Given all of the bluster happening at the moment by a subset of self-serving members who have now tried to trigger an EGM for our Leagues Club Board I thought it would be good to share some publicly available information.
There has been a lot of conjecture and guesswork going on regarding our NRL Club (the Football Club), how the board is selected, what skills are assessed, what their responsibilities are as directors etc.
This is where all the information is, in the Parra NRL Club Constitution:
https://www.parraleagues.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/3065378310_PNRL-Constitution-Final.pdf
It is worth the read even if you've read it before. It is very clear on several things. Here's one worth pointing out:
1) How are NRL Club Directors selected?
There is a Nominations Committee outlined in Section 10.7. This committee consists of 3 people - the committee chair, an external director and a Leagues Club director. The chairman cannot be an existing director and the role is cycled every 3 years with a maximum 6 year term.
2) What skills are required by the Directors?
There is a Directors Handbook that is also publicly available for the Parra directors and it outlines the Skills Matrix which is used to qualify director selections:
The most notable point in this matrix is Point 13 which states that any director should have skills in one or more of the following areas:
(a) business management;
(b) law;
(c) financial management;
(d) accounting/auditing experience;
(e) cyber/digital information
(f) marketing;
(g) media;
(h) Company directorship;
(i) the registered clubs, gaming and hospitality industry;
(j) rugby league; and
(k) other areas nominated by the Board from time to time,
What you'll notice is that our Directors Handbook does state Rugby League as one of the desirable skills, so a board member with specific Rugby League experience would meet the skills matrix criteria. What is not specified is the need to cover all of these areas, or a weighting of which of these areas are more important than others.
Lots to read here, and I'd strongly encourage anyone remotely interested to read both the constitution and the handbook, they're not long.
What it shows is that we have the facilities within our constitution and handbook to improve our Football Board, we don't need to do anything radical, we do need the current directors to review which areas they're not succeeding in (ie on the field football) and to make sure any regeneration of directors aims specifically to address that deficiency.
Not hard, doesn't need an EGM, definitely doesn't need any old dodgy directors to attempt a return.
Replies
Thanks Cappy, your not just a pretty face either....LOL
Great information captain, hopefully people on the fence do some research - no one wants a replay of the dark old days
Great to get some truth out there. Thanks Capt. I agree the board should be constantly tweaking the priorities for a director based on the needs of the club. When they started under this constitution the need was for businesses people, but surely there is a need for people with real rugby league expertise.
I'd like to think they are already reviewing their needs for directors, as it's pretty basic business best practice.
Outstanding, Captain. Thanks mate.
So the 3-man Nomination Committee that recommend our footy directors are - an external chairman (*with recruitment skills), an external director chosen by the chair, and a Leagues' Club director.
That is, largely an external group - where albeit skilled, footy knowledge is not mandatory - who decide the fate of the footy club.
It seems akin to the owner of a company largely standing aside - paying for its own fulltime boutique recuitment agency, which may not have direct experience in the industry, deciding the fate of the company.
I keep going back to Frank Ponissi's experience and what he said. You can have highly-skilled and great people in an organization but it won't lead to much success unless you have strong figurehead leaders to unite everyone. And that's been an issue for us.
It's all still light years ahead of the Dark Ages under Roy and Sharp where we almost lost our NRL licence and hurled towards oblivion - and why Roy is hiding behind the players, that security guard and Hooper for this Make Parra Matta Again ticket.
The other issue is: even when of if the Committee at the time selects the right leaders for us - we can't keep them - as there are expiry dates.
Imo we still need more bigger picture evolution if we want to be united top-to-toe. Just my three cents. Could be dead wrong.
*PS: At 10.7(b) it says the Nomination Committee chairman "must have recruitment experience or skills or experience considered by the Nominations Committee appropriate". But, even in recruitment you're specialised. Back when I was an architect you had recruitment agencies specialising in construction. And also, the chair who ends up deciding our fate has a three year term (max 6 years over two terms). So, by the time he gets footy-related experience or learns from his or her mistakes, is due to exit.
