote snow sports in NZ and to the world is the right thing to do.

My organisation is thankful for SSNZ support and our sport’s future is looking much stronger under SSNZ.

GRAHAM McDOUGALL
Wanaka