Minutes of the 166Th Annual General Meeting of the Melbourne Cricket
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
MINUTES OF THE 181st ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF THE MELBOURNE CRICKET CLUB HELD IN THE MEMBERS DINING ROOM, M.C.G., ON WEDNESDAY 15 AUGUST 2018 AT 8PM 1 WELCOME The Chairman Mr. Steven Smith welcomed members to the Annual Meeting and formally declared the meeting open. He read out the notice of the meeting and welcome Life Members, Mr. John Cain, Mr. Bruce Church, Mr. David Meiklejohn and Mr. Bob Lloyd. He also acknowledged former members of the Committee, Mr. Stephen Spargo, Mr. Peter Mitchell and Ms. Jane Nathan. He then acknowledged Mr. Tim Wallace from Ernst and Young, the Club’s auditors and Mr. Grant Rowlands from Ashurst, legal advisors to the Club. He then acknowledged Mr. Bernie Szentirmay from KPMG, the Club’s auditors and Mr. Grant Rowlands from Ashurst, legal advisors to the Club. Introductions were given to Committee members Mr. Charles Sitch, Mr. Mark Smith, Ms. Sally Macindoe, Mr. James Bennett, Mrs Clare Cannon, Mr. Adrian Anderson, Mr. Christian Johnston, Mr. Peter King, Ms. Karen Wood (Vice President), Mr. Michael Happell (Vice President), Mr. Michael Andrew (Treasurer) , Mr. Fred Oldfield (Vice President) and Mr. Ted Baillieu. Next, he introduced CEO Mr. Stuart Fox and members of the Senior Leadership team, Mr. Scott Butler (GM - Membership and Heritage), Mr. Gerard Griffin (GM-Venue & Event Services), Mr. Clive Driscoll (GM - Finance and Business Development), Ms. Donna Price, (GM – People & Culture), Mr. Rey Sumaru (GM - IT and Innovation), Ms. Jen Watt (GM- Commercial Operations & Partnerships) and Mr. Peter Wearne (GM - Facilities), as well as Mr. Mark Anderson (Club Manager), Ms. Sue Wilkinson (Director, Emergency Management, Safety and Security) and Mr. Stephen Philp (Customer Service Manager). The Chairman outlined the order of proceedings would be: - Response from CEO to outstanding Member Questions from last AGM - Chairman’s Report - Treasurer’s Report - CEO Report - Elections of Committee Members and Office Bearers - General Business 2 ANNUAL MEETING Moving to the formal matters contained in the agenda papers, that had been circulated as required in the Rules, he advised the minutes of the previous Annual General Meeting held on 16 August 2017 had been signed by himself as a true and accurate record and asked the CEO, Mr. Fox, to respond to matters raised and recorded on those minutes. Users of the new MCC Beaumaris facility- The President to speak about the facility in more detail later in the meeting. MCC functions in regional areas- A future visit is being prepared, to take place potentially in 2019 with an aim to hold these every two years. Exact details to be advised. Collection of visitors passes- In response to a query as to why members cannot both purchase and collect visitor passes from the same area, Mr. Fox noted that it is simply too difficult to sell passes from a window where other activities are taking place. Members are encouraged to purchase tickets prior to matches where possible. Availability of AGM minutes for members- last years’ minutes are available for viewing on the MCC website, with this meetings minutes to be added shortly. A member has emailed the President and CEO directly with questions which have been answered offline. Suggestion of an official members’ forum- members are surveyed regularly, particularly around the member match day experience, and are invited to give feedback. The feedback is collated with management looking at the key issues raised. 2 forums were held over the past week on some of these issues, and this practice will continue. Returning to the business of the meeting, the President highlighted the following matters from the Annual report as being of importance to the Club:- The MCC extended its agreement with the AFL, meaning that the Grand Final to be played at the MCG until the year 2057. This guarantees the long term content which allows for the redevelopment of the Ground, including a renovation or rebuild of the Great Southern Stand. It also gives all members the right to continue to attend Grand Finals for another couple of decades. Security continues to be the number 1 priority- Sue Wilkinson and Gerard Griffin continue to review all procedures. Ms Wilkinson is a renowned expert in this area and is leading the Club’s work on many strategies, including the Vehicle Mitigation strategy, in close consultation with Victoria Police. This all assists in the goal for the stadium to be one of the safest in the world. The Provisional Membership category and impact on amenities continues to be monitored. At present this is minimal, with only 57% of Provisional membership offers being taken up and the average attendance at matches being just under 