GCGBAG

As anyone who’s spent any time looking at Nordecke’s bylaws knows… they need some work. We know the Nordecke Board has a bylaws review process well underway and we’re eager to see the revisions they’re set to propose later this month. GCGBAG’s spent a lot of time thinking about revisions, too, and we’d like to offer a draft of the changes we would like to see! Our goal with these suggested revisions is to facilitate more engagement from membership, improve organizational governance, and increase transparency.

We hope for a chance to work collectively with the Board to incorporate some of these suggestions as part of their future bylaws amendment package. We all agree that revisions are sorely needed and are committed to working together to get it right!

In the meantime, we outlined our draft revisions below and you can download a comparison document to see exactly what and where suggested changes were made.

Download for review: Original Bylaws | Revised Bylaws | Comparison Document Highlighting Changes

ARTICLE III: Board of Directors, Elections & Appointees

Adds detail to the elections process.

Forbids current Crew employees or contractors from holding a Director or other appointed leadership position.
Allows for a 14-day period to hold online elections for Board of Directors leading up to the Annual General Meeting (AGM).
Requires use of a third-party electronic/online voting system.
Creates guidelines for runoff elections as well as addressing disputes.
Requires Director candidates to declare at least 45 days prior to the AGM and ballot to be published at least 21 days prior.
Forbids members from running for multiple Director positions in the same election.

Creates a Cure Period to solicit additional candidates for Director positions or permit declared candidates to change the position they are running for if there are vacancies.

Provides accommodations for electronic/online voting on issues (e.g. amendments to the bylaws), while still requiring a 2/3rds vote by registered supporters for approval.

Clarifies term length and limits for Director positions.

Sets a limit of 2 consecutive terms in the same Director position
Clarifies a limit of 6 total terms on the Board, regardless of positions served.
Includes considerations for scenarios where no other interested party declares for a Director position during an election.

Permits members to bring forth a motion to remove a Director.

Reverts Chairperson to an appointed role of a Director.

Each term, the Board of Directors will select one Director to serve as the Chairperson, presiding over Board meetings and serving as secondary signer for financial disbursements and primary point of contact for the Front Office.
The chair role being filled by vote of other directors is one of the most common methods of doing so and is in line with the original intention of the bylaws.

Creates the Administrative Director position.

New elected Director position takes on the role and duties of the Secretary. This role was originally a role filled by another director, however the time commitment for these responsibilities is significant, so establishing it as a stand-alone elected role feels necessary.
In addition to taking minutes and record keeping, the Administrative Director is responsible for all logistical details of Nordecke public meetings, from securing space to overseeing the online stream for remote attendees.
Administrative Director oversees votes and elections, and is an ex-officio member of the Executive Board.

Clarifies duties and responsibilities of Director positions.

Clarifies roles of the Executive Board

The Executive Board would now be made up of the Chair, Administrative Director (formerly Secretary/Vice Chair) and Treasurer and has the authority to act on behalf of the organization (entering into contracts, authorizing expenditures, etc.).

Expressly Permits the Board to enlist services of an outside CPA to assist with bookkeeping and finances.

ARTICLE V: Meetings, Voting & Administration

Sets the 3rd Sunday in December as the date for the Annual General Meeting (AGM).

Requires the Board to make every effort to allow members to attend any public meeting remotely.

Board meetings need to be publicly noticed at least 7 days in advance.

Agendas must be shared at least 3 days in advance.
Minutes must be published at most 5 days after.

Provides accommodations for electronic/online voting on resolutions.

Requires a Board vote on any matters with a financial expenditure in excess of $1,000.

ARTICLE VII: Disclosures and Information Accessibility

Clarifies conflict of interest disclosure requirements.

Adds language requiring routine public disclosure of meetings, agendas, record of votes, and financial reporting.

Additional Revisions

Explicitly underscores that Nordecke will not tolerate transphobia, in addition to racism, xenophobia, homophobia, sexism, or any other form of bigotry.

