It used to be that Football West’s Annual General Meeting was always held the first week in December, but once again it is being held the week before Christmas, at a time when many will struggle to be able to make time to attend.
It will be held at Perth Soccer Club on Wednesday 17th of December. The same venue that has hosted the two FFA Fan forums and previous AGMs. Other clubs can feel rightly miffed that they are not given the opportunity to host such events, but the biggest question is should the game’s governing body be holding such a meeting in at any club? Surely it should be held at an independent venue?
There has been a call for nominations for the Board and hopefully there will be people who will put their hands up for such a role.
As the Football West website does not advise when many of the current board were elected, or co-opted onto the Board, Not the Footy Show asked whether any current members were up for re-election.
We were advised that the popular “Rob MacKay has served two terms and cannot seek re-election, although any previous director can occupy a position as an appointed director.” True, but not for two years after he held his elected position on board according to the constitution.
Henry Atturo’s term expires at the AGM and he is entitled to stand again although confirmation as to whether he intends to has not been given. With the Standing Committee’s having a say in the composition of the board, his aggressive pursuit of the NPL may come back to haunt him.
Football West also advised that Deputy Chairman of Perth Glory Lui Giuliani had “been filling a position on the board on a casual basis. This position expires at the AGM but he is also entitled to stand.”
Not according to the Football West constitution. According to this important document he is not entitled to stand for the board, and should not have been allowed to “fill in” even on a casual basis. Under section 10.4 of the Football West Constitution and the sub-heading Eligibility it states:
A person who:
(a) is an employee of the Company or of FFA; or (b) holds any Official Position,
(each a Disqualifying Position) may not stand for or hold office as a Director.
A Director who accepts a Disqualifying Position must notify the other Directors of that fact immediately and article 10.20(c) applies.
As Perth Glory now have teams playing in the NPL they cannot possibly have a representative on the board, especially not one who holds an official position. Mr Giuliani is the Vice Chairman of Perth Glory and has been since Tony Sage purchased the club. Former Football West Board Member Paul Kelly eventually stepped down when he took over as CEO of the A-League club after questions were raised over a conflict of interest. The same would apply to Mr Giuliani. If Perth Glory are allowed to bypass this rule in the constitution, then every club in the NPL is entitled to have a director of their club hold such a position as well. One has to ask why if the Board is looking to cover all the required skill sets they would require a third financial expert to join the other two being the Chairman, Mr. Twigger and board member Mr Andrawes.
One reason why the Football West website should reveal when Board members are elected or co-opted is that the constitution clearly states under section 10.7 Rotation of Directors that
- (a) Despite article 10.6, at the annual general meeting relating to the financial year ended 30 September 2006 and at each second subsequent annual general meeting one-half of the Elected Directors must retire from office.
- (b) If the number of Elected Directors is not a whole number which is a multiple of two, the number of Elected Directors is to be rounded down to the next whole number.
- (c) At the annual general meeting relating to the financial year ended 30 September 2006 the Chairman will not be a retiring Director.
(10.6 states that each Directors term is for a four year period. A question to have this reduced to two or three years in line with most organisations was raised at previous AGMs and was rejected).
It is vital that the website reveals this information. As there has been a shift in appointments in recent years and the four year cycle has been interrupted by resignations and people co-opted onto the board. Therefore the constitution maybe need to be changed to reflect this.
The Football West website currently does not even feature the name of Howard Gretton who was co-opted to the Board in September 2013. No press release has been sent out to advise that he has resigned his position, if he in fact has. This would be the logical explanation as to why his name is not listed. Go to that ever reliable source Wikipedia and Mr Bob Kucera is still cited as being a Board Member, when he stepped down in January 2013 as he was running for Parliament in the state election! To add to the confusion if one tries to access previous annual reports to work out for oneself the dates of Board appointments the 2010 edition does not open, and one receives a message stating “Not Found.”
These are all issues that should be a general part of “housekeeping.” Correct information on the website, access to annual reports, and knowing the constitution under which you operate. It now falls on the shoulders of the Standing Committee representatives to ensure that all of these issues are corrected when they attend this year’s AGM. It is also hoped that the late date of the AGM will still see them in full attendance, if not they should ask for a postponement. This is an important meeting especially in relation to appointing new board members. After all the Standing Committees were elected – well some were, and we won’t go into that here – to represent the stakeholders. They have an obligation to attend the AGM and vote for the candidate their member clubs feel is the appropriate candidate; at least that is what the Crawford Report said they would do.
