Date: Tuesday 8 August 2023 Time: 5:00 pm – 8 pm
Attendees: Jordie Riley, Sean Nicoll, Chris May, Simon Boegheim, Neil Ballment, Majella Card, John Murray, Ben van de Beld, Chris Kelly, Stuart Warren, Kerri-Anne Dove, Carissa Matheson, John Tumbridge, Dan Smareglia, Jeremy Scott, Kaz Patafta, Zac Anderson.
Apologies: Jason Brummel, Alex Accini
Agenda:
1) Introduction, expectations, meeting frequency
2) Opening it up to the floor: Points of discussion
3) Kaz + Zac arrival and introduction
4) Discussion to follow.
5) Conclusion
Introduction
Expectations of meetings and structure moving forward
Ground rules communicated:
– Set number of meetings per annum: Quarterly or monthly
– Respect for one another: Positive & constructive criticism
– Phones on silent
– Respect others’ ideas
– Constructive criticism
– No personal attacks
– Hard stops / Parking topics
– Stick to the matter at hand.
– Be concise and stay on topic.
Communication from the club with supporters:
Question: What can we report on to the fans and what can’t we?
Jordie: It will be communicated what can and is preferred is kept internally within the Advisory Council.
Frequency of meetings:
– Simon suggested meeting more regularly to ensure input is provided and taken on board in time for the season in October.
– It was agreed that the Council would aim to meet in person once in pre-season, 2-3 times during the season and once post-season.
Council members agreed to utilise virtual meetings for any urgent business that may arise between scheduled meetings
Discussion point number 1: Club Communication
– More transparency in communication from the club
– Managing expectations with fans is vital. Fans need to know what the club is aiming for and how it’s going to get there.
– Minor updates must be more regular. Members emails to increase with regular updates
– Preferably weekly. Members just want to feel part of the journey with what’s happening.
– Points on where we’re heading before outlining periodic updates.
email
– Advisory Council – Did not get enough updates, wondering why there was radio silence when there was a changeover in CEO (and when Jordie was on leave) and the Advisory Council assumed it was not going ahead anymore due to no communication in a while.
– APL Advisory Council – Will be league-wide with representatives from each club
– Simon Boegheim – Messages across to members have been lost.
– Members will appreciate more frequency in communication
– Announcements need to go straight to members first before they find out on social media and in the news where it’s often lost in translation, we want to be finding out from the club first.
– At the moment, there is 0 trust between fans and the club due to the past happenings of the club and the way things have been managed and communicated there has been mistrust developed between management and fans.
– How can the advisory council help? We can assist in communicating the intricacies between the decisions that have been made and why communication has been set in a certain way.
– Trust needs to be rebuilt.
– People can go to the advisory council members directly for communication and explanations. Use the council as a conduit for communication.
– Consistent and reliable information needs to be presented to fans.
– Half-truths and “over-promising” has been the occurrence in the past.
– Newsletters are weekly but are just a re-hashing of information, we need exclusive information for members and updates on what is incoming and the weeks ahead.
– Is the club resourced enough to provide that intricate communication with members?
– More bespoke information and more regular. Every two to three week is fine.
– Do we do old-school letters in the mail to make it feel more bespoke and special to fans?
– We have a database of 155,000 people; do we do monthly newsletters for the whole database and weekly to members?
Action Points:
Brisbane Roar Marketing + Media team to increase communication directly to members and ensure it is more bespoke with regular informational updates from Kaz & Zac and the football department.
Newsletters will still be every Thursday, but Sean (Brisbane Roar Marketing Manager) will tweak communications with his team to ensure more regular and transparent information is provided to
give members a greater share of information from the football department. Sean to discuss internally with Kaz / Zac to ensure adequate resourcing is put towards ensuring no barriers to communication between Football Department, and Media / Marketing and Sean to train more people in the admin team to be competent at utilising digital EDM systems.
Discussion Point number 2: Club Ownership – The Bakries
– We want a relationship with our owners, and we want to get to know them better
– Would the owners like to come visit supporters?
– What was their vision, what’s their direction and what’s their plans with the club?
Can Kaz + Zac explain anything?
– Has Nirwan (owner) been to games at the club?
– The nature of football in Australia is very difficult and there are not many people able to do what the Bakries have done for Brisbane Roar
– The Bakrie’s have a network of clubs, can it not be utilised to their benefit and the Brisbane Roar’s benefit?
– We want to have our own stadium, the Bakries said that they were looking to ensure this happens when they took on the club over a decade ago.
– Kaz + Zac to sell their vision? Fans are keen to hear more.
– We have a vision for the club, and it needs to be communicated.
– Appreciation for the owner’s contributions but the perception regarding the owners could be better.
6:08 pm: Kaz Patafta (CEO) and Zac Anderson (COO) arrive.
*Discussion regarding the Bakries ownership group continues with
Kaz + Zac present.