Makes style, formatting and layout changes to clean up the document.

Removes references to Crew SC.

So what’s next?

Per the current bylaws, proposed amendments have to be presented at least 60 days before the AGM or a special meeting where the proposed changes to the bylaws would require a 2/3rds vote of Registered Supporters to pass — so there is a lot of time for folks to consider and discuss!

If you’ve got suggestions or feedback, sound off in the comments below or hit us up on social media.

Saturday night at Bank of America Stadium, we witnessed an affront to Our Lord Guillermo and all that is beautiful about The Game. The performance of Christopher Calderon, the head replacement referee (read: scab) in the Crew’s 2-0 loss Charlotte FC, we can only hope, is a tipping point to end this short-sighted, self-destructive lockout imposed by MLS through its proxy PRO.

Look, we haven’t been kind to PRO referees over the years. To be clear, our rebukes have had merit, generally. But after five weeks of replacements like Calderon — whose recent body of work as a lead official includes an Open Cup match featuring American soccer giants El Farolito SC, which is affiliated with a San Francisco taco joint — we are desperate for professionals.

With respect to the US Open Cup debacle, the referee lockout is the story of the MLS season. Columbus along with Kansas City, LA Galaxy, Montreal, Portland and yes even Charlotte can make compelling arguments that they’ve lost out on points due to woefully overmatched replacement officials. That’s just going off the top of our heads.

There are also serious player safety implications, which MLSPA continues to underscore. For a team like the Crew, which has been out-fouled by an 82 - 49 margin through five matches, it seems only a matter of time until there’s a serious injury due to scabs’ inability to match the speed and intensity of the game.

Supporters have plenty of justifications to be furious with MLS and its cynical lockout-prolonging tactics as well. You would be hard pressed to find a team that did not raise prices on season ticket members over the offseason. They’ve all adopted “dynamic” ticket pricing and the Messi Tax, and all the game broadcasts are behind a paywall. Add it up, and it’s never been more expensive to support the Crew or any MLS club, even if the game quality is measurably worse than it was last season.

The Charlotte match was an inflection point — officiating so utterly devoid of logic that it shattered Crew supporterdom’s collective psyche. Whether fueled by alcohol or that irrepressible Terrible Knowledge that the most powerful man in American soccer, MLS commissioner Don Garber, has actively conspired against our team, folks wondered if something more sinister was afoot.

To be sure, the existence of a league-sponsored conspiracy to relocate the Crew in the past is not evidence of a present-day match rigging conspiracy against the Crew in favor of, say, Inter Miami. But given what we do know — that Terrible Knowledge — is it that much of a leap? In fact, Crew supporters would be well served by putting on the tin foil hat just long enough to ask: Cui bono?

Who benefits when we focus our energy on scolding Crew supporters’ completely expectable and otherwise harmless trauma response? Who benefits if we do this while failing to take an affirmative stance in support of the locked out refs and call for this madness-inducing lockout to end?

We have to consider our power as Crew supporters and how we can most effectively wield it. We took on MLS and won. We’ve watched as other large supporter collectives, including Timbers Army, and even humble lifestyle brands such as GCGBAG, have made statements of solidarity with PRSA. Are we, as a collective, doing all that we can?

It would cost teams and their billionaire owners roughly $95,000 each to end the lockout. That’s nothing for these people. If Crew supporters were mobilized — targeted email, phone and social media campaigns; protests in and outside the stadium — this lockout could have ended weeks ago.

If recent reports are to be believed, it may be on the verge of ending without getting the #SaveTheCrew treatment. While that’s a good thing, we need to be clear-eyed about MLS’ contempt for referees, because it extends to players, coaches and supporters — anyone not signing a seven-figure sponsorship deal or sitting in a luxury suite.

We need to know what side we’re on and be ready to do Lord Guillermo’s work when the time comes.

Guillermo O’Rourke is a real-life, award-winning journalist and commentator. His book, Nine Lies: The Search for Crew Cat’s Killer still needs a publisher.