Can I get Elected

So we go into another year with zero changes on the board of the Trust aka Club. I think we get one election every four years, it’s a bit like voting for the location of the Olympics.

So what are the reasons for this?

It could be seen as a loud endorsement of the work the current board are doing. In fairness we have heard no alarm bells about money for a few years. By all accounts the playing budget is higher than at any point in the new club’s short history. The Park (not heard anyone calling it The Loadlok yet) has never looked better. I came up here a few weeks back around noon for the early TV game and I was the only person in the ground – I got to appreciate how great the ground looks. And at the time of writing we are a point off the top of the league. So everything looks groovy on the surface. The board seem to be doing a good job and people seem happy to let them get on with running the good ship MTFC.

There’s also a whiff of apathy setting in – it’s not a stench, but certainly progressing to an odour. That staleness that comes from the same old same old continuity. Continuity is often to be welcomed but as your old mam used to say, “You can have too much of a good thing”.
Engagement with the supporters remains poor. We do get Board minutes sent out but these are only once they are approved at the next meeting and by then the jungle drums have informed about 90% of the owners already. Regular meetings are seldom held with supporters let alone the owners.

And I’ll beat the drum about the clubhouse until it is sorted. Webley’s is fucking horrible. Its uncomfortable, bland and soulless.

And no changes to the officers of the clubs. Nobody other than the existing board members seems enthused by the club’s direction to stand for election and that is a problem these days. Apathy breeds stagnation.

Where could the apathy be coming from? The answer to this may be to stand for election yourself and make the changes but with no engagement from the Board members with their fellow fans then there is a real sense of detachment towards the actual management of the club. This lack of engagement is not exactly welcoming fans to the club’s current business model but also what is this brand new horizon? Does anyone know? Does the Chairman now? Has he told the CEO?

The purpose of the club after all is to provide the best football team to represent the town. All of the subsidiary items are important but only exist in order to maintain the club’s ambitions to be the best for its core customer – the fan. Otherwise we’re just a posher version of Courthouse FC operating out of a social club.

Fan involvement and the sentiment that “we are all in this together” were the foundation of Martyrs to the Cause but with so many paid positions at the club I’ve just sat back and let those paid people get on with the marketing, ideas and growth of the club. 

Leave it to the professionals seems to be mantra from the Board but where does that leave the enthusiastic amateurs? Remember them? The ones who raised the £50k plus to resurrect the club. Again, if it is working, then maybe it is the right thing to do. But I feel even with the paid people at the club, there is a mass of untapped skills and enthusiasm for the club that is not being harnessed. Where is the ambition?