Gold Coast Titans Member Forum 18/08/2015

[Titanic]

Questions:

1. What is the Board's longterm plan to pull the club out of the seeming downwards spiral that we have been on for years? (seeking an actual plan)

2. Please give us an appraisal of where the club is positioned against that long term plan? (seeking up-dates on such things as training facilities; offices; staffing; recruitment; membership; salary cap; financial overview; KPI's for management)

And if not already answered:

3. What is being done to correct the apparent dis-connect between the club struggle towards reaching its goals and its members' expectations? (seeking a Forum for regular dialogue)

I am sure there will be most of this discussed so feel free to chop and change these questions to fit if necessary.

Finally, a word of support which you could read out if you feel like it:

Me and my family are disappointed that we could not attend the meeting, however, we would like it known that all over the world (I work for the Chinese government in China) there are pockets of supporters who use the club's network as a link to home and they are as hardy as the most ardent locals. For example my son who is 9, has for all his cognizant life supported a club that has been losing and using "rebulding" as an excuse for the continuing off-field traumas and lacklustre performances. Nevertheless he is a Titans fan ... I asked him if he wanted to ask any questions. His reply was, "not really, I will always support them because they are our team."

Sorry, I forgot, thanks for helping out, JB and Shamus.

[shamus]

Times up...........On my way now.....I have printed off your questions Titanic.......and I thought you were always grammatically correct....... Shouldn't it read 'My family and I' not 'Me and my family'.

[Titanic]

Times up...........On my way now.....I have printed off your questions Titanic.......and I thought you were always grammatically correct....... Shouldn't it read 'My family and I' not 'Me and my family'.

Didn't want you to sound too anally retentive if you read it out thanks mate, I'll buy you a baijiu when we finally catch-up. Good luck.

[DIEHARD]

Well done for being our representative Shamus!

[JunctionBlock]

Ok, so just got back from the forum and had a quick bite.

I've drunk the koolaid hallelujah. Time went very quickly to say the least and trying to get the microphone was damn near impossible.

overall it was very positive. The questions were positive and it certainly didn't descend into a "why did you pick Mortimer in the halves again?" type affair.

There could have been a thousand more questions asked that we would have been very interested to get to the bottom off but unfortunately there just wasn't enough time. I hung around and still wasn't able to get to speak to individuals as they were all tied up with others.

One last thing was people want more access to players before, during (injured players) and after games. In a round about way Henry pretty much said that in the digital world we live in where everyone has access to the media it's very daunting for players to put themselves out there.

If I think of anything else I'll add to this.

From the start questions were asked about training base and facilities and how they are progressing and had it been an issue for the year.

The answer from Henry was that he wouldn't use that as an excuse for this years performances. From Graham he believes they are 90-95% done with the negotiations with Parkwood and the redevelopment of the site which would include "world class" facilities including gyms, atmosphere chambers, training fields and an admin base. There was talk about reciprocal memberships with the Titans and the Parkwood golf course. The facilities would NOT be ready by the start of next season and would be more likely a half way through the year thing.

Very quick discussion regarding KPI's and accountability. Rebecca was saying that after a review of the NRL clubs our club is being used as a benchmark as far as management, medical staff and a couple of other things. Graham is obviously accountable to the board and isn't under contract so is able to sacked at any time they wish. The board is currently reviewing an expansion in the number of members after its review and will be interviewing people with specific skills sets to complement the boards deficiencies.

A lot of questions regarding players off field indiscretions, family friendly seating so that people with small children don't have to endure foul mouth drunks. Questions on trying to get a decent supporters base starting with kids etc. A lot of deflection and reminders that only one player accused of cocaine offences will be at the club next year. Still will be a Mad Monday and they didn't seem to have too many answers on ensuring nothing stupid will happen again to be honest.

Graham couldn't give exact numbers on the amount of social members that have converted to full members. He said that the club had greatly reduced it's overheads by $1.5 million through stadium negotiations. Negotiations are still ongoing and done as a game by game contract. Revenue to date has been $4 million. I have no idea where the revenue stream is coming from.

The meeting was recorded and apparently those that attended will be sent emails or contacted with information first before the wider community is given details of the forum.

It will probably be a yearly thing. I have suggested that it be more friendly for our members overseas or who aren't on the Coast. Perhaps skype or a simple conference forum where questions can be asked and filtered.

It went over time so question time was wrapped up as people had places to be I guess. I spoke to Neil Katto? after and asked about the recruitment and conditioning staff replacements. That comes down to Henry to replace them. Couldn't give any specifics at all so nothing to report other than "I'm sure they are looking".

- - - Updated - - -

Forgot, one of the handouts was the strategic plan. The vision, goals measures for performance and their mission and values. All very basic stuff if you've ever seen your company's five year plan abbreviated for the plebs it's the same as that.

