Board Elections

[katrina]

Hi all,

My name is Katrina Bills. I am one of the three candidates standing for the Brisbane Lions board this year. The other two candidates are Tony Kelly and Angus Johnson who are current board members.

It seems everyone is trying to find me to ask questions, so since this seems to be a pretty popular gathering place for lions fans - I thought I'd drop by and see if anyone had anything to ask?

For those who don't know me, I've been a Brisbane Lions supporter since 1992 (when I went to my first AFL game at Carrara) and became a full member in 1996. I am also in the cheersquad (joined 1998) which I love. I try to get to as many reserve games and lions functions as I can, although often not as many as I would like.

I am self-employed, working as a consulant providing all kinds of advice and assistance to businesses, technically I'm called a Business Analyst (most of the time anyway!) I also have a couple of uni degree's - Arts, IT & Technology Management and have two years to go on my law degree. I guess the point I'm trying to make is that I do have the experience and qualifications to be able to contribute to the board.

Yes, I am female and yes I do LOVE my footy. So, enough about me... what do you want to know?

If you are shy and don't want to post it here then send me an email katrina@taltingan.com.au

Katrina

 

[Go_the_young_Guys]

too late...

i already sent my vote back in...

hey btw...

i liked the letter from Mr. G Downie that was enclosed with the voting form... i wonder who he thinks should get in...

Go_the_young_Guys

 

[Maverick]

Welcome to Big Footy Katrina.

I don't know who Tony Kelly and Angus Johnson are. So just cos you posted here you get my vote.

If you get in though, just a word of warning. There is a member called Olmy who has some ideas and thoughts that are really 'out there', if you know what I mean. He will probably contact you with these ideas. Just ignore him.

All the best with your campaign.

 

[SpecialBruce]

Originally posted by Maverick

If you get in though, just a word of warning. There is a member called Olmy who has some ideas and thoughts that are really 'out there', if you know what I mean. He will probably contact you with these ideas. Just ignore him.

Now now Maverick, don't be so harsh. I agree, LOL.

 

[katrina]

Thanks for the support guys & gals - appreciate it.

Katrina.

 

[Roylion]

Well, as a Victorian voting member of the Lions, who hasn't decided yet, I guess my questions would be:

1. What's your opinion about lobbying the AFL to schedule at least 7 and preferably 8 Home and Away matches in Melbourne? Most Victorian supporters consider 6 to be inadequate. We had 8 in 1997, and 9 in 1998 and 6 from 1999-2001 (excluding finals).

2. What's your opinion about scheduling at least one pre-season game in Melbourne for Melbourne supporters? (and I don't include finals).

3. Do you believe that the Brisbane Lions should make further moves to support the Fitzroy Football Club in Melbourne, by sponsoring the Reds, the Juniors and the U-18's?

4. How do you see the Brisbane Lions continuing to support Victorian supporters from the old Fitzroy faithful?

5. What was your opinion about Ross Oakley being appointed as Acting CEO of the Brisbane Lions, given that the very mention of his name, causes the hackles to rise of just about every former Fitzroy supporter?

Frankly at the moment in my view Angus Johnson and Tony Kelly have a fair bit of credit from the point of view of an old Fitzroy supporter. They've been on a board that has agreed to use the term "Lions" away from the Gabba; they have agreed to put the initials BB-FFC on the back of the Brisbane guernsey and they were part of a board that authorised and supported the Fitzroy Team of the Century concept, as well as developing closer links with the Fitzroy board by writing off the debenture, supposedly owed to the club.

The $845,000 loss and the Ross Oakley appointment are negatives of course. As such I'm willing to be persuaded.

 

[FattyLumpkin]

RoyLion,

I'm a Fitzroy fan from wayback - gradually converted to the Bears when I moved up here in '90. (although one never forgets ones first team).

My question - is the BB-FFC thing on the back of the jumper necessary? I reckon it's looking backwards rather than forwards. At to be truthful, there wasn't a hell of a lot of success in the past (lets just limit it to post WW2).

I say lets look to the future - stick another sponsor on the proposed BB-FFC site & get a few more $$$$'s into the club to ensure the current debt is wiped & we have a club to support in the future.


Fatty

 

[Roylion]

Considering that the BB-FFC is going to be on the back of the jumper near the collar, I doubt whether many sponsors would be queueing to fill this area of the jumper.

I don't see acknowledging the club's history and origins as a backwards step either.

The official name of the club in any case is the Brisbane Bears-Fitzroy Football Club, just as the official name of the Western Bulldogs is the Footscray Football Club. The Dogs have the FFC on the back of their jumper, without too much drama. I don't see why both the original clubs that make up the Brisbane Lions can't be acknowledged, on the jumper.

The request for the Lions to use the BB-FFC was part of a submission put to the club by the Fitzroy Football Club, here in Melbourne, as a way of helping attract more Melbourne members from the old Fitzroy supporters. From what I can see the move has been received well down here. Hopefully the move will help a lot more Fitzroy supporters who haven't joined the Lions as yet, to do so this year.

