So yes, I am running for the football club board at the upcoming election (Dec 8).
For the last couple of months, I’ve been contributing to an alternative ticket to the current Football board that we’re calling ParraFirst (yes, unfortunate clash with Tony Anstee's Fan First moniker but it was too late for either of us to change).
The goal had been for us to start talking about the ticket after all the formalities had been completed and the ticket was confirmed and officially nominated. However, the club has already missed the seven week deadline its supposed to have as a deadline to inform members of the upcoming election. There is no notification to members, there is still no form for anyone to fill in if they want to rnominate themselves and there’s only about two weeks left before nominations are meant to close.
So for a while now, I’ve been fluffing around various issues on here because I felt a bit uncomfortable directly criticising the board without declaring my intention that I was going to run. And it’s just gotten too hard to keep everything quiet as we’ve had a whole bunch of people looped into this at various points. I got finger-pointed on LU today so I figured that was a good enough excuse to finally talk about what my plans were.
I guess since the very early days of running this website, I’ve posted a lot of my opinions, criticisms and ideas. When the opportunity came up for me to do this, I had to think very long and hard as to whether I would do it, because it does complicate the running of this site. However, in the end, I felt that if I could make a difference to the club by doing this - and I think I can - then it was probably time to stop sniping from the sidelines and actually put in some hard yards.
So what difference do I think I can make? There is a single principle behind the ParraFirst idea - that is, that a board needs to set the standard for professional conduct. It should never compromise on issues like ethics, confidentiality, due-process, fairness and professionalism. Board members should bring direct, relevant experience to the organisation they’re representing, but they’re primary role is to facilitate effective corporate governance and support the professionals running the club on a day-to-day basis.
All things going well, the board should be basically invisible. However, when things aren’t going well, that’s when you need the right experience in place so that problems are recognised and immediate action can be taken to address the issue. Unfortunately, for this club, it’s when things have started to go poorly that the board have been at their worse with the leaks, in-fighting and basically conduct that I just don’t believe has reflected well on the club.
I’m excited about the appointment of Ken Edwards. I’m really hopeful that the team can improve under Ricky Stuart. It really is a great opportunity for this club to make a fresh start and start running itself like the professional, successful organisation we all know it can be. We need candidates at the board level who bring something to the club in terms of their experience and skillsets. I believe I bring a lot of experience in areas like media, marketing, digital engagement, communications, technology, and digital business. I feel the club needs someone on the board who understands how these areas should operate and who can support the evolution of the club in being able to tap into emerging digital revenue streams. That’s why I’m putting myself forward.
I don't want to talk about the other candidates yet because hopefully the Football club board fulfils its responsibility or facilitating a fair and ethical election process (which is what I’m talking about in terms of the minimum expectation you should have of a board) so that we can start talking about the ticket in the proper manner. However I'm happy to answer any questions about my personal involvement, my opinions, and so forth and I definitely welcome any feedback. There are quite a few people on the site who have already helped out in various ways, and we will of course, welcome any help from anyone who wants to offer. ParraFirst isn’t about seven people on the ticket, it’s about giving the opportunity for every member who wants to see the club operate in the kind of manner that I’ve spoken about, the chance to get involved and really kickstart what I believe can be a new era in this club's proud history.
Replies
Jamesy, this is the difference I see between the board and the chief executive. And I believe that's a question that Ken Edwards has to answer. We're very clear that if this ticket is elected, we're not going to come in and give Ken Edwards a mandate to change this and do that.
What role I think a board has to play in a situation is like this, is it needs to be aware that this is an issue of importance and one that needs to measured and potentially addressed. A board should be demanding of its chief executive that the organisation meets a certain set of metrics that has been agreed-upon as being important. I believe that game-day experience has to be one of those metrics, and the first thing you need to be able to do is measure what fans think of the experience and then you can work out what needs to be improved,
My own personal opinion is I'm an atmosphere junkie. I love it when the crowd goes up as one and you get that tingle down your neck and I don't care for the likes of Kisscam. But that's just how I like to enjoy my football and I think when a board starts imposing directions based on their own personal preferences/feelings is when you've got a board that doesn't understand where its responsibilities lie.
I understand that's a really boring answer but I think that's an important distinction to make and vastly different to the way the club has been run over the past couple of years.
I thought this had been coming for a while. Good luck with it Phil. It'd be great to see you on the Board.
Congratulations, this is good news, i am aware you have a good forward thinking mind, i dont see you as a back slapper, your thoughts and posts are always fair n articulate and you from what i have seen very concentraited on vision and the future of our club.
well done, i hope you get in...
Can i ask who else is on the ticket, and is anybody velse from this site or LU onboard with you? i understand if thats off limits at this stage.
Thanks Snake. I think its right and proper that we do this properly. To be quite frank, we really want confirmation that the people we want to run are officially on the ticket because based on the way this has gone so far, I don't have a lot of faith that due process is going to be followed.
That's the kind of thing that makes me just really, really angry. If you're on the board, you have to put your club first above your own interests. You have to make your best effort to carry out the responsibilities that you have been appointed to fulfill and not try and game the system to try and retain your position. That was behind the rationale for the ParraFirst name. The club's interest always come first.
It's looking like we're going to have to give up on that unless the people running this, hopefully reads this and feel some kind of pressure to run this election in a fair and proper manner. You've heard me talk about my Ticket to Entry before, well if a board can't run its own election ethically it certainly doesn't have a ticket to entry.
Good luck
Glad you've got my back, Stiffler.
I nominate Myself for THE NEW HEAD KICKER MODS
rules adhered to for ALL NO EXCEPTIONS or Favorites
Phil,
Have you enquired at the club as to why there are no nomination forms and that the notice of meeting is late?
It would be required under the constitution that these standards be meet.
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