Category: Meetings

SEATTLE SOUNDERS FC ALLIANCE COUNCIL

MEETING MINUTES

August 2, 2016 – 7:00 PM – The NINETY

Present (11 of 21): Martin Buckley, Cameron Collins, Craig Dillon, Eric Flatness, Angelica Germani, Jerry Neil, Jeff Randle, Stephanie Steiner, Brendan Vaughn, Kristina Vaughn, and Steve Wilson.

Via telephone (0): None

Absent (10): Samuel Chesneau (NV), Paul Cox, Michael Dollard, Bill Kaczaraba, Thom Kephart, Roberta King, Jeremy Monsivais, Karl Picard, Brian Prouty (NV), and Daniel Roe.

Next meeting: Tuesday, September 6, 2016 at 7:00 p.m.
————————————————————————–
I. Call to order – Stephanie Steiner

II. Roll – Cameron Collins: 10 of 21 Present

 

III. July Minutes – Approved by President Stephanie Steiner

IV. Old Business

a) Introduction of Steve Wilson → Steve Wilson is our newest Alliance Council member, attending his second meeting. Steve comes up from Olympia and works for the State. He is excited to be on the Council.

b) Constitution & Bylaws

→ Bylaw 4: Election rules for Council – Second reading

Cleaning up language so that the references to dates follow those that have already been made to our new Business Year. The new dates will be on our Alliance Council calendar and we hope to have the Sounders place them on their website.

Proposed Amendments: Change language that says “prior to” to “on or before” and change “years” in paragraph 4 & 5 to “Business Years.”

Vote to Amend Bylaw 4 seconded and passes unanimously 11-0. Vote to pass Bylaw 4, as amended, seconded and passes unanimously 11-0.

→ Bylaw 3: Introducing Topics for Voting – Second reading

Introduced a new method for bringing up topics for the Alliance Council to discuss. 3.2 and 3.3 switched places.

Proposed Amendments: Proposal to add ‘or executive committee’ after the words vote by the Council.

Vote to amend Bylaw 3 seconded and passes unanimously 11-0. Vote to pass Bylaw 4, as amended, seconded and passes unanimously 11-0.

→ Bylaw 8 & Article 7

New Amendment to add a line in the Article stating that Alliance Council will maintain standards and procedures for recognition.

Does this bylaw need to exist? One of the issues is that this article doesn’t have teeth. But by eliminating it, we would then give up the ability to control who becomes a supporter group to the Club, and there is no fan involvement in the process. Many feel it is good to not give up control. The reason Stephanie is against limiting supporter group participation in the AC is that when people care enough to get elected, they are more likely to be involved and work. We had previously removed the language for withdrawing recognition in the Bylaw because there was no process.

Does this language change anything? What about moving the Bylaw language to the Article? One concern about moving it to Articles is that it could blow up the entire constitution vote if people take it the wrong way.

Motion to table discussion of Bylaw 8 is seconded and passes. Motion to discuss Article 7 is seconded and passes unanimously.

Proposed Amendments to Article 7: Change the language of the 2^nd sentence to: “The Alliance Council and Supporter Groups have separate and unique relationships with the Club, and each shall make a good faith effort to avoid interfering in the business of the other.” “Or withdraw” eliminated from Article 8. And add “This Recognition grants privileges as determined by the Club.” at the end.

Motion to vote on amending Article 8 is seconded. Passes with 9 in favor, 1 against, and 1 abstention. Vote to pass Article 8, as amended, is seconded and passes with 9 in favor and 2 against.

Vote proposed to continue working past 9 PM is seconded and passes unanimously.

c) Resolution to Recognize Drew Carey – Second Reading

Presented at last meeting. Motion to vote on is seconded and Resolution passes unanimously 11-0.

V. New Business

a) Update from Kit Work Group: Kit group has been discussing whether we should have something on the Neck tape or Neck hit. Alliance Council gets to choose one to design. Group favored the neck hit (back of the neck). Alliance Council also gets to place something on the jock tag.

b) Attendance Updates: Nick Gibson has already been voluntarily removed from the Alliance Council through the accumulation of absences. Sam Chesneau has gone to non-voting status due to absence accumulation. He said he was on the phone for the third meeting, but the Secretary listed him as absent, and no one was aware of his presence. He may challenge the minutes if he wishes to change that. That opportunity was explained and provided to him. Brian Prouty is also currently at non-voting status. Both Sam and Brian have 60 days from their last missed meeting to respond or they voluntarily resign from Council.

c) End of The Year Business Meeting Update: EOTY group and the front office are currently discussing dates for the event.

