SUNDAY'S DEMON SUMMIT

[Guest Schtacker]

if the club were trying to keep things highly secret they wouldnt hold a public "forum" in the first place

forgive me for wanting to find out where my club is heading.

if there is something highly secret or highly intuitive that cant be spread, the people wouldnt say it.

im just after some of the general ideas that might have propped up and a general consensus of the day...

i have pretty much got that so i am happy

btw, the thing you quoted me on was about our logo...why would anything about our logo by highly secretive? if u didnt already know, a logo is something that publicly represents a club/association

if anything, the club would actually want people to see/talk about a logo...or there would be no point in making one

with respect, the logo is about number 500 on our list of most important discussions at the moment

[Yencks 8]

with respect, the logo is about number 500 on our list of most important discussions at the moment

yeh i know but it is something i am interested in

just thought it was weird how deeluded quoted me on asking a question about our logo and then said why would anybody say any ideas that came out of today on an internet forum

[GM11 776]

Spent some time with a couple of others chatting to the coach.

Robbo- aiming for round 1 at this stage.

Brock- starting to jog. Ahead of schedule.

Rivers- guarded but is quietly confident he is on track. Is pain free & feeling good about himself.

Davey- ahead of schedule.

Paul Johnson - on schedule.

Maric - hip operation-on schedule.

On - Jamar - have the impression DB thinks he needs to back himself more. Takes games on but then worries himself out of form.

- Meeson - needs to make a big step up & prove he has it this year.

- Buckley - will be "something special" - has it all.

- Grimes - very enthused about him.

- Sylvia - free of injury and going well. Seemed very positive about him.

Seemed unimpressed by any of the ruck options that would be available to us in the draft.

Guess that means NN won't be #1.

Very positive about Casey training base. Travel not a problem when you know where you will be training weeks in advance rather than days or even hours.

Definitely in favour of the Demon logo.

Stressed the need to recruit players who can kick to advantage.

The phrases "our club" & "my club" used a number of times.

Body language between DB,CC,Jim, Cameron Schwab etc really excellent. No cross purposes there.

[Rogue 585]

Travel not a problem when you know where you will be training weeks in advance rather than days or even hours.

Definitely in favour of the Demon logo.

Apparently many players live in the bayside area and only travel ~30 mins to get to Casey.

Btw, thanks for the goss from DB. I didn't know Maric had surgery. AFL's pretty tough on the body. I wonder how many operations a player would have over a lengthy career - for many I'm sure it's too many to want to count.

[QueenC 74]

So much to write....

And we all appreciate what you and everyone else who went to the Summit today did......

And I'll say thank you for coming back on here and letting us all know what went on and what your feelings were about the day.

So thanks again and hopefully it will prove to be a very helpful gathering !!!

[beelzebub 23,313]

Queen...I think it was a very helpful day.. It was very positive. You could feel it. I wa sin Gren should any one be curious...lol. In some ways we only now here of th eideas that got through the 'process" of voting yet there were literally hundreds of good ones. . The club wil llook at them ALL. It just wanted to get a feeling of what mattered to us and wha we thought were actionable. Might turn out others( ideas) are usuable if not able to be utilised earlier.

Definitely one theme was to get a better handle on the skills base of its members etc and those wanting to offer them. A huge talent goes wanting really.

The Dial Dean..lol ..and the after game Supoorters SMS based B & F were good.

[JACKATTACK 17]

....and it concluded with the linking of arms and the team song.

Oh dear

[Rhino Richards 1,467]

......

Thanks GM for the notes and summary. Re Rivers, I'll wait until he gets the all clear and starts playing again. The comments about the other players is consistent with what has been said elsewhere.

Btw, thanks for the goss from DB. I didn't know Maric had surgery. AFL's pretty tough on the body. I wonder how many operations a player would have over a lengthy career - for many I'm sure it's too many to want to count.

Apparently Kruzer had hip surgery over the off season. And Carlton were trying to slowly introduce him into the AFL pressure.

[45HG 1,539]

45hotgod - your idea of paying extra for MCC/Mfc and having Mfc logo on membership as well. Also with partnerships and raising funds with Casey, investing in the demographic and tying ourselves to the community.

Thanks a lot mate, great write up well done!

No doubt you would have been very helpful at the Summit.

Bloody wish I could've made it!

Mum has given me a very detailed synopsis and hopefully she won't mind me sharing them here, but these were some put forward during the day (many are in dot point form, so I may be misinterpretting a couple):

Busloads of people from Casey to the G

Players to visit more kinders,

Cinema groups,

Better communication between the club and its supporters/members,

A lot of emphasis on embracing Casey,

More "goodies" in junior membership packs. Guernsey, toys posters etc.,

Improve our media exposure (to place more emphasis on positivity)

More emphasis on families volunteering for the club,

Regional members to have post match functions with the players,

Use the MCG to increase the knowledge that it is our home ground, home to the MFC

More kicks after the games, the club wants this to happen 3-4-5 times a year if we can

"Unite supporters to sit together" - Love this one if we can do it right

More pre-game activities - sausage sizzles etc.

