Author: soundersalliance

21 July 2017

By Stephanie Steiner and Martin Buckley

Annual Business Meeting 2017 – an update

To be clear – the Alliance Annual Business Meeting will be held.

It will be after the close of the regular season and is planned to be held in The NINETY.

The event will be live streamed.

We recognize that the Annual Business Meeting is important, yet at the same time it’s also not terribly convenient for many fans. Location, timing, traffic, weather – all conspire against us.

Early this year we began working with the the Club to make the Annual Business Meeting more accessible. That means reaching out to more people, making it easier for the average fan, and yes reduce the expense of a large production. We coordinated with the Club to meet these goals.

To be clear – the Alliance Annual Business Meeting will be held. It will be after the close of the regular season and is planned to be held in The NINETY. The event will be live streamed.

Also as part of these conversations, we closely examined the degree to which people were embracing Sounders’ streamed events. One eye-opening example of the reach of streamed events are S2 games and even the streamed draft for the Zach Scott Testimonial Game.

The NINETY has a limited capacity. Once Front Office, coaching staff, Alliance Council and representatives from Supporter Groups are present, there is even less space for Alliance Members. We plan to hold a lottery for Alliance Members to be at The NINETY for the event.

We then worked with the club on creating something FOR the Alliance as a whole. This resulted in the 13 August 2017 Season Ticket Member Event – for all Alliance Members – a real benefit to you all. Fans, players, behind the scenes – and at a time when we can all enjoy the Seattle summer.

Looking back – the Alliance Annual Business Meeting attracts pretty much the same 700 people. We have gained almost nothing in attendance. When people knew Schmetz would be promoted, we got up to 1200, but we can’t promote him every year. There were huge investments into player interaction, big lures with photo ops – none of these grew awareness. People don’t want to come out on a rainy November night.

We represent all Alliance Members – we have a duty to consider any and all ways to reach out to those that are unable to attend that in-person event. Technology can be the enabler for this.

Our other commitment to you is to review this change. If it does not work – we will change.

As always – thank you for reading and for your support.

Alliance Council Meeting 6/6/2017

By Karl Picard

We opened with a discussion with the front office around the 2019 jersey.  This allowed the AC to provide input but overall the club will provide the input back to the league and Adidas.  There are lots of areas for input as the process goes on but the input starts now.

We got to meet Jeff who just joined the AC.  Really wants to do what he can to improve the fan experience.  Deep family experience with soccer though both his personal play an experience as well as that with his kids.

Charitable contribution – there was a question in the survey and we are researching options for the Alliance.  We discussed a few options and more details on the decision should come soon.

Alliance Scarf Vote is coming soon – look for mail from the Club announcing dates and deadlines on submissions and voting.

10 years of the Alliance, this initiative is coming later this year.  We are kicking off working on some blog posts, video and other ideas and we are targeting one a month in the run up tonext season.  The goal is working on bringing awareness of the history of the Alliance Council and the Alliance as a whole.  We plan on having about 10 – 15 posts.

Constitution vote coming soon. Look for more updates and articles very soon.

If this is something that interests you, please join the Alliance council or provide your ideas in the comments below

May 17th, 2017
By Alex Eagleton

Our May 2017 meeting kicked off with a presentation from the Rave Foundation presented by Kimberly Aigner (Director of Community Outreach), Ashley Fosberg (Executive Director); and Katie Pendleton (Community Outreach Coordinator).

As some of you may be aware, the Rave Foundation is the official charitable arm of the Sounders. We discussed what the foundation is all about and their mission in leading, serving, and investing in the community. Part of those initiatives was seen during the 5/10 match at Century Link Field as part of the Give Big day where the Rave Foundation raised $9926 towards building soccer fields in the community. Also part of Give Big, each player on the Sounders team, including staff and coaches selected a non-profit in an effort to raise funds for their favorite charities.

We also discussed some of the other programs under the Rave Foundation: GOALS for Art, ONE Ball, RAVE Fields, and FREE Play. Each initiative is designed to drive participation, creativity, being active, and community pride.

The presentation concluded with status on current and future projects, partnerships, and upcoming events. If you would like to learn more or donate, you can visit the Rave Foundation website.

