US Fan Council voting

Discussion in 'USA Men: Fans & Travel' started by wixson7, Nov 26, 2017.

  1. wixson7

    wixson7 Member+

    May 12, 2009
    boulder
    <apologies in advance for the solicitation>

    US Fan Council voting started today, USSC members received a ballot recently. Check my name if you don’t mind: Chris Wixson

    This is not the president elections vote. FYI.
     
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  2. Real Corona

    Real Corona Member+

    Jan 19, 2008
    Colorado
    Club:
    FC Metalist Kharkiv
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    You got my vote.
     
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  3. Eddie Stiel

    Eddie Stiel Member

    Sep 27, 2011
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Has US Soccer announced the results of the Fan Council election? Even with my vote being almost meaningless, I'd still like to know the results.
     
  4. wixson7

    wixson7 Member+

    May 12, 2009
    boulder

    Got the call last week, yeah...made the top 5. 3 girls, 2 guys. We have a conf call this week, then we go and tour the HQ at the end of Jan. Then culminates in the annual membership meeting in Orlando. We get 1 vote for the prez elections. Kinda cool.

    Honestly it just checks the box for USS that they engaged the fans to get their input, but still...

    Giving my best Golden Globes speech: I’d like to thank all those people that believed in me.
     
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  5. Eddie Stiel

    Eddie Stiel Member

    Sep 27, 2011
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    I think the Fan Council gets two votes. I'm not digging too deep, so I don't know the total number of votes, but I think it's quite a lot. Why not just give the 5 Fan Council members a vote each? Two votes from five people seem silly, or is management so devious to set the system up to foster potential conflict among Fan Council members.

    Jeez, you are traveling to HQ and the Orlando meeting on your own dime. For that, each person deserves full voting privileges plus all you can eat and drink.

    Cheaper game tickets (paper preferred) and no more lotteries, please.

    Whoops, almost forgot. Congrats, Wixson.
     
  6. Real Corona

    Real Corona Member+

    Jan 19, 2008
    Colorado
    Club:
    FC Metalist Kharkiv
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Do you know the other names?
     
  7. wixson7

    wixson7 Member+

    May 12, 2009
    boulder
    Yep my bad. 2 delegates are selected from the 5. Each delegate gets a vote. There are then 2 alternates able to attend.

    2 year term.

    The current 5 (maybe letting the cat out of the bag) :

    Me
    Marcus Cranston
    Kimberly Kershaw
    Ashley Brown
    Jessica Malone
     
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  8. Real Corona

    Real Corona Member+

    Jan 19, 2008
    Colorado
    Club:
    FC Metalist Kharkiv
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I find it kind weird I don’t know who they are. Guess you’re my constituent rep lol. Bring home the bacon!
     
  9. Hamburgler03

    Hamburgler03 BigSoccer Supporter

    Aug 31, 2000
    Columbus, OH
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Since it's now official, congrats @wixson7
     
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  10. Hamburgler03

    Hamburgler03 BigSoccer Supporter

    Aug 31, 2000
    Columbus, OH
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    As a follow-up and mostly because I'm too lazy to hit the edit button which would have taken two seconds and instead, typed for 15-20 seconds....

    The fan council has I believe two votes in the election. How are you determining who to vote for?
     
  11. wixson7

    wixson7 Member+

    May 12, 2009
    boulder
    We will be sending straw poll out to the approx 7k paid US Soccer Membership (formerly the USSC) next week. We don't have any super scientific process, so we'll see the poll results and try to represent the membership appropriately.

    Personally don't have a frontrunner nor any skin in the game, I'm just the guy that hits the voting button. ☺
     
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  12. Hamburgler03

    Hamburgler03 BigSoccer Supporter

    Aug 31, 2000
    Columbus, OH
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Awesome. That sounds good. Just was curious into the process. Very exciting.
     
  13. Eddie Stiel

    Eddie Stiel Member

    Sep 27, 2011
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    #13 Eddie Stiel, Jan 24, 2018
    Last edited: Jan 24, 2018
    I like that you are polling membership for our preference for President. Please advocate for more supporter (Fan Council) representation for future USSF business. The Fan Council contribution to the total vote is miniscule. USSF is all about revenue, and ticket sales provide lots of that.

    I'll repeat what I wrote earlier. Why not just give the 5 member Fan Council a vote each? What's the point of distilling it down to 2 votes out of probably over 1100 total (based on 2016 ABM--https://medium.com/@adicicco/who-the-hell-votes-in-the-us-soccer-presidential-election-58e2c198c389)?

    Finally, I hope that the Fan Council can be a mechanism for feedback from membership to the home office about the US Soccer Membership program. Suggestions, improvements, deficiencies, stuff like that. Communication could be better. I found out the election winners from this thread and from a press release linked from a reddit post. No email from USSF to the membership. No announcement on the US Soccer website that I can see.
     
