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!

Notes from the 2022 AGM

Another year, and another delayed AGM, this one even more delayed than the one before. For whatever reason, the interest of our ordinary members on such matters remains weak; the less said about the non-existent interest from parents of the juniors, the better. Maybe some people prefer it that way. At least the attendance was much better than last year's effort, which is not saying much; but we should grab onto whatever positive that we can.

Those who did turn up were engaged, and asked some good questions. There was better attendance also from board members and/or directors, though no note was made of those who were apologies. Officially facing up to the members were secretary Skip Fulton; chairman Bill Papastergiadis; president Nick Maikousis; and former club treasurer, and now merely the club's accountant, Mario Vinaccia. I'd say it's difficult to keep track of who is and isn't on the board these days, but that's more of an ongoing problem.

I think I tend to note most times when I post one of these reports that I'm apparently morally obliged to not reveal every little detail that was revealed on the night, but instead to keep it informative but general, if not vague. Sometimes there's even hostility at revealing any detail about what occurs at our AGMs. But this year there's even a Neos Kosmos article about the AGM, including incorrect info about new directors being elected to the board, where they were actually merely appointed; it is not an election year after all. There was even a cock-up where our financials were sent to categories of people that they shouldn't have been, but for me that's more of a database issue (one that we just will not solve).

Besides which, I don't see the point in hiding our finances - if they're bad, they're bad, if they're good, they're good, and it doesn't really make a difference who sees them. But that's probably a minority view, based at least in some part on my not understanding financial reports. In any event, the club's finances at the moment are apparently good, so there's probably less angst about the accidental disclosure than would ordinarily be the case.

First up was the South Melbourne Hellas AGM, which took up most of the night; the SMFC AGM was pretty much just the playing out of the necessary legal formalities. Naturally, coming through the other side of the lockdown years coloured pretty much everything. The club's on and off field achievements over the past year were listed. The senior men finished top of the table, the boys 21s won their grand final, and the women's department continues to develop players for higher leagues. 

The financial position remains relatively strong, with the club recording another surplus. This was helped in the relevant financial year by the Australia Cup match against Melbourne City, the hiring out of the futsal court to the combat sports group, and increased sponsorship. Then again, the fact that the Melbourne City game of 2021 is being talked about in 2023, shows how out of date some of this information is. Along with pandemic crowd capacity restrictions, the filming demands of the host broadcaster also took their toll on revenue that day; corporate box related revenue made up for that in some respects.

The club's government stipend has recently reduced in size, as per the terms of the lease agreement. Overall wages across the organisation remain stable, including for coaches and players. Sponsorship continues to improve, thanks to increased networking efforts from the top brass, but also because of our work with the blind and powerchair teams. While these teams are worthwhile ventures in and of themselves, their presence gives the club as a whole a more diverse public face, opening up the range of grants and sponsorship opportunities available to the club. Though the state Labor government has remained in power, there has been a change in the local member of parliament, with Martin Foley retiring, and being replaced by Nina Taylor. The club is also nurturing relationships with the new federal Labor government.

The club has cleared its bank loan debt, which was taken out after the heirs of the late Tony Toumbourou asked for their father's club saving loan to be paid back. In order to avoid a similar fate reoccurring with extant directors' loans, the board is looking into the process of arranging for those debts to be dealt with; one suspects that more info will be provided on this at the next AGM, whenever that is. Aside from removing a tangible financial liability hanging over the club's head, it would also look better for our National Second Division bid to be coming in without those kinds of debts, even if they were for the time being merely theoretical, in that none of the current directors with loans would act upon them. 

The National Second Division process continues as before, with the club expecting news of the next bidding phase (the second of three phases) to be made soon. The board noted that there remains uncertainty around key elements of the competition - principally how high the degree of overall professionalism, and thus cost, will be. The board claims that the club would be able to successfully participate in both higher and lower-end NSD models.

(this is me editorialising here somewhat - the problem is that pushing too hard for a higher-end, higher-cost model would potentially leave the NSD without enough viable teams; push too low, and the enterprise will come across as cheap and second-rate, as opposed to just being second tier)

The expectation remains that the NSD competition will be ready to go in March 2024. The club has created (or rather, adapted from its most recent A-League bid) a legal entity under the broader umbrella of the South Melbourne Hellas group, in the event that the club secures participation in the NSD. After a question from the floor, the club acknowledged that while now five years out of date, the club was able to use at least some of the work done in the preparation of that most recent A-League licence bid, as part of the club's bid for an NSD licence.

(one may recall that even among those more skeptical about the club's chances of securing that A-League licence back then, that there was nevertheless the belief that the process was useful from a reconnaissance and educational point of view; even in failure, the club gained a degree of knowledge and information that would become useful at some indeterminate point in the future, a point in time which just so happens to be now)

There was also an update (prompted in part by a question from the floor) about facility upkeep and improvement at Lakeside. The function room upstairs has had a refit of sorts, and there have been improvements made to the corporate spaces. The scoreboard has received a software upgrade, and may even have its screen replaced at some point. There is no news on whether things like proper permanent camera/media positions will be installed in the near future. No, the Puskas statue will not be relocated to Lakeside, a matter which is out of the club's hands. 

Little mention was made of the current state of the relationship between the club and the Trust which manages the stadium. The exception to that is that the club is exploring its options in terms of being able to get more control of venue operation and management of the stadium on our match days. In other Lakeside news, the organisers of the grand prix are attempting to exclusively commandeer the precinct for longer and longer periods in the time around their event. Where the usual expectation has been that we will be barred from the stadium for about two weeks, the attempt now is to exclude us for four. The board is attempting to use its political networks to prevent that from happening.

The Greek national day parade which was held at Lakeside this year (following its forced removal from the Shrine of Remembrance) was deemed a success, but with many unspecified lessons to be learned. A complex logistical operation in its own right, there is no firm indication that the club can or will seek to integrate a high profile Greek derby match into the event, an idea which has been raised by a number of people.
 

The now formalised partnership with Yarraville is apparently off to a good start, with last week's triple header at McIvor Reserve being considered a success. The board also confirmed that our two senior mens' home matches in early July against Hume and Oakleigh - unable to be played at Lakeside, due to the stadium being used exclusively as a training venue for the Women's World Cup - will be be played at McIvor Reserve. Special dispensation has been made by Football Victoria to allow for the lack of certain facilities at McIvor Reserve - a protected players race for example - though who knows if we will make an attempt to provide scaffolding for the media.

(The under 21s will be playing their matches after the senior men, which makes you wonder if the lights at Yarraville are good enough. The senior women will be on the road during this time, with their opponents being more accommodating in switching their fixtures).

Overall, the club finds itself in a reasonably strong position off field, albeit much of this seems unduly dependent on those currently on the board, and the sponsor and political networks that they have cultivated. It remains of concern that this approach seems quite top-heavy, and that there is always a risk that if the top two or three people go, that the sponsorship and influence that they bring will go with them. Without an increase in membership at the bottom end, successful generational renewal at a fan and board level remains at risk.

While not a distinct topic in itself, a common theme ran through much of the night, as it has done for much of the past 20 years - that the dissolution of the National Soccer League and the change in local soccer governance structures didn't mean just mean the material exclusion of our club from the top-flight; it also initiated the sudden onset of a loss of relevance at a political level. The project of keeping the club alive since the end of the NSL has not just been a material concern - paying our way, not going broke, etc - it has also entailed the necessity of rebuilding the club's reputation almost from scratch, as well as rebuilding the club's networks and sphere of influence.

Back then, as a mainstay of national league soccer and before that, a leading Victorian club, the club could count on an assumed level of social status, and a certain degree of deference from other soccer bodies (club and federation), as well as the Greek community. It could also count to a degree on club alumni to if not outright push South's interests, than to at least be a reminder of our influence on Victorian soccer. So much of that influence was lost when the NSL died, when we went into administration, and especially when FFA and the A-League (initially) prospered as if we never existed.

But the future lasts a long time, and the local soccer environment changed again, as is its wont. Sometimes all you need to do is hold on, and wait, and especially out-wait those tasked in part with keeping you down. That time spent waiting doesn't mean being inactive; rather it is time to be spent improving yourself for when an opportunity might arise. In a variety of ways, the club hasn't improved as much as you'd like it to have done during this time, even taking into account the many obstacles placed before it. And yet we are told, and I suppose there is enough evidence to suggest, that there has been enough progress made over the last little while - pick your own numbers of years of when you think it might have started turning - that we are now reasonably placed to take up the opportunity for "something better", assuming that "something better" actually materialises.

Notes from the 2021 AGM

South Melbourne Hellas members are now well used to AGMs being delayed for unorthodox reasons, but the pandemic is the unimpeachable get out clause for everything these days. Attendance from committee members was poor, but that of the members was worse. A lot of regular faces at these things did not show up. Why, I do not know. Indifference? Covid? Inconvenient time-slot? Heaven help us if the senior men's preferred match day discussion ever gets combined with this topic.