VI. Adjourn

Motion to adjourn is seconded, and passes unanimously.

* For purposes of this document NV shall refer to Non-Voting Status.

SEATTLE SOUNDERS FC ALLIANCE COUNCIL

MEETING MINUTES

July 12, 2016 – 6:00 PM – Sounders Conference Room

Present (20 of 21): Martin Buckley, Samuel Chesneau (NV), Cameron Collins, Paul Cox, Craig Dillon, Michael Dollard, Eric Flatness, Angelica Germani, Bill Kaczaraba, Thom Kephart, Roberta King, Jeremy Monsivais, Jerry Neil, Karl Picard, Jeff Randle, Daniel Roe, Stephanie Steiner, Brendan Vaughn, Kristina Vaughn, and Steve Wilson.
Via telephone (0): None

Absent (1): Brian Prouty (NV)

Next meeting: Tuesday, August 2, 2016 at 7:00 p.m.

 

I. Call to order – Stephanie Steiner

II. Roll – Cameron Collins: 20 of 21 Present

 

III. Season Tickets Renewal – Mikaela Purvis

Renewals will launch on August 1. There are three types of accounts for renewal: those who are auto-renewed, those who opted out of renewal, and those that are new Season Ticket Holders and will be walked through the auto-renewal process. The decision was made to go with more information, rather than “fun,” so that the fans can make an educated decision. Each account will have its own personalized URL for the primary account holder to visit. Most things will go through this website, although Ticketmaster will still be used for processing credit cards to ensure secure transactions. S2 tickets will be include in this process, and the payment plans will be 1) all at once, 2) two payments, or 3) 6 equal payments taken on the first business day of each month.

→ Question: Will tickets be in the app again or will there be other options? They are currently looking in to other options besides only having tickets available in the app. Tickets will still be able to be printed through Ticketmaster either way.

 

IV. June Minutes – Approved

 

V. Old Business

 

a) Constitution and Bylaws Updates

 

Article 5

→ Proposed change: Changing it to “shall serve up to a two (2) year term” so that it makes clear it isn’t exactly two years, because you could be elected mid-year. Your term would end at the end of the second council business year where you are a member.

Motion to vote. Seconded. Passes Unanimously 17-0.
 

Article 11: General Manager Vote and Recall – Second Reading

→ Proposed Change: Formatted into legal format for the Constitution. Added definitions for league so that this would still apply if the league were to change.

Motion to vote. Seconded. Passes unanimously 17-0.
 

Article 8 & Bylaw 7: Supporter Groups

Motion to table Bylaw 7. Seconded. Passes 18-1.

→ Proposed change: Updated it to be less complicated because a lot of the language was vague. Eliminated any confusing text to make it short and sweet.

Discussion on the history of why supporter groups are listed in the Constitution. Several members are very passionate that it needs to be in here to prevent interference. Some discussion on what does interference mean and what enforcement does the Club grant to the Alliance Council. AC involvement with Supporter Groups revolved around Cascadia tickets historically.

Motion to table Article 8. Seconded. Passes unanimously 20-0.

 

Bylaw 5: Creating and Amending Bylaws – Third reading

→ Proposed change: Completely alters the bylaw with a new set of rules. A four step process that uses the Executive Committee to create a process that anyone can use, even non-council members.

Motion to vote. Seconded. Passes unanimously 20-0.

 

 

Bylaw 11 – Third reading

Amended to create a separate category for special meetings and give the ability to reschedule meetings.

→ Proposed change: Amendment to delete reference to times in the special meeting. Seconded. Passes unanimously. Passes 18-0 with one abstention.

Vote on the whole bylaw. Passes 19-0.

 

b) Resolutions Updates: Paul Cox on Supporters Liaison Officer – Second reading

 

Comments on Resolution:

→ It feels like we are asking for a lot, but maybe we could make a work group.

→ It feels like the Club has not talked to us about much. This could be a step in that direction.

→ We have to push the Club and make them work in partnership with us.

→ Concern that if there is someone in the office that they should go to instead, that they will go to that person, and then it will train the club not to come to AC. That person would end up spending more time with supporter groups.