[Mexican titan]

Thanks for the summary mate. It appears nothing really new came out of it.
It is good recognition although somewhat of a surprise that the club is being used as a benchmark for a few things - I hope manly don't copy them for anything to be honest. I do think though we are lucky to have Rebecca Frizelle on board though as she is extremely highly regarded in the business world.
Still disappointing that the Parkwood thing is not done and the stadium arrangement where sections are being closed off is a very poor look. I am very surprised that they could not give membership details but our numbers are very heavily inflated by the one or two game memberships they had and I think behind the detail we have a very low season ticketed membership number.
As for Mad Monday I have no issue with it as the club cannot hold the players hands. I would like the drug testers to be around on mad Tuesday though!!

[K2G]

Ok, so just got back from the forum and had a quick bite.

I've drunk the koolaid hallelujah. Time went very quickly to say the least and trying to get the microphone was damn near impossible.

Thank you for repping L.O.T. JB You get 3 points in the forum member's Dally M's this week!

Look forward to hopefully being able to listen to the recording of the evening.

[Titan68]

Interesting read JunctionBlock. One point though , i take it the only player that's accused of cocaine offences who will be at the club next year is Birdy

[JunctionBlock]

Interesting read JunctionBlock. One point though , i take it the only player that's accused of cocaine offences who will be at the club next year is Birdy

No names were used. I assumed the same. Henry did give Birdy a rap as a player that gives 100% and even at his age is willing to learn and even pointed out his flaws of rushing up out of the line and offloading on the zero or first tackle. I wanted to yell out "and not giving early ball to Roberts".

[shamus]

Ok, so just got back from the forum and had a quick bite.

I've drunk the koolaid hallelujah. Time went very quickly to say the least and trying to get the microphone was damn near impossible.

overall it was very positive. The questions were positive and it certainly didn't descend into a "why did you pick Mortimer in the halves again?" type affair.

There could have been a thousand more questions asked that we would have been very interested to get to the bottom off but unfortunately there just wasn't enough time. I hung around and still wasn't able to get to speak to individuals as they were all tied up with others.

One last thing was people want more access to players before, during (injured players) and after games. In a round about way Henry pretty much said that in the digital world we live in where everyone has access to the media it's very daunting for players to put themselves out there.

If I think of anything else I'll add to this.

From the start questions were asked about training base and facilities and how they are progressing and had it been an issue for the year.

The answer from Henry was that he wouldn't use that as an excuse for this years performances. From Graham he believes they are 90-95% done with the negotiations with Parkwood and the redevelopment of the site which would include "world class" facilities including gyms, atmosphere chambers, training fields and an admin base. There was talk about reciprocal memberships with the Titans and the Parkwood golf course. The facilities would NOT be ready by the start of next season and would be more likely a half way through the year thing.

Very quick discussion regarding KPI's and accountability. Rebecca was saying that after a review of the NRL clubs our club is being used as a benchmark as far as management, medical staff and a couple of other things. Graham is obviously accountable to the board and isn't under contract so is able to sacked at any time they wish. The board is currently reviewing an expansion in the number of members after its review and will be interviewing people with specific skills sets to complement the boards deficiencies.

A lot of questions regarding players off field indiscretions, family friendly seating so that people with small children don't have to endure foul mouth drunks. Questions on trying to get a decent supporters base starting with kids etc. A lot of deflection and reminders that only one player accused of cocaine offences will be at the club next year. Still will be a Mad Monday and they didn't seem to have too many answers on ensuring nothing stupid will happen again to be honest.

Graham couldn't give exact numbers on the amount of social members that have converted to full members. He said that the club had greatly reduced it's overheads by $1.5 million through stadium negotiations. Negotiations are still ongoing and done as a game by game contract. Revenue to date has been $4 million. I have no idea where the revenue stream is coming from.

The meeting was recorded and apparently those that attended will be sent emails or contacted with information first before the wider community is given details of the forum.

It will probably be a yearly thing. I have suggested that it be more friendly for our members overseas or who aren't on the Coast. Perhaps skype or a simple conference forum where questions can be asked and filtered.

It went over time so question time was wrapped up as people had places to be I guess. I spoke to Neil Katto? after and asked about the recruitment and conditioning staff replacements. That comes down to Henry to replace them. Couldn't give any specifics at all so nothing to report other than "I'm sure they are looking".

- - - Updated - - -

Forgot, one of the handouts was the strategic plan. The vision, goals measures for performance and their mission and values. All very basic stuff if you've ever seen your company's five year plan abbreviated for the plebs it's the same as that.