And goodness knows where the armada of junior parents now eligible to attend such meetings was - thanks to Football Victoria constitutional changes some years back - because they weren't there, and have seldom ever attended since they have bee able to. Well, maybe they were at junior games. Still the meeting went ahead, and some useful information was parlayed to the small audience. 

As per usual, this is not a complete account of the AGM, because I did not take such detailed notes; nor should everything be made known to people who did not attend the meeting, or so I'm told. Then again, some people don't like any AGM details making their way into the public domain, but that ship sailed a long time ago.

There were two key presenters on the day, treasurer Mario Vinaccia, and president Nick Maikousis. At times the meeting resembled a conversation rather than a one-way information session, with the odd spiky exchange. But we get but one formal opportunity per year  (on average) to grill our representatives, and one would be wise to take it. 

Insofar as the treasurer's report went, there was generally good news in regards to the club's financial position as it ended at June 2021. The club made a profit of about $160,000, a good result considering the difficulties created by the pandemic with regards to sponsorship and match day revenue. The club is also on target to clear its external debts by June 2022. 

The club's business structure was once again explained. Essentially, the South Melbourne Hellas Club acts as the umbrella for a set of subsidiary organisations. Half of these are for profit businesses (the Bar & Grill, the Futsal Court, etc), and the other half are the various teams and clubs we operate (NPL and NPLW teams, miniroos, state league women's teams).

The assertion was made by the board that contrary to popular wisdom, it is the finances of the senior men's team which fills in the budgetary gaps (if and where they exist, though most teams break even) in other parts of the football business. How one gets that message out to a soccer public which takes as gospel that junior money funds senior wages (across many clubs, not just ours) is a difficult task. Because much more of the 2021 season was played compared to the 2020 season, there was less damage done in terms of refunds of fees to junior players due to the cancellation of the season.

The Bar & Grill more or less breaks even on match days, but does much better on special events. Of course, club hosted special events and the hiring of the function room by the general public have been hindered by the pandemic, but one hopes that will change as things open up again. The club's leasing of the futsal space to the Combat Institute of Australia for use as its National Performance Centre, which became official in January 2022, will see the club receive an annual six figure sum in rental fees. I think most of us will be glad that that space is finally earning its keep, albeit in an unorthodox manner. 

On the question of why no Sunday matches, it was made reiterated that much of the cost savings achieved by the club in recent times have been due to avoiding hosting Sunday matches, and especially the staff penalty rates that make Sunday games unappealing from a financial point of view. The four senior men's Friday night matches in 2022 are also being used as part of the attempt to garner and maintain sponsor networks.

Sponsorship is in a strong position, with the number of principle partners increasing substantially, as the club continues to leverage the business links of the current board. What might happen to that generosity should those members of the board - especially in the financial services sector, which we seem to have a focus on - depart, is a question left to the future. This approach is a variant of the construction industry funded teams in our league. Realistically, there would be few clubs in Victoria who can get by predominantly on gate takings, and in that sense we are not an outlier.

In short, gate takings and membership dues play second fiddle to sponsorship and other business ventures. While the club made a reasonable sum on the 2022 Melbourne City FFA Cup game given the circumstances, restrictive pandemic related trading circumstances diminished what could have been a higher taking. Still, it's nice to know that the club has a not insignificant item for its next financial report. Also to be taken into account for next year, is the already improved takings from merchandise sales. 

Though hampered by Lakeside Stadium being under the control of the state government rather than a local council, the club has improved its accessing of government grants. Most of these grants are relatively small, but collectively they help offset costs across our various football departments.

The president's report had some crossover with the treasurer's report, but also included other matters as you would expect. The relationship with the regular, match day staff of the Trust is currently good. However, the high turnover of bureaucrats at the Trust continues to make the management of that part of the relationship more difficult.

There was some discussion about further cementing our presence at some of our other locations, and the hope that there would be funding made available for the relaying of the synthetic pitches at Middle Park, among other improvements to our amenities.

With regards to Lakeside being used as a training venue for the 2023 Women's World Cup, there was little concrete news as of yet. There is the possibility of minor improvements being made to player amenities. It is also possible that the venue may be unavailable for several weeks, but otherwise there is scant detail on what the 2023 Women's World Cup will mean for us in an operational sense. That's something to keep an eye on for next year.

There was also discussion on the prospects of a National Soccer Division, but precious little of certainty to latch on to. There remain many open-ended questions about whether the NSD would be held during a winter or summer season; how long inaugural NSD clubs would be given to settle in, without the threat of being relegated themselves; how quickly full-time professionalism would be introduced; and of course, about how many clubs could realistically be expected to participate.

There was an acknowledgment that there would be need to be significant increases to membership, sponsorship, and attendance in order to the transition to an NSD work, with the club needing a large increase in turnover from its current position. The board however asserted confidence in its ability to make a successful transition to an NSD. In addition, the board was confident that the club could participate successfully in an NSD regardless of the ultimate format of the NSD,

Those members in attendance, while sharing the club's ingrained ambition to play at the highest level possible, generally had a more a wary disposition on the matter. Having said that, there are a wide range of opinions within the South community about the merits of an NSD, and the course of action the club should take. Thus it was disappointing not to have a greater attendance to have the range of those views considered. One hopes that the next AGM, which will hopefully see more concrete details released on the actual NSD format, will attract more interest from members.

A full-time sponsorship person has been hired.

The membership database issue is still an ongoing matter. 

Medium term, if the circumstances allow, the board is interested in re-aligning AGM dates and financial reporting to match the senior men's season, rather than going by the financial year.

At the end of the meeting, it was announced that Mario Vinaccia would be stepping down as treasurer, due to increased family commitments. The change will happen as soon as a suitable successor for the treasurer position is found. The membership thanked Mario for his efforts not only in cleaning up the club's books, but also for his efforts in changing the club's culture around transparency on these matters.

Glad to be back - South Melbourne 3 Heidelberg United 1

After everything that has happened over the past two years, it was just nice to be back, again. Coming in on the train, I had that sick feeling in the guts which means that I still care; that's a good thing, as I have been reassured by others, because if I didn't care, then the whole thing would be work, and not mangled joy. It was opening day, it was derby day, it was South Melbourne Hellas day.

I am now 16 years into my second South Melbourne Hellas life, the one where I have been able to be the kind of supporter that I was not able to be during the NSL years. In this second Hellas life, I have spent those 16 years largely among the same faces. Some people have left, some new people have come in, and others come in and out. But the core of the group I became attached to - based mostly around the people active on the defunct smfcboard.com, and its still extant replacement smfcfans.com - are still there.

Many of them are now married, with kids who they are bringing to games. Some of them had kids so long ago, that the kids are now the age I was when I started coming back to South. Everyone's a little older, a little tireder, a little more jaded, but also a bit more relaxed. The club's been to hell and not quite back on multiple occasions, the football remains quasi-watchable at the best of times, and the persistent promise of a brighter tomorrow is a running joke that's so old and well-worn that no one even bothers to complain about it anymore; at least not that much. And why should we? Cynicism at the idea that things might get better for us is as much a part of the club as the supporters who have to listen to the promises, as well as the people who have to try and make a better tomorrow happen.

At the bottom of the stairs outside the office entrance, I realised I didn't even have the QR code for Lakeside saved as a favourite in my Services Victoria app. Then picking up my membership, and while wearing a jersey from a few years ago now, I am told by a volunteer that it's time to update to a new jersey. My response to that is that I don't wear Kappa, so that could take awhile. The food was much the same, except for the food trucks outside which included an ice-cream truck, which along with the warm weather made it seem like an NSL revival.

Having only attended one pre-season game in the lead-up to the season opener - not that there were that many games to choose from - I had no idea about form, tactics, or expectations. All I wanted is for the team to try and score goals, which would be something to hang on to after last year's dire setup. It's easy to say you've defended well when you have six or seven players sitting so deep that you have no midfield. But that's not meant to be the South way, and it comes across as even sillier when people are falling over themselves to claim Ange Postecoglou and the pretty attacking football his teams play.

Look, I get that we're a world away from the personnel and training environments that could come close to emulating what Ange is doing, but there's also this: attacking football is more fun, for fans and for players. Conceding the initiative almost from the get-go, and preferring to try and absorb pressure from deep in your own half, is bloody draining. OK, so what was served up on Thursday wasn't necessarily pretty. in part because both teams were still underdone, especially the Bergers.

But my goodness it was exciting to watch us take the game on. Was it ball playing finesse work? No. Was is it an approach which could reliably produce more than a couple of chances a game? Yes. With the exception of a couple of teams which try and play a short passing game, NPL Victoria is still very much a turnover and counter-attack based affair. That's fine. I don't mind. As long as we consistently win the ball from midfield and not so deep that the opponent's goal looks like a mirage on the horizon, good things are more likely to happen.