After the presentation concluded, we discussed business from our previous meeting which included follow up from existing issues in regards to bags at the stadium. Darla provided follow up in regards to the matter and will continue to work on this matter.

The meeting concluded with updates on all of our initiatives for 2017. We assigned leaders for the GM Vote and had a discussion on updates regarding Stars for All, Visibility, Matchpass Rewards money for charity, The Save, etc.

Finally, the Alliance Council is looking for enthusiastic and motivated people to join the council. We have a lot of goals and initiatives that need people like you. If this sounds like you or you would like to learn more, please visit http://ssfcalliancecouncil.com/standing-for-alliance-council/. You can also reach out to us and learn more about the Alliance Council.

SEATTLE SOUNDERS FC ALLIANCE COUNCIL

MEETING MINUTES

May 2, 2017 – 7:00 PM –  The NINETY

Present (13 of 16): Nicholaus Biela, Martin Buckley, Cameron Collins, Alex Eagleton, Eric Flatness, Bill Kaczaraba, Roberta King, Darla Langdon, Jeremy Monsivais, Karl Picard, Stephanie Steiner, Kristina Vaughn, and Steve Wilson.

Via telephone (1): Daniel Roe.

Absent (2): Nick Biesold and Mike Dollard.

I. Call to order – Stephanie Steiner

II. Roll – Cameron Collins: 13 of 16 Present

III. Community Outreach: Kimberly Aigner, Director of Community Outreach; Ashley Forsberg, Executive Director, RAVE Foundation; and Katie Pendleton, Community Outreach Coordinator

The outreach campaign of the Sounders has been broken down in to several parts.

1.     LEAD: Drive awareness and engagement around key community initiatives throughout the year. There are three leadership pillars that they are focusing on this year.

→ GIVE BIG: Seattle Foundation’s event. It allows the Sounders to support 1700 nonprofits under one umbrella. The event is scheduled for May 10th. Sounders will be participating at the May 6th match, where many nonprofits will be present. The Seattle Foundation will be giving out $350,000 on May 10th.  At that match, one fan will be picked and $2500 will be given to their nonprofit of choice from those 1700.

·       Every single player on the team, as well as Coaches Schmetzer and Pineda, have chosen a nonprofit for GIVE BIG.  Examples: Gustav Svensson: Seattle Parks Foundation, Stefan Frei: RAVE Foundation, Cristian Roldan: America Scores Seattle. Brad Evans: Seattle Humane. Each player will sign their game worn boots or get a ball to give to a nonprofit. Each nonprofit chosen by the players will be given 10 tickets to the friendly on July 8th.

·       Every staff member in the Sounders Front Office has been asked to pick a nonprofit as well.

→ PRIDE: The Sounders want to go beyond the in-stadium events. The Sounders’ Pride match this year is June 21st. They will raise awareness for LGBTQ equality. The Sounders will be playing Orlando City, who also support making Pride a large event.

→KICK CHILDHOOD CANCER: The Sounders work with a lot of local childhood cancer organizations throughout the year. The match for Kick Childhood Cancer is Sept 11th against Vancouver.

2.     SERVE

→ Monthly service opportunities for the Sounders’ staff. Examples: Working with JUMA at Mariners Opening Day where they raised over $12,000; Earth Day service projects where staff made a Rain Garden at a local school.

→ Supporting player initiatives. Examples: Jordan Morris works with kids who have Type 1 Diabetes; Brad Evans works with animal organizations; Cristian Roldan works with America Scores.

3.     INVEST: The Sounders use the RAVE Foundation as a means to invest in the community. Through RAVE, the Sounders are building accessible soccer fields in urban areas that provide free play to shape young citizens and strengthen communities.

→ Invest in Programming: Beyond soccer programming, the Yesler community has said that they want art programming. RAVE is creating an art program called Goals for Art that Stef Frei will also be involved with. They will work with the community to be a true partner and help with the art. Yesler Place field will open in late summer 2018.

→ Target Communities: South Park, Beacon Hill, Rainier Valley, Yesler, Lake City, White Center, Burien, SeaTac, Des Moines, Tacoma. Investing in these communities beyond the fields.