Kaz:
– The Bakries provide ownership contributions monthly
– The Bakries do want more to do with the club.
– The Bakries have a line of communication directly with APL
– Kaz has explained the importance of the Advisory Council and wants to work collaboratively with the council moving forward, and can see the value that each member will bring.
– Kaz has urged council members to please call him day and night 24 hours. He is always available and is in work mode to speak to everyone and anyone.
– Kaz has explained that there needs to be NO assumptions from Council members. If the council hear of something fishy or if something has been made public by journalists, then there needs to be direct communication with Kaz to clarify.
Zac:
– Communication is KEY.
– On our first day we’ve asked people to be authentic, be
themselves and be the best version of themselves. That’s very important for us as management to empower our people within the club.
– Authenticity is the most important aspect at the moment.
– BRFC has been too egotistical for too long, we need to be a community-centric club
– We need to be seen as one within the community.
– Dolphin Stadium is not part of our strategic plan moving forward
– We are so passionate about the vision moving forward.
– We need to reconnect with Brisbane.
– What do we do to expand our horizons – We’re keen to hear from the council.
Kaz:
– FQ relationship is being repaired and re-energised.
– BRFC is aligned with FQ to push the game forward in QLD
– Association with our club must enable people to be better people when they leave the club – We need to be an exporter of elite talent on and off the park.
– The core function of the club is to support, build and empower people. Our players, our staff, sponsors and our members. We want to simply be the very best version of ourselves because when everyone is firing, we have a successful football club that is entrenched in the community.
Zac:
– Brendale was never going to be for the men specifically, we hope it can be a whole club facility in the future but right now it is not.
– The facility won’t be ready for the Women’s season as we understand today, with ongoing work being done on the facility
– Women will be training at QSAC for the immediate future
Council:
– Fans want to have a better relationship with their owners.
– Fans would appreciate a statement; Bakries statement
Actions:
Kaz + Zac agrees and will propose a communications piece with Pak Nirwan in the coming weeks.
Kaz & Zac to become a conduit for members and fans to know who the Bakries are and what their role is as the ownership group.
Zac:
– This club has been dying to have its own DNA.
– QLD has one of the best Academy systems, the Women’s side of football in QLD has supplied the national team with a high percentage of the current Matildas over the last 10 years.
– It’s working well for the Women; how do we make it work for the men?
– Historical liabilities but Zac + Kaz have genuine intent to make a change.
Council:
“It’s evident that as part of your vision, youth players and youth recruitment and empowerment will be the focus across the club, how are we expected to fill the stadium with youth players, can we not afford the marquee signings?”
Kaz:
“It’s not about spending big dollars, it’s about spending strategically and smartly, I can’t stress that enough, based on analytical data presented to the club.”
“Too long has the club put a fishing line with a bit of bait out into the ocean in [non-strategic areas] and hoped for a result.”
“Big money has been spent on players who were not a right fit for the club and the club did not do its due diligence.”
– Those days are gone. We need to be strategic, and analytical and make data-driven decisions not just in the Football Department, but across the club in our Marketing and Memberships.
– We don’t have the current systems in place to make those data-driven decisions so that is a key focus for us in the immediate term to fix processes and systems to enable and empower our people
– Young talent is the focus at the moment to keep bringing talent through and moving forward we will be a youth-focused club
– We need our communications on point to ensure we’re driving home this message
– That will be our DNA, it’s our mission and vision to ensure we’re bringing through the best talent in the women’s and the men’s
We’re home again, we’re coming home. We are a Brisbane club. This is our message.
From the Council:
The Advisory Council wants the management group to communicate directly with our members regarding the club’s financial state. Be transparent. People need to understand what the current rebuilding looks like.
Fans need to see a plan of what it looks like and a timeline for getting the club back on track.
Kaz:
In 12 months’, time we will be back in a healthier position.
Communication regarding what the “rebuild” looks like will come out in the coming weeks.
Actions:
Kaz and Zac to get a communications piece out regarding their plans moving forward.
Independence of the Council
Summary: The issue of the independence of the Council was considered and it was generally agreed that the Council should be free to give its independent views to Roar Management whether critical or not, but that its public views should be broadly supportive of the Club.
Members of the Council were encouraged to communicate freely and quickly with Roar management when they saw or heard things that seemed “fishy” or inappropriate so that the issues could be addressed.
There was some discussion about the Club should present the Council and the Council
Members generally agreed that they would be happy to be publicly introduced by the Club as Council Members although there were one or two who were concerned that this might make it seem that the Council was a mere mouthpiece of the Club.
Conclusion:
– Jordie thanks the room
– Meeting minutes are to be sent around to the group the next day
– Meeting minutes will be published on the BRFC website after post-advisory members receive the meeting minutes
– Next meeting to be communicated however aiming for late September / Early October in the weeks prior to the start of the season
