Extracts from the Official GFC Supporter Group Guidelines

In recognising, and establishing a "partnership" with each officlal supporter group, the GFC applies formal guidelines. Extracts of the Guideline document are reproduced here for information purposes (NB: the complete GFC document is available here).

Extracts from the GFC Supporter Group Guidelines:

Supporter Groups: help GFC identify interstate and regional supporters and helps convert them into members.

Membership is essential to the success of any AFL club and GFC is no exception. GFC has the objective to reach over 30,000 members again in 2007 and decrease our churn from 22% to 10%.

Interstate and regional GFC supporters play a vital role in assisting the Club to achieve this goal. We need to work together to turn supporters into financial members of the Club.

Supporter groups have become an important mechanism in ensuring the future of GFC. They do this by providing supporters and members living some distance from Skilled Stadium with the opportunity to become closely involved with the Club.

This handbook provides guidelines to effectively and efficiently operate your supporter group, which will in turn create a happy and fun environment for members and the opportunity to provide really valuable assistance to GFC. These will be updated yearly and any feedback you have will be appreciated.

If the supporter groups are to be successful, GFC must commit resources to their cause. These include:

Being proactive in setting up groups nationwide
Targeting markets where GFC have yet to establish a presence
Setting up operational guidelines
Giving support wherever possible

The GFC Membership Marketing Coordinator has the responsibility to play a major role in the following areas:

Supporter groups (metro, country & interstate)
Family Days and other membership related functions where members attend
Volunteers
Country and interstate promotions (where possible)
All activities aimed at increasing membership sales
Helping groups promote membership in their own region
Ensuring information about the Geelong Football Club is constantly available to supporter groups.

Supporter groups assist GFC with locating supporters in their local region, recruiting new members, fundraising and providing a fun social atmosphere for members to meet and discuss football. Each group must have at least 15 members.

Supporter groups are formed to assist the Geelong Football Club and at all times are representing the Club. Therefore all supporter group communication, functions, fundraising ideas and any other activity undertaken must be first approved by the GFC Membership Marketing Coordinator.

The main objectives of supporter groups is:

To promote GFC and the supporter group in the local region (radius of 60km)
Recruit new members to the football club and to their supporter group
Generate funds by conducting social functions and activities (at least one major function), a fundraising target must be signed off by March 31 of each year
Provide an environment where members can meet and have fun and feel a part of the GFC

The Geelong Football Club will assist with meeting these objectives by:

Providing a list of GFC members in the local region
Supplying membership brochures, application forms and membership posters to the supporter group to distribute throughout their region
Providing support where necessary with social functions and other fundraising activities
Making GFC memorabilia (one team signed guernsey), fundraising items and merchandise available to purchase at discounted price
Providing a player to attend social functions, where possible (subject to availability, must be within November � March period, flights & accommodation must be paid for by group)
Updating supporter groups with information about GFC when necessary or when requested.

CODE OF CONDUCT

All members of the supporter groups are required to adhere to the code of conduct. You are a representative of GFC, therefore members must:

Behave appropriately and lawfully according to local, state or federal law
Be well presented with clean and neat clothing
Ensure the information given about GFC is correct, if unsure ask the Membership Marketing Coordinator
Get approval from Membership Marketing Coordinator for all supporter group communication, functions, fundraising ideas or any other activity undertaken
Respect other members of the group and the group itself.

The Membership Marketing Coordinator and the supporter group committee at their discretion are able to take appropriate action if the conduct is not adhered to.

Supporter Group Structure

It is essential that all supporter groups adopt an organised management structure with all officials elected to committee positions (committee members MUST be members of the Geelong Football Club).

The group structure required:

President

Direct point of contact with GFC
Manages the overall operation of the supporter group
Chairs official meetings

Secretary

To set the agenda of all meetings
Take the minutes of all meetings and provide a copy to GFC administrator and to each committee member prior to the next meeting.

Treasurer

Financial controller of supporter group
Financial reporting (with minutes of meeting) to GFC administrator

All positions must be up for election each year; all elected committee members are subject to approval by the GFC administrator. No other positions are to be made, as the GFC will not recognise them.

The committee structure is designed to be simple and efficient. However the committee members must not do all the work. Responsibility must be allocated to individuals (depending on the size of the group), to encourage all members to be involved. Members can be responsible for areas including fundraising, social activities, member communication etc.

Meetings are to be held on a monthly basis at your nominated venue
Meetings are to be made up of at least 50% GFC members
Minutes, financial statements and any other important submissions are to be sent directly to the Membership Marketing Coordinator without fail after every meeting.
Meetings should begin with a welcome by the President and a run down on the format for the evening. Not all meetings have to be formal, however if there are important matters to be discussed a formal forum may be the best option.
Annual General Meeting is required each year. This meeting is to be held during October, not clashing with the Club�s official events. All members of the supporter group must be provided with at least 21 days notice of the meeting in writing. All positions are declared open and recommendations for those positions taken from the members of that group. There must be four current members of GFC present at the AGM otherwise GFC will need to be contacted. All recommendations are to be forwarded to GFC. All committee members chosen must be financial members of GFC by February of the following year.

MEMBER DETAILS

Each group is to maintain an up to date database of all their members and known GFC supporters who are not members. Each record on the database should contain the following information:

� Title

� First name

� Surname

� Postal address

� Home phone number

� Work phone number

� Mobile number

� E-mail address

� Gender

� Date of birth

� GFC membership number

� GFC membership type

Groups are required to provide the Club with the contact details of their current members (both GFC members and those who are not GFC members) on each of the following dates:

� 30 November

� 31 January

� 31 March

� 30 June

The information can be emailed, mailed, or faxed to the Membership Marketing Coordinator.

Groups must maintain a financial log book which details all expenses and income. A financial report including a bank report and a profit and loss report must be sent to the Membership Marketing Coordinator every two months. Examples of these reports are on pages 13 and 14.

Income

Any monies raised from supporter group activities are to be banked in the group�s bank account and must only be used for supporter group activities. In no way should the monies be used for any other activities outside the group, Club related or not.

Expense

Groups need to be aware that while they are gaining incomes, expenses will also be incurred. All of these should be kept track of by the treasurer and noted each month in the bank reconciliation record. Expenses should only occur for supporter group activities.

All financial related requirements are listed below:

Each group must set up a bank account in its own right and use the funds from membership, fundraising and sponsorship to cover housekeeping costs.
GFC recommends that the groups use the Bendigo Bank if they have access to a local branch.
All expenditures are to be paid by cheque, with all cheques requiring the signature of two officers of the group being the President and the Treasurer.
Cheques that exceed $500 will need to be authorised by the Membership Marketing Coordinator.
No reimbursements will be issued to a committee member�s credit card or bank account on behalf of the group unless he/she has prior authority from GFC. Reimbursements are to be made in the form of a cheque for the appropriate amount and must be authorised by Membership Marketing Coordinator.
Groups shall not represent or claim that GFC is responsible for any debts or expenses of their group, as GFC is not in a position to provide you with any guarantee or indemnity. Care should be taken to avoid becoming engaged in any activities that do not cover the associated expenses.
An annual donation must be forwarded to the GFC by the 30September of each year.
At the end of the financial year enough money (recommend at least $400) should be retained by the group to assist with expenses to be incurred in the future generation of funds.
A copy of the group�s bank statement must be forwarded to GFC once every two months. At the same time, a profit and loss statement should also be forwarded to the Club with a reconciliation of the recorded profit to the current balance of cash on hand. NB: A follow up call will be made if financial statements are not received within fourteen (14) days of the due date