→Question from Martin Buckley: Is there a plan to move East of the Mountains and work with communities there? A: Yes, they hope to be able to do that in the future.

→ Different types of programming that ask, “How can soccer help?”: Octagon to have pop up play for kids anywhere. One ball program where they give kids a ball, which has now been increased to 10,000 balls. Programming to Help with Middle School students and using the Sounders media team as an asset to provide a workshop style sports media institute in the month of July that will bring in kids from the target RAVE communities.

RAVE’S CORE PARTNERS: Soccer for Success, America Scores, Street Soccer Seattle, Special Olympics Washington, and Latino Community Fund Washington State.

IV. Council Initiatives

A.    GM Vote: A leader is needed for the GM Vote group and those involved with the previous GM Vote need to be polled on what worked for that vote and what did not work. Nick Biela volunteers to be lead. Martin Buckley volunteers to help.

B.    Stars for All – Martin Buckely & Stephanie Steiner: There should be more information coming on the long term solution. The Sounders play against Portland at the end of the month, so the Council may want to begin a conversation with their fanbase, as they were denied their stars as well.

C.    Matchpass Rewards: 20% of the proceeds from Matchpass Rewards were designated in 2016 to be given to the Alliance Council for charitable spending. This amount is just under $7,000. The Council must decide to which charitable organization they wish to donate these funds. This will be lead by Darla Langdon and Bill Kaczaraba.

D.    SoundersFC.com: The Alliance Council information on the Sounders FC website has been updated.

E.    “The Save”: Nick Biela has been researching the possibility of memorializing “The Save.” Nick has sent out letters to the Buffalo Sabres, Vancouver Canucks, and Seattle Mariners to learn about their process in making statues. This is just one of many options. The Sounders Front Office has cautioned against a full-fledged statue, since they do not own the stadium.

F.    Hosting MLS Cup & Ticketing Issues: If the Sounders were to host the MLS Cup Final, many Alliance Members would be displaced due to the amount of tickets required to be allotted for the MLS. The Front Office is aware that the Council wishes to be a part of this conversation when it arises.

G.   Non-Profit Status – Martin Buckley: There is a worry that if the Council were to pursue non-profit status, it would be creating a work deficit for future Councils. There were be a proposal/recommendation at the June meeting as to whether to pursue this idea.

H.   Rebuilding Website: The new Alliance Council site is completely rebuilt and live.

I.      Vote Designation – Martin Buckley & Cameron Collins: The Sounders agree that “one ticket, one vote” across the board, regardless of whether a seat is designated, is the best option. The Council and Sounders will message on how to designate seats within an account when Alliance Council voting flips on June 1.

J.     Constitution – Martin Buckely: The Constitution work has been completed and the Council will work with the Club on how best to execute the Alliance-wide vote to ratify the Constitution. The hope is that this vote will take place in June.

K.   Annual Business Meeting – Martin Buckley: There is a conversation currently taking place as to whether the Meeting continues as an in-person event as it has in the past or whether it becomes an online event where people can stream at home an engage directly with the event during the stream.

L.    To-Do List – Stephanie Steiner: Council President Stephanie Steiner is currently compiling a book with all important dates and processes for the Council. This will be sure that future Councils are aware of all important dates and deadlines throughout the year, and ensure smooth transitions of power.

M.  10-year Anniversary of the Alliance: Next season is the ten-year anniversary of the Alliance. The Council will begin a conversation on how best to commemorate this anniversary. Roberta King has volunteered to lead this group.

V. Meeting with Gary Wright, Sounders Consultant (previously Senior Vice President of Business Operations and Senior Vice President)

Council President Stephanie Steiner and Council Vice-President Martin Buckley met with Sounders Majority Owner Adrian Hanauer and Club Consultant Gary Wright. Gary will work as a liaison between the Council and the Club, to help a productive relationship moving forward. He hopes to make the Alliance Council stronger, larger, and even more representative of the Alliance as a whole.

VI. Open Conversation

A.    Council Perks: There are opportunities that the Club may offer to the Council which have a limited number of slots for attendance. How does the Council set the criteria for who may attend? In the past, it was often done on a first-come first-served manner, but this may be a disadvantage to those who are not available at any given moment to respond to an email. Is there a way to reward those who are giving the most time and effort to the Council? Should this be a weighted drawing? An allocation Order?

