The New Constitution

We are still working on our revised Constitution. The most recent draft will be posted here in by the RD18 game against Essendon. It will then always be here and available for you to comment on. We appreciate your input.

The main changes from the current Constitution are summarised below:

Incorporation

This is a technical legal issue but the Cheer Squad is not currently “Incorporated” under Victorian law. Incorporating the Cheer Squad provides significant legal and practical benefits, primarily by establishing the Cheer Squad as a separate legal entity from its members. This separation shields individual members from personal liability for any Cheer Squad debts and legal actions, and also allows the Cheer Squad to enter contracts, own property, and access banking facilities.

Elections

Votes in the general election of committee members to be sent to a nominated “Returning Officer” at the Richmond Football Club. Members votes will remain secret and will not be accessible to anyone except the Returning Officer prior to the election.

The positions of President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer will now be elected directly by the Cheer Squad membership at the Annual General Meeting and not appointed by the Chairman as is currently the case.

Committee terms to be limited to 1 year. Each committee member must stand for re-election each year.

Committee Roles and Responsibilities

At the moment the Constitution doesn’t specify what roles and responsibilities are assigned to Committee Members. In the interest of clarity we believe that these specifics should be included.

The Role of the Chairperson

Currently the Chairperson is appointed by the football club and has ultimate authority for the running of the Cheer Squad. We believe that ultimate authority should reside with an elected official, the President. Our amendment provides for the football club to nominate a Chairperson. This is an honorary role which does not have any authority over the running of the Cheer Squad. The Chairperson can attend and participate in committee meetings. The chairperson shall have the deciding vote in the event the committee are unable to come to agreement on any resolution.

Provision of Extra-ordinary General Meetings

We believe it is important that the membership be able to call an Extra-Ordinary General Meeting to resolve issues where the membership and the committee are not in alignment.

Disciplinary Action and Grievances

We will include a detailed process for grievance handling and subsequent disciplinary action. This will ensure fairness and transparency.

Allocation of Finals Tickets

In the event that the football clubs makes the finals series, allocation of finals tickets will be as follows:

• In acknowledgement of their contribution and the hard work they do, each committee member will be entitled to a finals ticket for themselves and a “plus one” (who must also be a Cheer Squad member. This will account for the first 20 tickets of the allocation.
• ALL remaining tickets in the allocation will be assigned to members based on a ballot. Interested members must apply to be included in the ballot. The ballot will be conducted in a public forum and should be streamed.

By Laws

We will introduce “By Laws” to the Constitution. These will be a formal set of procedures governing certain aspects of the running of the Cheer Squad. A specific example is the allocation of game day seating. We believe a structured system for handling tickets is beneficial compared to handing them out at the whim of the person responsible.