Dear members,
The 185th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Melbourne Cricket Club was held both in person in the Members’ Dining Room and online via an online platform on Tuesday August 16, 2022.
It was a great pleasure to welcome members to our first in person AGM in two years and the Club’s first hybrid meeting. While it was a new experience for us as a Club, offering both options was popular and created flexibility for our members.
Treasurer Geoff Roberts, Chief Executive Stuart Fox and myself addressed the 279 members in the room in addition to in excess of 1,300 members who joined the AGM online. This made this year’s meeting the highest attended in the Club’s long history.
Annual General Meeting Summary
As I noted in my address, when looking back on the 2021/22 financial year, the emotions of pride and excitement came to mind. Pride in what the Club, membership, Sporting Sections and Special Interest Groups achieved in yet another year that provided a number of obstacles, and excitement in how successfully dealing with those challenges has set the Club up for a strong recovery as we now work towards the AFL Finals Series and a summer full of cricket and concerts. A particular highlight amongst all that has been achieved in those 12 months is the return of members and fans to the stadium, not only for cricket and AFL matches, but also for Tours and visits to the Australian Sports Museum. It has been fantastic to see.In delivering his report, Chief Executive Stuart Fox detailed how the Club navigated yet another COVID-affected year from the positives of crowds returning, to last-minute relocations of matches away from the MCG, function cancellations and more to the heartbreak of relinquishing the AFL Grand Final for a second consecutive year. Stuart highlighted the Club’s resilience amongst it all, noting how pleasing it is to now return to a regular calendar of matches and Club activities.
In his review and welcome of new hospitality partner, Delaware North, Stuart acknowledged the challenge of staffing shortages experienced earlier in the year before sharing updates on projects driven by the Club’s strategic plan including its Reconciliation Action Plan, Yarra Park Master Plan, commitment to sustainability and the exploration of stadium upgrades, in particular the aging Shane Warne Stand.
Together with Stuart, I would like to once again thank the Committee, executive leadership team, staff, members and volunteers for their combined support, dedication and hard work throughout this period. Over the coming months the eyes of the world will be on our great stadium as we host the Men’s T20 World Cup tournament and concerts by Billy Joel and Guns N’ Roses, and we look forward to delivering a great experience for everyone who walks through our gates.
I am pleased to retain my position of President of the Club after being re-elected unopposed. Christian Johnson remains as Vice President and Geoff Roberts remains as Treasurer, while Annabel Brebner, Paula Dwyer and Kalpana Ramani also retain their positions on the Committee after being re-elected unopposed.
Proposed Motion and Subsequent Ballot Process
Members are aware the Committee proposed changes to the Club Rules at the AGM surrounding 50-Year membership arrangements. The motion proposed was to clarify 50-Year membership arrangements including recognising the classification in the Club Rules, setting subscription fees, introducing an initial cohort of female members into the classification and creating a 50-Year social membership category. Of the 1,211 Full members who voted in person and online during the AGM, a total of 73.82 per cent voted in favor of the rule amendments. This is more than the two-thirds of votes required under Rule 18(b)(i) to pass the motion and amend the Rules.However, as outlined in Rule 10.4(c) and Rule 18(b)(ii), 30 eligible voting members or more can request a ballot be held to determine if the motion is passed. This occurred during the AGM and the Club will now facilitate a ballot process in accordance with Rule 10.6. The Committee has appointed Tim Jones from independent voting and election service provider, CorpVote, as the Returning Officer to conduct the ballot.
Voting on the 50-Year membership arrangements motion opens on Friday September 2, 2022 at 12.01am AEST and will close at 5.00pm AEST on Thursday September 15, 2022. The closing date is in line with the Club Rules which outline the ballot must close within one month of the Annual General Meeting, having been held on Tuesday August 16, 2022.
More details on the ballot process will be emailed to eligible voting members in the coming weeks.
Motion Overview
The 50-Year membership classification was first created by the Club in 1965 to recognise the long-term loyalty of those who had been members for over 50 years, providing them with additional facilities and benefits which continues to this day in the form of access to dedicated Level 2 seating and access to the John Landy Room. This classification also included a discounted annual subscription, introduced as a 25 per cent discount to a Full member’s subscription fee (this fee was set at $15 in 1965, being 75 per cent of Full membership subscriptions for that year, and has not changed since, despite all other membership fees increasing at approximately CPI every year).The Committee believes there are four fundamental points in relation to the 50-Year membership classification which need to be addressed in the interests of overall fairness for all members both current and future, our obligations to maintain the amenity of the Members’ Reserve and to bring arrangements in line with contemporary times.
They are:
1. Recognition of 50-Year members in the Club Rules
2. Inclusion of initial specified cohort of female members to the 50-Year membership classification
3. 50-Year membership subscriptions
4. Introduction of 50-Year Social membership category
I have made some comments on each of these points to explain the Committee’s rationale in presenting these rule changes to members at the 2022 AGM, which can be found at mcc.org.au/agm. I encourage all members to read the proposed rule changes in full, in addition to the accompanying explanatory memorandum which can be found here, before casting your vote.
The Committee has deliberated on these changes deeply and for an extended period of time. A variety of options and solutions were considered, discussed at length and stress tested before settling on the best package of changes to present to members at the AGM.
We believe that delivering these changes now is the right thing to do for our Club and all our members, and that the changes are in the best interest of preserving our wonderful Club for generations to come.
If you have any questions regarding the ballot, I encourage you to contact our Membership Services Team on (03) 9657 8888 or at membership@mcc.org.au.
Yours sincerely,
Michael Happell
President
Melbourne Cricket Club