Bring young supporters into the "cup room" (?) in the museum to show Melbourne's history as the first ever football club

Partner with local footy groups in Casey (woohoo)

Kids ambassadors at the club, i.e. players like Aaron Davey can email kids directly, answering questions etc. possibly in a blog format

Second session, securing tangible commitments

The club needs more media exposure whether top or bottom of the ladder, and not always in football related facets (i.e. pressconferences etc.(

Set up MFC promotional stands at shopping centres, fed square possibly

Even door knocks (don't really know what this means)

newborn babies, give hospitals demon teddies for newborn babies (this is hilarious!)

Link events to MFC games, for concerts etc. obviously Grand Prix

Greater emphasis on a greater quality of goods in the store, especially aimed at the kids. Possibly get more I.T. type merchandise.

Target tourism shops, sell game access as part of Melbourne touring packages (I like that)

Next session

Expertise and partnerships

Use volunteers to take phonecalls at the club, talking with members etc.

Be more careful about sponsor colour clashes (ie. pets paradise flag looked like an adelaide flag)

Attempt to find job descriptions of our supporters to see how the club can link into different industries

Apparently the club has accepted the China experiment failed, possibly more interest in India now...

Lol, get the defence force to sponsor the backline

More not for profit interaction so we can build links with community and a greater social image

More themed fundraising

The option of a 50 year life membership

More environmental action to show the club linking itself with the environment and positive steps for the future - Red and Blue = Green

A club Facebook page

More use of sms' to get people invovled with the club on match day etc.

A better location for match day shops, set up stands around the ground perhaps

Get more people along to training, fundraising events at training etc. Schoolgroups

"we are melbourne" - attach mfc logo to tour directors uniforms, get mfc merchandise in tour shops

As you can see, some of these ideas have popped up already on demonland, some haven't, but i think you can get a sense of what types of things the club is trying to do. Most of them are not quick fix solutions, they will take many years possibly before we begin to see the benfits, and many of the ideas will require a lot of mfc supporters' support, but I believe these are the steps that will not only help our club survive, but ultimately to flourish

I think it's very important to note that this is not the end of the "ideas" summit.

The club is desperate for any supporters with ideas to contact the club to help us move forward. The day was smaller in number so ideas could be better utilized, but that does not mean that people should not contact the club. If you have an idea that you think could help the club, then send it in. I think they are all read, but not all responded to. That's something I think we should change. Personally I'd like to see a volunteer section put up on the website, and have the club use volunteers to respond to emails. That's something I'm going to put through now.

I hope this gives you a sense of what the club wants, and gives you inspiration to come up with more ideas.

and of course, a big thank you to my Mother

[H_T 3,043]

And we all appreciate what you and everyone else who went to the Summit today did......

And I'll say thank you for coming back on here and letting us all know what went on and what your feelings were about the day.

So thanks again and hopefully it will prove to be a very helpful gathering !!!

No problem. Its a pleasure.

Queen...I think it was a very helpful day.. It was very positive. You could feel it. I was in Green should any one be curious...lol. In some ways we only now here of the ideas that got through the 'process" of voting yet there were literally hundreds of good ones. . The club wil look at them ALL. It just wanted to get a feeling of what mattered to us and what we thought were actionable. Might turn out others( ideas) are usuable if not able to be utilised earlier.

Definitely one theme was to get a better handle on the skills base of its members etc and those wanting to offer them. A huge talent goes wanting really.

The Dial Dean..lol ..and the after game Supoorters SMS based B & F were good.

Very positive feel..BB. It was great to be closely working with staff and players of the mfc for such an important cause...our future. Many, many good ideas would have slipped through the voting, but as you say the club has them all down on paper for reference or for their own brainstorming sessions.

One good idea that came from our group...from memory...lol in relation to Business expertise & Partnerships was hooking up a partnership for the club with airline Virgin Blue (ie red & blue colours) including an affinity card with mfc logo, etc. That's one of many that were mooted which had merit, I won't go into the many others.

Another idea which I supported was when renewing or applying for membership for the mfc or mcc/mfc is additional information relating to business expertise to be kept on mfc database, to help improve the network of potential & beneficial partnerships for the club.

The Dial Dean - 1900 Dial Dean ...lol.

Oh dear

Some cringed, Jimma insisted we did it - It was great. There was real passion.

[H_T 3,043]

Jim Stynes did emphasise in concluding, that if we remembered on the way home or the following week or whenever! an idea that wasn't put forward in our groups during the Summit, to email the club your thoughts. So if you want your say, email the club, they do read all of them. Believe it or not.

