Hannah Rossi – Club Director in Focus

Q.    How did you get involved with Meribula RSL and why did you decide to join the board?

A.    I am in the finance industry now, but my background prior to that was working for Coca Cola Amatil and in doing so I'd already worked closely with the Club as a business development manager. The second part of my relationship with the Club is my family. My father-in-law and husband are life members of the Merimbula Diggers AFL Club which has always been really closely connected to the RSL.

It's the Club that we have always frequented as a family, we would go there for the raffles, we would go there for our meals. It was often suggested to me to join the board but given I was working on other projects I was never able to. It wasn’t until there was a three-month casual vacancy that I was able to consider it seriously. I was invited to serve for three months to gain an understanding of what the role might look like in terms of how much time you commit, the expectations and what my skill set looks and how it complements existing members of the board. After the casual vacancy ended, I decided to stand for election by the members where I secured my first two-year term. 

Q.    Was it intimidating to you as a younger person joining the board?

A.    I do think there is an element of it that can be intimidating, especially being an early 30s female. Working for Coca Cola, I dealt with a lot of boards, and I was very aware I didn’t fit the traditional mould. In saying that, representation matters, and it wasn’t that I didn’t think I had anything to offer, it was more of a fear of not being understood or the misconception that my strategies or ideas might not align with the direction of the board. I could see the skill set that the existing board had and hoped the skills that I would look to bring on board would be different but would potentially complement the rest of the team.

Q.    What prerequisites did you need to join the board?

A.    At the time I joined, all I had to do was the Mandatory Director Training, due to the size of the Club. Thankfully the grace period allowed me to get started on the work itself while completing the course. These days you will also need to get a mandatory director ID. I thought there would be a lot more to it in terms of formalities. Obviously, you go through the necessary checks and fill in the necessary paperwork, but if you've got good support from the club that's fairly straightforward. On reflection, at the time the only real barrier was my own misconception around what I needed to get started.

Q.    How have you seen the Club and the board culture change since 2017?

A.    I think it has been great to see a lot of ideas that have been tabled since I've been involved — not necessarily my ideas — come to life. It's exciting when you start to see a bit of momentum behind them. We have started to get great feedback from the members around some of the things that we've implemented. I think the biggest success for me was the online presence, although this is still a real work in progress, it's still something that I bring up regularly with our existing board. We've never harnessed the power of social media or the power of digital marketing, and I think when you look at the industry we're in, particularly being in a tourist area, that's something that we're really under indexing. While we haven't made any revolutionary changes to what we do, at least now we're having regular conversations around how we can use these resources to change our marketing strategy and appeal to our members and guests.

Q.    What advice have you received regarding how to be successful in the club industry?

A.    Not necessarily a piece of advice, but I think one of the things that I really saw benefit me was my understanding of the industry in terms of how a board works and how that decision making process works. Being on the other side of the fence, working for a supplier, I had a lot of experience in pitching to a board and asking for their support or attempting to win their business or partnership. I think that was really beneficial because, for me, it was helpful to go in talking club language. I had an in-depth understanding around what the metrics are that drive a successful club and I think then coming to a board and looking at strategic leadership, it was important to understand the mechanics behind the successful clubs so that I could then speak to them confidently in those meetings.

Q.    How does a club in a tourist-reliant town remain thriving throughout the year?

A.    To make us successful and stand us apart, we have an excellent dining offering that is highly regarded even in an area that has a lot of really exciting up and coming bespoke venues. This is led by an executive chef who just does a fantastic job. This is complemented by a coffee shop that allows for more budget-conscious choices, which makes us a great destination for all occasions. We have something for families, for our older demographic who reside in town, we've got a really competitive pricing model and we're really conscious of that especially being in a regional area where disposable income looks slightly different. 

Q.    How did you get involved with Meribula RSL and why did you decide to join the board?

A.    I am in the finance industry now, but my background prior to that was working for Coca Cola Amatil and in doing so I'd already worked closely with the Club as a business development manager. The second part of my relationship with the Club is my family. My father-in-law and husband are life members of the Merimbula Diggers AFL Club which has always been really closely connected to the RSL.

It's the Club that we have always frequented as a family, we would go there for the raffles, we would go there for our meals. It was often suggested to me to join the board but given I was working on other projects I was never able to. It wasn’t until there was a three-month casual vacancy that I was able to consider it seriously. I was invited to serve for three months to gain an understanding of what the role might look like in terms of how much time you commit, the expectations and what my skill set looks and how it complements existing members of the board. After the casual vacancy ended, I decided to stand for election by the members where I secured my first two-year term. 