B.    Council Participation: Council Secretary Cameron Collins will create a spreadsheet with a list of the Council Committees and their leaders and members. This will provide a better opportunity for those who wish to participate. This document will be posted in the Council Google Drive.

C.    Locker Checks: Darla Langdon and Alex Eagleton looked in to the non-official locker checks that have popped up around the stadium. Many of them were being offered by the food vendors along Occidental.

D.    Buttons: For small events, Cameron Collins and Nick Biela will be able to make Alliance buttons. For larger events, the Council may need to look in to funding the mass-production of buttons.

E.    Garage Sale: Cameron Collins will speak with the Club about the possibility of the Council sponsoring the annual Garage Sale held by the Sounders.

VII. Adjournment

Moved. Seconded. Council votes unanimously to adjourn.

SEATTLE SOUNDERS FC ALLIANCE COUNCIL

MEETING MINUTES

April 4, 2017 – 7:00 PM –  The NINETY

Present (14 of 16): Nicholaus Biela, Nick Biesold, Martin Buckley, Cameron Collins, Michael Dollard, Alex Eagleton, Eric Flatness, Bill Kaczaraba, Roberta King, Darla Langdon, Jeremy Monsivais, Karl Picard, Stephanie Steiner, and Kristina Vaughn.

Via telephone (2): Daniel Roe and Steve Wilson.

Absent (0): None

I. Call to order – Stephanie Steiner

II. Roll – Cameron Collins: 14 of 16 Present

III. Corporate Partnerships — Michael Shockley, Vice President of Corporate Partnership and Allison Smyrl, Director of Partnership Marketing

A.    Introductions

→ Michael came from the Sacramento Kings. Before that he was with the Phoenix Suns.

→ Allison came from Seahawks.

B.    Background on Partnerships: Playing in CenturyLink field there is quite a bit of partnership integration. There are about 80 partners this year, ranging from XBOX, Delta, Toyota, Virginia Mason, Fred Meyer, Delta Dental, and many more.

C.    New Partners for 2017: Boeing, Dannon, El Riconsito, Wells Fargo, Charles Schwab, City MD, Darigold, Uber, Proliance Surgeons, Pendleton Whisky, Uber.

D.    2017 Objectives

→ to nurture and grow a vibrant sales culture that embraces teamwork, the partnership building process, and effective communication.
→ to strategically grow our top partnerships through capitalizing on marquis elements and developing platforms that authenticate our partners’ objectives.

Corporate Partners aren’t buying ads or official sponsorships, they are buying in to the Sounders brand and those items they receive in return are more incidental. They are also selling the Sounders brand to the public.

E. Question From Alliance Council Members

→ Question from Cameron Collins on the backlash to the relationship with Uber and whether they had taken current events in to account when finalizing the relationship. Conversations with the partners begin years before and come to fruition over time. There were definitely conversations in the Font Office about the relationship due to the ongoing #DeleteUber campaign, but in the end the Partnership was made. The Sounders maintain the ability to end a Partnership in certain instances that would cause the Partnership to be detrimental to the Club.

→ Question from Kristina Vaughn on how often the Sounders reevaluate branding, using the example of the “StubHub Season Ticket Member of the Match” when we are Alliance Members, not Season Ticket Members.  The Front Office believes that it is an ongoing process and as they receive input they can attempt to make changes and anticipate other changes that might be beneficial.

IV. Goodbyes and Introductions

A.    Eric Flatness: Eric is living in Thailand and has been unable to attend a meeting this year until now. He announces that as of today he is going ex-officio. He is thankful to have been a part of the Council and will miss us a lot. He hopes to be able to call in to some meetings in the future.

B.    Nick Biesold: Nick is our newest Council Member. He has wanted to be on council for a while. At his new job there are a lot of Alliance Members, and he was finally able to get his votes to get on the Council. He was never a big soccer fan until college, and now he travels the world going to games. In 2009, he went to a game, got to meet Sounders Majority Owner Adrian Hanauer, and then immediately decided he wanted to have tickets.