Pretty well what JB said.......Before the meeting started I counted 100 chairs and of those in the end there were only about 15 empties.....There was also about 15 standing. Of those, 10 would have been Titans people so close to 90 so good roll out. I don't know which voice you were JB as all kinds got hold of the microphone and although you could tell by 'tones' the frame of mind some were in (and wanted to vent) it all was very amicable. Rebecca did say that this is a 'real' 5 year plan not like the previous owners plans for the club. Henry did also mention that there is no such thing as a 5 year player contract these days (aside from DCE I guess) as the way the game is unfolding and media contract upgrades etc has put a stop to this.

Anyways, I recorded it. All 1 hour, 47 minutes and 19 seconds of it. I have absolutely no idea how to get it from my phone up my index finger on my left hand, through my body and down my index finger on my right hand and into the computer. So if anyone is interested in listening to almost 2 hours of conversation you will need to let me know how to do it.

P.S. I am unsure of the grade of the recording as I do not want to lose 3 hrs, 34 min and 38 seconds of my life (in total) by listening again for voice quality..

I lied.........I just listened to 47 minutes and 19 seconds of it and it is all audible. So once I work out how to get it on here then those who want to listen can listen.

[shamus]

Didn't want you to sound too anally retentive if you read it out thanks mate, I'll buy you a baijiu when we finally catch-up. Good luck.

By Joe that sounds great..(Did you see what I did there??)

[K2G]

I lied.........I just listened to 47 minutes and 19 seconds of it and it is all audible. So once I work out how to get it on here then those who want to listen can listen.

Thanks for recording the event Shamus

You could try and upload the audio file directly to YouTube/SoundCloud yourself and post here. Or send to someone via email / Google Drive / Dropbox / Facebook / whatsapp and have them upload. Obviously, I'd be more than happy to do this.

Drop me a pm if you'd like some more help with any of these methods and/or my contact info.

Thanks again!

[JunctionBlock]

Thanks for the summary mate. It appears nothing really new came out of it.
It is good recognition although somewhat of a surprise that the club is being used as a benchmark for a few things - I hope manly don't copy them for anything to be honest. I do think though we are lucky to have Rebecca Frizelle on board though as she is extremely highly regarded in the business world.
Still disappointing that the Parkwood thing is not done and the stadium arrangement where sections are being closed off is a very poor look. I am very surprised that they could not give membership details but our numbers are very heavily inflated by the one or two game memberships they had and I think behind the detail we have a very low season ticketed membership number.
As for Mad Monday I have no issue with it as the club cannot hold the players hands. I would like the drug testers to be around on mad Tuesday though!!

Rebecca was very impressive as was Graham. Neil copped most of the questions I guess because thats the end of the business we all concentrate on more and see the results of.

Just to clarify on the membership numbers, Graham didn't have the stats on hand but Chris the membership manager would have. They did acknowledge the numbers are inflated but they are a step ahead given the contacts they have to be able to try and convert the one or two game people.

Mad Monday has me concerned. I'm "the safety guy" at work so I look at minimising risk and the best way to do that is to eliminate the problem. If they aren't going to do that then they need to put controls in place to ensure nothing gets out of hand. We have a target on our backs. Last year the fact that one NRL team had a bikini girl made headlines. If the club hasn't learnt from last year then you just have to shrug your shoulders and wonder what the hell the hierarchy are doing. There should be a procedure in place as to how they plan to minimise the chances of making a headline. No phones, not in the public and with chaperons, if you don't like that then can the mad monday. Go and spend some time with your family and enjoy the offseason. The excuse that players need to blow off steam just doesn't cut it in today's touchy feely world. Basically what I'm saying is that we don't need the headlines cause of some minor (or major) indiscretion. As mentioned, the players should be made fully aware that come Tuesday there will be a urine test which will not be kept private.

[Titanic]

Thanks guys for both attending and reporting ... keeping them honest is a critical part of the club's, dare I say it, "re-building".

By Joe that sounds great..(Did you see what I did there??)

Perfect mate, your Chinese is exemplary and I will ensure that my original offer is by the bottle.

Mad Monday has me concerned. I'm "the safety guy" at work so I look at minimising risk and the best way to do that is to eliminate the problem.

On one hand I totally agree but I temper that by thinking that if the club had a strong culture then there would be no need and add that if they want to fcuk-up and get caught then the heavy hand of the law should be brought into play. This is not the time for compromise.

Anyway, thanks again both of you for making the effort.

[shamus]

Mad Monday has me concerned.

In fairness to how Henry replied to that question he did say that previous issues are in all players minds and although he admitted to not knowing what kind of Monday it would be it could just be a BBQ in someones yard........Yeah, righto, so I am gullible.

Perfect mate, your Chinese is exemplary and I will ensure that my original offer is by the bottle

I will hold you to that as long as it doesn't taste like cats pi$$..