There are three positions up for election this year: President Communications Officer Gameday Office If you are a member of Hillcrest Syndicate, be thinking about people you feel could represent you in any of these positions as position nominations will begin shortly! More info coming soon.
Is there going to be a separate Cauldron leadership group elected? One of the key things seems to be getting all the different groups on the same page.
I agree completely. One of the things the FO was planning on doing last season was to have each Independent Supporter Group (ISG) represented on a Cauldron Leadership "board" that would meet monthly with the FO to discuss issues/opportunities within the Cauldron. Representation would be determined by the number of official members in each ISG. Unfortunately, this never materialized in 2009.
Whether they meet with the front office or not, it would be helpful to have one person representing each group get together ... I don't think waiting for the front office to organize something is necessary to do this.
We did have a good working relationship with AO & Southern Voodoo in 2009. I don't know if Sudakas even still exists as a formal ISG, and I've never heard anything from WuTang/Yardbirds.
It is once again time for Hillcrest Syndicate Leadership elections. I will outline the process below. Feel free to post any questions, or you can send me a private message if you prefer. Positions within the Leadership Group are for a 2-year term, with re-election available and no term limits. Elections are held every January. There are six (6) elected positions within the Leadership Group, each year there will be three (3) positions up for election, and the three (3) positions will alternate every other year. This is designed to prevent a situation where we would have an entirely new Leadership Group, thus needing to “re-invent” the wheel each January. The following positions will be up for election in January of 2010: 1. President (incumbent – Robert Houghton)• Responsibilities include, but are not limited to: Oversee all Leadership Group activities, point of contact with the Wizards front office, attend meetings with the Wizards front office, help to coordinate Supporter activities, Representation on the Cauldron Leadership Group, point of contact for coordinating supporter activities between Hillcrest Syndicate and other Independent Supporter Groups within the Cauldron, deal with media requests as needed. 2. Communications Officer (incumbent – Stu Bentley)• Responsibilities include, but are not limited to: Coordinate efforts to maintain information on the Hillcrest Syndicate & Cauldron web sites, create & distribute formal information to Hillcrest Syndicate members via e-mail, maintain the Hillcrest Syndicate e-mail list, Maintain Hillcrest Syndicate membership database, design informational fliers. 3. Game-day Officer (incumbent – Matt (spoon) Spoonmore)• Responsibilities include, but are not limited to: Coordinate Tifo activities, organize banner/signage creation, enter stadium early on game-days to hang banners & prepare possible Tifos, Coordinate game-day activities with other Independent Supporter groups and non-affiliated members within the Cauldron. The elections will be held as follows: Starting today (Tuesday, December 8), Members of Hillcrest Syndicate may make nomination for any of the above three (3) positions. Nomination may be posted in this thread or e-mailed to Vice-President Mike Kuhn at CUISOCCER@GMAIL.COM. All incumbents are eligible for re-election since we do not impose term-limits. The nomination period will end at midnight on Friday, December 18. Members of the Leadership group whose positions are not up for election shall tally the nominations. Once the nomination period is closed, each person nominated will be contacted to determine if they accept the nomination and would be willing to serve if elected. Once all nominations have been confirmed, a notice will be sent to all existing members of Hillcrest Syndicate with voting instructions.
How many paid members (voters) do we have and what is our fiscal situation. Answer privately if you prefer.
We have right around 50 paid members at this point (hoping to increase that number in 2010). Financially we are sound.
Maybe a fiscal statement could be emailed privately to all paid members or a fiscal report presented at an annual members meeting or some other gathering. I currently serve as a President of a not-for-profit (http://www.mchekc.org/ContactUs.htm) and regular members of the organization should be aware of membership numbers, fiscal responsibilities and goals for the future.
Without wanting to sound like a complete asshole: Who are the Hillcrest Syndicate? It it the overriding Cauldron organization or just one of the many? The website hasnt been updated since late July. Who really leads the Cauldron? I see a lot of waffle but I see no impact ....
The Syndicate is one of the groups in the Cauldron. The website is one of the things that is to be worked on more this next season. The original plan for the leadership of the Cauldron was to have leaders of the different ISGs (Independent Supporters' Groups) meet to help run the Cauldron as a whole. That didn't happen this past season as planned.
And to add to what Mike said, the Hillcrest Syndicate Leadership was the Cauldron Leadership prior to 2009. The entire Leadership group moved into Hillcrest Syndicate. We were, by default, the Cauldron Leadership in 2009 as well though.
Cauldron season ticket holders as a group should have representation with the front office, and subgroups of a certain size should have guaranteed representation in the same committee.
Then that's something the FO needs to set up. And to add on top of that, why shouldn't regular STH get representation in with the FO too then? Why only those STH in the Cauldron?
And other than the Leadership Group, how do you suggest this happen? In 2009, by default, the H.S. Leadership group represented the section as a whole. As I stated in a previous post, the H.S. Leadership is the former Cauldron Leadership that represented the entire section. While the H.S. Leadership is technically only 'respnsible' for H.S., we still represent the section and have the sections best needs in mind. If you or anyone prefer, we can continue this offline (as we have done on many occassions).