→ Agrees with comment that this could hurt the AC and worries about telling them how to do their business. They aren’t customer service focused and we aren’t sure it will make that change.

→ Having worked at Amazon, there is an empty chair at all Amazon meetings that is meant to represent the customer. The Club needs to change their culture to serve the fans.

Motion to table. Seconded. Passes unanimously.

 

 

VI. New Business

a) Bylaws

 

→ Bylaw 4: Elections rules for Council – First reading

Request for an amendment to the language to say we need to “create and maintain” a website with the Sounders and to strike July 1 that was accidentally left in the clean version.

 

→ Bylaw 3: Method for introducing topics for a binding vote or a non-binding opinion statement – First reading

Introduced new language that mimics bylaw 5 on how to propose things and eliminates any sentence that references it.

 

 

b) Work Group Updates

→ GM Vote and Recall: Work is complete. Only thing left to do is to work on the Charter itself and propose writing a new, updated charter.

 

→ Constitution & Bylaws: The changes already voted upon just need to be updated in to the working copy of the constitution.

 

→ Visibility: Active on social media. Not much beyond that. Having a meet and greet with AC and the fans that allows for voting and introductions. Come up with a survey for our group of Ninety vs North Courtyard.

 

→ Alliance Members Giveaways: We’ve talked about ideas for potentially an alternative to a scarf. Given the cost of merchandise, it is hard to find something valuable that would replace a scarf. A new possibility exists of giving Alliance Members the option to opt out of a scarf and donate the cost to a charitable arm of the Club (the Rave Foundation). They are investigating whether this would be a good option.

 

→ Kits: AC Members gave some input. We have some possible neck tape and jock tag design opportunities like in the past.

 

→ Outreach: Met with Mikaela to discuss what the AC can do for outreach. One important thing that came out of it was to reiterate that the club needs to have more outreach to the Latino community.

 

→ Seating Expectations: No update at present. Need more volunteers for the group. Jeremy joins the seating expectations committee.

 

→ Women’s Clothing: No update. Somewhat dependent upon jerseys.

 

→ Scarf Vote: A lot of discussion is on the back-burner until ticket renewal goes live. But back and forth on the vote and concerns about how it was run last year and getting “screen time” in the stadium.

 

c) Proposal from AC President & the Club – Stephanie Steiner

Proposal to set it up so the first hour of most meeting is a strategy session with the Front Office on one topic. Different topic at each meeting. One concern from club is that we will NOT be voting on business of club. The Club will be proposing the calendar and it will start this year.

→ One worry from AC→ we could be seen even more as a focus group, we’ll have to make sure the FO staffers do not come in with ideas already firm and try to sell them to us.

→ One pro: We will have more people involved in more conversations and the ability to work ahead of the FO’s deadlines.

 

d) Alliance Resolution on Recognition of Drew Carey

Since we have the ability to select the honorary chairperson, as stated in the Constitution, this resolution would recognize Drew Carey as the original chairperson in any Alliance statement or resolution relating to the chairperson so that there is a distinction in the event that we begin naming a new one annually.

 

VII. Adjourn

Motion to adjourn is seconded, and passes.

* For purposes of this document NV shall refer to Non-Voting Status.

SEATTLE SOUNDERS FC ALLIANCE COUNCIL

MEETING MINUTES

June 7, 2016 – 7:00 PM – Sounders Conference Room

Present (13 of 20): Martin Buckley, Cameron Collins, Paul Cox, Craig Dillon, Eric Flatness, Bill Kaczaraba, Roberta King, Thom Kephart, Jeremy Monsivais, Jerry Neil, Stephanie Steiner, Brendan Vaughn, and Kristina Vaughn.

Via telephone (0): None

Absent (7): Samuel Chesneau, Michael Dollard, Angelica Germani, Karl Picard, Brian Prouty, Jeff Randle, and Daniel Roe.

Next meeting: Tuesday, July 12, 2016 at 7:00 p.m.

 

I. Call to order – Stephanie Steiner

II. Roll – Cameron Collins: 13 of 20 Present

III. Old Business

A. Constitution & Bylaws Updates. In an effort to complete all the required changes so that the Constitution can go out for an Alliance-Wide vote at the same time as the scarf vote, the Council is tackling the remaining Article updates.

→ Article 3: Cleaned up the language plus updated MLS to “The League” so that the Constitution would still apply even if the MLS becomes a new league. Second reading. Passes Unanimously.