Your summary of that is very interesting Hoey, it is very easy to get lost in the puzzle and lose your way in the process.
It would be interesting to see if they have learnt from what they haven't done and do a little more analysis of the people being looked at. My guess is they have gone to the base of the leagues club directors and have not recognised the detail that the constitution is trying to identify. This has probably happened in the same sense of apathy (she'll be right mate) that allowed us to leave BA in the job for too long.
There is old saying in business planning that says "trust the process" my guess is they have not addressed the process.
This overall exercise that we are now facing maybe a blessing in disguise, assuming that it has no success in the endeavours of the interlopers.
Interesting, Pops. Good points mate.
Yes, "Trust the process-es" indeed. Because we have more than one. Lots of cooks and cooking organizations within the organization.
The Reformation has basically modernized the farm.
It had to happen, not just because of a Government-forced reaction to the preceding Dark Ages under Roy and Sharp.
Bernie Gurr (talking to the TCT mob this week) remarked how much bigger the club is now, even in terms of staff numbers, than when he was there some 6-7 years ago. It's a trend everywhere. Even assistant coaches have assistants who have assistants. It's something you'll hear Sarantinos admit: the Eels are a large organization these days. The biggest it's ever been. It needs a lot of management and processes. Is it overly complicated? Perhaps.
It's easy to say we're just crap and everyone is useless, and beat our chests and fists in the air - especially when we have poor years at the NRL level shopfront - but it's another thing to deal with the reality of all that at ground zero. One we're not really part of.
We used to be more like a Yellowstone-like ranch that relied on a good King and a decent round table of Knights. We had that back in Fitzy's days during the better years. But once the King was beheaded it left a dangerous power vacuum that led to ruin and almost obliteration under Roy and Sharp despite all the promises to do "whatever it takes" to win and return to the glory years.
But we can't return to the past. Everything is different now.
Now, we've got skilled professionals that are segrated into different moving wheels. There's the footy board with all its duties and processes. And then all the sub-comittees it needs to pay for and manage that are like sub-organizations - the largely external Nominations Committee to select footy directors, there's the Risks and Compliance Comittee, and the Audit Committee all of which deal with lawyers and external companies. And that's the tip of the iceberg before touching footy operations or League's Club operations.
With all that in mind, the fact the club has done well off-field shows they're not all useless idiots.
But, 2019-2022 may have created a false sense of security - even some complacency. The thing that is often missed is that Gurr, who was a CEO/GM rolled into one back then, had a big hand in shaping that cycle. He set up the 2019 roster rebuild. Tellingly, that 2022 grand final squad of only had two changes to that 2019 core (Ice and Simmo).
The bottom line is: There's a lot to bring together. The most ever.
Hence, my Ponissi argument - the need for strong leadership - to unite it all beyond the processes as well as some of my concerns with the current setup.
Yes you nailed it Hoe, you could actually take the job....understanding parameters is the essential that is missing from the current Chairman, Saratinos has potentially got it but needs some experience and guidance from a strong chair, that 's why I thought Cheika would have been a great GM Football....we have conveniently forgotton MON, maybe he has something to offer afterall. My deserting him may have been just what he needed LOL. Let's not tell Wiz.
PS We still don't know much about Rogers, these faceless people need to be put out there where some real judgemments can be made about what they are actually doing. Realalistically we don't know!
So members have no say at all over the football club because the league's club board bar one member have no say , everyone assumed that the league's club board would be in charge of who runs the football club ( as they should be ) and members are in charge of who runs the leagues club and this was how members had a say in the football club.
It's a absolute joke of a system when the leagues club who own the NRL licence and fund the football club only have 1 director on a 3 person committee who decides the fate of the football club , do we actually have a way of finding out who the people on the this 3 person committee are ? Can we find out who have been in this committee in the past ?
I've emailed and asked for details on the current and former membership of the Nominations Committee - I'll update here when and if I get it.
There's no reason it should be confidential.