Yes, I was aware of that.
Unlike yourself I don’t find it democratic at all and I doubt most would.
Unless of course you are a debenture holder.
Also seems odd there are only 200 people out of 27,000 who have been members for 3 years and couldn’t be bothered to apply for general membership.
Is it even offered to them … or widely known by those members?
I think you miss the point of a "leagues club".
These are essentially private business operations. They are "private clubs" which started to support a cause (cricket, football, ex service personnel). They only differ to Coca Cola or McDonalds is that the club cannot a profit and are not taxed by the govt like a corporation, as the "cause" benefits the community.
These clubs invite people to become members. The advertise how the business is run, and how members can become board members. They don't go into the street put a gun to those people's heads and demand they join.
It's a clubs responsibility to publish the club rules.
It's a members responsibility to read those rules.
A member joins that club with rules in place. And the member makes a decision to join or not.
How much more democratic do you need?
As I've said before, most members want a cheap feed, a cheap beer, a loyalty program to reward them for their loyalty, and place to play bingo/play the pokies/enter the raffle.