Instead of bombing it to Harrison Sawyer with no support and no hope, we might this year be able to play both to and away from Sawyer. Andy Brennan put in a couple of decent corners. Max Mikkola can throw the ball a long way. Players being given the licence and setup to have a go means creating more chances, and more chance of luck going your way. Who knows how it will look when we fall behind, or playing against more capable and fitter teams. Who knows where Lirim Elmazi and Josh Wallen will fit into the team. 

But the most important thing was that the first half was enjoyable. We cruised home in the second half to the point where people could later focus on arguing about how large or small the crowd was, and how many people the Tardis space in the corporate areas can fit. We could focus on gimmick chants for winning "six points", and trying to get kids to lead certain chants.

Next game

Away to Bentleigh on Friday night.

2021 AGM date set

A date has been set - finally - for the dual 2021 annual general meetings. On Sunday March 6th at 11:00AM, the South Melbourne Hellas AGM will take place, followed by the South Melbourne FC AGM at 12:00. Both AGMs will of course be in the social club.

What happens if the season is cancelled again

Unfortunately buried deep within Joey Lynch's season preview on the Football Victoria site - I would have have preferred that it be posted in massive letters at the start of the piece - lies the answer to what happens if the season is cancelled again.

However, in the event that COVID does its unwelcome thing and the season is forced to be cancelled for the third-straight year, the premiership and promotion and relegation will all be determined via ladder position on the condition that at least 50% of the league’s fixtures have been played. If all teams have played the same amount of games it’s a pretty easy determination, but in the event that there is an uneven spread then a points per game basis will be used, followed by average goal difference per game, and then average goals for per game. 

So there you go, the protocol that should have existed a year ago and which could have saved us a lot of bother and the need for bespoke solutions, but didn't. 

Show me the money

This bit of news is a little bit out of date now, in that it's from February 1st, but it's worth noting nonetheless. Channel 10 reported back then that Ross Pelligra and the Pelligra Group had made an offer of around $20 million to purchase Adelaide United. 

You may know the Pelligra name from some of the sponsor boards around Lakeside, or the brand's prominent position on the scoreboard during matches. You may even remember the Pelligra name from our most recent A-League bid, even if you'd rather not remember that we made a bid, preferring instead to pretend that you were always in favour of pro-rel and a second division. Me, I always preferred the (hypothetical) drawbridge model; that is, getting in, pulling up the gate, and filling in the moat with crocodiles. But I digress.

Anyway, for that most recent bid of ours, Ross Pelligra and his property development concern were set to be the major financial backers for the entity representing South Melbourne Hellas in the A-League. So, that's one question answered three years down the line - yes, the money was actually there for a South aligned bid. The second question was a bit more current: would the Pelligra purchase of Adelaide United, and the Pelligra Group's wider Adelaide sporting interests, see a diminishing of its sponsorship of South Melbourne? At the moment, that does not appear the case. 

Maybe people can support both the A-League and a former NSL club? Shocking if true. Also kind of icky.

Australia Cup Mk II

No one at South needs to worry about this for a few weeks yet, but just in case you haven't caught up on this little bit of oldish news, the FFA Cup has been renamed to the Australia Cup. This change was likely deemed necessary when Football Federation Australia decided it no longer wanted to be a Federation, and instead wanted to... I don't actually know where I'm going with this, except to say that an unnecessary name change in one department has led to led to a stupid name change in another.

A handful of people reading this are probably aware that there was already once an Australia Cup for soccer, which ran from 1962-1968. It ran on a sort of Champions League format, in that qualification seemed to be offered not only to champions of the various state federations, but also state cup winners, and teams that finished in the upper echelons of the bigger state leagues. The original Australia Cup was ended due to the high cost of travel, and diminishing fan interest in the tournament - which was probably a reflection of the wider cooling off of interest in local soccer as the effects of the ethnic boom started to peter out.

The FFA Cup trophy was modeled on the Australia Cup trophy, which was named the Henry Seamonds Memorial Trophy in 1963, after the then recent passing of the Australian soccer administrator. You may recall that this trophy was found in a skip outside the Hakoah club in Sydney. After a refurbishment, the original trophy now resides with Caroline Springs George Cross, the 1964 winners of the Cup.Modeling the FFA Cup trophy on the Australia Cup trophy was a clever and respectful nod to the past, without claiming direct continuity. 

This name change though comes across as neither clever nor respectful, just slack. They could've named it after Alex Pongrass. They could've named it after Frank Lowy. They could've even named it after the skip they found the old trophy in.

The PR statements around the name change claim that there was consultation with people, and that everyone seemed to be happy with the name change. Well, they didn't consult me, or the other layabouts involved with Australian soccer history. Frankly, it's just an attempt to hitch a ride on the coattails of a defunct competition that was won by several now dead clubs no one cares about, played under a different format. Instead of doing something new or thoughtful, they did something cheap and lazy, which will muddle statistical compilation and historical narrative as people inevtiable conflate the two competitions. And they'll call it respecting history.

Around the streams

The future of NPL streaming is here, and it's called npl.tv, accessed via the "Cluch" app. Horrible name, who knows where the "t" ended up. Anyway, Cluch seems to be a streaming platform which focuses on a lot of minor sports, as well as second and third tier competitions of otherwise major sports. Four state federations have jumped on board with NPL TV, Football Victoria being one of them.

The service - which you need to register for - is available via a phone app, and also via desktop through the NPL TV website. At the moment it's a free service, and I haven't seen any indication yet of if or when that might change to a paid service. You do have to wonder though at what point someone will actually try and make some money from this. 

The opening weekend hasn't been all smooth sailing for the new service, with reports of crashes, games not even starting, and people struggling to sign up. Having not watched any of the games on a television via Chromecast or some such, I can't vouch for whether the video quality is better (significantly or otherwise) than the YouTube or Facebook streams. I don't know squat about smart TVs and such, so I can't elaborate on how those things will work, except that Apple TV and Android TV applications are in the works

I have a pretty dated Nokia smartphone, with a small screen and not much of a memory cache, but I was surprised at how well the app worked for the most part. There was some minor, occasional buffering, but otherwise I didn't seem to run into some of the problems others were reporting. I was not exactly thrilled however that the phone app seems to redirect to a browser function rather than merely running the stream through the app itself.

The desktop variant is much the same, but here's where I ran into some problems - namely that some streams didn't even seem to be working, as in the case of Avondale vs Bentleigh, including the quite unhelpful message "this video file cannot be played: error code 232011". At least there was a backup YouTube stream for all of this week's games, which I found myself defaulting to in preference to the app and desktop options. In time, once the new app overcomes its teething problems, it is likely that this service will see the end of the Facebook and YouTube streams we have become accustomed to using for the past few season. The Facebook streams are already gone, and the YouTube streams seem to exist mostly as a backup. 

This is a pity, though I do understand the reasoning behind it. No point in making a big song and dance about a new streaming platform, and then having a competing service running against it. Part of NPL TV's reason for existing will be to gather more accurate demographic data about who is watching Australian second tier soccer, likely minus much of the European and Asian gambling fraternity which piggybacked off the more easily accessible Facebook and YouTube streams. It's the kind of data that might prove useful for trying to figure out how to make a possible national second division broadcasting arrangement work.

The NPL TV desktop and app options have a couple of nice features, the best of which is a list of videos of important moments within each game such as goals, shots on goal, corners won, and cards dished out. Of these, the "corners won" feature is clearly the most pointless, but it's nice not to have fling back and forth on a whole match timeline looking for footage of goals. 

Switching to that highlights menu, and especially switching between games, is a pain in the arse. Others have also bemoaned the inability to start watching a game from any given point in time, being forced to watch the game from that moment you log in. After giving both the app and desktop version a run, and despite being pleased with some of the NPL TV add-ons, I still find the YouTube stream easier to use, just because it's so much easier to switch between different simultaneous streams. With so many overlapping matches, I'll likely be sticking to the YouTube option until its no longer available.

Scaffolding news

Viewers may have also noticed that many of the camera angles on the opening round's streams were closer to ground level than is usually the case. I noticed this at first on the stream of the Port Melbourne vs St Albans game yesterday, though I should have also noted that it was the case at some other games I watched, like Dandenong City vs Melbourne Knights.

This is because the kinds of temporary scaffolding many clubs use for camera and commentary positions are no longer covered by Football Victoria's public liability insurance. It's a change in policy which seems to follow in the wake of the tragic death last year of a Queensland man, who was crushed by collapsing media scaffolding while watching his son play.