 

→ Article 7: Takes all references using language of the business world and updates to proper language for the council and correcting grammar. Second reading.

Proposed Amendments: 7.4.2 – Strike sentence referencing one year.

7.5 – New language proposed to say: “The Term for an Executive Committee Member shall be from election until a new executive committee is elected at the beginning of the next alliance council business year, unless a member dies, resigns, or is removed from office.”

The Amendments are seconded. Pass unanimously.

Article 7 passes unanimously as amended.
→ Article 6: Clarified language for each of the officer positions.

Discussion ensued concerning whether we should be referencing “Alliance money” or “Alliance Council money” in the provisions relating to the treasurer. To whom does the money, if it were to exist, belong?

Proposed Amendment to 6.5: Change reference to “Alliance Council” to “Alliance.” Seconded. Passes Unanimously.

Article 6 passes unanimously as amended.

 

→ Article 5: Update to language in 5.1 Council Eligibility and 5.3 Business Meetings. Aligns the Council business year to be the same as the Club’s year, with the first meeting of the year taking place in December. Second reading.

Proposed Amendment to 5.1: Add “Alliance Council” prior to the words code of conduct to make clear that this would be an internal code of conduct and was not referencing the league’s code of conduct. Seconded. Passes unanimously.

Proposed Amendment to 5.3: Change the language that reads “scheduled in December” to “held in December.” Seconded. Passes Unanimously.

Article 5 passes unanimously as amended.

 

→ Article 4 & Bylaw 11: Updates language in 4.1 Alliance Eligibility and creates a bylaw 11 so as to allow the council to amend language relating to Alliance membership.

Proposed Amendment to 4.1: update the language of “season ticket package” to “multi-match ticket package.” Seconded. Passes unanimously with one member out of the room.

Article 4 passes unanimously as amended, with one member out of the room. Bylaw 11 passes unanimously with one member out of the room.

 

→ Bylaw 8: Replaces mistake in language referencing the “Executive Council” with proper language referencing “Executive Committee.”

Proposed Amendment: Change language stating that each committee “shall present” at each Council meeting to “may present.” Seconded. Passes unanimously.

Bylaw 8 passes unanimously as amended.

 

 

→ Bylaw 10: New bylaw giving the Council President the ability to call special meetinfs and to cancel or reschedule meetings when necessary.

Discussion occurred on whether notice should be required for a meeting to be call. Discussion on whether we need to do this so we can reschedule the July meeting, as it falls on a match day.

Proposed Amendment: Add a 3-day notice requirement before a special meeting can be called. Amendment withdrawn.

Motion to table this discussion until the next Council meeting. Seconded. Fails by a 5-6 vote.

Council looks to the Constitutional Article relating to meetings. We currently have the ability to change meetings by a council vote.

Proposal to table this discussion until the next Council meeting. Seconded. Passes 10-1.
→ Bylaw 9: Eliminated words and updated language for clarity

Proposed Amendment: Strike 9.1.1 because it is repetitive and the language exists elsewhere. Seconded. Passes 8-0 with 3 abstentions.

Proposed Amendment: Proposal to change the language such that eligibility will be stated in the positive, rather than discussing the negative. New language would read, “All Council Members, except those who have missed fifty percent (50%) or more of the preceding meetings of that council year (by the Members’ fourth eligible meeting or later) or who have missed the previous three (3) meetings consecutively, are eligible to attend meetings with owners.” Seconded. Passes 10-0 with one abstention.

Proposed Amendment: Proposal to streamline the language in 9.2.3, as it is covered elsewhere, by striking “Meetings with Ownership/Senior Management &” from the title and “attend meetings with ownership and/or senior management, or” from the body of the section. Seconded. Passes 10-0 with one abstention.

Proposed Amendment: Proposal to move the language of 9.1.4 to 9.1, then removing section 9.1.4. Seconded. Passes 10-0 with one abstention.

Bylaw 9 passes unanimously as amended with one abstention.

 

Motion to table old business and move on to new business due to time constraints. The time was already 9pm and there was new business to discuss. Seconded. Passes 10-1.
IV. New Business

A. Supporter Liaison Officer Resolution from Paul Cox

Paul Cox put forth a resolution calling for the Sounders to hire a Supporter Liaison Officer to speak on behalf of the fans in the Front Office. Now that the club is separate from the Seahawks, there is nobody talking to the fans in advance to see what the fan response will be. The people in the Front Office are so busy. The way big clubs handle this is that they have a liaison officer for the fans. It is written in to the documents as recommended in UEFA.

