AGM

Lethal,

In my opinion what you raise in your second paragraph is correct by constitution;

9 days to the AGM and still no Annual Report?

Tomorrow night is the deadline for questions to be submitted, but it's a bit hard to ask questions about a non-existent Annual Report.

And what guarantee is there that questions will be read out anyway, given the Members' Forum debacle?

What on earth is going on at the Club? The silence is shattering.

annual report information on way

With the assistance of our good CEO who directed me to the report on the westies web site please find attach copy report.

Note report has been available for about a month on westie site but was not easy to find which the CEO is looking at.


https://sanfl-content.imgix.net/content/uploads/sites/3/2023/02/08113025/2022-Annual-Report-FINAL-high-resolution-compressed.pdf

I would have thought the Annual Report was worthy of an up-front mention on the front page of the wesite when published?

seniors coach report called senior mens season page 11

on your base point I feel  that aside from some overview coverage in the President report I feel there should be a brief report from all Directors on thier specific area of responsibility.

Existing reports from senor football Managers detailing specific program should be retained

agreed

aldo russian wrote:It contains no Senior Coach's report, no Reserves coach's report, no Football Manager's report, no Football Director'd report - we are a football club aren't we?

Not sure any more. I'll be asking whether we're spending the full salary cap, along with many other questions.

Lee Harradine wrote:I would have thought the Annual Report was worthy of an up-front mention on the front page of the wesite when published?

And emailed to members.

It should now be posted under Resources, where the previous one resides. (It is a fairly weak document and I'm not surprised that it was difficult to find)

I agree with Oldfella. The annual report should contain a brief report from all Directors on their specific area of responsibility.
This point has been raised previously.

Communication continues to be subpar at our club.

Members and supporters were promised details of the recent football review. We were told at the Members Forum that details would be provided asap. (excluding any confidential information, of course) The definition of a review is a formal assessment of something with the intention of instituting change if necessary. In his latest Message To Members, Murray said that he was happy to give details of the outcome. I read paragraph two of this with great interest but was greatly disappointed. (534 words mainly consisting of quotes from coaching staff / akin to a PR exercise - non quoted material in bold) Where are the details of the review? And I have no idea why the two incomplete tables have been included. I want to know what the formal assessment revealed and what recommendations were made. (these could be put into a table) If anyone disagrees with what I have written, please post a response as I would be most interested to hear a different point of view. So you don't have to find it on the website (the last President's Report posted under that heading is dated March 2022 https://westadelaidefc.com.au/news/topic/president-report/) I've posted it here:

Preparations for the 2023 season are well under way. There is a great feeling of anticipation around the Club, particularly in the ranks of the coaching staff. Senior Men’s Coach Adam Hartlett says, “I have been very happy with the commitment of the senior playing group thus far. The great thing about our senior group for 2023 is that we are young, motivated and eager to improve both individually and as a collective. We have made a focus on improving training habits and standards, having a holistic improvement in becoming fitter and stronger, all whilst implementing and educating our athletes on our game plan for the 2023 season. Lots of work to do but I cannot fault the group’s commitment so far. I firmly believe we are on the right track”. Our Senior Women’s Coach Bruce Dawes says, “After a tough past 12 months, the girls have taken to this preseason with a great positive attitude. The girls have been working extremely hard with many new structures and set-ups to learn. As it is only 5 weeks until round 1, we still have plenty to work on and try to settle on a team for our first game. The girls are making that extremely tough for the coaches, which is great. I really look forward to seeing some of our wonderful members come out to support the girls once our season starts”. Our newly-appointed U18 Coach Russell Godson is enthusiastic in his comments about the Club. He says, “Firstly I’d like to mention how welcoming the personnel within the Club have been which has made it an easier transition coming in from another club. Secondly in the short amount of time I’ve spent with the group I’ve been impressed with the on and off field behaviours of the playing and coaching groups, in particular how receptive the group has been to new training methods as well as their adaptability to execute on field. While there’s a lot of work to do, the early signs are the group has the right attitude to develop into better footballers and I expect the coaching staff will ably assist them on their journey”. And our U16 Coach Scott Patching enthusiastically states, “2023 shapes up to be an exciting year for the u16’s. We are looking forward to the continued development of players and coaches within our junior programs and welcome Michael Annesse and Andrew Hoskin from our Development Squad programs into the u16 coaching group as our forward and midfield line coaches. Having recently completed a whole of Club training session, and with our first ever U16 Riverland camp to look forward to, we are excited about growing our culture and embedding the Club values within the group. The coaching group are extremely pleased with the commitment shown by the squad already and are eager, as always, to see how much this committed group of young footballers can grow throughout season 2023”. The Club is providing as many resources as possible to our playing groups and coaching staff, including expert advice from Club legend Mark Mickan. We thank Mark for his time at the Club providing support to our young group as they prepare for the season ahead.

