Strategy Take Back Port Adelaide

[Fizzler]

Meh.

I’m not diminishing the effort put in by Fizzler. Just feeling jaded with the club and its record of shutting these things down.

I get it completely, for me this is my last ditch attempt to say I tried something for the betterment of the club and hopefully get it back to being something I and others can properly enjoy again. I’m hopeful that the club won’t be able to shut this down as there’s no real argument against campaigning for control of the club that doesn’t come off as selfish by the club. And unlike BBTB they wouldn’t be able to shift the aim of it by starting their own petition/campaign. Obviously a little bit of wishful thinking on my part but the optimism can’t hurt I suppose.

 

[TazD]

When do we hurl the molotov cocktails?

 

[Fizzler]

Hi everyone, just popping in to give everyone an idea of where I’m at with this at the moment. Been spending some time thinking about the strategy I’m going to take with this campaign and I’ve had some ideas so it’s a good time to check in.
At present this is a social media campaign so my next step is setting up accounts on the major platforms (already have Instagram, going to use my TikTok account as the de facto account on there, need to set up Facebook and X). I’ve brainstormed post ideas and stuff of the sort which I will continuously add to, but what I have to do is set up a template for social media graphics so everything looks consistent. Once all my posts are made, the plan is to have everything scheduled to post daily and make it so I can post on all 3 platforms at the same time. This is the bit I haven’t figured out yet so if anyone has suggestions please do share.
The important thing too is the phrasing of the posts, I want them to be clear and understandable for people who aren’t absolute nerds like myself and don’t have time to research all these issues so that this campaign has a chance to resonate with the majority of Port supporters. I am also painstakingly trying to not mentioned Ken Hinkley in any of the posts as the issues run far deeper than him, and the whole idea of Take Back Port Adelaide is to do exactly that, take back control of our club. Not strictly to sack the coach as that wouldn’t be an acceptable end goal and the issues will continue beyond his tenure if nothing changes.
One final note, if anyone is interested in donating small amounts to the campaign to fund promoting the posts through the social sites I’d be happy to accept that eventually once the posts have started to go up, though not yet as I’m not at the point where I’m ready to start posting. I’ll be making sure to invest that money into posts that have the best chance at resulting in engagement on the pages, but at the early stages it’ll have to be mostly organic growth. I’m not too keen on throwing down a whole heap of money before it’s really even began.
I hope many of you are excited at the prospect of making a difference for our club, even though I know many people are incredibly disenchanted right now. I am too, but this might be our best chance at doing something to change that for good.

 

[raptalia]

Well good luck with this. It seems to me that the whole campaign needs a figure head. The One Club campaign had Timmy Ginever and George Fiachii as a public face. Even though this is to be a social media campaign it will need some public events to attract media coverage and a Port figurehead would help in that regard.

The problem is that the system is such that change from within the corporate organisation that the PAFC has become may be very difficult to achieve. Apart from two member elected Board positions Members get little say in the running of the Club these days. No one has been able to tell me how Board appointments are made let alone how a Chairman is selected. I suspect that such appointments are made by an internal process with the approval of the AFL and even the SANFL. Unless you are able to influence AFL House members will have little or no say in any changes.

What I am saying it is one thing to bring about change but another to have a direct say in the results of that change. We might force Koch from office tomorrow but what say would any of us have in his replacement? The only way to remedy that is to revisit the past and have a Member elected Board but I doubt that the AFL would want that.

Good luck, I wish you well.

 

[Fizzler]

Well good luck with this. It seems to me that the whole campaign needs a figure head. The One Club campaign had Timmy Ginever and George Fiachii as a public face. Even though this is to be a social media campaign it will need some public events to attract media coverage and a Port figurehead would help in that regard.

I wholeheartedly agree. Right now I have to fill that role and I don’t have the ability to resonate with the wider fanbase like a past player does, so I am hoping some past players are willing to get on board with the vision here and show their support. The public events situation is a lot harder for me given I’m in Melbourne so it’ll have to involve expanding the staff side of things which will take time but that is definitely the plan in the medium to long term.

The problem is that the system is such that change from within the corporate organisation that the PAFC has become may be very difficult to achieve. Apart from two member elected Board positions Members get little say in the running of the Club these days. No one has been able to tell me how Board appointments are made let alone how a Chairman is selected. I suspect that such appointments are made by an internal process with the approval of the AFL and even the SANFL. Unless you are able to influence AFL House members will have little or no say in any changes.

That’s the main target moreso than simply replacing the members on the board, what we really need is that structure to change completely. The club constitution simply says 8 members are appointed by the AFL, but it’s hard to imagine the AFL are actively choosing board members for the club. I suspect the current board (namely Kochie) nominates its own preferred members and just asks the AFL to tick it off, but the lack of transparency as well as having no set term length (it’s literally defined as “from time to time”) is a major concern that I intend to highlight.

What I am saying it is one thing to bring about change but another to have a direct say in the results of that change. We might force Koch from office tomorrow but what say would any of us have in his replacement? The only way to remedy that is to revisit the past and have a Member elected Board but I doubt that the AFL would want that.

Good luck, I wish you well.

I agree, and I will be deliberately positioning this as an attempt to change the structure of the club and its board rather than ousting any people in particular. Can’t have anyone thinking the job is finished if one of Koch or Hinkley leaves the club as there’s just so much more that needs to be done. Rest assured though, I’m on board with this and what you’re after is exactly what I’m looking to achieve here.

 

[raptalia]

I think you are right about the Koch influence re Board appointments. We all saw his reaction when Warren Tredrea

Warren Tredrea

Age

45

Ht

194cm

Wt

96kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

14.3

4star

K

10.1

4star

HB

4.2

3star

M

6.9

5star

T

1.4

3star

G

2.2

5star

No current season stats available

D

5.4

2star

K

2.8

1star

HB

2.6

3star

M

1.2

2star

T

0.6

3star

G

1.0

4star

nominated for the vacant member elected Board position. With in hours Bruce Abernethy had nominated to run against Tredders. That had to be Koch reacting to someone who might rock the boat.

As I have pointed out in previous posts the big difference between the PAFC Board of old and today's corporate structure is in the days of old those sitting on the Board and making decisions had a background in the PAFC. They were mainly past players or officials who had experience in running the Club and most importantly they had years of exposure to the Port tradition. These days the corporate boardroom lackies are mainly blow ins with no prior experience at running a footy club let alone exposure to the traditions of the PAFC. Sure they have business acumen but no real football savvy, if they did they would never have appointed Hinkley before the finals last year. In the past we had lawyers and accountants on our Board but we also had a fair share of past players and officials who were steeped in the Port way of doing things.

I hear what you are saying and I realise that you are trying to change the situation and wrest back control of the club. You have my full support and best wishes in your endeavour.

 

[Fizzler]

I've just started a petition on change.org which is easy to sign and easy to share around. As of right now this is the best way to show your support for the cause and also includes a list of non-negotiable goals that would be ideal to see as a result of this campaign:

• Progress towards a fully member elected board, including getting a date of when this will be achieved and a plan for how to gradually get to that point
• Transparency regarding the club’s finances and making annual reports public
• Clarification as to how a person can nominate for election to the Board of Directors
• Transparency about how the AFL elected board members are selected
• A maximum length that directors can serve on the club board (for example, 3 terms of 3 years with elections staggered yearly)

Please get around to reading the petition and signing it, and if you feel inclined to do so, please share it around to as many Port Adelaide fans as you can in order to spread the word. The petition can be found at the following link: https://chng.it/G27TZD2TrN