The Hydra ~ Caro rears her head again

[scoobydoo]

Whens this EGM

[scoobydoo]

And you wonder why they don’t let everyone vote

[CP]

In fairness to Barrie Cassidy, there hasn't been an election for the most recent 23 of his 37 years as a member.

[Lone Ranger]

What nonsense from Barrie Cassidy.

I joined the social club in 1990. In those days, you had to be recommended by a current social club member, seconded, and undergo an interview.
That made you a "member".

Before that I was a "season ticket holder" and later became a "season ticket holder with reserved seats".
It was crystal clear back then that season ticket holders were not members.

Anyone could buy a Season Ticket, but you couldn't just pay to become a Member.

At some point a Collingwood "member" versus what the AFL calls club members got blurred. Collingwood should have always made the distinction between a member and season ticket holder crystal clear and they havent.
Even this years membership site doesnt state what is a full member with voting rights.

But Barrie Cassidy saying he did not know he was not a member 37 years ago ... nonsense.

[jackcass]

So there is nothing actually preventing a current voting member presenting a motion at the AGM supporting Season ticket holders right to become voting members? If this is the case, isn’t it an easy solution of putting together a motion on this issue and letting the democratic voting process take its course?

The people making the motion and voting on it would be the people who qualify to vote under the current rules

Bit like telling the suffragettes to let the men vote on whether women should be allowed to vote or not

Isn’t that what happened?

[jackcass]

Do you know what you have now? You have twelve and half actual members of the CFC, which is the smallest AFL membership and the other 70,000 are the ones who say they barrack for Collingwood and receive a cap and a scarf each year from the club. So keep enjoying the illusion that the CFC is the biggest membership in Australia.

12.5 actual members….. Interesting. That is low, thought there were thousands of voting members.

[jackcass]

I'm with you on this MBFC. The elitist culture at Collingwood is strangling us imo. Unfortunately, I'm not convinced that Browne and co represent the new broom we desperately need.

Is it elitist to have a standard to qualification for voting rights? How would the club be improved if every mug punter got a vote? How does our club compare with others?

[jackcass]

[quote="Magpie Russ"][quote="jackcass"][quote="Lazza"]

Absolute garbage from Barrie. FFS after 37 bloody years is it just now that he realised that he couldn’t vote on that membership? WTF? He didn’t know that he could merely upgrade his membership to secure voting rights? Really? I have always liked Barrie and his leftist political views but on this issue he is being a silly moron

[Rd10.1998_11.1#36]

^^Those people wouldn’t necessarily vote just because they had the right to. It’s not mandatory like state and federal elections. I’m not even sure if there is a mail-in vote or you have to attend the AGM in person

Wonder why this mess never happened under Ed.

Because there weren’t any elections. Only unopposed nominations by the existing board (read: Ed)

And you wonder why they don’t let everyone vote

No, I wonder why they don’t let more people vote than the current 15% of people whom the club terms members. Generally speaking, attempts to limit the number of people who can or will vote are designed to hold on to power

[Rd10.1998_11.1#36]

Is it elitist to have a standard to qualification for voting rights?

Yes, if it’s based on financial capacity or membership of a coterie

How would the club be improved if every mug punter got a vote?

It’s called democracy and enfranchisement. We’re talking about voting at AGMs not making recruiting on financial decisions. Conversely, how would the club be harmed?

As I said, it would also increase the potential pool for club employees, and avoid the necessity for exemptions for board members. I know you don't have a problem with the latter, but some people do and either way it's certainly created additional negative noise

How does our club compare with others?

As I mentioned earlier, Hawthorn allow all season ticket holders to vote. You know, the club who 3peated recently. At the other end of the scale, West Coast is privately owned and members don’t have a say in anything. Who would you prefer we emulate?

[Rd10.1998_11.1#36]

Bit like telling the suffragettes to let the men vote on whether women should be allowed to vote or not]

Isn’t that what happened?