The only way to change the status of such temporary scaffolding is to convert the relevant temporary structures into permanent ones; or to follow a three step process whereby the third party provider/installer of a temporary structure (which may include a local council) provides a certificate of currency, as well as significant liability insurance of its own.

It makes you wonder about the day in 2014 when South fans put together a temporary gantry out at Werribee. Goodness knows who would have been liable if anything happened to Tim the cameraman on that day.

Final thought

A shame about the minute's silence for Ulysses Kokkinos. Hell of a time for the PA system to go awry. So it goes.

Notes from last week's 2020 AGMs

A little overdue, fairly brief, and posted without any sense of popular demand,

A small, dispiriting turnout, even taking into account the AGMs being held in mid-week, in late February, and during the pandemic. Issues also persist with the membership database.

Bill Papastergaidis chaired the meeting, and began with the claim that 2021 would be a great year for South Melbourne. Representing the club on of the evening were Papastergiadis, president Nick Maikousis, secretary Eric Zimmerman, and treasurer Mario Vinaccia. There were other board members present, but not active in being on the presenter's front panel. There were also absentee board members, though who can keep track of all the comings and goings to be able to name names. 

The bulk of the presentation was made up of the treasurer's report and the president's report. The treasurer's report was first. Though presented with due care by the treasurer, the financial report for the 2019/20 financial year was difficult to assess on its merits (even taking into account my novice understanding of finances) because it is now effectively nine months past its reporting date, and because the full impact of the pandemic and lockdown.

These issues were unavoidable, and I offer no criticism on that front. Vinaccia was upfront about the challenges facing the club because of the lockdown, and the plans that had to be put on hold because of the pandemic, including both in terms of paying off certain debts, as well as increasing sponsorship revenues.

What was presented in terms of the hit that the club took from the pandemic - from the tail-end of 2019, and until at least the first half the year - is that revenue and expenses largely remained steady, albeit understandably lessened by the shutdown of football in early 2020. 

Among the budgetary challenges approaching the club is the end of the more generous term of the monthly government stipend, and how that decrease in revenue will need to be made up from other sources. The club had been attempting to set up coterie and sponsorship arrangement prior to the onset of the pandemic, which seemed to have an initial degree of success, but were undermined by all that's come to pass. Still, the club will persist with this plan, because it must.

Much stock is being in establishing and participating in a National Second Division which, while it would increase expenses, would also increase revenue opportunities, memberships and attendance, and value for sponsors. If you haven't noticed a narrative thread here, adding value for sponsors is a big focus for the club in general.

The treasurer did note however that the pandemic allowed the cub to recalibrate its organisational and financial strategy, including taking care of cleaning up matters with both debtors and creditors including the well-publicised settlement reached with former coach Chris Taylor. And no, the exact details of the settlement were not prised out of the committee.

Within the president's report were recognition of the hard work undertaken by people at club to broaden its scope, in this case the powerchair and blind football teams, but also the juniors. It's been a long time coming, but we've had another rebuild of the junior wing. We are close to signing a deal to take control of the pavilion down Middle Park way, something which was in the pipeline for some time, but got interrupted by the pandemic.

The social club kitchen will have a new match day operator (under the club's control), with promises of better quality and faster service. As noted in previous posts, the club reached an amicable termination of the agreement with the previous operator of the social club space.

Maikousis noted that he was close to signing a lucrative deal for exclusive usage of the futsal court space by the taekwondo folk, which will hopefully see the space bring in the revenue it has largely failed to do so for some years now.

The pro-shop will get a new fitout courtesy of Kappa, which may be ready by round 2.

Covid restrictions for Lakeside Stadium are ongoing affair prone to changes in government health policy. At the time of the AGM last week, Victoria was still in a state of limited reopening following on from the most recent lockdown. While special permissions could have been granted under those circumstances for larger crowds, the likelihood of that happening was low. However, now that restrictions have been loosened, things may be a little different.

Inquiries are being made to see what kind of improvements can be squeezed out of governments and organising bodies, in order to improve player amenities at Lakeside Stadium, 2023 Women's World Cup. That's in the event that Lakeside is used as a training venue by one of the visiting teams.

The shorter, the sweeter

Some tiny bits of news.

Last night South beat the Knights 1-0 in a closed doors session at Lakeside.

The AGMs have been announced for Wednesday 24th February in the social club, at 7PM (SMH) and 8PM (SMFC).

Every now and again I get to add another match program scan to my collection. Here's Nrothern Spirit away from 2003-2004. Thanks to Mark Boric, Greg Stock, and Geoff Coy for teaming up to get us another one from the late NSL era, where things tended to get a bit more iffy on the program front.

Notes from today's members forum

As usual, these notes are not the complete picture of what goes on at such meetings, but rather the version which results from my tasteful curation - just in case that wasn't clear to any long term readers. As for the new people - are there still new people?

I didn't really take any notes, except for about four compact notepad lines on my phone. If I missed something important, it was probably while I accidentally spilled about eight Eclipse mints across the table. 

Anyway, slightly smaller attendance than I'd anticipated, but what did I anticipate? It doesn't matter. I think there's still people who are COVID-shy, which is totally understandable, and hey - it's the week before Christmas, which is hardly the big ticket time for attracting people to non-AGM related South gatherings.

And maybe people had better or more important things to do. Having relocated what might be an apricot sapling from a pot to an empty space in my front yard, all my tasks for the day were done; and thus I was free to attend a South event for the first time since April.

Representation from the board on an official front was from president Nick Maikousis, and secretary and treasurer Mario Vinaccia. 

Speaking of the AGM, the club has received a COVID extension from ASIC, and thus the AGM will be held some time in February. One reason given for this is that the auditor needs to visit the club in person to see the books, something which has not been possible thus far because of the pandemic; or something like that. 

We are assured that unlike all the other times, this time it is genuinely all above board. And I believe them, not least because I'm too tired to argue, but also as an extension of goodwill on my part to people working hard under difficult circumstances to make the club better.

There was some discussion on the club's attempts at establishing its business coterie group, which has been hampered by the pandemic. The discussion from the floor seemed focused mostly on finding ways for the pleb South Melbourne member to be able to make use of the networking opportunities the coterie is designed to provide to its clientele.

On the matter of the composition of the senior men's team for next season, I would not expect too many more new faces. The club appears to believe that it has a strong contingent of youth prospects - even if it also appears that the club is not sure if it fluked this cohort, or actually somehow planned for them to become available all at once. 

There was talk, as there has been in previous seasons, that the club is cutting costs on its senior wage bill. If the club uses more youth team players to fill out the senior men's squad, there's every chance that this claim of cutting the senior men's team wage bill might actually be true this time; or at least more true.

Apparently, rather than the wage bills of NPL Victoria senior men's teams taking a hit because of the pandemic, the suggestion seemed to be made that in fact more money was being spent on senior men's teams for the coming NPL season. If that's true, then I wish those players raking it in all the best. Take 'em for every last cent!

On the matter of memberships for next season, as promised the question was thrown open to the floor, with the board to take on - but not necessarily act upon - the advice offered. The main question is of course for 2020 financial members who were if not outright promised that their 2020 membership would rollover to 2021, than at least had that possibility offered as a suggestion earlier this year by Maikousis during one of his pre-recorded briefings to the members. 

Unsurprisingly, the board's starting and/or preferred position seemed to be that 2020 members should pay the regular rate of membership dues. The supporters in attendance tended to veer to the opposite view, but there was also the suggestion made by some supporters that 2020 members could pay a discounted rate of $50, which is analogous to the rate paid by active life members. It will of course be interesting to see what the board settles on, because I don't think they were all that thrilled with the $50 amount. 

At the same time, the pandemic has impacted people in a variety of ways, and of course the club should take that into consideration, not forgetting also that apart from the shortened season, we only got two home games in anyway. One member managed to articulate the question that seemed to have hitherto gone unspoken; that being the question of establishing goodwill from the board's part. I assume we'll find out what the board finally settle on in the new year.

But generating goodwill between the board and ordinary members, however difficult, needs to be a top priority. The relationship between the late Athanasakis-era board and the ordinary supporter got to a frankly poisonous stage. Goodwill takes a lot of time to build up, and mere seconds to destroy.

On to the matter of the National Second Division. There will be a white paper released (I think) next month. The club is of the position that it would prefer a 2022 start, but it seems we could end up with a 2023 start. Some people from the floor were less optimistic than even that. Assuming we get in to the NSD of course! So much yet remains to be made official that it is difficult to talk with any certainty about the future of promotion-relegation and a National Second Division. 

COVID has thrown its own spanner in the works, including creating realignments within the balance of power of Australian soccer, probably weakening almost everyone, but some groups more than others. Using my powers of discretion I won't elaborate too much on the thoughts of Maikousis on the scheme as a whole, except to say: 

• that the goal remains for South to enter such a competition at the earliest opportunity.
• that despite the high degree of interest from clubs around the country in participating in a National Second Division, that the cost of doing so may prove to be more prohibitive than people would like.

