AGM 17 December – Ruffy Geminder pops in (see p8)

NTBlue · **Posted:** Wed Dec 05, 2012 3:02 pm

Raphael,

I have provided feedback via the club membership surveys for a couple of years suggesting that more could be done for interstate members. I pay for a few Long Distance membershiops for family members and am willing to pay the equivalent of a Gold Membership for all of them. However I will not be able to use the reserved seating at any more than 2 or 3 games per year.
My feedback in the surveys suggested an incentive other than reserve seating for all home games. Perhaps a guest invitation to a coterie for one function per year or something similar. Or even just a Long Distance/Interstate Gold membership that was for a small amount of games at a price between the existing Interstate Membership and full gold membership.

aboynamedsue · **Joined:** Tue Dec 11, 2007 9:09 pm **Posts:** 6047

woof wrote:

From the outside looking in these are my questions and observations;

The club did not seem well prepared for the introduction of free agency, I know we did not lose any players of note but we did not gain any players and got stuck with contracted players that no other club wanted. From a list management point of view it seems that there was a distinct lack of planning? The club was aware that free agency was going to be introduced well in advance.

The Judd/Visy deal; The membership got mix messages about what happened here? The CEO said that the Judd/Visy proposal was in at league headquarters for approval several months ago but Adrian Anderson said that the club revised the deal several times along the way and that the final proposal was provided in October? Is this another case of lack of planning?

As a board member are you able to self assess your own performance to date? What is it that you bring to the board, and it is a very large board at the moment, that current board members can't bring to the table?

Do you have aspirations to be President of the Carlton Football Club at the end of the year?

Good post woof. Tough questions, but hope you get a response. :thumbsup:

askruffy · **Joined:** Tue Dec 04, 2012 1:34 pm **Posts:** 10

camelboy wrote:

Ruffy, this may be a daft question in a way, but can you give us some idea of what being a board member entails. Is it as simple as meeting once a month, or whatever, and going through a set list of agenda items, or is there more to it on a day to day basis.

As an outsider it excites me a lot to see the likes of Ahmed Fahour and Luke Sayers coming onto our board, but I must admit that's because they're seen as heavy hitters from the corporate world so I assume they will bring that clout to Carlton, like we used to have.

But I'm interested to understand more about the way our club works and the roles each board member plays and how their unique skills and attributes can be used to better the footy club.

Not a daft question Liam this sort of clarity is one of the things we need to move things forward on all fronts

Being a board member is definitely more than going to a meeting once a month and voting on agenda items. It involves many meetings and talking about many issues with various people. It involves being on sub-committees, and strategic discussions. For example I am on a special sub-comittee looking at membership issues and am paying very close attention to what you are all saying so far. The suggestions you have made have a lot of thought behind them and there are many I would not have thought of myself - so thank you and keep them coming, they help me immensely.

All board members have different strengths and skills. In my case I have quite a bit of experience in business experience and sports franchises (worked with Souths Dragons for a few years not so long ago) so I am a bit of a generalist with skills on both sides of the fence. We try to play to each others strengths but also spend a lot of time together learning from one another as well.

Hope that gives a bit of an idea what we do, it is generally quite an involved process but also one which we can improve...

askruffy · **Joined:** Tue Dec 04, 2012 1:34 pm **Posts:** 10

aboynamedsue wrote:

woof wrote:

From the outside looking in these are my questions and observations;

The club did not seem well prepared for the introduction of free agency, I know we did not lose any players of note but we did not gain any players and got stuck with contracted players that no other club wanted. From a list management point of view it seems that there was a distinct lack of planning? The club was aware that free agency was going to be introduced well in advance.

The Judd/Visy deal; The membership got mix messages about what happened here? The CEO said that the Judd/Visy proposal was in at league headquarters for approval several months ago but Adrian Anderson said that the club revised the deal several times along the way and that the final proposal was provided in October? Is this another case of lack of planning?

As a board member are you able to self assess your own performance to date? What is it that you bring to the board, and it is a very large board at the moment, that current board members can't bring to the table?

Do you have aspirations to be President of the Carlton Football Club at the end of the year?

