Would have assumed that an apology of some sort would have been made , especially with all the misleading comms from Hawthorn .

Independent Investigation into Basketball Hawthorn and Camberwell and District Basketball Association concluded

Tuesday 14 December 2021

The independent investigation into the movement of clubs from Basketball Hawthorn to the Camberwell and District Basketball Association has concluded, with the recommendation that no further action be taken.

A report tabled to the Basketball Victoria Board regarding the movement of 12 junior domestic clubs from Basketball Hawthorn to the Camberwell and District Basketball Association determined that a contravention in most areas could not be substantiated and a recommendation to the Board that no further action be taken has been accepted.

The investigation's Terms of Reference included whether any part of the Basketball Victoria Constitution and Basketball Victoria Tribunal By-laws had been contravened.

Basketball Victoria’s General Manager - Member and Community Services David Huxtable said that affiliated associations have two main responsibilities - to their own members as determined by their Constitution and as an affiliated Member of Basketball Victoria - where they have a responsibility to uphold the BV Constitution and the various rules and by-laws.

"It was important to determine in this matter whether any party had acted inappropriately and in contravention of their own rules and codes of conduct as well as ours." Huxtable said. “Basketball Victoria understands the movement of 12 Junior Clubs - an entire domestic competition - from one association to another, no matter what the financial circumstances are, will have a significant impact.

“We will continue to work with both organisations to maintain the future of basketball in the region.”

Basketball Victoria’s Board has accepted the findings from the independent investigation and will work with all involved parties to ensure the continued viability of all programs and competitions going forward.

It is why this outcome is not surprising at all.

Actually the investigation was into Why Clubs left Hawthorn and went to Camberwell.

What was going on at Hawthorn that drove Clubs to such a drastic decision.

If anything Camberwell has provided a community minded alternative to keep kids on court, at a fair a costs, without screwing members in refunds not provided and paying for other programs not related to domestic.

The original request from Hawthorn, which probably became the BV Terms of Reference, was to investigate claims of poaching by Camberwell.
However, BV should have launched its own investigation, separate if need be, into Hawthorn's financial mismanagement. (Or maybe they have but I haven't heard anything.)

I think I agree with #326, nobody in BV would shit on anyone in Hawthorn - and in BV by association for having been asleep at the wheel. Too much of a political hot potato.

To members of other associations, I'd suggest paying a lot more attention to your association's financials, because I'm not confident that BV is.

Surely if an Association is operating in a community space , taking money for a service. Then financials should be transparent and monitored.

Both BV and BH have failed in this space. Maybe government funding and grants need to be tied to more stringent governance and compliance.

Finding from the report should have been made public, or maybe it's just too damaging for BH and embarrassing for BV

So what are the ramifications for Hawthorn moving forward?

Camberwell will run the junior domestic comp.

There are 30 rep teams left at Hawthorn and Senior domestic, does the board go, are staff affected ???

Are BV stepping in ?

Strange there has been no emails from Hawthorn about the investigation statement made by BV, it usually come out within minutes.

Got nothing to say ?

BH have handed over the reigns to BV. Current directors have voluntarily resigned. Just announced.

BASKETBALL HAWTHORN BOARD ANNOUNCEMENT
15 Dec 2021

The Board of Basketball Hawthorn has invited Basketball Victoria to
support our Association into 2022 and beyond.

The recent decision by all 12 junior domestic clubs to walk away from the junior competition at Basketball Hawthorn has undermined the economic strength and stability of the Association. In particular, it has impacted the Association's ability to deliver to the Financial Resilience Plan. This plan was developed and agreed to unanimously by these same Clubs in July 2020 and enabled the Association to pay down the historic debts inherited by the current Board.

The Board today has invited Basketball Victoria to support our Association into 2022 and beyond by taking responsibility for our Association. BV have accepted our invitation, enabling the current directors to voluntarily resign, effective immediately. The Board wants to ensure the continued success and viability of both the Senior Domestic competition at Hawthorn, and the Junior Magic program, and believes that, with the financial backing and oversight of Basketball Victoria, these programs and competitions will be best placed to be
maintained.

The BH Board remains deeply disappointed by the events that have led to the collapse of the junior domestic program at Hawthorn which was such a valuable community basketball asset.
The last two pandemic years have been difficult for all, but most especially for our basketball community. We would like to thank all directors and staff for their tireless contribution over this period, all acting in good faith, with integrity and with a clear determination to govern in the best interests of basketball in this region.

BV has confirmed it will work closely with the BH administration team to ensure the Junior Magic program and the Senior Domestic competition will continue unaffected in 2022.

Board were forced to stand down by BV, administrator has been appointed .

More fiction and spiteful spin from Hawthorn today , why let the truth get in the way of a good fictional story.

Prior emails from Hawthorn have stated , they were financially viable without the Clubs and now they are decimated , just more blame and no responsibility.

Take some ownership of the issue Hawthorn and you might get some creditability back ..

After todays Facebook announcement from BH, any trust and respect that was left, has gone !

The Hawthorn Board must be congratulating themselves on their neat political and legal solution - "it was BV's fault that they let us get away with the financial mismanagement, so it’s their responsibility to fix it".

Instead of a long legal and financial wrangle to prove guilt and assign blame, this lets all the guilty parties in both organisations walk away scot-free.

It’s “only a sports club”, so there will be no ASIC or ATO attention, or banning from directorships for x years or damaging records kept, as would happen for normal business shady dealings which resulted in administrators being called in.

As BH are registered as an incorporated not for profit association , they are required to adhere to ACCC, CAV and ATO legislation , like a normal business , especially as they are registered for tax and accept government grants.