The NSD is not a favourite topic of mine, in part because I acknowledge that I am largely incapable of understanding and assessing the merits of what is being proposed as it relates to the scheme's practicality. I recognise my deficiencies in matters of finance, accounting, and logistics, and leave these matters to people who have more information than I do, and hopefully comprehend it to a suitable level.

Ah, there I go apologising for dodging the question again. One observation of mine from a cultural perspective, is that the goal of establishing an NSD along with promotion-relegation to all tiers, is that such a scheme is in a race against the desires of the extant A-League licence holders. Who will get to their promised land first, and will the imminent unbundling of the A-League from Football Australia bring riches or disaster upon the house of A-League?

And my goodness, until this pandemic business gets sorted out, and the top-flight's long-term broadcast deal with it, there's too many variables. But I digress. 

 

While it appears certain that our first game of the 2021 season will be played away at Heidelberg, the club seemed hopeful that it would still manage to get two home games within the first six rounds of the coming season. From what I understand from a sidebar conversation I had during the meeting, the 2021 fixture is more or less settled.

There has been a mutual and apparently amicable termination of the social club catering arrangement with the lease holder. The club is exploring its options on that front.

It appears that the taekwondo folk could end up hiring the futsal court space for some time yet, providing a welcome medium term revenue source to the club.

There were a brief mention of the improved relationship with the Trust, and the soon be signed deal for the pavillion down at Middle Park.

That about covers the main points of the meeting. 

Notes from the 2019 AGM

As tends to happen, my recollection of Sunday's events will be based less upon the order in which things happened, but more so via theme.

The two AGMs - South Melbourne Hellas and South Melbourne FC - were held back to back without a break. Proceedings started on time, and finished after about an hour and a half. The mood was neither sombre nor muted, but neither was it particularly combative (except for one gentleman). Missing also from the AGM was any sense of mirth - often times during the Leo Athanasakis years, no matter how riled up the members would get, there'd usually be at least one joke that would come out and leave everybody a little less upset.

But welcome to South Melbourne in 2019, where the AGMs - for the time being at least - are likely to be more serious in form and content.

Elections were held for both boards, and the results were the same for both committees - the same eleven nominees filling the eleven vacancies. There were some new names replacing some old names, as well as replacing a few names I didn't recognise.

There was not a huge attendance, which was as expected considering the timing of the event just a few days before Christmas, but apparently there were enough in attendance to form a quorum for both meetings; though there was quibbling about whether a quorum for a South Melbourne Hellas AGM is a set number or a percentage of the membership, which is for someone to go through and check at some point. For the board's part, it was noted that they had promised the 2019 AGM would be held before Christmas, and they followed through on that promise, despite some self-admitted duress in fulfilling that promise.

There were several notable absentees in terms of our supporters, but there were also a few notable missing board members - I'm thinking specifically here of football director Andrew Mesourouni. Or maybe I just didn't recognise everyone's face. Of the board members present, only president Nick Maikousis, chairman Bill Papastergiadis, and treasurer/secretary Mario Vinaccia were involved in providing extensive reports on their portfolios; even the election returning officer Skip Fulton was heard from more than most of the other board members.

There was a moment taken early on to acknowledge Ange Postecoglou's success in winning the J-League title. The club's chief sponsors were also thanked.

It's a cliche to say so, but 2019 was unequivocally a transitional year for the club. In 2019 we were still coming out from the other side of the Chris Taylor sacking, including shedding even more of the senior players who had been with us during that successful period; the women's team also lost a swathe of experience and talent, and went through a number of coaches; and this AGM came after the first full season since the end of the 11-year presidency of Leo Athanasakis, who was not present at this meeting.

Despite not being officially the club's treasurer during his presidency, in the past few seasons Athanasakis would nevertheless perform the duties of providing the treasurer's report, which certainly had some people asking in the past (and in the present) what was the point of even having a treasurer if Leo was going to provide the report? Anyway, now that Mario Vinaccia is unequivocally the club's treasurer (as well as club secretary, which does seem like one job too many), we received what was promoted as a financial report that was prepared by the named treasurer.

To that end, Vinaccia provided what was perceived by the members as being a 'more' thorough report of the club's accounts than perhaps they were accustomed to. Turnover was down by a noticeable amount, but this also took into account a number of factors.

• There were fewer functions, and these functions tended to raise less revenue.
• The impact of live streaming and the senior men's team's erratic form.
• The fact that the previous season's financial report also included the somewhat artificial boost of the FFA Cup run (which included several home games aside from the Sydney FC one), and the Guangzhou R&F visit and its associated function.
• The decline in prize money from the lack of the men's team's success.
• The shift from running the social club ourselves, to outsourcing its operation to an outside operator.
• The discovery, via a thorough audit of the club's accounts by Vinaccia and the club's long term auditor, of what could at best be called 'previously unknown/undiscovered' debts.

This audit, which took the entire year to undertake, has made the board much more aware of what its financial position actually is. As for the debt taken out by the club to finish off the construction of the social club, the club is aiming to pay that off next year. It will, of course, be interesting to see what the club's books look like without that bank debt, and with a second year of this administration looking after the books.

Circa 2021/2022, the club's annual stipend from the government is due to be reduced, and thus progress will need to be made to make up the shortfall that will eventuate. Nevertheless, the board emphasised the control of signage at the ground, and its renewed efforts to attract more sponsorship and corporate support, as part of the club's overall efforts to remain fiscally healthy. The club has also seemingly made a more sincere effort in applying for grants, and it is investigating the possibility of what might be achieved via the Australian Sports Foundation.

In terms of the club's operating structure, it was mentioned that all board members will also now be directors, though for some reason I was under the assumption that that was meant to be the case anyway. Another element of the club's pivot away from the Athanasakis-era Triumvirate style operation is a proliferation of sub-committee and advisory type arrangements. There were several well researched questions asked from one member about lax record keeping at the club in terms of governance structures, as well as associated regulatory compliance - this line of questioning was good in that it was not merely accusations of poor internal mechanisms, but also letting the club know where and how it could improve, what needed to be remedied.

As had been noted at an earlier members forum held by the club, Football Victoria's live streaming has cost the club significantly on the match day revenue front. While there have been some minor cost savings in our media department because of the live streaming, they have not been near enough to making up for lost match day revenue.

Cutting the costs of hosting during senior men's match days is part of the rationale of moving our games to Fridays and Saturdays, and the under 20s out to Darebin. The SSCT staff costs, as well as that of security, accrues significant penalty rates for weekends, especially Sundays. However, another part of the rationale for the shift in days is an attempt to attract more corporate support.

The club begun the process of holding more frequent member information nights and forums, and the plan is to hold the next one around March. It is arguable that these non-AGM sessions also cut down on the time spent at an AGM, and hence in part the short duration of this meeting. There will be a renewed focus on club functions, miniroos, and attempting to restart/revive a past player association. These elements are important not just from a revenue raising standpoint, but from the point of view also of trying to revive the sense of South Melbourne being a 'club' in the true sense, after years in which it could be argued that these matters had been left to deteriorate to an unacceptable degree.

Among the other things discussed. The departure of senior women's team coach Mick Gallo was explained as being more or less due to irreconcilable differences - in this case the club had one view of what Gallo's role should be, and Gallo had another. A Dorothy Dixer from the floor asked what money the club had spent in its A-League bid - with the answer being, for the record, 'zero' - the bid was funded by several board members of their own volition.

Apart from the need to rejuvenate our Miniroos component, there were no reports on the health of our youth system - with the exception of noting that we were close to securing some kind of deal with Parks Victoria with regards to the pavilion near fields 18 and 19 in Albert Park.

There was no discussion about prospective player signings for either the men's or women's team. There was a question about the process that led to Esteban Quintas being appointed senior men's coach for 2020, with the answer being that the club considered that he was the best available to the cub at this point in time. Discussion on the appropriateness of hiring the inexperienced (from a coaching point of view) Luke Adams as an assistant coach more or less went around in circles.

 There were no firm commitments as to where the club hoped to finish on the table next season. There was little talk of the proposed second division and/or promotion and relegation. Maikousis stated that it was the board's aim to hold the next AGM by the end of November next year, in line with constitutional requirements, legal requirements, and the expectations of members.

2019 SMFC and SMH AGM dates announced

The annual general meeting for South Melbourne Hellas has been announced for Sunday, 22nd December, at 11:00am, in the social club. This will be followed by the South Melbourne FC AGM at 11:45am.

It remains unacceptable that the AGMs will once again be held so late in the year; insult has been added to this case, by seemingly just 45 minutes being made available for the first meeting. 

Notes from the 2018 AGM

Another year, another overdue AGM.

