deevotee

NATHAN JONES MUST PLAY and lead the team on to, and off, the G. Can Nieters be at the gate too ?? Leave BB for that crap venue BA; he'll know which way the wind blows. Every kick for goal at that ground is a banana kick. { I sat on the grass and watched North V Dees at BA a few years ago and it was just plain stupid. Never ever again AFL.}

Dear Kate, Congratulations, Some notes for your agenda ? from the outer: 1. Hold open elections of directors and publish subsequent results 2. Treat and inform members with respect; members whose passion is why you are there. 3. Build a Board better than the rest in the AFL, befitting the men's and women's teams exciting performances on the field.

Steven, I felt that up on level two ! Get well soon. You are a critical component of our run to the finals in 2021. Thank you (I'm not on instagram)

What a coincidence !! Gun debut by Kade Chandler kicking three goals in 'A' practice game against Richmond today I did some research and Chandler is GOLD Player Sponsored by Peter Lawrence, the candidate Bartlett effectively disenfranchised from the Board elections. Our Club just lost a Director Candidate who knows his footy, AND puts his money into it. Pretty rare that. Stand by FOI for voting results ......

OMG Richardson doesn't know who's 'running around' in game B - what a bag of wind he is ! GREAT win Dees Pity Casey is 100 kms away and no train station. Apologies Richardson, it was Balme. But you're still a bag of wind !

Under Bartlett's presidency we have had one chance to cast a vote for a Board candidate that was not of Bartlett's choosing. Candidates were limited to 150 words, electioneering was forbidden, the president sent pages of reasons why the unapproved candidate should not be chosen. Despite requests, the results of the election have not been made available. The president simply announced at the AGM the election of his four nominated directors. Dear members of my club, we do not even know how many of us voted and for whom. Yesterday I sent a request under FOI legislation requesting the following information: how many valid votes were cast? how many votes were received by each of the candidates? (NOT %) how many members were eligible to vote? and et al, how many members (and the categories) does the Melbourne football Club have? I expressed my regret for the need to request this fundamental member information by resorting to FOI. Ultimately the responsibility for undemocratic leadership rests entirely with the President. I will post the response from the Club as soon as it is received.

And OD There's a frightening amount of 'hope' and 'reading between the lines' and 'feeling in my waters' stuff here. I also share your wishful thinking. BUT, as wish as we may, Bartlett will not deliver.

You haven't been there Macca obviously. No offense but the projector screening an interstate game onto the wall was a bit clunky and a little out of focus.

BDA : I have no issue with the relinquishment of an insidious revenue source of income from gambling. But it is no furphy raising alternative revenue streams when the equivalent to the forgone gambling income, based on the year before Covid is in the order of $200 for each financial voting member each year. That is not going to happen. So where is the alternative revenue stream ? Any ideas welcome. The Board has had none so far.

Do you believe that as members eligible to vote, that you were given a reasonable opportunity to participate in the AGM? Participation in this respect is the opportunity to vote in a fair and open ballot. 1. The interactive Q+A chat function was deactivated 2. The set piece questions were preferentially selected or not answered 3. Claims the election process was not fair or open were further enforced by the withholding of voting data.

The official financial membership of our Melbourne Football Club of those who are eligible to vote is a fundamental right to know. And we don't! We also don't know how many of those members voted in the Directors ballot. We also don't know the number of votes received by each of the candidates and that is also a fundamental right to know. To withhold that information leaves me, and I believe all of us, unable to determine if the dis-endorsed candidate received more votes as an individual than the box trifecta put forward by the President. Can the Club please enlighten its members ?

Patience for more of the same ? This AGM was a black hole. Presented by a president that was at best lacklustre, vague and appallingly dishevelled appearance. So much so, it's generating the many comments that he must be unwell. Compounding this problem is a Board of, in his own words, his own approved appointments. Like BB, I found the President's exclusion of a nominee, one nominee, not befitting his mould, sent the clear signal to me of mistrust and arrogance. Like BDA, it's correct the leadtime for major project construction today in Victoria is at least two years. The time of this home base announcement is now. Unless it is a figment of the President's imagination, or re-election. I have made it clear that that is all it is. As a supporter group, I believe we are not alone in the often stated dissatisfaction with the President's performance or lack of results. The discussions we are having in this forum are so important. The consensus may continue to build that the off-field inertia is remedied by Bartlett stepping aside. This solution is immediately facing the next issue of who on the Board should step up?

Yes, I stuck it out. Thank goodness I had access to my room temperature controlled wine cabinet. Nothing re muzzling, just a weasel word justification of 'acceptable' directors The Q and A on-line zoom function wasn't connected (I tried) either. The formatted Questions were hand picked for Dorothy Dix, and my question was answered in such a way that it raised more questions. (Just one real estate agent opinion? And veted by the E/Y auditor? What's does that mean? Checked it for spelling?) This further raises the conduct of this on-line AGM which I will raise in another post today, when I think it through a bit more 'Bob". There are serious questions on the validity of the conduct of the AGM, not just Director Elections. Is there a Corporate lawyer in the house? The Board seems to have stopped breathing !