  14. wixson7

    wixson7 Member+

    May 12, 2009
    boulder
    Eddie, answering the question above, the bylaws break down our groups delegates, as based on membership size. Currently there are just south of 7,000 members.

    - one (1) delegate for 1,001 to 5,000 total members and with members in at least four (4) states
    - two (2) delegates for 5,001 to 25,000 total members and with members in at least eight (8) states
    - three (3) delegates for 25,001 to 50,000 total members and with members in at least twelve (12) states
    - four (4) delegates for 50,001 to 100,000 total members and with members in at least sixteen (16) states
    - five (5) delegates for 100,001 to 200,000 total members and with members in at least twenty (20) states
    - six (6) delegates for 200,001 total members and above and with members in at least twenty-six (26) states
     
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  15. wixson7

    wixson7 Member+

    May 12, 2009
    boulder
    On this . Ironically i didn't get it either when they sent it out yesterday. I think i opted out of some of the email notifications in the past (clothing sales, etc). They said that opts you out of some announcements as well. Whatevs.
     
  16. Eddie Stiel

    Eddie Stiel Member

    Sep 27, 2011
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    I don't recall ever opting out of email notifications. I just open and delete the sales pitches. Maybe the email announcement of your glorious victory got lost in the internet ether. Anybody else get one?
     
  17. wixson7

    wixson7 Member+

    May 12, 2009
    boulder
  18. Real Corona

    Real Corona Member+

    Jan 19, 2008
    Colorado
    Club:
    FC Metalist Kharkiv
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  19. Eddie Stiel

    Eddie Stiel Member

    Sep 27, 2011
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Cool article. Nice photo. Your delegate comrade has season tickets for three NWSL teams in far flung regions of the US. And I thought I was a nutter?

    I hope the Fan Council announces the results of the USSF membership vote for President.

    Enjoy the AGM. Drinks and eats on the house?
     
  20. wixson7

    wixson7 Member+

    May 12, 2009
    boulder
    Well....that was interesting. Incredible experience though. Couple notes:

    SUNIL: Started with an hour of the Sunil show, to be fair, he was hilarious cracking jokes and super sarcastic. Went through a state of the union type of thing. Very defensive of some of his critics (and rightfully so on some of them), and tone-deaf on some of the others. But the dude works the room like no other. A year by year review was pretty cool for the last 18 years.

    PRESENTATIONS: 5 minutes each, very interesting. Kathy was extremely uninspiring, looked nervous, talked in super vague statements, no ideas given and zero leadership presence. Kyle appealed to the state assoc membership, was sharp and on point. Erik seemed very reserved maybe avoiding any brash style, a tad uninspiring. Hope was a disaster, went dirty from the beginning and ripped Carlos to shreds, it was awkward. Carlos was next and at least the dude put specific ideas on the table, definitely has the chops, spoke well.

    VOTE: lasted 2 hours with 3 rounds. The fan council had 2 votes and we went with Kyle on all 3 rounds. Our straw poll was 95% supportive of any former player, change candidate, split between Erik, Kyle, and Hope. Great tension in the room, for us it was awesome.

    BLOCS: Obviously the Athletes Council is getting a lot of press. The had “only” 20% of the vote. So enough to sway but not to determine the results. That left 80% of other groups all with their own agendas. MLS (14%) was all-in on Kathy, as was Sunil. And the underreported story was the huge state youth/adult associations. You can’t underestimate the impact of getting rid of pay to play on that huge voting contingent. The change candidates could be very threatening to that business model.

    Kyle/Erik split too many votes, in hindsight, people could have rallied around one of them with more force...so it was doomed from the beginning. Hope was toxic to the change movement (in my opinion), but her concerns are extremely valid. Style and tone and the ability to govern are important.

    My personal opinion is that I’m glad at least Carlos beat Kathy, but would have preferred Kyle/Erik.

    We will all be fine, and all eyes turn to the 2026 WC announcement in June. It is a game changing decision for all of US Soccer from top to bottom.
     
  21. Eddie Stiel

    Eddie Stiel Member

    Sep 27, 2011
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Thanks for the detailed report/analysis and for attending on your own dime. I figured the membership straw poll would go overwhelmingly for a change candidate. I hope you and the other fan delegate had great times.

    I watched a tiny bit of the stream, including the final two rounds of voting. Gulati was painful. His joke that if the votes aren't announced within a minute, then the incumbent keeps the job reflects his state of mind--pissed off that the WCQ disaster cost him another term. He made it worse with the follow-up quip. "That's a FIFA rule. The only one." I doubt he's too popular with FIFA. He didn't help the cause for getting the 2026 WC in NAFTA with his bad taste and bad jokes.

    I see US Soccer initiated you into the family, on a first name basis with everyone.
     

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