Held in the social club on Thursday night, this one kicked off to a poor-to-middling turnout, depending on your point of view of 30-40 attendees. But since our quorum is apparently a mere 20 members for a meeting to be valid, we were in no danger of not having it go ahead.

This was president Leo Athanasakis' last AGM as president. During the meeting, he officially handed over the reigns over to Nick Maikousis. Gabrielle Giuliano is the new vice-president, and there were some new board members who will join the board following the AGM.

Bill Papastergiadis is chairman now, and unlike previous board members holding that role in recent years, he attempted and largely succeeded in ruling the evening with an iron fist. More on that later.

Of the two AGMs to be held on the night. the South Melbourne Hellas AGM was first, as is customary; and is also custom for these AGM reports, I will not report on everything as it happened, but rather group the varying matters by theme.

Financials
Taking into account that the data presented is now seven months out of date, our financial position seemed reasonably steady, but keep in mind that I'm no accountant. The club had a turnover of over $2 million, up from $1.8 million from the previous financial year. It was the first time the club's financial turnover has gone over $2 million since the NSL.

The club made a small surplus of about $10,000. The club claims that its debts have been reduced, and that it is making an effort to eradicate those debts as quickly as possible. Although there was an overall reduction in our debt levels, there was an increase in director loans. When it was asked from the floor whether these director loans would attract interest, the answer was 'no'. When I asked, only half-jokingly, whether there were actual paper contracts to make sure of this - to avoid a repeat of the Toumbourou affair from a few years ago - the answer was 'yes'.

The club earned about $110,000 from the Sydney FC FFA Cup game from 2017. It was noted that our former major sponsor, Luvarc - whose current operating state seems a bit iffy to this observer - does owe us money, and that we are seeking to recoup the owed monies.

The club's ongoing enterprise as a provider of school programs is providing what seems like a steady stream of income; in effect, we are diversifying the business, functioning in part as an education and training provider.

There was little discussion that I can recall - or at any rate, discussion that ended up in my notes - about other sources of income, including the use of the social club and futsal court. This was a bit strange, considering the outsourcing of the social and futsal court to an outside operator who was there on the night, as well as the hiring of the futsal court to the taekwondo people who've been using it for their elite training purposes, and who were again there later in the evening. Perhaps this will count for more in the next AGM.

In terms of our ongoing government stipend, there are eleven years left of the current funding arrangement, with approximately $2.5 million due to us at the present rate - keep in mind though, that the stipend is attached to CPI, and thus it will increase over the remainder of that time. It is worth noting - as was clarified by the board in response to a question from the floor -  that our Lakeside lease period is separate from our government income period. The stipend is counted as having begun before the lease agreement was put in place.

When the funding agreement comes to an end in eleven years, there will be the opportunity to renegotiate a new funding agreement, or to seek alternative pathways which were a little unclear to me in how they would operate - something about going to market. The fact that there was the possibility of this funding arrangement continuing was news to me, as I'd assumed that once the initial funding period was over, that would be it.

Governance
As noted earlier, this was Leo Athanasakis' last AGM as president before stepping down. There had been some suggestion among members of the hoi polloi that Athanasakis may have sought to remain on the board, but this is apparently not the case.

Tass Roufos and Peter Kokotis have joined the board. Roufos' company, Commercial and General, will be the club's major sponsor this season. It was also noted that Roufos' strength will be in networking and government liaison work. Peter Kokotis, a former general manager of the club, will be the (senior men's?) football director. In seeking clarification on an earlier press release on the matter, it was made clear that Kokotis is a director, and not an employee of the club.

Even if it was not explicitly stated on the night, much of what happened with regards to the relevant board changes seemed to be an attempt to show that an orderly transition of power had occurred between Leo and his successor. Even more subtly, there was an attempt to emphasise matters of culture and professionalism.

To that end, it was admitted that while on this occasion a late AGM was unavoidable - though why it was unavoidable was not explained - the board will be renewing efforts to hold AGMs in a more timely fashion. This was just one of a range of procedural matters of concern to some members; communication with members was another one, especially with regards to the lengths to which the club does (or doesn't) go in order to inform members of an AGM.

Now admittedly mass mail-outs are expensive, especially when you have ongoing issues with databases - another problem which is going to be solved, or so it has been claimed, again. And they are also problematic when long absent life members (of which we have many) have not updated their postal details, and thus much of the mail-out gets sent back return to sender".

There was some movement in terms of staff, with some old faces back in media and/or merchandise. The club has also hired a new full-time administrative kind of person. Technical director Strati Xynas is also moving on soon, so we will need to find someone for that role as well.

The next AGM will coincide with elections. As usual, it will be interesting to see if anything happens on this front; it usually doesn't.

Women's
Gabrielle Giuliano once again presented the women's report. Giuliano noted that while overall the women's wing of the club had done well in producing talent both for external sources and internally, the results of the various teams could've been better, and she set the very lofty ambition of wanting to win everything available in 2019. Giuliano also noted that the 'one club' process was still ongoing, as matters such as assets and such still had to be dealt with.

Perhaps most curiously, after a couple of years of taking a backseat during AGMs, Gabby put forward an unusually frank and forthright statement asking for respect for board members (and vice-versa), and that there needed to be a raising of behavioural standards across the board at the club; again, hinting towards the broader cultural change the board is seeking to implement. This statement was also coupled with a call-out for more volunteers from the members.

Youth
Andrew Mesourouni gave this presentation, which was just about his only contribution to the night's proceedings. This was unusual, as Andrew usually has a bit more to say on a variety of matters at an AGM.

The news that Mike Valkanis was working with us from overseas was a bit of a surprise when it was announced last year; at Thursday's meeting it was revealed that Valkanis approached us about working with him. There was some discussion about potentially facilitating the move of talented boys through Valkanis' Dutch connections. I wait to see what this will look like.

As usual, there was a reiteration of the standard desire and/or aim of having players coming through from our juniors to our the seniors, which we have historically not been good at.

Senior men's team
The board was upfront with the fact that it had chased John Anastasiadis hard for the senior men's coaching gig, and that Con Tangalakis was a gentleman in how he conducted himself during that time. Tangalakis will be on a three year deal with bonuses and renewal of his contract to be judged annually, based on predetermined KPIs.

Player wage costs will come down, but apparently that was not a priority when making our signings for 2019. Wage creep and bonuses had meant that the cost of the former squad crept up over a number of years; in some ways, this new squad is an attempt (again) at a refresh - new, younger talent, but also ridding ourselves of a player culture that had suffered significant deterioration. To emphasise again the attempt at a cultural change off field and on, it was noted that part of our recruitment was on players "of good character with good habits".

Another key word with regards to the senior squad was that it was going to be 'competitive'. When asked for a more explicit expectation - specifically whether the aim was to make finals - the answer was 'yes'.

Other observations
The two meetings went for about an hour and a half in total. The first meeting started only a little late, and the second meeting started before its listed start time of 8:00pm. We were more or less done by 7:45pm. I can't remember the last time that South Melbourne AGMs were over so quickly - there often even used to be an intermission for a smoke break, and the combined SMH and SMFC meetings could take three or more hours to complete.

Much of this was down to the control exerted over the meeting by chairman Bill Papastergiadis. Where in the past questions, comments, and comments posing as questions would fly freely from the floor, this time much of this phenomenon was nipped in the bud. This was done via calls to adhere to due process - in this case, there being no formal "other business of which due notice shall have been given".

While the chairman did acquiesce to a degree to allow some questioning, it's a signal to members of the club that they will need to be more organised and prepared to deal with a board that, at least on face-value, will seek to adhere more closely to "the rules". While woefully unprepared myself for such a shift in approach from the board, I was a bit surprised that members who were involved in off-site supporter meetings last year didn't have anything prepared for these AGMs.

That lack of preparation was reflective of a sort of defeated, lacklustre mood in the room on Thursday night. While some of the usual suspects did their thing, asking some good questions about governance, financials, and member communications, the feeling in the room was a largely subdued one. A disinterested and disillusioned membership is a not a good thing, and one of the key tasks for the revamped board will be to find ways to energise the membership base.

Things left largely unsaid
There was very little said about the A-League bid, except for two things. First, that the club would maintain a commitment to participation in a summer competition, whatever that means. Second, that Ross Pelligra - the would be major private investor of a South Melbourne A-League bid - had misspoken when he said in a recent interview that the club would be re-branded for acceptance into the A-League.

There was no discussion about plans for celebrating the club's 60th anniversary. There was little discussion about last year's issues with the senior men's team, apart from subtle references about culture. A question about what the difference was between a "director" and a "board member" - apparently everyone on the board is a director, when in the past that wasn't always the case - highlighted that even very basic elements of the club's organisation need to be clarified, especially if it has legal and regulatory ramifications.