Under BV Constitution, all basketball associations are required to lodge full audited financials to BV within 30 days of the associations AGM.

BH had not done this for 4 years, nor had BV followed up.

So BH do have tax obligations especially seeing half of the domestic costs for games was being paid for administrative / employee costs.

@ #402 - Hoopie is not wrong in their comments - BH is blame shifting again

The Clubs were not running BH and neither were BV , it was the Board and the prior GM - where is the accountability in this is the real question !

Gee Hawthorn are throwing their toys out of the coat again, bit like someone caught cheating in a relationship and wonders why the other party has filed for divorce, or simply dumped them.

Own up and move on

Would be interesting to get Matt Bubb and Hannah Lowe's take on this.

They bang on about being "all about the community" yet at the same time help increase unemployment in the same community.

@#434, I hope you are referring to Hawthorn being responsible for the unemployment , as it is the Board who has screwed the financials and mismanaged the association , no one else , except the prior GM , who left with a glowing reference from the Chair of the Board and the current CEO of BV

@#434, I hope you are referring to Hawthorn being responsible for the unemployment , as it is the Board who has screwed the financials and mismanaged the association , no one else , except the prior GM , who left with a glowing reference from the Chair of the Board and the current CEO of BA

Ammon, if it is all the old GMs fault, who left in December 2020, why wouldn't the clubs give the new GM (who started in June 2021) 12 month to try and fix the mess?

Only so much he could do in three months, most of it in COVID Lockdown.

Time to move on. Change made. Lessons learned. Kids are playing bball.

So many false statements in BH announcement today
- Clubs we're told if they didn’t like how the Board were managing things , they could leave , so they did , after 18 plus months of trying to work with BH for a fair approach for domestic members
- the Board didn’t inherit the debt , it was caused by the mismanagement and growing the association and rep program too quickly , and running programs like Big V which couldn’t even fund 20% of its actual costs
-BV we’re not invited by BH to work with them , BV have taken control of the Association , due to the mess the Board has created
- Board have been forced to stand down
- Nice that BH refers to junior domestic as an assets , further proof domestic was seen as a cash cow for the association
-the pandemic did not creat this issues at BH, only brought them to light
-BV have bailed BH out, but this has come with terms and conditions , thus the Board has to go

The Clubs should be thanked for keeping basketball viable in our community and for not getting involved in the muck that Hawthorn have been throwing .

Integrity , respect, trust and responsible behaviour in this space for the Clubs and Camberwell speak volumes .. well done and thank you !

The new GM was employed by the Board as a buffered between the Board and the Clubs , unfortunately the Board gave the new GM no power to run the competition or days to day aspects of the association , everything was micro managed.

When COVID first hit , it was the new GM who was first made redundant by the Board , who was employed in a different role.

Frustration between BH staff and Biard have been an issue Dow a long time , thus the exodus of staff and coaches

Hawthorn made more money this year than ever before. They proudly shared that information with the clubs. The also played less basketball and made no drastic changes to its office. COVID cancelled games and the league still charged a percentage for those and then blamed the clubs for withholding funds!
That all happened with the new GM unable to budge the board on any of it. JK was given the title of GM and then no decision making capacity. I doubt anybody in the club level of what was Hawthorn blame him for all this. But the wider community shouldn't be disrespected like that either.

Magic has never just fed local from Hawthorn domestic comp , very few local kids actually get positions in Magic , most come from further afield and if your a BH staff member yuh can bring all your relos and if your a board member you can push your kids into a higher level div than they are actually qualified for .. no shame at all

Just more normal egotistical behaviour from the board at BH , blame everyone else for the situation that has occurred and take no responsibility.

The Chair of the Board works in PR, no wonder the spin is beyond belief ... first rule of tabloid journalism
, truth gets in the way of a good story, especially when it is full of holes ..

BH brand has been ruined and it only has the Board to blame .

Hope the BV administrator can turn it around for the staff sake , as the Board surely were too arrogant to care. What do they say , no care , no responsibility !!

Members are still waiting on refunds for canceled BH programs , it's only been 4-5 months ..

Through this whole process the Clubs and Camberwell have been respectful and complied with BV while they ran their investigation .

The Clubs, nor Camberwell have not been sending out emails that are full of misinformation and spite. Nor have names been mentioned .

It is Hawthorn who has mentioned names and blamed everyone else , and threw shade. Just an indication of the quality of people at the helm of BH.

Time to move and let BV's administrators do their thing ..

Now that this is settled. Quidditch anyone?

What no tar and feathering ?

The writing was on the wall for this association when they discontinued ally oop scoop.

Aaaahhh, the good old days, when it really felt like community club under Gary Mac.

Camberwell is a new beginning for junior domestic, run for the community and not too heavy with staff , which will keep fees down

I'm fairly sure it wasn’t so long ago maybe, six months, that Hawthorne was bragging that had four Olympian standard coaches in the Junior championship program. I want to how much they were getting paid?

Issue is that it seems they were not exactly being paid for by the kids they were coaching (I would have no issue if the families of those kids were paying an extra $1,000 each to have that coach), and that was not transparent to those actually paying the bills of the association. That's interesting.

Domestic junior was the cash cow for Hawthorn and was paying well above the odds for programs that had nothing to do with the development of domestic players , all Rep based and Big V

Congratulations to Jason Kelly who has been appointed as General Manager of Whittlesea Basketball.

Hopefully he receives more support from the junior clubs than he did at Hawthorn.

https://wcba.org.au/the-w-c-b-a-welcomes-new-general-manager-jason-kelly/