Questions:

How many MLS teams have this? Zero.

How many Premier League clubs have one? Almost all of them. Each club is encouraged to have one, but it is not necessarily enforced by UEFA.

What’s the difference on what we have with the Sounders currently, where multiple people are responsive, and having one person do it? In Europe, they have realized the way we are doing things in the USA currently doesn’t work. So they have moved towards this type of program.

 

Comments from members of the AC:

→ This is a cultural issue in this front office and it is up at the Bart level. Suggesting we create a separate role does not change the culture that Bart is implementing.

→ The club has said that the Alliance Council would have this role. If this exists, does this hurt the Council’s power? Should we be asserting this power for ourselves? If this position were to exist, could this position answer directly to the Council?

→ Should we call them to the carpet and use this power ourselves?
Motion to table further discussion until the next meeting. Seconded. Passes Unanimously.

 

 

B. Moving the July Council Meeting

Our July meeting falls upon the friendly date. Should we reschedule to July 12 or July 19? July 12 passes unanimously.

 

V. Adjourn

Motion to adjourn because we are twenty-five minutes over time proposed, is seconded, and passes.

May 3, 2016 – 7:00 PM – The NINETY

Present (16 of 21): Samuel Chesneau, Cameron Collins, Paul Cox, Craig Dillon, Michael Dollard, Eric Flatness, Bill Kaczaraba, Roberta King, Angelica Germani, Thom Kephart, Jeremy Monsivais, Jerry Neil, Karl Picard, Daniel Roe, Stephanie Steiner, and Kristina Vaughn.

Via telephone (2): Brian Prouty and Jeff Randle.

Absent (3): Martin Buckley, Nick Gibson, and Brendan Vaughn.

Next meeting: Tuesday, June 7, 2016 at 7:00 p.m.

I. Call to order – Stephanie Steiner (Executive Committee President)

II. Roll – Cameron Collins: 16 of 21 Present

III. April Minutes – Stephanie Steiner Made official.

IV. New Business

 A. Constitution Updates

→ Gender Neutrality: Updated all his or hers in every one to “member” or “councilmember” as previously voted upon. Made Bylaw 9 change from they or themselves. Question about previous plan to ask groups what would be appropriate We found a way to structure it so that it was not necessary to refer to any specific pronoun when speaking of an individual on council, so input was not necessary.

→ Article 3: MLS to League; #7: shorten sentence. Article 3 clarifies the Aims and Objectives of the Alliance. Is the League specific enough? Council feels yes. Further edits just to clean up superfluous language.

→ Article 4: Changing the definition of who is a member of the alliance. Suggestion: from 50% to any commercial season ticket package. Further membership criteria is then established in a new bylaw.

→ Article 5: Cleaned up language to reference a bylaw and took out all the language about ownership meetings so that the Article is easier to read and understand. deleted text here. BUSINESS YEAR? Proposal to change it to starting in December instead of February. Questions on how that changes? What happens to votes? Request that this be tabled so that it can be discussed at the next meeting. Seconded and passes.

→ Article 6: Clarifying language for 6.2: President and 6.5: Treasurer Article 6 edits are to clarify the language to set the agenda. Removes dates from Business year in case changes are made. 6.5 added language about treasurer that existed with the other officers. 6.2 says end of Business Year. Make 6.3 and 6.4 and 6.5 the same. Other capitalization needed throughout.

→ Article 7: Changes to verbiage to so it says executive committee or executive committee members, rather than board and directors. Sets a new maximum number of people on the executive committee to 9. Secretary becomes automatically on the exec committee. Corporate records changed to council records. Other small changes requested to have proper grammar and language consistency throughout the document. Question about how many do we have right now? 5 currently on EC. This would allow a Treasurer to join the EC if elected. Question on term? Is it indefinite? No, the Executive Committee is a term of one year.

→ Bylaw 5: Cleaned up language so it is laid out the proper order for things to be presented on the schedule. Question on the passive language concerning president scheduling the agenda: Should it be automatically on schedule? Discussion: what if it the schedule is full? What if they keep putting agenda stuff forth to stop a GM vote? But, what if the president is trying to stop a vote on that topic? This is specifically for amending Bylaws. We would need to put it for resolutions too PROPOSAL: after for scheduling… “on the agenda within two regularly scheduled Business Meetings”

→ Bylaw 8: Replaces “council” with “committee”

→ Bylaw 9: Eliminated the example in 9.1. Capitalized member throughout. A lot of other language cleanup.