Do the Brisbane Lions have a debt? Sure they made a loss of $845,390, which is a concern, but according to the 2001 Annual Report have an accumulated surplus of $859,075. They have several bank loans, but these are secured against the club's properties at Woolloongabba and Cooparoo.

 

[campbell]

As far as I was aware the club didn't own any property at Coorparoo.Thats leased from the council and is a shared property with the QSFL and Coorparoo Footy Club. As for the Wooloongabba site, if we sell that , then we own zip.
I thought the club has asked repeatedly for the AFl to schedule more games in Melbourne, both pre and real season. But thats in the land of the AFL gods. Don't critise the club for that.
Like it or not we have major financial problems at the club. We can't continue to have a yearly debt of anything, let alone 850,000. Whats worse is that the current board appear to be so arrogant to be saying in the media in QLD that thats ok. How wrong they are. It aint ok. Once they have sold the land to top up the bank balance, they still have to solve the problem of why we are losing money every year.
I personally was affronted last year at the AGM when a question was asked by a member on a minor issue to do with finances, and we were all told, its not the place to explain how we run the club to you. Excuse me. I thought that we as members at the AGM could ask the President and staff under the correct part of the meeting any question we liked. Especially a question about the running of the club and its finances.That is our only avenue to ask questions.
Because of that attitude of us having no say what so ever. I will vote this year. I was horrified to find out that if we don't vote, the Chairman votes for me.Not one that one.I want to know why last year my voting papers never arrived. Was that vote counted.
I say lets give Katrina a go. She is multi skilled, has a brilliant business brain.
We as members deserve to have a say on that board, not be told to shut up, we know what we are doing.It would be so nice to not only have a business person to vote for, but a person who still sits in the rain at the footy, who still volunteers to make banners,someone I can say Hi to, and who will listen to me.

 

[Stocka]

Originally posted by Maverick
Welcome to Big Footy Katrina.

I don't know who Tony Kelly and Angus Johnson are. So just cos you posted here you get my vote.

If you get in though, just a word of warning. There is a member called Olmy who has some ideas and thoughts that are really 'out there', if you know what I mean. He will probably contact you with these ideas. Just ignore him.

All the best with your campaign.

Well, I don't know who you are 'Maverick', but I, and a lot of others certainly know of Olmy. From all accounts, the person who you are referring to is quite a young gentleman, and also a very articulate and intelligent person. Likewise, his knowledge about football, be it on-field, or off-field topics, is up there with the best of them.

Actually, come to think of it, I am quite sure he is also involved with the VLSG, are you, Maverick? Or are you just one of these faceless loonies who likes to take a shot at someone from behind the safety of their computer screen? There are a fair few of those types around.

 

[Stocka]

Originally posted by FattyLumpkin
RoyLion,

I'm a Fitzroy fan from wayback - gradually converted to the Bears when I moved up here in '90. (although one never forgets ones first team).

My question - is the BB-FFC thing on the back of the jumper necessary? I reckon it's looking backwards rather than forwards. At to be truthful, there wasn't a hell of a lot of success in the past (lets just limit it to post WW2).

I say lets look to the future - stick another sponsor on the proposed BB-FFC site & get a few more $$$$'s into the club to ensure the current debt is wiped & we have a club to support in the future.


Fatty

I reckon having the BB-FFC on the jumper will bring in more revenue than having a sponsor's name there . For instance, the amount of new jumpers sold because of it, as well as the former-Fitzroy supporters that it will attract to the club.

At any rate, why would you want another ghastly sponsor on your jumper which represents nothing more than $'s, as opposed to something which represents what this game is all about - tradition, and heritage.

 

[Frosty_1]

Well Katrina, I voted for you!

My main reason was the unbelievable cover note from Downie asking us to vote for the other two candidates.

If it IS within the club rules, I still believe it is unethical to try and win votes from members for favourites in the same envelope as the vote slip.

Downie, you must be another "Honest John" Howard or Ross Oakley.

You need to be thrown out with the women and children boat people terrorists.

If this and the huge loss from a premiership year are your claim to fame, I can't wait for when you come up for re-election.

What a disgrace!!!!!!!!!

 

[Maverick]

Well, I don't know who you are 'Maverick', but I, and a lot of others certainly know of Olmy. From all accounts, the person who you are referring to is quite a young gentleman, and also a very articulate and intelligent person. Likewise, his knowledge about football, be it on-field, or off-field topics, is up there with the best of them.

_________________________________________________

Welcome back Olmy!!!!!!

 

[Homer]

WE got this in a Newsletter from our ISP.

