Eel Members and Fans,
Today we lodged more than 100 signatures for our motion to organise a General Meeting with the Parramatta Leagues Club. The Leagues Club is currently reviewing these petitions and then they will be reviewed by the Club's auditors.
If 100 signatures are deemed to come from valid three year members of the PLC, the board is required to announce the date of the General Meeting by July 15th and the meeting needs to be held by August 24th.
As many of you know, our proposal is for six directors to immediately stand down, and for Geoff Gerard to form a committee which may include a third party firm with expertise in identifying and selecting directors, Clubs NSW and the NRL. A PLC and a PNRL board will be selected, with four directors sitting on both boards. The remaining directors will be specialists in their fields of either football administration or leagues club administration. The new boards would be in place until at least the next election.
Our letter to the Club included a request for the Club to work with us to define a process of selection that is transparent, simple and one which can be understood clearly on the night of the General Meeting.
I expect the board to place the petition under intense legal scrutiny and to use semantics, procedures and anything else at their disposal to avoid their day answering to the members. What ever the outcome, we must not rest until this board has been replaced by a team that has been independently verified, selected on their independent skill set and capabilities.
The merit selection is logical. Only people with an agenda or those who think they will fail against stronger individuals will argue it. I therefore call on anyone who is considering the formation of a traditional 'ticket' to get in touch with me and see how we can work together on the merit initiative. If your people are as good as you say they are, they should succeed in a merit process and start their tenure on the board knowing that the membership understands they are the best people for the job.
My understanding is this is the first member forced General Meeting in recent history of the PLC. People have spoken about a GM for years, spoken about collecting signatures and forcing change. Together, we are doing something about the state of our great club and together we can facilitate the best possible board to lead our club.
We would like to thank all those members who signed our petition, including those who mailed them in (sometimes twice), those who signed in the cold at the Rabbits game, those who called me, emailed, provided their support and those that helped us get to where we are today.
We would also like to thank the fans and non voting members who provided their support. We are working on a way for you to register your thoughts on the petition shortly, even though you wont be able to vote at the General Meeting.
Finally, this is the start, not the end. The board will fight this. They have demonstrated they have no intention of resigning. They could start this constitutionally legitimate process themselves if they wanted to, and facilitate a smooth transition of power. We truly hope they do but we doubt they will listen to the membership. What will count is who shows up on the night to vote. I am sure the ordinary member base will be there in huge numbers. It really is up to us now.
Go the Eels !!!
Thanks,
Chris Losco
chrislosco1@gmail.com
Replies
I also want to echo Chris' statement that if you are considering putting together a traditional ticket to run at an election please instead put yourself forward through this process. Through this process there can be no accusations of factionalism and hopefully the very best and appropriate candidates are successful. Let's unite this club and end the factional wars once and for all.
Outstanding work Chris.
Chris & Phil, well done & my commendation on the work you & the others have put into getting this started. All I & other supporters can now hope for is that the board members see the positive side of this & somehow realize that its about the club, the team & the future, its not about individuals or factions, of which both need to put in the past once & for all.
Cheers again.
This is so obviously the only way forward for this great club to reach its potential after the disasters that have befallen us since the emperor was moved on, those behind the scenes nightmares need to stop , as well as the leaks to shock jocks by the those same protagonists and unfortunately the NRL
First step on the road to real progress for the blue and gold army
Great work fellas, what happened to the other petition from that andrew guy?
Great news
Awesome stuff Chris, this is fantastic news well done mate.
Great work mate. In regards to the other petition, do you know how this works? I.e. does this one get looked at, voted on etc (complete process) before the other one can be proposed and voted on? Getting in first is a huge advantage and gives it a massive chance of getting up in my view. It's logical and people want change, they should jump all over this one. If they don't, why would they vote it down, then jump all over the next one? Well done again!