Q.    Was it intimidating to you as a younger person joining the board?

A.    I do think there is an element of it that can be intimidating, especially being an early 30s female. Working for Coca Cola, I dealt with a lot of boards, and I was very aware I didn’t fit the traditional mould. In saying that, representation matters, and it wasn’t that I didn’t think I had anything to offer, it was more of a fear of not being understood or the misconception that my strategies or ideas might not align with the direction of the board. I could see the skill set that the existing board had and hoped the skills that I would look to bring on board would be different but would potentially complement the rest of the team.

Q.    What prerequisites did you need to join the board?

A.    At the time I joined, all I had to do was the Mandatory Director Training, due to the size of the Club. Thankfully the grace period allowed me to get started on the work itself while completing the course. These days you will also need to get a mandatory director ID. I thought there would be a lot more to it in terms of formalities. Obviously, you go through the necessary checks and fill in the necessary paperwork, but if you've got good support from the club that's fairly straightforward. On reflection, at the time the only real barrier was my own misconception around what I needed to get started.

Q.    How have you seen the Club and the board culture change since 2017?

A.    I think it has been great to see a lot of ideas that have been tabled since I've been involved — not necessarily my ideas — come to life. It's exciting when you start to see a bit of momentum behind them. We have started to get great feedback from the members around some of the things that we've implemented. I think the biggest success for me was the online presence, although this is still a real work in progress, it's still something that I bring up regularly with our existing board. We've never harnessed the power of social media or the power of digital marketing, and I think when you look at the industry we're in, particularly being in a tourist area, that's something that we're really under indexing. While we haven't made any revolutionary changes to what we do, at least now we're having regular conversations around how we can use these resources to change our marketing strategy and appeal to our members and guests.

Q.    What advice have you received regarding how to be successful in the club industry?

A.    Not necessarily a piece of advice, but I think one of the things that I really saw benefit me was my understanding of the industry in terms of how a board works and how that decision making process works. Being on the other side of the fence, working for a supplier, I had a lot of experience in pitching to a board and asking for their support or attempting to win their business or partnership. I think that was really beneficial because, for me, it was helpful to go in talking club language. I had an in-depth understanding around what the metrics are that drive a successful club and I think then coming to a board and looking at strategic leadership, it was important to understand the mechanics behind the successful clubs so that I could then speak to them confidently in those meetings.

Q.    How does a club in a tourist-reliant town remain thriving throughout the year?

A.    To make us successful and stand us apart, we have an excellent dining offering that is highly regarded even in an area that has a lot of really exciting up and coming bespoke venues. This is led by an executive chef who just does a fantastic job. This is complemented by a coffee shop that allows for more budget-conscious choices, which makes us a great destination for all occasions. We have something for families, for our older demographic who reside in town, we've got a really competitive pricing model and we're really conscious of that especially being in a regional area where disposable income looks slightly different. On top of all that, we have fantastic staff. The feedback we get about our staff and the people that we employ is excellent, they really make a difference. They make our members and guests really comfortable, and I think that means it's a place that tourists want to come back to because they've got great memories from their annual trips.

Our locals will come back time and time again because there's a feeling of always being welcome, and that’s what gets us through the periods when tourists aren’t in town. We also play a huge part in the local community, in terms of ClubGRANTS there is a great cross section of our community receiving funds from the club and some of the innovation and the ways that we look to engage with the community, especially with the sporting clubs and give the real community feel to our club.

Q.    What advice would you give to anyone considering joining a club board?

A.    The first piece of advice that I would give is: board positions are for everyone. A successful board is a diverse board where we've got great representation across the board members, and it replicates the community that we work in. It's really important not to be put off by what we traditionally recognise in board structures and look more at whether you have a skill set or an interest that would complement the business that you are looking to become involved in.

The second part is attend AGMs — get a feel for the club and reach out to existing board members to get a really good understanding of how the club operates. One of the things that I didn't realise until I started to get involved is even though there is an unlimited amount of work that you can do as a board member, it is also really easy to balance. I've got a two-year-old and a full-time job, however, I still manage to balance my club commitments around the rest of my life. It's not all consuming and it doesn't have to be. You can add just as much value with the amount of time that you do have available, it doesn't have to be dictated by hours and hours of your time every month.