Oh my goodness, it's 2019

2018 Annual General Meeting announced
Late as per usual. The club put a notice up on its website. You may have received an email. I'm not sure if the club sends out letters anymore for this kind of thing. If you haven't received due notification and you think that you should have, I'd get on to the club pretty quickly if I were you.

Anyway, both the South Melbourne Hellas and South Melbourne FC AGMs have been set down for Thursday January 31st, in the social club. The SMH one starts at 6:00PM, and the SMFC one at 8:00PM.

As screen-capped from the club's Instagram page.

Club launches 60th anniversary logo
As they did in 2009 for the club's 50th anniversary, the club has launched a special logo for the club's 60th anniversary, And as was the case back then, so too this time have the calls been made for this logo to replace our current effort.

For whatever it's worth, I agree with those sentiments, not least because the current logo looks dated, but more so for the fact that it doesn't really say anything. Of course those hoping to make a variant of this logo our new logo must understand that its very clear references to our Greek heritage make that idea very difficult to pursue at this time.

As with the example of the 50th anniversary commemorative logo (see right), this logo is probably a) a co-logo, not a replacement one and b) almost certainly done with the cooperation of Football Victoria to get around certain 'issues' to do with the National Club Identity Policy - issues which would likely be more difficult to deal with were we to decide
to make it our permanent logo.

Still, let's be happy that it looks good, and let's hope too that it won't be the only thing done by the club to commemorate our 60th anniversary.

Oh yes, how careless of me, I forgot to mention...
...that at least year's Christmas party, I met the bloke to whom the club has outsourced the operation of the social club and futsal court, the big news of which is that the club has outsourced the operation of the social club and futsal court in its entirety. Now, it could be that in the two weeks since I found that detail out that the club or the presumptive operator have changed their minds, but I haven't heard anything like that.

2019 SMFC senior squad roster as of 05/01/2019
There was a rumour that Ndumba Makeche had joined Penang in Malaysia. Wherever he ends up, it's pretty certain that he won't be at South this year.

Signed

• Dean Bereveskos (Bonnyrigg White Eagles) 
• Kristian Konstantinidis (signed until end of 2019) 
• Nick Krousoratis (Green Gully) 
• Perry Lambropoulos (Port Melbourne) 
• Brad Norton (signed until end of 2019) 
• Gerrie Sylaidos (Northcote) 

Seen hanging around pre-season training

• Luke Adams 
• Manny Aguek 
• Alistair Bray 
• Ben Djiba 
• George Howard 
• Tim Mala 
• Giordano Marafioti 
• Giuseppe Marafioti 
• Jake Marshall
• Andrew Mesorouni
• Leigh Minopoulos 
• Nikola Roganovic 
• Marcus Schroen 

Rumoured

• Visa player no. 1 (English striker) 
• Visa player no. 2 (Canadian midfielder) 

Injured

• Alastair Bray 

Out

• Rory Brian (Preston) 
• Matthew Foschini (Oakleigh) 
• Josh Hodes (Oakleigh?) 
• Christos Intzidis (who knows) 
• Milos Lujic (Oakleigh) 
• Oliver Minatel (who knows) 
• Ndumba Makeche (Penang FA?) 

Unknown / MIA / Assumed dead from 2018

• Iqi Jawadi 
• Will Orford

Notes from the 2017 AGM

The 2017 AGM was destined to be dominated by the linked issues of the social club/bistro/futsal court operation, the club's overall commercial strategy, and the club's finances, and this is what happened. Other issues - membership value, the quality of the team, even perhaps the ongoing issues with the operation of the various Lakeside leases - fell into the background, or did not get any time at all.

The timing and organisation of the event - midweek, 6:00PM, and moved from the social club to presidents room at short notice - was not just "not ideal"; it was breathtakingly poor behaviour for a club owned by its members. I do not understand why the club cannot hold an AGM by late November of the relevant year, on a weekend, and at a reasonable hour so we don't have to rush through everything. That's not an argument by the way for AGMs to go on forever, but the relatively limited time allocated and the tendency of some of our AGMs to descend into shouting matches means that some of the more important and particular issues I would have liked to have seen discussed did not happen.

Having an AGM seven months after the end of a financial year also means that the information provided in financial statements is also woefully out of date. Questions and presentations about the club's financial performance frequently consisted of two parts - the information as it was presented in the financial report, and if not quite "top of the head" answers then at least answers requiring a board member to recall from memory and do mental arithmetic to discuss our current financial position.

I don't know what our quorum is either, but at the start of the meeting it was dangerously close to not being met. A few later arrivals trickled in during the meeting, but it was one of the poorest attendances for many years. Considering last year's attendance was a bumper session - all seats taken up and about a dozen people standing at the back - I can only think that the timing of the meeting, along with the higher price of a social club membership, took its toll on attendance. Most board members were in attendance, except for Bill Papastergiadis (in China) and Nick Maikoussis (personal engagement).

As I've also made clear a number of times over the years, for better or worse, unless a rival ticket emerges to challenge this continually mutating iteration of the South Melbourne Hellas board, we continue to function as a club at its mercy. That doesn't mean we should go easy on the board or adopt a strident and self-serving cynicism (the latter of which is a habit I'm all too aware that I can fall into), but we can't pretend that the situation is any other way.

Finances
For this year at least, I'm finding it difficult to separate these issue of the financial position of the club from the futsal court and bistro; indeed, it will probably be impossible to ever separate them again, since the social club is now at the heart of our hopes for future prosperity, unless we somehow end up in the A-League.

The club recorded a small profit (about $17,000) from normal activities, and a much larger profit due to abnormal activity - namely, receiving the remainder of the allocated government grant money for the completion of the social club. To complete the social club however, the club also borrowed close to $700,000 (in various arrangements which I did not completely understand), which brought the total cost of the project close to the $1.5 million mark.

Here is where the majority of the AGM's controversy began. Some members bemoaned what they considered to be excessive borrowing, especially considering we had just managed to pay off our previous outstanding debts (specifically the Toumbourou debt, but also the cash flow issues of mid 2017). The club's argument went something like this - you need to spend money in order to make money, and the extra spending on the completion of the social club was both necessary, and added value to the project.

The club also stated that because of the donation of labour and materials, the overall value of the project was twice what it cost us to build, though I do not believe any formal valuation of the work has been made. The main loan has been guaranteed by three of the club's directors, and the club aims to pay it off in three years time (four years overall). Removing the cloud of pre-existing biases and personal grudges that flavoured the discussion, the main point of difference in the discussion seemed to be one of emphasis. Either this was reckless behaviour by the club, or it was necessary to properly finish off the social club space.

Honestly, I'm not confident enough or knowledgeable to take a stand either way. That's not me trying to hedge my bets - I honestly don't know how all this will turn out.

Bistro
The club characterised the operation of the bistro in its first year as a learning experience. I'd be somewhat less charitable about that, but it's best to move on to some of the specifics. The club decided (by its own admission, without any sign of an obvious plan) to run a full-time restaurant operation, believing that foot traffic from the local area, along with patronage from South Melbourne Hellas members outside match days, would magically happen.

As I have noted elsewhere, one could easily see how this approach was doomed to fail. For starters, compared to Clarendon Street and its surrounds - with its many and varied dining options - the South Melbourne social club will never be a pop-in option for people. Most locals would not know that it exists, and considering that the club or whoever was responsible for promoting it conducted minimal advertising for the social club even to South members and social media followers, how were people outside the club supposed to find the space?

Likewise, most of our members do not live near anywhere Lakeside, making visits to the social club outside match days and club events extremely unlikely. That the club thought it would be otherwise shows an incredible amount of naivety or pigheadedness. Nevertheless, the club has attempted to spin this attempt at a full-time bistro operation as a worthy experiment which did not quite work, but which has at least yielded a certain amount of quantifiable data, consisting not only of sales, but also of consumer habits.

The more successful bistro trading days were specific club nights - especially during the junior season, including gala days - and early on in the social club's life, bolstered no doubt by the keenness of South fans to actually experience a home social club again. The club has decided therefore that "events" is where it's at for the social club, both South Melbourne oriented events and cases where we can hire the bistro space out to outside groups.

It was explained that the leaving of the previous venue manager was essentially by mutual agreement, because the goals of the two sides were no longer compatible. The club will run the bistro for the time being, with the option of outsourcing the bistro to an outside party an option which the club will consider, now that it has some understanding of how the social club space works, and what kind of turnover it can achieve.

Futsal court
The futsal court suffered from similar issues to the bistro - lack of awareness, advertising, foot traffic - as well as some different issues. The club had been made an offer by an outside entity to run the futsal court, which was declined for similar reasons (and on similar grounds of research and planning).

The club's best days for the futsal court were Wednesdays where they had a competition running, and on Saturdays, where the club ran a junior comp involving several different club sides. Outside out of that however, apart from the occasional hiring out of the futsal court to outside parties, the primary usage of the court was by our juniors as part of their training schedule.