I did not suggest President Green !!!

How bad do you want it to get?

Love it Rab ! I couldn't stop thinking of the Flying Nun. Whatever, not a good look for a Chairman. Ooops I mean SNAG El Presidenteee

Regarding the Clubs membership and on the topic of waffle, Pert through in two half sentences a couple of numbers related to MCC members nominating the MFC affiliation. I got the impression that a small donation is made to our club as a result. Does anyone know this detail. Critically, he dropped the number of MCC members in this sentence of 12,000. I'll stop the waffle! The Financials say the Melbourne membership dropped from 50,000 to 40,000 over 2020 and Covid. I now believe our Club is counting MCC affiliates and our true membership is around 28,000. Repeat, I believe the MFC membership is currently 28,000. We are being treated like mushrooms.

Another piece of waffle and obfuscation but approximately he said Minister Pakula or the Premier will be the ones making the announcement as the Victorian government owns the land, and then the AFL will decide as it is not our land and then we will have a say. Basically

Greenie

OK, it's late but this is what needs to be done: About twenty of us take clip boards to the next few home games with a petition as members, calling for a spill of the Board at a meeting convened by members and an election process run by the Victorian Electoral Commission (they can do that). IF we do have 40,000 members (I seriously doubt that) we need 2000 signatures or 5% of the membership according to the CURRENT Constitution. That's a doable 100 signatures each. Over a couple of home games. The issue of who stands is a next step (but my first suggestion is Brad) .... sleep on this Demonland It's serious.

Oh reading between the lines ... the offhand changes to the constitution for online voting that are being considered .... WARNING, WARNING ! Board entrenches position ....

This President dumped a new voice in the Peter Lawrence nomination. You and all of us missed a chance Mach5.

How many members do we have? How many voted? I'm confused

Thank you Old Dee and Better days ahead. It is appreciated. First "good luck" and "happens all the time' is tragic. Luck won't repair this let, alone rolling over acceptance to next time. You didn't hear from that bloke Peter because the Board didn't allow it. To their shame. Second. Do you seriously think our Club is financially robust enough to build new centralised facilities. It's dreaming and a cynical distraction, a tease, a carrot to maintain status quo and screen a woeful financial performance over the last couple of years where this Board has burned through half the Club's members' equity buried under sales of assets and now a gross introduction of a unsupported land valuation. MFC is not a real estate investment. But it has reverted to that asset to prop it up. (phew. I can now take a breath!) And don't be distracted by Covid. It only affected half the year and had $4.5 million Jobkeeper grant to partially cover that hole. Richmond got more than TWICE that. How? AND the full impact of Covid is THIS year and NEXT. That is the year when the Club looses $4.5million pokie income. Has anyone heard of a replacement income stream from this Board? They have already had a couple of years to think about it. If there is one , why hasn't it been widely promoted to Club members? This Board is failing us, then has the temerity to advocate 'stability' and use dubious restrains on allowing 'fresh' reviews. You're right old dee to wish me luck BUT it is all of us that needs that luck. Go Dees.

This is my first post. I devoted myself to support the MFC five decades ago. I plant red and blue fuscias in my garden. Baghdad Bob quote above has shaken my belief in the current Board and the process that has led to their election... And follows on from my shock of being told by the Club President who not to vote for. Mr President, you have poked a bear. I have registered the following question to be put to the Board at the AGM next Monday. Who provided the 'fair value' land valuation of 22.5 million and what were the disposed financial investments for $6.58 million and was that at 'fair value'/cost? These two numbers of $millions (one is the Bentleigh Club land increased by $13.5 million, or 257%) may have been plucked from thin air, for all of the lack of information in the Financial Statements for 2020. I am a retired businessman. Fellow devoted Dees on Demonland: this does not pass the PUB test. Baghdad Bob was right to ask, what are they hiding? These two numbers and how they were determined, go to the heart of the question of whether the MFC is a financial going concern, or in pub language, is it broke? The President's previous oversell of the virtues of a small, effectively self appointed stable board, using tactics suppressing candidate statements and access, has warnings all over it. Fellow Demonlanders You did not hear more than 150 words from any candidates because it seems the Board changed the rules prohibiting them from any further member contact. They were effectively gagged. How could this happen? I think I'm right in saying that for the first time under this President, we had the opportunity for input of an 'independent' snuffed. The new candidate had exceptionally good credentials according to his LinkedIn account. But the President actively canvassed his non-election. This is appalling. Who is this President? It is intolerable. It is now my firmly held view that the election process for this Board is void. It has tainted the entire Board. I do not expect my first post will be widely appreciated but it is motivated by my truly beating heart (yeah, someone will say bleating - derr) for the red and the blue over 57 years. Yes, I decided that the Dees were MY Club, 10 minutes after the first game of VFL football I ever went to. The 1964 grand final. I truly believe I will get to see the next one. "The behaviour of the Board is disgraceful and bitterly disappointing" (Baghdad Bob) and in my view, not one fit to lead my Club. My Club, that is on the cusp of its next grand final win. Notice to the Board : this bear will not hibernate this winter.