QUESTION: Why can’t people on the phone vote? You cannot under Sturgis unless it is specifically written that way in the Constitution. Roberta and Karl will discuss writing up a change on this rule for the Council to consider.

→ Bylaw 10: When we were going through the Bylaws, we realized that there was officially no way to move meetings around, (like if a meeting was on a gameday) or call a new meeting. So this was created.

B. Agenda: By rule, our agenda has to be published two weeks prior and it is in place. It cannot be changed. However, there is always space in the new business portion to bring a new topic to the meeting. No one on Council asked to add the new bag rule to the meeting. Brendan Vaughn asked that a different topic be brought to the meeting, and it was declined because we discussed it 8 months ago and we already knew the answer (club pricing going a la carte). So, he was given all that information to pass along to those Alliance Members. But, if you have something you would like to bring to the Council, anyone on Council can bring it. If we need to write the resolution or the opinion statement, an AC member can write one and then the president will figure out what the AC member needs to get the proper resources and scheduling (per the rules in the Constitution). People can bring up anything else prior to the Agenda being published or during new business.

C. Bags: Eric expressed several concerns about the new bag rule for those who need to carry laptops and are coming to matches directly after work, or taking public transportation. Others shared their experiences regarding diaper bags, etc.

QUESTION: Do we know who proposed adopting the Seahawks bag policy? Councilmembers believe Sounders don’t care about customer service and treat people poorly. One heard the comment: “The Sounders are The Comcast of the MLS.” Paul Cox speaking on all the recent uproars: Historically, we have refrained from getting too much in the Club’s face. But they aren’t listening to the fans. They need someone specifically in the office to address fan needs. 2 things against us: 1) they get butts in the seats and 2) we haven’t asserted ourselves saying that they need to listen. Each person in that office should be watching out for the fans. But the main part of every person’s job who works for the Sounders is to make more money for the Sounders. That’s how their employees are evaluated. Supporters Direct in England highly recommend clubs have a position that is Supporters Liaison Officer (SLO) to talk to ALL supporters (not just SGs). It’s time for this Council to assert itself a little more on a couple of these issues. Stephanie Steiner on the Council’s relationship with the club: Club takes resolutions they like and ignore the ones they don’t like. We also have a place on our own website that we can put pressure on them through our blog. We can do this AND do resolutions and opinion statements. This is an especially effective tool for showing differing sides to an issue: not all Council members agree, just as not all Alliance members agree on how issues should be addressed.

V. Adjourn Motion to adjourn because way over time proposed and passes.

SEATTLE SOUNDERS FC ALLIANCE COUNCIL

MEETING MINUTES

April 5, 2016 – 7:00 PM – The NINETY

Present (12 of 22): Cameron Collins, Paul Cox, Craig Dillon, Eric Flatness, Bill Kaczaraba, Roberta King, Angelica Germani, Jerry Neil, Jeff Randle, Daniel Roe, Stephanie Steiner, and Kristina Vaughn

Via telephone (4): Martin Buckley, Thom Kephart, Karl Picard, and Brendan Vaughn

Absent (6): Samuel Chesneau, Michael Dollard, Nick Gibson, Jeremy Monsivais, Brian Prouty, and Hans Ulland

Next meeting: Tuesday, May 5, 2016 at 7:00 p.m.

 

1. Call to order – Stephanie Steiner (Executive Committee President)
2. Roll – Cameron Collins: 12 of 22 Present
3. New Business – Kyle Sheldon, VP of Marketing & Al Raitt, Gameday Presentations

→ Kyle came from NASCAR, but before that, he was with DC United

→ Al came came from the LA Galaxy, has worked with the LA Kings and the Anaheim Ducks

 

→ Questions for Kyle and Al

How do they balance the avid fan who knows the brand intimately vs the casual fan which is where the growth will come from? This is a constant conversation that they have. 50% of new season ticket holders had a partial plan last year. 50% are just new. As a fan, youou shouldn’t be surprised by any of the traditions in the stadium. They ponder how they can communicate the experience to first time people who visit.

