Sorry, a bit flippant there - I was happy to support the Colonel's application for the members advisory group, good fella.
It's been close to a decade since I went to an AMM and it was pretty much as expected. It became clear to me that the administration of the club are really trying hard to reconnect with the membership. There's a lot of repair work to be done and I hope we can get back to that special commradery that used to bind us together. All of them were willing to hang around and chat with members one-on-one last night, to patiently engage with the multitude of complaints/suggestions put to them - which I found refreshing and odd at the same time. Lets face it, who would want to seriously engage in the printed yearbook outrage or the lack of a Cam McCarthy members card for half an hour.
I focussed down on Simon Garlick - he seems to want to take anything on and appears to have fallen in love with us, the state, the club, the history and basically everything around Freo. I hope he doesn't get disappointed and burns out, hopefully he's with us for a very long time. He reminded me of Schwabby in a more direct sort of way.
Clearly there's a lot of love for JLo - little mention of the Steve/RoLy reign of destruction, good luck to him.
The newbies got dragged out and spoke for a bit, then whisked away through the side door. I felt for them - yahooed into 40 degree training sessions and then handed a mic in front of a gaudy room full of old people wouldn't be all that fun. Part of the gig I guess. I thought, yeah - if I was going to chat with any of these guys, which one would I focus on? Yep, James Aish - looks to have a good sense of humour and a direct sense of purpose. If he makes it out to the car park next year, I'll have a chat with him - he looks like the only one of the newbies that will join in with Ryan/Cox for a beer.
I don't reckon I'll go to another one of those functions for a bit, but I can honestly say I was impressed with the chats I had with members of the Board, senior admin people and everyone.
Go Freo.