V. Constitution & Bylaws

A.    Article 4, Section 4.2: General Meeting (Second Reading) – Stephanie Steiner

→ Motion to amend language stating “meeting shall be schedule” to “meeting shall take place” for clarification purposes. Seconded.

Vote to amend Article 4, Section 4.2 passes unanimously, 12-0.

→ Motion to vote on new Article 4. Seconded.

Vote on Article 4, as amended, passes unanimously 12-0.

B.  Bylaw 7: Supporter Group Recognition (Second Reading) – Martin Buckley

→ Rewritten bylaw that was designed by representatives of each Supporter Group. The meeting attendees were Martin Buckley (Alliance Council), Tom Conquergood (Gorilla FC), Brian Dilks (Eastside Supporters), Glenn White (Emerald City Supporters), and Steve Wilson (North End Faithful).

→ Motion to vote. Seconded.

Bylaw 7 passes unanimously, 12-0.

→ Cameron Collins asked the Council to recognize Martin Buckley for his hard work on this issue and bringing supporter groups together to come up with a long-term solution to the problem.

VI. Issues for Fans Entering the Stadium – Darla Langdon

→ People are still having issues entering the Stadium. Some people are purposefully testing the rules. One thing that needs to be made clear, and this is on the Sounders to message this, is that a clutch must still fit within the size regulations for a clutch, even if it is placed inside of a bag. This is in the fine print, but is not clear from the images they use. It needs to be spelled out more clearly.

→ There needs to be better signage about the rules, more consistency from the staff (as they often do not know the rules), and less attitude from the staff. It is not our fault that we often have to teach the staff the rules. CONSISTENCY. TRAINING. CUSTOMER SERVICE.

→ Tampons are an example of how the rules can be arbitrary. You cannot have tampons lose in the clear bag, they cannot be in a box (because it is typically too large), but you can have them secured in the bag. If it fits in a properly sized clear bag, why should it not be allowed?

→ They will not allow anything in that has a keyboard. Even though tablets ARE allowed, you cannot bring any keyboard that might attach to it. This has not been communicated by the Club and fits nowhere in the rules beyond a barely applicable catchall. This must be communicated to the fans immediately and be added clearly to the posted regulation on signs and in line.

VI. Initiatives, New Business, and Open Discussion

A.    GM Vote: The next vote is coming up next year and Council needs to start preparing for it now. Roberta King and Dan Roe were on Council during the last GM Vote and will write up what they feel worked and what didn’t work last time.

B.    Non-Profit Status: Martin Buckley thinks it may be best to push this until next year. To carry this out this year would take a lot of council energy. It would put a lot of requirements upon us, and there may not be enough people to carry the weight.

→ After discussion, the Council is not ready to table this issue just yet, and will begin the conversation of the costs and benefits of becoming a non-profit and becoming separate from the Sounders organization. Martin Buckley, Alex Eagleton, and Mike Dollard will delve further in to the idea.

C.    Rescheduling the July Meeting: The July Meeting falls on the Fourth of July, and thus needed to be rescheduled. After looking at the Sounders schedule, the meeting will be held on the 11th of July.

D.    Meeting Length: Because of the presentations by the various departments of the Sounders Front Office at our Meetings, Council Meetings have been running over time. After discussion on whether to start earlier, go later, or run a parallel meeting on another date, the Council is in favor of starting earlier when necessary.

E.    Ticketmaster & Resale: Mike Dollard brought up that it is not intuitive on the Ticketmaster website how to find the tickets that are being put up for resale by the fans. It seems that this portion is being de-emphasized by Ticketmaster, where the site favors tickets that are new sales. Others have had issues selling tickets through the system.

→ On the Ticketmaster site, you must actively turn on the button that include resale tickets with the new tickets for sale. The website to go directly to resale tickets is located at: http://www.ticketexchangebyticketmaster.com/seattle-sounders-fc

F.    New Profiles on Website: Each Council Member should send Martin Buckley an update picture and profile for the Alliance Council Website

G.   Locker Check: The locker check is not efficient and they do not seem to have enough people working for them for the amount of people who are in line. People are missing first kick because of how slow the lines move. There also seems to be a locker check that is not affiliated with the Sounders, which should be looked in to.

VII. Adjournment

Moved. Seconded. Council votes unanimously to adjourn.