The Malvern Tigers Annual General Meeting (AGM) was held on 31 January 2022 at the Malvernvale Hotel.

The last two years have seen domestic basketball heavily impacted by the pandemic. Through this period the executive committee has worked diligently in continuing to assist in providing organized competitive basketball for over 600 children over the year through summer and winter seasons.

In attendance – Wendi Dawson (President), Aaron Russell (Vice President), Marc O’Donoghue (Secretary), Andrew Papageorgiou (Treasurer), Lori Embelton (General Committee Member), Will Walford (General Committee Member), Raffi Gugasyan, Nathan Ward and Jack Dawson.

Our key objective for the coming year will be getting back on track. In terms of all matters basketball, we are looking to make improvements to our grading process, and support and develop our coaches with the objective of improving the experience of all players. We see our missions as being here to deliver a safe and supportive environment for all of our players and encourage active participation. The focus will be on keeping kids engaged and active, while also seeking to support those children that are passionate about the sport by helping facilitate pathways which will assist them in challenging themselves.

We also note that COVID has resulted in many people feeling disconnected, as such there will also be a focus on being more visible within the community, the last year saw us take some tangible steps forward in this regard, with the launch of our new website, the formulation of a plan to engage with businesses within the membership base and a renewed focus on celebrating the achievements and progress of our children. To this end, we would welcome support from our community of members who have expertise in social media, communications, etc. (See our call for expertise in this newsletter).

There have also been some very positive developments around local area infrastructure, with the announcement of the construction of a multi-purpose sports facility at Percy Treyvaud Park in Malvern East. Our Club was vocal in expressing a need for a modern basketball infrastructure in our broader area and we look forward to engaging with council around how the Tigers can get involved.

Our VP Aaron Russell spoke to the concerns of members around the need to get back on track in grading our children and our focus on keeping our older children involved with the club, we also discussed the challenges of maintaining Age Group Coordinator coverage and assisting children and families as sport starts up once more.

Treasurer Andrew Papageorgiou presented the audited financials. The Club remains in a healthy financial position as at the end of the period. While the Club reported a net profit of $101,669, it was noted that a good portion of this will be reversed in the following period given that the club had extended a meaningful subsidy for returning players into the summer season. This discount compensated players for the early cancellation of the Winter 2021 season. Moving forward, the increase in fees was also acknowledged. Changes to Waverley’s door policy have resulted in higher weekly team sheet costs that have seen fees rise materially over the last two seasons. The Club will continue to do its best to reduce this impost on members.

Nominations for the executive committee received were Wendi Dawson, who returns as President, Aaron Russell, who returns as Vice President, Andrew Papageorgiou, who returns as Treasurer, Will Walford, who will continue to oversee the girls program, Ian Alder who was heavily involved with the Cubs program over the last year and Teri Lichtenstein. We would also like to welcome new Executive committee members, Dr Raffi Gugasyan who joins the EC as the committee member responsible for the boys program, Matthew Ross and Dr Conn Antoniou.

We would also like to extend our thanks to committee members who have not returned for the coming year. Lori Embelton has been a hard-working committee member for a number of years as well as an Age Group Coordinator. Lori has always been vigilant in expressing the desires and concerns of the membership base, we thank Lorri for her service on the EC and as an AGC. Marc O-Donoghue steps down as our Secretary, after serving for one year. In that period, Marc was instrumental in moving our website forward and the Club’s re-branding. We thank Marc for his services and the meaningful contribution he made to the Club. Adrian Mandile leaves the general committee after serving for many years. Adrian’s aptitude as an organizer served the Club well during the membership and grading periods; he will be sorely missed. We would also like to thank Debbie Williams for her service. Debbie’s counsel as well as flexibility in lending a hand where required will be missed. Lastly, we would like to thank outgoing AGC Beth Wilson (Juniors U8) who also played a key role in the organizing and distribution of our uniforms.

We would like to welcome new AGCs Emily Spinks (Juniors U8), Matt Taylor (Juniors U10 and U12), and Olivia Bradbury (Girls U8). For a complete list of our AGCs, please click here.

We would also like to thank the contribution of Michael Simonetti and his team of designers at AndMine who were generous in providing time and resources to the Club in the branding exercise and re-launch of our website. Our most sincere thanks to Michael and his team.

The focus of the committee will be continuing the work around club brand identity and culture through a range of measures, the review of our basketball programs with a focus on coaching, grading and team co-ordination and the re-launch of our Cubs program which will focus on engaging with younger children within the community (See our call for assistance in this newsletter). The new and returning committee members are focused on improving the basketball experience of the children and deepening the connection between members and the Club, with a real focus on celebrating our collective belonging to the basketball community.