No, it is not. If you really don’t know, look it up

Just like we didn’t get the 40 hour week, holidays, paid sick leave etc. because the factory owners decided they wanted to improve the lot of workers

[pietillidie]

How would the club be improved if every mug punter got a vote? How does our club compare with others?

That's the rhetorical equivalent of scoring for the opponent from outside 50m on the wrong foot against the boundary while carrying a knee injury.

We are a no-go zone for serious athletes and their parents. A destination of last resort that struggles to recruit anyone decent outside father-sons because we have a reputation for tainting player prospects both within football and outside football. Who in their right mind would encourage their star athlete son to go to a maligned club after a decade of driving him around the country at the expense of other career options? Not to mention decent mature trade options would rather take a major pay hit than come anywhere near us.

The patient is near-dead and whoever inflicted this upon the club by administering it into a footballing talent wasteland that is forced to pay cap-busting overs is responsible. And that includes the members who voted accordingly, and whose record of failure as voters speaks for itself.

Don't worry about the great unwashed; decaying road kill couldn't possibly run the club down any further than its present pitiful state. Worry about those who had responsibility and examine why they failed so monumentally. It's a sunk cost now, though; there's simply nothing to defend at this level of fail, and nothing but a full administration cleanout and accompanying shake up of the voter gene pool will suffice.

We've gone from needing stability two decades ago, to a painfully drawn out decade of managed decline. Neither will do in the present, and nor will yet more denial of the sort that let Eddie and Bucks linger five years too long. But what we can do right now is clear the decks for the new coach to give him a decent shot at rebuilding our reputation from the ground up.

[Lazza]

I think the view that Collingwood is nearly dead as a club is greatly exaggerated by people who may have hidden agendas, are silly enough to believe everything they hear or get high on putting Collingwood down at every opportunity. I am old enough to remember Collingwood supposedly being 20 minutes away from financial ruin that would have killed the club in the 80’s but we survived. We even had an urgent SOS (save our side) fundraiser that I contributed to. We survived. I do not believe doomsayers or panic merchants who are usually reactive rather than being proactive.
We will surprise many with our survival skills on show over the next 2 seasons, including some Collingwood supporters who have expectations of a very bleak future for the next few years. Patience will bring high rewards.

[Charlie Oneeye]

What nonsense from Barrie Cassidy.

I joined the social club in 1990. In those days, you had to be recommended by a current social club member, seconded, and undergo an interview.
That made you a "member".

Before that I was a "season ticket holder" and later became a "season ticket holder with reserved seats".
It was crystal clear back then that season ticket holders were not members.

Anyone could buy a Season Ticket, but you couldn't just pay to become a Member.

At some point a Collingwood "member" versus what the AFL calls club members got blurred. Collingwood should have always made the distinction between a member and season ticket holder crystal clear and they havent.
Even this years membership site doesnt state what is a full member with voting rights.

But Barrie Cassidy saying he did not know he was not a member 37 years ago ... nonsense.

For new member night.... Bob Rose came up to me, shook my hand and said welcome to the club. This goes further back than Mr Cassidy.

Then the AFL came along, and there was talk about expanding voting options, but at the time, whilst the details are gone, nothing elitist, nothing conspiratorial, nothing demonic.

The value of benefits that constitutes being a member was being watered down. I recall it went around and resolved that it would remain broadly as it is today.


If it needs review, let's do it.. But let's not invent false narratives

[Rd10.1998_11.1#36]

In 1984 Collingwood had 16,313 members, which fell below 10k 3 years later
Following the 1990 flag we went from 20k to 30k
In the 00s up to 46k before 2010/11 took us from 50k up to 70k
We peaked at 85k in 2019 and in 2021 sit at 82,527

While this has partly been due to how 'members' have been defined (both by the club, and the AFL in their desire to meet their own target of 1 million members) it does represent more people making an ongoing financial commitment to the club.

I don't have figures on the number of voting members over that period but I think it's probably safe to assume that the current 15% ratio has probably declined as the general membership has increased tenfold from the 1987 low

So it's a different situation from the early 90s post-VFL period when we had around 20k members and I think along with the other changes we're currently undergoing, a good time to take another look at it