1,000. As promised a full assessment will be undertaken once the milestone of 30,000 is reached- based on current level of impact it is believed that it could go up to 50,000 but this would only occur slowly and with careful consideration. The first priority is to ensure that the duration of time that individuals are on the waiting list is not too long. The replacement of all cards over 10 years old has taken place and this project allowed the team to introduce the MCC Plus+ program, where members can load funds on their card and use it to purchase food and beverages within the Reserve. To date, 110,000 members have the new card and over 57,000 have activated the card, with 19,000 using the card- this figure far exceeded the initial KPI. This is assisting the Club with speed of service and understanding what products and services members want on a match day. So far, it has been extremely successful and management will continue to look at rebates and offers that can form part of the program. The Club is considering the options for the long term use of MCC Kew, with consultants engaged to do a report. The intention is for the site to remain a sporting facility and the Club is looking at ways to make the site vibrant and viable for members and their guests. Updates will be provided to members once the report is complete. The MCC sporting facilities at Beaumaris Secondary College were opened officially in June and provide exceptional facilities for use by the Club and the community. Outside of school hours, the facilities will be used by MCC Cricket’s Mens and Womens teams, with MCC Lacrosse using the Multi Purpose Pitch for training and matches. The site is also home to the new MCC Womens Football team, the MCC Demons, who have performed well in their first season. The Club is currently in discussions with Beaumaris Football Club, Beaumaris Soccer Club and Beaumaris Cricket Club, along with some other community organisations, for them to use the site when not required by the school or the MCC Sporting Sections The Cricket pitch is a focus for the Club, with the pitch for the Ashes Test having not produced the desired level of bounce, pace or deterioration and was therefore disappointing. The Club is committed to rectifying this and earlier this year organised a focus group of approx. 15 stakeholders including curators from across Australia and New Zealand, as well as industry experts and representatives from Cricket Australia to look at how to address the problem, as it does appear to be a problem for several other drop-in pitches across the country. Whilst it is a long term project, there are some short term measures that can be put in place this summer including renovations of the wicket nursery and the ability to experiment with some practice wickets. The new curator, Matt Page is considered one of the best young curators in the country and the Club is confident that he can produce the desired wicket. Cricket Australia has allocated the MCG 3 Sheffield Shield matches prior to the Boxing Test which will allow the Curator to test out various wicket compositions prior to that important match The Club is fortunate to have a very talented management team, which has been recognised with a number of awards being won by the Club across a variety of different areas- being awarded Innovator of the Year at the Green Sport Alliance Awards for the food dehydrator which converts food waste into mulch, the Customer Service Organisation of the Year at the Australian Service Excellence Awards for the CARE project (which is still ongoing), the Best Achievement in Venue Management at the Australian Event Awards and in partnership with Siemens, the Best Commercial Energy Efficiency Project at the National Energy Efficiency Awards due to reducing our energy usage by 20% thanks to the introduction of LED lighting and other measures. This process is only half way through so is very pleasing. The President thanked the CEO and the management team for their extraordinary effort over the past year. He also thanked Mr. Steve Bracks, Chair of the MCG Trust and his fellow Trustees for their support over the past year, particularly in relation to the AFL agreement. The President also extended his gratitude to his fellow Committee members, acknowledging that the Committee has a significant responsibility in running a venue that is so deeply loved, to ensure that it is the best that it can be. He stated that all the Committee members are talented and hardworking, and importantly care about the Club and the Ground, and thanked them for their time, effort and intellect. The President declared his report concluded. The Chairman formally moved that the Annual Report and Financial Statements be approved, and introduced the Treasurer, Mr. Michael Andrew, to second the motion and present the Treasurer’s Report.