Well, the AGM went for nearly 2 hours, with many questions.

I've never seen a response to adopting the Financial Reports as happened tonight. A sizeable portion of those present didn't vote to adopt them. I'm not sure how many, as the President just asked for those in favour and said it was a majority. Those voting No weren't given the opportunity to have a vote.

Again, members at the end wanted to ask further questions, but the President closed the meeting.

As expected, there was only one nomination for Members' Director, Kristen Demetriou, besties with the other Members' Director, Tiandra.

There was much discussion about our liquidity, which we were assured was under control, but 3 gaming licences were being sold, so draw your own conclusions.

Seemed to be (IMO) an excuse-fest due to Covid.

The question of reducing football expenditure was raised, but the Board's position seemed to be that didn't have any affect on on-field outcomes, as we'd finished bottom with a full salary cap last year.

All in all, very, very worrying, but the Board is excited about the forthcoming season.

I'll give more detail tomorrow. Perhaps others there saw it differently?

For a Board that says it's not a business Board, it's revealing that when it comes to cuttting expenditure, the first port of call is to restrict our player payments to about 20% less than the other teams.

'Priorities' and a waste of 4 years with nothing learned.

I really worry for our future.

Cutting football expenditure to save money as first port of call is just repeating the mistakes of the past by a Board that has little or no knowledge of the mistakes of the past.

As much as the Board doesn't want to be seen as a Business Board, the decision to operate with a salary cap 20% less than other teams is a misguided 'business first' decision. This tells Adam Hartlett that he can coach with one arm tied behind his back.

All that is on top of a skimpy Annual Report with no Senior Coach Report, no Reserves Coach Report, etc.

For the board to cut the clubs salary cap by $50k is totally absurd.
We are a football club first and foremost and the most important thing is to win football matches.
I understand as a business we are struggling financially and the board need to look at ways of controlling expenses, but to cut our salary cap is ridiculous given we have finished bottom for the past 4 years.

BOTTOM AGAIN

Lachlan wrote:For the board to cut the clubs salary cap by $50k is totally absurd.
We are a football club first and foremost and the most important thing is to win football matches.
I understand as a business we are struggling financially and the board need to look at ways of controlling expenses, but to cut our salary cap is ridiculous given we have finished bottom for the past 4 years.

On a semi-regular basis, there have been declarations that we need to develop non-traditional revenue streams and become more innovative in our approach to generating income. It was also argued that new board members with specific skill sets would enable the club to recover financially. This has not happened. These past four years have been particularly difficult, with reduced salary caps, COVID, and poor onfield performances all having a detrimental impact on the health of the club. $50K is a modest amount in the grand scheme of things, but a huge impost on our football department. It will likely do more harm than good. As Lachlan points out, it is absurd. We have to become competitive on a consistent basis.

Cost cutting is nothing more than a palliative measure. It might bring some short-term relief, but the patient will still die. We now know that to escape a financial depression it is necessary to stimulate growth by spending money. Cost-cutting might be part of an overall plan, but that alone won't be the solution. The board made an early decision to cut back on the hours that Reception would be open. It also attempted to enforce payment of the $5 fee to sit in the grandstand. Measures such as these will not turn the club around, nor will voluntarily reducing our salary cap.

The quickest way to escape our financial predicament is through sustained on-field success, however, at the same time we need to work out other ways that we can get the public to spend money at the club or in the precinct. There is a fair to good chance that the planned precinct upgrade will be completed. The club still has time to work out how it can exploit the opportunities that this should provide.

Members were recently told that bar/bistro trading doesn't generate enough revenue to pay for the football program. I'm not surprised. What have we done to draw in customers? After all, you can get a beer/schnitzel and have a bet almost anywhere. What do we offer other than that? We need something unique, or at least something which isn't found everywhere else. Maybe the Board could seek ideas from members/supporters.

Thanks, Bruce, excellent post. (The Board hasn't supported members input for some time now! ). I despair that this Board has only ever seen abject failure, marked by an absolute lack of communication to the heart and soul of West Adelaide, the Members and supporters. I'm ready for the Revolution, I support West Adeaide People whose Club this is.

Not much on here, or anywhere, from supporters of the current Board structure. Always happy to support spirited debate.