[Rogue 585]

Oh dear

My thoughts exactly

[John Dee 445]

newborn babies, give hospitals demon teddies for newborn babies (this is hilarious!)

Safely stored under the stairs at home is Robbie the red and blue teddy bear; I bought him for ny son when he was born and he passed him on to his sister. Both my kids are devoted demons; like they had a choice.

[titan_uranus 24,974]

Stynes mines the surge in Dee spirit

The HUN mentioned this in today's paper:

'Suggestions for a youth summit...particularly impressed Stynes.

"I love the first idea that came out of the group I was in: Why aren't we doing this with the kids?" he said. "It's like, God, how obvious is that? We will definitely run with that one before the season starts."'

Good to see Stynes is still looking at research into junior supporters. This seems critical to me.

[45HG 1,539]

Wasn't there one a few weeks ago? I heard it didn't have the best results/organisation though

[Rogue 585]

Wasn't there one a few weeks ago? I heard it didn't have the best results/organisation though

I'm not sure about the format but we did do some research with some junior members recently, yeah.

It seems many of the ideas tossed around have already been implemented - at least in part - by the Club.

I think it probably indicates both some half-hearted (or under-funded/resourced) efforts by the Club and a lack of exposure to/knowledge of existing and previous Club initiatives on behalf of the wider supporter base.

[H_T 3,043]

Wasn't there one a few weeks ago? I heard it didn't have the best results/organisation though

Not that I'm aware of, 45h. At least not to the magnitude of what is being put on the table. The idea was born yesterday, as Jim said, "Why aren't we doing this with the kids?" he said. "It's like, God, how obvious is that? We will definitely run with that one before the season starts."'

[45HG 1,539]

Yeah I read that Jimma said that, as mentioned about 5 posts ago, I just remember 'Bub going on about it for a while and bemoaning the lack of information he was provided before it

[45HG 1,539]

Found it

About a month ago

[Yencks 8]

now, can anyone confirm this:

in about 2005, u could order melbourne memberships on a 13DEMONS or 13GODEES number...

do u think it would be a good idea to bring a simple phone number life this for membership enquirees?

[H_T 3,043]

Found it

About a month ago

Of course. Of course. Its all come back now. Who could forget BB's annoyance of lack of response. I hope BB, you brought this up at the Summit yesterday. Entitled, "Communication" or lack there of...lol.

Cheers 45h. Hell, I even contributed to factors that influence our juniors as to why they choose certain sports or teams.....yet I couldn't recall..

I wonder what research the club learnt from this.

Another idea posed was a "Cool" Brand for marketing. Ie. The Demon. To get kids attention.

Another was to start up a footy tv kids program - Junior supporters group. Which Garry Lyon used to host years ago. The MFC to show initiative by hosting it.

[Rogue 585]

now, can anyone confirm this:

in about 2005, u could order melbourne memberships on a 13DEMONS or 13GODEES number...

do u think it would be a good idea to bring a simple phone number life this for membership enquirees?

Cost/benefit analysis I guess. Remember we're in dire financial straits and even small things can add up.

Of course. Of course.

Perhaps it's possible the Pres had the same memory 'slippage'?

Regardless, the core of the idea's solid - talk to the kids about what kids want. Certainly a left-field idea ;>

Another was to start up a footy tv kids program - Junior supporters group. Which Garry Lyon used to host years ago. The MFC to show initiative by hosting it.

That's a fairly involved and resource hungry concept that needs to be done fairly well to be worth anything at all.

Morphing the idea into a web production would be the way to go.

[H_T 3,043]

Cost/benefit analysis I guess. Remember we're in dire financial straits and even small things can add up.

Perhaps it's possible the Pres had the same memory 'slippage'?

Regardless, the core of the idea's solid - talk to the kids about what kids want. Certainly a left-field idea ;>

That's a fairly involved and resource hungry concept that needs to be done fairly well to be worth anything at all.

Morphing the idea into a web production would be the way to go.

There is an idea. Good. Certainly the tv idea would be a costly exercise, and yes, resource hungry. Ian Johnson at Ch7 perhaps?

Cam Schwab said something so very true yesterday, about "Slippage" in relation to the jumper over time. How it has gradually changed, noting not that it was anyone's particular fault, but from administration to administration, etc the jumper had changed. He wanted to bring the jumper back to a dark red and dark blue - like it used to be - not like the current one which has a purple tinge to it. Much like the signed jumper Ron Barrassi sent him upon appointment to the CEO role.

[45HG 1,539]

So, he wants to change the jumper then?

[H_T 3,043]

So, he wants to change the jumper then?

He thinks we should recognise our heritage. He certainly made a point of it that when the apparel changes from asics to reebok to, etc ,etc. It just changes bit by bit, gradually over time. So, its probably on the to do list.