So you have to buy into HS to get a chance to vote on who the new 'default leadership' are going to be? With 50 members and given the volume of people in the section that is a pretty small minority taking a fairly liberal assumption that they do represent everybody? I figure if you are speaking for us all there is little need to shutter this conversation away in private messages. For what its worth I also think there should be a STH group as a while, those are the folk that have actually made a financial commitment to the Wizards. I think the Cauldron has to much clout compared to the mass of unrepresented STH peeps out there.
Yes, you do. Hillcrest Syndicate is an Independent Supporter Group. As such, we make the rules for our ISG. Other ISG's are responsible for organizing their group as they see fit. The reasons the Hillcrest Syndicate Leadership was the "default leadership" for 2009: We are the largest formal ISG, the Hillcrest Syndicate Leadership was the same leadership elected by the section as a whole prior to 2009, we have an existing relationship with the Wizards front office & security. Did you vote in the Cauldron Leadership elections that were held prior to the 2009 season? That election information was posted on Big Soccer for all members of the Cauldron (since Hillcrest Syndicate did not exist prior to the 2009 season), was posted on the Cauldron website, was posted on the Cauldron forum site, & e-mails were sent (and a large majority were not even read). The opportunity for everyone within the section to have a voice in the process was there....and less than 20 people chose to exercise that option. The largest number of Cauldron members to take part in the election process in the last 4 years was less than 30 people....and that was open and delivered to all STH within the Cauldron. You can call it a "fairly liberal assumption" if you like, but prior to the 2010 season, the Leadership elections were open to all STH in the Cauldron, so we represnted all STH within the Cauldron. There was no attempt to sutter anything associated with the election process or the make-up of Hillcrest Syndicate, I simply didn't want to bore people with discussions that have been going on offline for a while. Some debates don't need to occur in a public forum, until some consensus is reached. If you and I have not had any conversations offline (and we haven't) then the comment about taking it offline did not apply to you. Feel free to ask whatever you like here and I will answer your questions as best I can. Robert Houghton Cauldron/Hillcrest Syndicate President
Whatever. Everything looks like it will be the same this next year and getting pissy at me isn't going to fix anything.
and we want elections every year? unless all the isg come together and set up their own mtg's i doubt the front office will set this up. they always talk about doing things but seems to be just that, talk. i could see having different types of memberships where you can join but have limited roles in the decision processes and get bonus/higher privileges for paying...sorry for the lack of cohesion sugar crash
If you consider asking for clarification on a vague concept suggestion "getting pissy", then I guess there's no point in discussing it.
The tone was there, and asking how I suggest this would happen means our numerous offline conversations do no good whatsoever. Why would you ask me to take it offline? One of the main problems is no one cares about the supporters groups, because they never know what's going on with the supporters groups. You know how I feel about this current arrangement of simultaneously claiming to lead the entire Cauldron, but when problems arise to be able to cop out to the "They're not in my group" stance - but building some consensus for a clearly defined and coherent system moving forward requires more than just me. I know you and the rest of the HS leadership have good intentions, but I don't believe that the entire Cauldron is being represented because we don't even attempt to engage the entire Cauldron. I'm frustrated with the lack of momentum and cohesion in the section. No one but the front office is making a concerted effort to grow our numbers. By changing nothing in how we go about things, we'll be going backwards next year, as I'm guessing season ticket sales are off last year's pace. It's been some time since we've seen any appreciable growth and it sounds like the plan is to just rinse and repeat in hopes of different results.
For this very reason, I didn't think we needed to air "private" discussions online until there was a direction. If you prefer to lay it all out here, fine. While this is in fact a comment I made to you in private, stating that this was a reaction that ANY Independent Supporter Group could have to a problem within the section when we are built of separate ISG's, I would like to hear of any incident within the Cauldron in any past years (that I have been in the Cauldron) where that statement was issued by anyone on the Leadership Group. You won't have one, because I know that nobody on the Leadership Group thinks that way...we all think about the Cauldron as a whole. In fact, I spend part of every home game dealing with issues within the Cauldron, not with Hillcrest Syndicate. I spend time every game on the opposite side of the stadium to see how the Cauldron looks & sounds, not how Hillcrest Syndicate looks and sounds. I meet with visiting Supporters as a representative of the Cauldron, not as Hillcrest Syndicate. I'm not stating to complain, I am stating this to illustrate the fallacy of your statement. I'll ask again, how do you get the entire Cauldron engaged? I have personally walked over to the "corner" section of the Cauldron with banner/flags, and have been told "we don't want them over here". We have sent e-mails out the entire Cauldron STH base, to get no response. If people don't want to be involved, how do you get them involved? I am frustrated at the lack of cohesion in the section as well, we have a lot of people, but only a handful that participate....and an even smaller subset of people willling to help make things happen. And I agree, I don't think there has been much visible growth since we moved to CAB, the last real growth-spurt being when we moved to the sideline section for the last season at Arrowhead. But sitting around and pointing out problems without offering suggestions would help either...We need ideas on how to improve. We don't have a large chunk of the Cauldron represented on Big Soccer, but there's a goodly amount...yet very few, if any, real suggestions on how to improve things. I'm all for getting the Cauldron as a whole involved, they just don't seem to be interested in my experience. So, since this is the Hillcrest Syndicate election thread, maybe we need to create a new thread for posting Ideas for improving the Cauldron.