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Richmond is a proud club who boasts a membership of 70,000 and 50,000 of these members can vote at annual general meetings.
Richmond is also one of the most democratic clubs in the AFL, as our constitution states. If 100 members of the club sign a petition in favour of an extraordinary general meeting to discuss an issue the club is forced, through its constitutional arrangements, to hold that meeting.
So it is a mechanism by which the membership of this great club can bring to heel the board. If we are concerned about the policies pursued by the board, in between elections, we organise petitions and if we get 100 signatures from members, we can bring about an extraordinary general meeting.
It is a little democratic anomaly. Most clubs do not have these democratic anomalies, and therefore they are basically creatures of their respective boards. The members of those clubs are basically there to pump funds into those clubs. These clubs breed a born to rule mentality which Richmond does not have.
This little by-law in our constitution is a constant irritation for the board, because it means that our board is accountable to us in between elections. Like any club, the whole board does not come up for re-election every year. Two or three members will come up for election every year, thus allowing the controlling faction to maintain control over the club.
For this reason, it is difficult to achieve cultural change or any major changes at Richmond, or any other club, for that matter. Theoretically, the Richmond Football Club is there for its members. It belongs to its members, who have the power, through this by-law, to call an extraordinary general meeting in order to put the board under pressure.
At 6pm on Wednesday 14 December, at Punt Road, the board is putting forward a motion in order to enact special amendments to the club’s constitution. Our board want to alter the constitution by introducing a by-law that states Richmond will need 10 per cent of the membership to support a particular issue before an extraordinary general meeting can be called.
The current by-law will be overturned if they get their way. Here we have a democratic mechanism by which to keep the board to account, in between elections, being possibly overturned, in order to allow the board to have complete control over the Richmond Football Club.
If this amendment gets up at the annual general meeting on Wednesday, we will need 2,500 members minimum to call an extraordinary general meeting, as opposed to the current 100. This means that the only democratic element in the club, which remained in its constitutional framework, will be removed.
Many members are irate. They feel democracy is being eroded at the club they bleed for. The beauty is that one does not need to be a member of the Richmond Football Club to hold a member’s proxy.
A friend of mine, who cannot make it, is sending a proxy, who hates Richmond but loves democracy. The proxy form states that this particular member is unhappy with the amendments to the club’s constitution. I am unsure if proxies will be able to speak, but if you cannot make it, send a proxy.
What we could be facing is centralisation of power within an executive, and all the checks and balances, which have been established over decades, to ensure that the Richmond Football Club represents the interests of its members may be removed to enhance the power of the central executive.
Democracy must be defended at Tigerland. I am calling on all Richmond members to be present at 6pm Wednesday 14 December at Punt Road. Let’s keep Richmond great.
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