Good post woof. Tough questions, but hope you get a response. :thumbsup:

Thanks woof, definitely good questions there.

I bring to the board a lot of knowledge of how complex organisations work. I have deep board experience and my time in business has helped me with all facets of running a sporting franshise - from marketing, HR and membership through to winning a championship (more about this in the video to come)

I would say that I am satisfied that the contribution I am making to the Board is delivering a result, but I think an important thing for me now is to get more involved with what our supporters and members actually think so I can do better. The first step for me was to play a decent part in our strategy, which I am satisfied with. It is the execution which I now want to focus on.

camel · **Posted:** Thu Dec 06, 2012 9:53 am

Thanks for your replies ruffy. :beer:

The Rhino · **Joined:** Tue Feb 08, 2011 3:20 pm **Posts:** 6923

Interesting you bring up your time with the South Dragons, Ruffy.

As someone who contributed to the steering committee into the review of Australian basketball, I can appreciate that the market for such a sporting franchise is certainly tough to engage supporters, let alone retain them, given both the plethora of other Melbourne sporting franchises available and lack of visibility given to the game by various media outlets.

Given the eventual demise of the Dragons (and I believe you were also involved with the Giants as well?), what lessons do you believe you learnt from that experience about running a sporting franchise, especially in Melbourne's competitive market?

The Rhino · **Joined:** Tue Feb 08, 2011 3:20 pm **Posts:** 6923

Also - why should we not vote for the other guy?

FlipMode2 · **Posted:** Thu Dec 06, 2012 11:25 am

Is Tom Bell really 95kg? Does he really run a 15.1 beeper?

Phoenix · **Joined:** Mon Feb 28, 2005 9:07 am **Posts:** 329

Ruffy,
thanks for asking for our feedback.
Here's mine.
Last year Premium gold members were "asked" and I'm being polite with the use of that word, to upgrade to Captain Club to retain the same seats and basically the same membership privileges, for my 11 game family membership this resulted in an increase in cost of approx 35% with no added benefit. This increase was outrageous and the Club should have realised it was.

The club promoted the major benefit of the upgrade to Captains Club is that I would have guaranteed access to finals ticket, which in effect meant that I was entitled to go into a ballot in which I was a chance to get a finals ticket. Not really a guarantee to anything really.
Added to this one of my children turned 16 so he was no longer part of the family membership so I was required to pay approximately another $200 to maintain his membership.

This year my youngest son turned 16 so he isn't eligible for a family membership.

All up,for 2013 season, If I wanted to continue the 11 game Captains Club membership for my family of four the total cost was near $2000, or about $180 per game.
Six weeks ago, I reluctantly made a decision based on cost only, to write to the club and cancelled my membership.

Four weeks ago I got a call from the club asking me if I wanted to buy a $200 raffle ticket.

I've had no other contact from the club, asking me to either why I cancelled or if there were any alternatives that would suit my budget.

camel · **Posted:** Thu Dec 06, 2012 12:30 pm

Ban the raffle ticket!

dane · **Joined:** Tue Mar 08, 2005 10:14 am **Posts:** 22357

camelboy wrote:

Ban the raffle ticket!

Or at least don't call me about it.

bluegirl72 · **Joined:** Sat May 23, 2009 8:30 pm **Posts:** 23921

The post from Phoenix just highlights my point about rewarding loyalty.
Don't always be chasing the bigger dollar, because long term loyalty is the foundation stone of the club.
Those gold Reserve Members should have been handled with great respect, and offered reward bonuses for their willingness to swap over to CC.
Instead....nada.
Perhaps Greg Swann would understand if he took the trouble you are going to Ruffy?

grrofunger · **Posted:** Thu Dec 06, 2012 1:12 pm

our membership department is extremely average.

The Rhino · **Joined:** Tue Feb 08, 2011 3:20 pm **Posts:** 6923

I simply don't understand the business model.

You're attempting to woo over members with the lure of *insert glamorous prize here* to generate revenue from people who've already forked over a similar amount for a product that most feedback indicates scepticism over value for money.