"Lastly as some of you may be aware we at Caliph
are all mad Brisbane Lions fans.
Our club is currently having elections for the board.
We were most surprised to find out the odd
system that we have in place for voting.
If you as a full member decide that you don't want to vote
for whatever reason, then automatically your
vote is given to the Chairman of the club.He has said
that he will be using your vote to vote for the current
board members up for re election.
We find this most odd, because if 1000 people don't want to vote
then they their wishes should be respected, not
have someone else use their vote.
So please if you are a member think about your
options as your vote should be your wishes."

Interesting I thought. I know we have all voted for Kartina.Mainly because we want some answers on where the money has gone.We don't want to think we may need to merge again, that we may be out of existance because we have no money. We can't continue to lose money.We have only made a small profit twice since the merger.Maybe a shake up at board level will help. She seems to want to know what we the plebs want, and has the right board experience. SO give her a go I say.

 

[katrina]

Hi all,

Wow - I seemed to have provoked some good discussion on the future of the Brisbane Lions. Lots of issues and questions - I'll try to answer some of them here.

Roylion -
Q1 & 2 - Yes I agree the club should continue to lobby the AFL to schedule more matches in the home & away and the pre-season in Melbourne. At a minimum if the AFL can't deliver then something similar to the free-entry to pre-season last year should be provided to BL members - after all we are trying to encourage a national league. Whilst we haven't really had a practice match this year (only an intraclub match) - perhaps one of these could be scheduled in Melbourne pre-season so instead of a melb team travelling to us we travel to them.

Q3 - Contribution by BL to junior clubs in melb, I do think that AFL clubs have a responsibility to support junior clubs and an alignment with these clubs can add to our membership base. As to what financial support the club can "afford" - I don't know but it is certainly worth investigating.

Q4 - Yes, I think that Vic supporters will continue to be looked after. You get access to the players after each game which we no longer get in Brisbane. I would like to see our Melb base grow - currently we have about 1,000 members in Melb and about 16,000 in Brisbane. Considering the Hawks managed to sign around 1500 new members in Tassie recently I think we should be able to do better.

Q5 - Ross Oakley, I've been asked this question quite a lot. Being a "young thing" (I'm only just 30) I wasn't aware of any past negative history. I am aware though that Ross was instrumental in the nationalisation of the AFL including the introduction of Brisbane to the comp. Personally, I take people as I find them - so I'll let you know.

As to using the terms Lions away from the Gabba - I am conscious to ensure that I always use Brisbane Lions when referring to the team - I am proud of the history of both clubs and am long past considering them as two entities.

Fatty & Roy -
BB-FFC - yes our club company is called Brisbane Bears - Fitzroy Football. In Brisbane there doesn't seem to be a lot of concern over this, if it has made Melbourne supporters happy then great - it is a recognition our two histories and simply that.

campbell -
Yes we don't actually own Coorparoo we only lease the property as do we at the Gabba. Have a look at p25, "19. Financing arrangements" and you will get good idea on all our "loans." A couple of other things are also mentioned in the report - that we don't know if the AFL will continue to subsidy our rent (p5), membership was down 13% last year and to date, we are approx another 7% down on last year bringing us to 20% drop in 2 years. We will also get a distribution from the sale of Waverly Park ($2m over 8 years) which the board has decided to invest (p6) and have a look at the note on "Going Concern" p17.

I do agree, an AGM is the place to be able to ask the board any questions we as members want to know - and this year, there are sure to be many. This is not an unreasonable request some companies even record these questions and answers and publish them to all members (particular those who weren't able to attend the AGM) and they are included on the minutes of the AGM. Why we are different - I don't know. But certainly one of my motivations for standing in the first place was the lack of answers being provided firstly to correspondence and secondly to questions raised at the AGM.

Well everyone, hopefully I have covered off all issues to date. I'll keep an eye on bigfooty and try to check in regularly throughout the year. I am interested in anything you want to say about the club, I may not always agree but it is all helpful to me in working out where you want the club to head.

Katrina.
katrina@taltingan.com.au

 

[katrina]

Hi everyone,

Just a reminder that the AGM is this Tuesday (5th March) starting at 6pm - at the Lions Social Club. Look forward to seeing you all there.

Thankyou to you all for your support - I really appreciate it.

Katrina.

 

[Big Pat79]

I wish you well Katrina.

Cheers,
Pat

 

[Danni]

Originally posted by Big Pat79
I wish you well Katrina.

Cheers,
Pat

As we all do!

Well Kat it should be the most intersting AGM that we have ever had (up there along with that extra-ordinary one in 1996 about the merger).

I hear there is some more business for that day too. Wondering if the Board are going to do it during the day, or bring it up for a vote that night.................the retention or release of GG Peter Hollingworth as the Lions number one ticket holder...............

 

[FattyLumpkin]

The GG issue is just a smokescreen. Sounds important, the press will love it, but far more pressing issues at hand that maybe certain folk do not wished discussed at length??


Fatty

 

[Frosty_1]

No smokescreen!
Just another important issue.

I do not want that person representing our club

IN ANY WAY!

Thank you very much!