Our juniors using the court is obviously one of the reasons the court was built, and it's good that they use it on a regular basis. However as noted by some in the meeting (and previous meetings) the court takes up a very large amount of space, and needs to work hard to earn its own keep. There is still potential for the court's operation to at least be partly outsourced outside of the hours it's used our juniors, but I fancy this will be of limited appeal to an outside operator.

No mention was made of the maintenance costs for the futsal court.

State Sport Centres Trust
The club claims the relationship between itself and the SSCT is reasonably good at the moment. Of course we all know that can change at an instant and under the slightest bit of duress.

More importantly, the club has renegotiated parts of its agreement with the Trust over the costs of ground hire and renumeration. Rather than the previous crowd percentage based payment made to the Trust, the club has moved to a fixed fee payment for use of Lakeside on match days. There was also a similar agreement made in the event that we ever played in the A-League.

As noted last year, the club has also negotiated to take over food and drink service outside the social club area on South Melbourne match days, and on days where parties hiring the venue for soccer (such as FFV) are amenable to us providing the food services.

In order to do this, the club has given up some of the monthly stipend it receives from the government as part of our tenure at Lakeside. Whether this will be a worthwhile move in the short term remains to be seen. In the medium to long term, the stipend will eventually end, and thus getting on the front foot on this matter seems like a good idea.

Cost-cutting
Among the cost-cutting measures there were two which stood out to me. First was staffing, some of which has been explained in previous posts in passing. This is mostly based around office and social club staffing. A number of staffing re-arrangements have been made. In the office, a sponsor liaison has been hired, while media and events positions have been ended or downgraded. There was no word on whether there were outstanding wages or superannuation due to former and current employees.

Likewise, as the club has moved away from the full-time restaurant model for the bistro, the staffing situation there has changed to I guess what would be best termed as an 'at needs' basis, and there are no plans to hire a full-time venue manager as a replacement for Phil. What this means in terms of the extra match days (the South women's NPL fixture is now completely separate from the men's match days), volunteers/interns, etc, I do not know.

The second cost saving measure was the switch from Puma to Kappa, which is set to save us about $40,000 across all of our teams. No comment on whether merchandise for the fans will arrive on time for our first home game. Each year our merchandise and kit deals get touted as something quite special and full of promise, and each year regardless of whose fault it is, it doesn't seem to work out that way. This is one area where it always comes down to praxis over theory.

Football
As far as the senior men's team goes, there is one bit of news that will please many of us - the Spanish experiment is over! There seems to have been a belated realisation of the difficulty of getting a Spanish player that is fit, has enough English to communicate properly, and can adapt culturally to Australian soccer. To that end, a question was cast over whether utilising visa spots at an NPL level was even worthwhile, with the answer being that unless it was someone of the calibre of Jaime Reed, it may perhaps be a waste of time.

It's implied every year that we (fans and board) want more of our own juniors getting a senior gig, but this year that desire seemed a little bit more sincere from the board's point of view. It was noted that while the club would've liked to have promoted more of its own youth, the quality wasn't there in previous years. This year though? Players that have been under this junior system for five or so years were on the cusp of making a breakthrough, or so we're told. The proof is always in the pudding on that one though.

Confirmation that Tim Mala had retired (whether for this year only, or permanently, it was not said), and that Jesse Daley has also left us to go back to Queensland. No definitive statements made about new players signed, though the club was confident of soon securing the services of several of the players trialling with us. (and Neos Kosmos did have an article yesterday about goalkeeper Alistair Bray signing with us)

Gabrielle Giuliano made a brief presentation on the women's teams (NPL and state league) and the success they had in 2017. When questioned about "how much money was wasted on the women's team?", she replied "not as much as the men's", which defused the question but also brought a good measure of laughter to the room.

I asked whether it was true that senior men's team manager Frank Piccione had stepped down/retired, and this was confirmed by Mesourouni. I would personally like to wish Frank all the best, and hope to see him around the club in some capacity, as he's one of the nicest and funniest blokes around the club.

The club continues to make attempts to break into the schools market, offering the services of its coaches (for a fee of course) and hoping to gain the use of some of the participating schools' grounds in return (especially for our times away from Lakeside). One member was angry that the club (according to him) had not made any attempt to get any Greek schools on board for these programs, to which the answer was that those Greek schools approached did not want to pay (or could not afford) the cost of the service being offered; there was disputation on whether any Greek secondary schools had been approached at all.

Playing facilities (outdoor)
The question about access to Lakeside was asked, and why we were again away for so many games to start the season. The answer for this season's predicament provides an interesting example of the complications we have to deal with. As the start of the soccer season starts outside our priority period at Lakeside, as well as coinciding with athletics' major events and the grand prix, this year we worked with the relevant parties at Lakeside to book in the week of February 18th for our first home game.

Unfortunately, FFV decided this year to push the start of the NPL season back a week; and thus with athletics having their major events at the end of February and early March, the necessity of pitch repairs following that, then the grand prix - and then Orthodox Easter - it was almost impossible to hold a game early in the season. No one denies that this is far from an ideal situation on so many fronts, but it seems that there's little that can be done. The women's team is effected in pretty much the same way. (it will be interesting to see how the ground holds up under the weight over senior and reserves men on consecutive days as the season develops).

The club is hopeful of at least having a better situation in terms of its temporary training options this year, but opinions on this will differ. Players and coaches have in the past been quite open with their dissatisfaction with the alternative training grounds provided for them. At least this season, thanks to the World Cup, we are unlikely to see a midyear disruption to our access of Lakeside due to the arrival of any touring teams.

In better news, our allocated turf grounds in Albert Park are apparently in the best condition they've been in for a long time, now that they have proper drainage. Here's hoping that they manage to survive through the season in decent shape. It was also noted that the lights for those grounds are among the worst in the precinct. I'm not sure what action was going to be taken to improve that situation.

I asked the question about how the club was dealing with the Albert Park Master Plan, but I was not satisfied with the answer given, which I found to be vague at best. As one of the biggest clubs (if not the biggest) in the Albert Park precinct, there's a chance here not only for improved grounds, but also perhaps more grounds, should the golf course be reduced from 18 to 9 holes.

A-League bid
The A-League bid is stalled for the time being because of the mess that is FFA, FIFA, and the matter of the National Congress. On this matter, the club remains confident that it can snare one of the expansion places in part due to the belief that:

• Melbourne and Sydney are the most desirable commercial options for expansion.
• the board do not believe that Brisbane will receive a second team.
• the board do not believe that the Victorian Government will invest in building new stadiums for Dandenong and Geelong, preferring to work with and/or improving Lakeside.

In the matter of the Roberto Carlos gala night, it was confirmed that the event did lose money, but it was claimed that the exercise was nevertheless extremely worthwhile. The loss was covered by three of our board members of their own volition; whether this was decided before or after the event lost money, it was not made clear.

Second division
As usual, it's a matter of wait and see. The club says that while it is a keen participant and observer in the AAFC and second division processes, it is not necessarily at the forefront or aiming to be the public face of these things. The club also played down the expectation that we were likely to see at first a second with promotion/relegation to the top tier, but instead were initially likely to see a truly national second tier connected to the state leagues. Wait and see, as per usual.

Closing comments
You have to expect that any South Melbourne Hellas AGM can lose time in personality clashes, statements instead of questions, and argumentative periods. Still, it is what is for lack of a better cliché. I don't know if the club's on the right track or not, and I don't even want to kid myself that I'm qualified to make a judgement either way.

Thanks to whoever the anonymous poster was who left all the questions in the comments. I'd done zero preparation for this AGM, thinking to maybe type up a quick list on the day of the AGM, but it was easier to just copy, paste and print what you'd provided. Funny how a great deal of the questions seemed to coincide with what the board covered, though not everything got covered. Where was the mention of Skip Fulton joining the board? Oh well.

Anonymous' question regarding the "South in Business'\" coterie unfortunately didn't get a run, and the board did not bring this up. This was particularly disappointing in light of that I didn't get to ask (in the meeting; I did get to have a very brief chat later) about what if any efforts the club had made to make use of the Australian Sports Foundation. Soccer does very poorly when it comes to making use of the ASF, and while FFV has made some attempts in recent times to get its clubs to get on board that programme, it's disappointing that South is apparently not one of those clubs.

There was also an absence of membership questions, discussion about how to make Lakeside (the arena area and the social club) feel more like home. The lesson from that is (and one which I have neglected) that in future if one wants to have a topic covered, they better submit it for general business in writing in the weeks leading up to the meeting after the AGM is announced.

I'll try and do better next time around.

If I've forgotten anything, or if you were there and wish to prompt me about something, feel free to add your two cents in the comments.