On the other hand, I'd speculate that the member base would have anywhere between 5 and 25% of its members at least downgrade their package or not renew it at all per year for various reasons. Database of maybe 14,000 to start with, throw in what you can from data received from social media, feedback, older non-reneweds, and other club channels, account for incorrect or duplicate data. I'd say maybe 17,000 people to contact. That's a project of about 6 call centre monkeys over 4 weeks, probably similar to what is hawking the raffle tickets at the moment.

Surely there is greater short term and long term gain out of using these guys to try and retain disenfranchised members. There's no flow-on effect from convincing someone to part with $200 for a raffle ticket. Please correct me if its just the club doing a favour for a major sponsor instead however.

Maybe create something like a bandwagon package. We'll give you two games against clubs we'll draw SFA to for free, go to the third game, and they direct debit your $60-70, so worst case scenario we've padded attendance numbers against GWS or Port Adelaide?

Drewgirl · **Joined:** Tue Mar 01, 2005 1:57 pm **Posts:** 4771

Phoenix I had the same problem, so I sent an email to the club and was called back by the membership manager. Mr Brown, first name escapes me.

He had the gift of the gab so to speak, and basically told us they were out to make extra money as those Premium seats are sought after.

So for an extra $165 each, for no added benefit we have been asked to upgrade.

Little thought as per my email to the membership dept about the friends we have made with people in nearby seats, the family members we had join up in nearby seats. As after all footy is about family, friends and having an enjoyable day, cause gosh knows Carlton are not exactly filling us with pleasure on the field at the moment.

Just either upgrade or fill in a form to sit elsewhere, and we will SEE if we can seat you together.

Nice way to treat loyal members...........

bluegirl72 · **Joined:** Sat May 23, 2009 8:30 pm **Posts:** 23921

Drewgirl wrote:

Phoenix I had the same problem, so I sent an email to the club and was called back by the membership manager. Mr Brown, first name escapes me.

He had the gift of the gab so to speak, and basically told us they were out to make extra money as those Premium seats are sought after.

So for an extra $165 each, for no added benefit we have been asked to upgrade.

Little thought as per my email to the membership dept about the friends we have made with people in nearby seats, the family members we had join up in nearby seats. As after all footy is about family, friends and having an enjoyable day, cause gosh knows Carlton are not exactly filling us with pleasure on the field at the moment.

Just either upgrade or fill in a form to sit elsewhere, and we will SEE if we can seat you together.

Nice way to treat loyal members...........

Frame this, and send it to every senior staff and board member at CFC.

Wangers · **Joined:** Mon Feb 28, 2005 9:26 pm **Posts:** 1763

askruffy wrote:

The first step for me was to play a decent part in our strategy, which I am satisfied with. It is the execution which I now want to focus on.

The easy part is developing the strategy - the most difficult and complex bit is executing on it. Statistics show that 72% of organisations fail to execute on their strategy. That's 1 in 4 get it right and 3 in 4 miss the mark.

Many elements have to work in unison, and several levers need to be pulled and trade-off's made, and therein lies the magic. The easy bit is administration of the club pulling together with one common purpose and vision, the difficult part is managing the football department - the list, salary cap, coaching, the product.

How will you ensure Carlton will be one of the 28% odd percent that execute on the strategy?

camel · **Posted:** Thu Dec 06, 2012 9:59 pm

This is how a president/club should speak to its members...

viewtopic.php?p=1345060#p1345060

:oops:

grrofunger · **Posted:** Thu Dec 06, 2012 10:07 pm

where do i sign?

askruffy · **Joined:** Tue Dec 04, 2012 1:34 pm **Posts:** 10

hi all, thanks for keeping the feedback coming and especially the suggestions which you have to make the club better.

camelboy wrote:

This is how a president/club should speak to its members...

viewtopic.php?p=1345060#p1345060

:oops:

I have just posted something on The Roar with some of my thoughts on similar things...may not be as eloquent but hopefully it will get more discussion going :smile:

http://www.theroar.com.au/2012/12/07/carlton-supporters-what-can-we-do-better/

I have also made a short video with the help of my team which answers some of the first questions I received in forums, sorry there are none from TC but many of the questions have been similar across the different forums. hope you enjoy it http://youtu.be/xcwRbTi3MMo

AGM 17 December – Ruffy Geminder pops in (see p8)

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