Tennis body seeks more say in future

Wairarapa are likely to give their support to the Hutt Valley association as they challenge Tennis New Zealand to give their smaller associations a bigger say in the sport's future.
Hutt Valley have put forward a notice of motion to TNZ asking that before the latter go ahead with their proposed restructuring of the game in this country they should have at least 75 per cent of their members thinking the same way.
Currently the national body only needs 50 per cent of the votes at a meeting to be held next April which will ask for the green light to be given to their planned regional goverance model
Just where Wairarapa would fall under this model has yet to be revealed with the liklihood being that it would be embraced by a region also involving Wellington, Kapi Mana and Hutt Valley or by one centred around the Manawatu.
Wairarapa Lawn Tennis Association chief executive Julie Collins said she could see merit in the Hutt Valley idea of giving smaller associations a greater say in their own destiny.
She pointed out that under the present system North Harbour, Canterbury and Auckland had 53.6 per cent of the votes and so if they banded together they were basically guaranteed to get what they wanted.
"You always like to think that your vote means something but under the present system associations like Wairarapa can find it very difficult to have any say at all," Collins said.
Hutt Valley chairman John Donaghy said his association was keen to see the voting system become more democratic.
And to that end they were proposing that TNZ should be made to use a special resolution to make "changes of major significance" and that the current threshold for a special resolution should be raised from 66 per cent to 75 per cent.
In their notice of motion Hutt Valley also points to the fact that seven associations did not respond to the recent Maiden Committee survey on the proposed changes.
"Was it because they suspected their response would be given little weight," he said.
TNZ chief executive DonTurner said Hutt Valley's notice of motion had not been formally discussed at national level but would not be dismissed.
"A lot depends on what is your definition of democratic. But the motion is certainly in our sights?it will be taken into account," he said.