Re: Arsenal America Coup, No Elections Please. Oh my, there they are. http://www.arsenalamerica.com/2011/07/19/arsenal-america-elections-2/ Bit hilarious that it took this long to come up with, what, two by laws?
Re: Arsenal America Coup, No Elections Please. Surely there must be more bylaws than: 1) If the board doesn't like you, you can't run, or even be a member. 2) Nomination period will last 73.5 hours. At least they got something up. It's a start.
Re: Arsenal America Coup, No Elections Please. Mud slinging isn't allowed among candidates. Does that include incumbents?
Re: Arsenal America Coup, No Elections Please. Hilarious that they only give you 3 days to put your name in the hat, and the beginning of the statement seems like they are discouraging people to participate ha
Re: Arsenal America Coup, No Elections Please. Lucky for us, BigSoccer has no such guideline. It's like Woodstock '94 up in herre. I hope these candidacy statements are made fully available to the membership, because they're going to be unintentionally hilarious. Quick, potential candidates - you only have until Friday to file your papers.
Re: Arsenal America Coup, No Elections Please. Interested in how they interpret "good standing." Beyond the PC answer they gave on the website that is.
Re: Arsenal America Coup, No Elections Please. The AA site indicates we have 10,000 Facebook followers and 400 paid 'premium' members. What is the real incentive for the remaining 96 percent of those Arsenal supporters to pay $25 to join? If you can't afford, or have no plans, to attend a match in London in a given season, ticket assistance provides little reason to pay up. So, what do you do about the other 9,000+ Gooners who gather at pubs, watch matches, buy jerseys, bitch on message boards and support Arsenal? I don't blame anyone for not paying into a scheme they receive little benefit from. By comparison, ManUre fans can join OneUnited USA for a total of $100 - that INCLUDES the club membership package and adds on a USA supporters scarf, season review DVD, discounted stadium tours, etc. Their club connected the incentives, which make for a much more valuable package. (I recognize this is a club issue, but Arsenal might need to take a cue from ManU's embrace of foreign supporters). I'm frankly more interested in grassroots support of Arsenal and it's easier (and cheaper, if not virtually free) to accomplish now, more than ever. All of this 'official' hoopla seems to miss the forest for the trees.
Re: Arsenal America Coup, No Elections Please. Man Utd kicks our butt in this arena regularly. I go to various coaching conferences, and Man Utd America is always there: huge TV with Man Utd highlights playing, reduced signing fees for same day registration, nice guys to talk to (the AC Milan guys are usually there too, but much more arrogant).
Re: Arsenal America Coup, No Elections Please. What about a listing of all the officers? I don't see that anywhere on the website, or maybe I'm not looking hard enough. This should be on the "About" page. A listing of the officers/board members seems prudent.
Re: Arsenal America Coup, No Elections Please. What a glorious weekend that was! Still trying to wash off from last year's slinging. I'd like to see new blood in at least one of the positions.
Re: Arsenal America Coup, No Elections Please. That isn't a supporters club. Just a bunch of guys who go to the pub to drink and watch tha match. [/Josh] Yes he really said that when he was describing what Charm City Gooners do. That being said I pick, Nick, JP, James, Cam, Steve, Doug, Bluto, and Prince to take over with Wayne being their bouncer.
Re: Arsenal America Coup, No Elections Please. I'm somewhat tempted to throw in for something. Not sure though.
Re: Arsenal America Coup, No Elections Please. You should run for something. I'm somewhat encouraged by this announcement. It sounds like some semblance of an open election, if administered properly.
Re: Arsenal America Coup, No Elections Please. I've been told the ballots will be received and tallied by someone not on the Board, a US-based Arsenal employee.
Re: Arsenal America Coup, No Elections Please. Just spent far too long reading this entire thread. As Chair of a UK supporters club I would suggest you must publish annual accounts to your members to show how their subscription fees are spent. Also send proposals on changes to membership fees to all members in advance of implementation . Lastly, invite applications for club officers by email to all members and announce applicants to all members to vote on. Just suggestions. Wish AA the best. Have met so many great Gooners and friends through your organisation. Good luck!
Re: Arsenal America Coup, No Elections Please. Hello Judy...taking things off topic per usual but wanted to say hello! *hugs*
Re: Arsenal America Coup, No Elections Please. That's great. I'm glad they are taking this election seriously.
Re: Arsenal America Coup, No Elections Please. Isn't that really what it all boils down to? Seriously, if there's no Arsenal match involved, why would people get together? From my experience in many cities, there's only a handful of people who really give a shit about hanging out with other Gooners in any other social setting. We've tried doing things here in Baltimore that didn't directly involve an Arsenal match. The same five people show up every time. No Arsenal match=people don't care.
Re: Arsenal America Coup, No Elections Please. I think one could start by taking a page from Google - "Don't be evil". In all seriousness, there's been a lot of shit-slinging from here, and to be perfectly blunt, it's hardly ever been constructive and quite frankly pretty silly. Believe you me, no one more than I understands that there needs to be more transparency. Especially about where the money's going. That's something that I was coming around on in the latter portion of my presidency, but to be perfectly frank, I had to trust people. Turns out that in some instances, that trust was sadly misplaced. There's been a huge amount of debt that's had to be re-paid. I know that Andrew has forgiven a lot of it, but that was no small hurdle to overcome. Floating season tickets was also something that couldn't be sustained. It was a major money suck. I'm seriously considering getting involved again because I feel that there was a lot left unfinished. There's part of me that feels like ArseAm is a ship in which I had a huge hand in building, and I want to make sure that the positive changes I've seen in the last two seasons continue, and that it's being built well enough that it won't sink.
Re: Arsenal America Coup, No Elections Please. Apparently, this is a falsehood that was told to me. There is no requirement for holding elections. There is however, a requirement for allowing people to become involved.