I attended last weeks AGM. I have taken a few days to think about it and give a considered opinion.
I have attended many AGM's over the years of various clubs /associations and if fact am the secretary/director of a flying group based at Parafield Airport.
Firstly I was unimpressed that 3 Directors did not show up. Perhaps they all had some dire situation to attend to but probably not all of them. Never seen that before. AGM's are after all only held once a year. It is in my view important the entire board turn up, take questions and show some united leadership. I know in my flying group be it small beer to a SANFL club if one of our directors never turned up to an AGM they would not be a director much longer unless there were exceptional circumstances.
Secondly I agree with the views of the above posters being Covid was blamed for EVERYTHING !
down on bar takings ..covid down on members ...covid not competative in the league ...covid and so on.
I too am dismayed we are running $50,000 under salary cap to prop up our debt. Are we not a footy club which if we could just get off the bottom we might just get some supporters back = more $'s make the finals = even more $' or am I missing something here?
As for the running of the meeting that was appalling.
Every time a vote was to be taken (such as accepting the accounts) Murray just stood up "said all in favour" then proclaimed "that's a majority". On one or two items I doubt it was. There was no for or against the motion by show of hands. A deliberate act by him ( and I suspect the board) to just bludgeon through any counter view. That was no way to run a meeting at any level.
They did not want to hear any contrary view or criticism.
On the agenda the last item was just "other" which I and I assume many others thought that would be an open floor for questions as it should have been.
Well Murray then just shut the meeting down by closing it by saying it has gone on 2 hours, even with Old fella running down the aisle with some paperwork in his hand. He never got a say so don't know what that was about. In any event who puts a time limit of 2 hours on a meeting anyway?
I suppose we get what we deserve. The turnout was pretty poor overall and unless the members give a toss Westies are heading for ruin in my view.
After the meeting I had a chance to ask Adam our coach if he thought we had a good list as in my view with a reduced salary cap we are playing with one hand tied behind our back. He said he reckons we have a good young list and others have said the same thing to him. I admire his enthusiasm and hope he is right.
That said unless things change I won't bother attending another meeting. I came away with the view that the board only wanted yes men in attendance. I have better things to do thanks.

TAAARS wrote:I attended last weeks AGM. I have taken a few days to think about it and give a considered opinion.
I have attended many AGM's over the years of various clubs /associations and if fact am the secretary/director of a flying group based at Parafield Airport.
Firstly I was unimpressed that 3 Directors did not show up. Perhaps they all had some dire situation to attend to but probably not all of them. Never seen that before. AGM's are after all only held once a year. It is in my view important the entire board turn up, take questions and show some united leadership. I know in my flying group be it small beer to a SANFL club if one of our directors never turned up to an AGM they would not be a director much longer unless there were exceptional circumstances.
Secondly I agree with the views of the above posters being Covid was blamed for EVERYTHING !
down on bar takings ..covid down on members ...covid not competative in the league ...covid and so on.
I too am dismayed we are running $50,000 under salary cap to prop up our debt. Are we not a footy club which if we could just get off the bottom we might just get some supporters back = more $'s make the finals = even more $' or am I missing something here?
As for the running of the meeting that was appalling.
Every time a vote was to be taken (such as accepting the accounts) Murray just stood up "said all in favour" then proclaimed "that's a majority". On one or two items I doubt it was. There was no for or against the motion by show of hands. A deliberate act by him ( and I suspect the board) to just bludgeon through any counter view. That was no way to run a meeting at any level.
They did not want to hear any contrary view or criticism.
On the agenda the last item was just "other" which I and I assume many others thought that would be an open floor for questions as it should have been.
Well Murray then just shut the meeting down by closing it by saying it has gone on 2 hours, even with Old fella running down the aisle with some paperwork in his hand. He never got a say so don't know what that was about. In any event who puts a time limit of 2 hours on a meeting anyway?
I suppose we get what we deserve. The turnout was pretty poor overall and unless the members give a toss Westies are heading for ruin in my view.
After the meeting I had a chance to ask Adam our coach if he thought we had a good list as in my view with a reduced salary cap we are playing with one hand tied behind our back. He said he reckons we have a good young list and others have said the same thing to him. I admire his enthusiasm and hope he is right.
That said unless things change I won't bother attending another meeting. I came away with the view that the board only wanted yes men in attendance. I have better things to do thanks.

Good Onya, TAARS! A strong heartfelt response.
And you're quite correct, as a collective, we have got what we deserved.

Me too, TAAARS.

Lee Harradine wrote:The question of reducing football expenditure was raised, but the Board's position seemed to be that didn't have any affect on on-field outcomes, as we'd finished bottom with a full salary cap last year.
...
All in all, very, very worrying, but the Board is excited about the forthcoming season.

Yes, an absolutely ridiculous comment. So, if this is the attitude, why a reduction of only $50k? Using that logic why not reduce it by $150k? This would allow the club to pay off even more debt.

Furthermore, if the Board had an option on how to use the last disbursement payment from the sale of Football Park, why didn't it use the money to invest in a business venture that would generate income? Apparently, this would have needed the approval of the SANFL, however, I'm sure the business experts on the Board would have been more than capable of coming up with a plan which would have received the SANFL's approval. Palliative care will not save us, what is needed is a new wonder drug.