How do we get Sounders signage to be in the same abundance as Seahawks signage within the stadium? Kyle just did a walk-through with the Seahawks. There are inherent challenges to big signage changes because it was built for the Seahawks. How can the Sounders get it to make it feel more equitable? Make it feel like home?  Some possible changes → soccer celebration in the NW concourse. Couple places not currently used where they could get a little more branding or use the space for Sounders. It would go a long way if the Public Stadium Authority could hear requests like this from Sounders fans, and the FO will figure out how best to address such contact.

What is happening with the Seahawks Ring of Honor and Scoreboard changes? The stadium is installing LED Screens around the entire thing. New boards in the corner

 

People seem to enjoy the big billboards around town. What sort of marketing campaigns to the Sounders have to attract new fans? More targeted and more focus is the trend of marketing. But Kyle believes that the outdoor high impact of a billboard could have a real effect. There is no way to decide the direct impact on ticket sales, but they think it does have one. The next big push will be around the 1^st of june, as the midseason campaign and the full season packages come about

 

Why is it so loud in the Stadium before games? The sound is the same, there just isn’t enough bodies in the stadium to dampen the sound.  Because of the speaker placement, some sections will get it louder more than others.

 

Is there a philosophy on replays? Why not show controversial calls? Mandated by league. There is concern on MLS and PRO to insight crowd with a replay. At Levis stadiums for 49ers games they get access in their app. MLS will not let it happen for out league. An example of what is done on a replay: Al speaking on Ty Mears tackle… He sees 8 different angles to decide whether to air it. In this instance it looked clean, so they decided to air it on the big screen once play had stopped.

 

How do we let the league know that we are upset about refereeing? The league monitors their social media, so something like #Geigered gets back to them. Keep telling the league. Keep telling the team. It will keep pressure on them.

 

What is the thought behind when the Digital media team is discussing rumors, when the club has no official opinion?  This is the type of conversation they are having internally. They aren’t set on what it should be moving forward. But, they DO want the club to be the one stop shop for all the info on the club. They don’t want to rumor monger, but they do want to be able to walk down the hall and ask Garth questions.

 

March Minutes – Stephanie Steiner

Made official.

Updates from Work Groups

Marketing – Stephanie Steiner

We are working on a longterm planning session for alliance goals and alliance growth. What kind of things, as an AC, would we like to see in terms of marketing? What would we like to pursue?

→ AC Signage, Flag on the field, Buttons or something like that, Booth on the concourses, Big Screen announcements, bio portions of the voting site have pictures too and can be editable, E-mails to include links to meeting recaps, Matchday email include our location if we have booths, beer of the match(?), Charitable contribution idea with Match Pass, Push notifications on our behalf, Consider printing a new banner because ours has the old logo.

→ In the app, with the twitter feed, can they pin stuff to the top? We are currently in the curated feed on the app.

→ The 90 before matches is booked all the time, but we’d love to use it for a recruiting meeting. We can use lofts in the stadium as well.

Bios – Dan Roe

Profiles are up and running. If you see any edits that need to be made, contact Mikaela directly

 Scarf Group – Kristina Vaughn

Brainstorming to see if there is anything the AC wants to change from last year’s vote

Supporter Group Bylaw Group – Kristina Vaughn

They just got the information on the latest versions of text and will start working on it.

Visibility

They want more people to write. Eric said he would write. Cameron said he will write as well.

Constitution/Bylaws – Stephanie Steiner & Cameron Collins

We went through and did a lot of work on the language. We will attack the easy ones all at once, and then take the major substantive ones on a one by one basis.

Adjourn – No other business presented, Motion to adjourn ten minutes early proposed and passed

SEATTLE SOUNDERS FC ALLIANCE COUNCIL

MEETING MINUTES

March 1, 2016 – 7:00 PM – The NINETY

Present (15 of 23): Martin Buckley, Samuel Chesneau, Cameron Collins, Craig Dillon, Michael Dollard, Eric Flatness, Angelica Germani, Bill Kaczaraba, Thom Kephart, Roberta King, Jerry Neil, Karl Picard, Daniel Roe, Stephanie Steiner, and Kristina Vaughn

Via telephone (1): Paul Cox

Absent (7): Nick Gibson, Brian Prouty, Jeremy Monsivais, Mark Nesteroff, Jeff Randle, Brendan Vaughn, and Hans Ulland

Next meeting: Tuesday, April 5, 2016 at 7:00 p.m.

