Notes from the 2023 AGM

Dusting off the blog for a bit of AGM action, with the usual suspect mix of opinion and fact.

As usual, I'm not going to recount everything that was said; even taking into account that there were a number of people in the room, so nothing's really a secret, it was nevertheless a meeting for members, and not outsiders. Besides which, I don't want to potentially get the president (and by extension, the club) in trouble for commentary that the president would not have intended for a wider audience, ala the 2023 Christmas party comments which caused some angst within Football Victoria, and which is an issue which remains unresolved, even if pretty much everyone else has moved on.

Amazingly, I had nothing to do with that, which probably says something about the state of the blog in its dying days as a regular ongoing concern. But back to the AGM. One could cavil with me putting out anything - at least some people usually do - and they may have a point. But some members would not or could not attend, but they still have, I think, a right to understand the broader state of the club and its future direction, especially with the National Second Division coming up.

Attendance-wise, things looked grim approaching the designated starting time, but it gradually improved to if not a great number, than at least to something approaching not completely unacceptable. The timing and notice provided of our AGMs is becoming even more ordinary than usual, which certainly has an impact; as does expecting our supporters to come into Lakeside twice in two days, especially midweek. 

Anyway, the meeting began with a presentation of the financials, and what can one say about that? Presented on the big screen via a scrolling PDF instead of the usual PowerPoint presentation (which says something about how even a delayed AGM didn't have complete preparation), we were told that there was increase in turnover from $1.8 million to $2.1 million (largely due to inflation), and a modest surplus of about $26,000, well down on some of the previous years' efforts. As noted in the post for the 2022 AGM, there was a plan to write off the director loans, and that has been done.

It was noted that the juniors more or less break even, and that the women's program is close to breaking even, observations that get trotted out at most AGMs. There was passing mention that at some stage in the past money from the juniors had been used to cover the costs of the senior men, without specifying a year. Considering that the juniors were a separate entity before the reunification - what was it, 2009 - one wonders what year exactly was that passing reference to? 

Mention was made of the most recent jersey night, which was held in the upstairs function room rather than in the social club. Some passing mention of a 40th anniversary celebration for the 1984 championship, the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the 2014 title, and a testimonial night for Brad Norton. I'm not holding out much hope for any of these things happening, not only because it takes a lot of work to put nights like that together, but also because for years now the South Melbourne Hellas social calendar includes so few events for the ordinary fan. The jersey night is strictly for the sponsors. Apart from the Christmas get together, there's nothing outside match day to gather the ordinary supporter to Lakeside. No trivia nights, no presentation nights, no family days.

Lakeside Stadium's location contributes to what might be called a lack of a feeling of "civil society". Where is the evidence of the club being a shared experience? There's still a South fan forum which exists outside the remit of the club, but it functions as both a social and technological relic. I suppose you could extrapolate that to what the club is as a whole. Come to an occasional game, and you've performed your, for lack of a better term, civic duty to the club. This follows on to things like volunteerism, which sees a thin pool from which to draw volunteers.

The organisation and operation of the club is incredibly top heavy. Much of the sponsorship of the club is connected to the personal networks fostered by the president. Much of the day to day operation of the club is down to individual directors and board members, when it should be the job of people working for the club in paid roles. Merch, media, meetings with outside organisations and stakeholders - it shouldn't be up to people taking time out of their day jobs to do this stuff.

And thus moving to the National Second Division (finally), this is one of my concerns - how does the club plan to scale up its operations, and can it scale up quickly enough and to an appropriate level? When you think about it, getting the on field bit sorted is the easy part. You'll be in a higher division, and you'll naturally attract better playing talent. But to avoid this becoming the dreaded "NPL on planes", you've got to be much better across the board. You've got to offer a better fan experience, a better media experience, a better sponsor experience, etc. I might be (and was) shouted down for commenting that we're only getting about 200 people to most games - but the point I wanted to make before being interrupted was that we struggle to amass volunteers and promptly feed people under our current circumstances, and that if the plan is to be regularly getting 1500 people to a game, then things will need to change. 

To be fair to the board and especially the president, they are aware of the issue of being a top-heavy organisation. And to be fair to our board, this is not only a South Melbourne problem. Just about every club that plans to be in the NSD is going to face a massive cultural and organisational adjustment, where throwing a bunch of money at problems will not address them. The prospective NSD clubs will not only have to begin employing (more) non-match day related staff, but also setting strategies for the new day-to-day staff to implement, to make their club, the new league, and the game better. If you're a budding sports business graduate, there might be a few roles opening up - though our club says it has developed short lists of people it would like to hire for certain roles.

People bring up money and crowds, and that's certainly a huge part of it. Quite how South (and some of the other clubs) end up funding the this thing in year one, two, and then afterwards has always been a central concern. And for our part, there were a number of possibilities thrown out about how that might come about - increased membership and attendance, both necessary, can only do so much. Broadcast deals which see money come into the league are a long way away. So it's going to come down to sponsorship, and perhaps even that dreaded term - part-privatisation. 

As part of the NSD planning, the club has to figure out how the new NSD sub-entity, operating underneath the SMH umbrella as SMFC does now, will operate. And one of the ideas floated - though not necessarily the preferred option - would be a part (up to 49%) privatisation of the SMFC NSD entity. It was made clear, however, that our members would have to approve such a move. In terms of operating budgets, the club will have to double its current turnover. When asked about how confident it was in its financial forecasting, the president said that the board had allowed a fair bit of fat in its anticipated costings.

But apart from finances, the NSD will also require major changes to how these clubs run themselves, and how they fit into something larger than themselves. Say what you will about the A-League and the APL cartel, but for the most part cartel discipline within that organisation has been strong. And I think we can say that, despite the seeming commonality of purpose that a variety of clubs have maintained to get to this point, that sense of common purpose will only now start to be properly tested. Up to now, it has mostly been talking about desire. Now desire has the chance to become reality, and that's a lot messier.

And what the NSD looks like is sill up in the air. Can we get to at least ten clubs across at least three states? Putting aside concerns about the viability of any of the current NSD eight, will any new additions be merely desperate add-ons just to the get comp over the line? Having the indefinite bank guarantees is great for providing peace of mind, but you'd of course rather not need them.

There's going to have to be a massive cultural change. The role of the board will have to be streamlined, taking it from a DIY set-up to a strategy and delegating operation. The plan is also to have all board members become directors. The club will have to at some point become financially independent from the sponsor networks nurtured by Nick Maikousis. Regardless of whatever happens with the NSD, the club has to become a re-generative operation - it needs new fans, new sponsors, new volunteers At the moment, it is atrophying. You'd hate to think that the NSD is the club's last chance to permanently turn things around, to make Lakeside a destination venue instead of something to avoid, but it's hard to see it otherwise. 

This AGM also marked the end of the board electoral cycle. The board positions of SMH and SMFC were vacated, and the current board members were reinstated unopposed. I will also note that the questions asked by the members in attendance were sophisticated, insightful, and a credit to those participating. For all the accusations of negativity that I might be accused of, it's never (or seldom) done out of spite. It's because I care about the club, and I don't want to see it die. While it wasn't a huge attendance, those present at the AGM clearly feel the same way, and their care and interest provided a degree of hope.

Lastly, a massive thanks to Ian, a member in attendance at the AGM, who let me know before the meeting how much South of the Border had meant to him as a South fan - even if he didn't always agree with the match analysis!