Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Dear Gymnastics Australia (again)

I know you guys work hard.

I know you're a respected organisation.

I know you're made of more than just athletes.

This shorty ain't got no beef with that (y'all).

But let's be honest here.


WHY DO YOU CONSISTENTLY MAKE A SONG AND DANCE ABOUT KEEPING US IN-THE-KNOW WITH WHAT THE VARIOUS JUDGES AND OTHER TECHNICAL MEMBERS ARE DOING AT THEIR TRAINING SESSIONS AND COURSES AND CONFERENCES? IS THIS WHAT YOU THINK COUNTS FOR KEEPING ENTHUSIASTS IN THE KNOW? I THOUGHT THAT WAS WHAT YOUR "TECHNICAL MEMBERS" ZONE, THAT WHOLE SEPERATE SECTION ON YOUR WEBSITE UNDER A SIMILARLY-NAMED TAB (WITH AN INTRANET FUNCTION NO LESS), WAS FOR.

WHAT ARE THE ATHLETES DOING?

The gymnasts?
The ones who worked their butts off at training camp?
The ones at the bottom of this picture?:


THE "GYMNASTICS" IN "GYMNASTICS AUSTRALIA"?


Can we pleeeeeeeeease get an update from training camp? Just a teeny weeny one? Even from the work experience kid who hardly gets to see the training hall because he's too busy making coffee and mental notes of everybody's names? Or even the cleaner???


In my email inbox...

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

HERE HERE!
AMEN!
TESTIFY!

Couldn't of said it any better.

nade00 said...

I think there is probably a large base of technical members who read the site and take an interest in news on the professional development front rather than the status of the elites.

Also, I think the camp only began on Sunday so they will probably wait a few days to post a report. I'm guessing they will have something up by the end of this working week.

Anonymous said...

I don't know - I'd guess that the majority of people who receive their emailed versions are tech members, who presumably have some interest.

Perhaps they just need to revise how news items are ordered, or how many are in the bigger format or something.

Mez said...

But why make the newsletter open for anyone to subscribe to if it's primarily information that doesn't concern them because they're not in the Technical Committee?

At the very least they should have seperate TC newsletters and gymsport newsletters; maybe divide the Latest News segment as such too. If it's possible.

(I thought the camp was over the weekend? i.e. Concluded on Sunday???)

*shrug*

nade00 said...

The camp is 12th-18th I think.

A truly epic GA failure was the 'e-News'! They released 2 issues then never mentioned it again, as if they just forgot about it.

Anonymous said...

To be fair, I think the eNews thing is because the staff member (who took on the job of producing the eNews as well as his normal duties)has left the organisation. Finding someone on staff with the time and expertise might be difficult.

Ribbit

Kathryn in NZ said...

And you wonder why your "visitor counter" is so high??
It's cos you're way more informative than GymOz or GymNZ...

and you have a sense of humour, LOL

NZ comp season starts 9 May.

Mez said...

I'd be interested to see/hear how NZ gymnastics is going.

Brianna Mitchell who came to Nationals last year showed potential, and there's a young guy called Misha something-or-other who puts videos of his skills up on the web. I'll bet he's moving up the ranks as well.

Nik said...

Im a technical member and a judge and I couldn't give a hoot about half the crap they send through.

Unrelated, saw this on gymnasticscoaching.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLuP9rM0xiA

Apparently Lauren's mount is now called the Mitchell... really?

Kathryn in NZ said...

I'm only a mum of a L5 average WAG and a L1 beginner RG/ 2nd yr L1 WAG (who won't stop growing so has no muscle strength or control) based in AKL, so can't give you too much info.
Brianna competed at WOGA last year, and went to Nth Harbour from Counties when Counties went through a big staff upheaval over a year ago.
Another to watch is Counties' Jordan Rae.
Nth Harbour lost a big chunk of their junior development girls to TriStar when they upset the parents big time - taking a coach and brevet judge with them.
Misha trains out of Nth Hbr and he is good and is still very young at 17 (swears a lot when frustrated at training apparently and scares the little MAGs, LOL). Patrick Peng is another one - trains at TriStar. He's a bit older and very nice.
GymNZ have restarted a talent/ high performance group with a large CSG WAG contingent. Olympia are strongest in RG.
GymNZ are focussing on bringing the coaching skills up with a "GymSchool".
Rick at GymnasticsCoaching has a soft spot for NZ as he's spent time here - was head coach at CSG for awhile. CSG would be the strongest WAG club in NZ right now.
It will be interesting to see at the first two AKL comps who's still competing - and if they've moved up a level. I've heard rumours of quite a few girls quitting...