I. Call to order – Stephanie Steiner

II. Roll – Cameron Collins: 15 of 23 Present. 1 on Phone.

III. February Minutes – Stephanie Steiner

Made official.

IV. New Business:

A. Hot Button Issues – Taylor Graham

→ Mobile App Ticketing: From the club’s perspective, it seemed to work well. The results were significantly positive in the numbers of season ticket members who used the app. Went well beyond their hopes.

· People were happy as a whole. A few issues raised, the council members suggested that people contact the club directly on specific issues (like an elderly person who didn’t have a phone).

· Not being able to print tickets except within 7 days of the match is to prevent the fraudulent ticketing.

· Main problem was people who printed their tickets and then tried to use the app, but one other issue raised was about designating and then people having separate device.

·The rep didn’t appear to be around. But there were only 8, so it could have been hard to see them. These reps will see email, get calls in real time, but texting won’t work.

· People didn’t know there wasn’t a prematch deal. Also tried to get the ticket scanned at concessions for the Matchpass points that no longer exist.

· Encourage people to download their tickets before they go to the gates.

·What are the next steps with the app? More games? More data being put in. How to make it more diverse? App currently available totally in Spanish.

→ Dynamic Pricing: Everything that has been done over the last season in terms of ticketing is to get the tickets in the hands of fans. Recalled over 600 tickets from brokers to sell directly to fans. Season tickets are not dynamically priced. Half season tickets are not dynamically priced. What they have seen is that when the price is the same for every game, brokers buy them and sell to fans. Prices are tiered only on a single match basis so that they can be directly in the hands of fans. Increases the value of being a season ticket member. They’ve done this for 3 years. It is just more responsive or fluid now than it has ever been.

· “Get in price” What is the cheapest price to get in to the game? They will always keep it at the $30 mark. They get data of Stubhub, Ticketmaster Exchange, all those things, including average price, etc.

· Questions from AC

i. Why is an ADA seat 37% more expensive than those right in front of it or behind it? They do not sell ADA seats until a number of days before the event as required by law. If this is happening, it needs to be fixed, and the club will make sure it is fixed. The club will always move people to the ADA seats when they need them without charging any more.

ii. Is there a new policy in place for price ceiling on what a ticket could be sold for in GA? ECS asked for it. Planned on following through on it, but didn’t come about until people had renewed season tickets already, so will not happen this year, but will happen next year so that rule can exist at the point of renewal.

→ Women’s Jerseys: They are not even close to authentic. How do we give feedback? Taylor said we can pass it on directly to Pro Shop and those that make decisions on ordering. We will have Doug Orweiler come in to discuss with us.

→ Alliance Council Voting: Main account holder voting currently live. Designee voting will go live on April 1.

V. Work Groups

→ GM Vote & Recall: Must work on where the various pieces already agreed upon go and propose charter changes to the team. Cameron, Stephanie, Martin

→ Annual Meeting: Kristina, Paul, Roberta, Cameron (and Jeff Randle?)

→ Constitution & Bylaws: Cameron & Stephanie (and Dan, Kristina, and Martin)

→ Member eligibility: Will be same as C&B and GM Vote

→ Supporter Group Bylaw 7: Cameron, Kristina, Karl, Martin

→ AC Visibility: Thom, Eric, Mike, Karl

→ Community Outreach Group: Bill, Sam, Thom

→ Scarf Vote: Karl, Cameron, Kristina, Jerry, Roberta

→ Kit: Jerry, Dan, Eric

→ Seating Expectations: Roberta

→ Women’s Attire: Roberta, Jerry

→Season Ticket Holder giveaways: Ang, Jerry

VI. Removing gender from the Constitution / Bylaws – Stephanie Steiner & Cameron Collins

Seattle is a very equality based city and the Sounders have taken a very equality based stance. The attendance bylaw is the only thing written with gender neutral language (“themselves”). “His or her” is no longer gender neutral. Question is are you in support of re-writing the entire document to be gender neutral? We want to get an okay before we even do the legwork. The AC would always be able to vote on it again. The entire Alliance would have to vote on it.

→ Vote taken. Unanimously passes.

VII. Council Member Profile Update – Dan Roe

All but one of the new people have turned theirs in. New extra question “Tell us about yourself” will be extended by one week. March 8^th will be the last possible date for current council members to answer this. Will go up blank if not turned in.

VIII. Adjourn – Motion to adjourn passes