Along with 40 plus others I attended the 1860 Club members meeting at Sandygate last night. All the players and coaching staff are members, Craig Denton plus 3 coaches and 3 players (Hugo, Leon and Brandon) attended. I have a slight dilemma in that I encouraged the club to make a statement about the meeting and what was covered in it, but I am not sure how long that may take. So, this is my take on the meeting and its content, but there will be some things, the detail of which, it would be better announced by the club – I would not want to steal their thunder! Also, the meeting was a bit tense at times and I don’t want to inflame things. I hope you understand. So, for what it is worth, here is my take on it.
Craig Denton
Craig spoke about how proud he was of the achievements on the field this season, particularly given the scale of opponents (eg Matlock, Blyth Spartans, Dunston) we had faced in the first season at Step 4. Whilst 12th was a great achievement, he felt that we had been unlucky in some games and possibly could have achieved more. Nonetheless, he was proud of the contribution made by everyone and the togetherness of the group. Finally, he re-iterated how important the contribution of volunteers and fans had been to the club and team. It was no surprise that he was warmly received by those in attendance.
Richard Pillinger, Kevin Scott and Andy Cartledge made contributions from the club committee and answered questions. It was reported that the recent charity match at Sandygate had currently raised £7k (and rising) for Weston Park Cancer Charity – an indication of the community role of the club.
Ground Grading
Work has started on the dressing room extension with foundations installed and brickwork to start next week. Other works had been done and had information been sent to NPL/FA. There was some discussion regarding the cricket side fencing – the club is confident that it will be ok, others attendees were less so. Some concern was expressed about timescales for the work being started etc, it was accepted that the committee could have done better in this respect. The club reported that it is very difficult to contact NPL to get answers on progress.
Financial Position
A debt to HMRC incurred under a previous Treasurer was being paid down. It was confirmed that Directors Loans to the tune of £24k had been needed to help the club. It was emphasised that work is underway to bring in additional financial support to help review club finances and provide a more stable and sustainable base for the future. Progress is being made on bringing in significant income from two sponsors, and three significant pre-season friendly games are planned at Sandygate. The club saw these changes as the route to stabilise finances. The club are still actively seeking potential sponsors, if anyone knows a potential sponsor, please encourage them to contact the club.
The club had identified the need for a full-time employee to lift the burden on committee volunteers as the demands from operating at Step 4 had grown.
The Playing Side
The club said they were talking to a manager and the actions regarding finances would help with producing a competitive budget. Hugo and Leon spoke impressively about their commitment to the club but reflected on uncertainty amongst the group regarding the future and the need for assurances and confidence for the future.
Club Structure
There is an acceptance that the club’s legal structure and constitution of an unincorporated association must change. This was a full acceptance by the club committee as a whole. Andy Cartledge has been leading this work and has been working with the Football Supporters’ Association (FSA) regarding the options available, including the option of a Community Benefit Society (CBS). There are other options with pros and cons to each option. The plan is that the options will be presented to an open meeting of fans and community to obtain a commitment in-principle, this will enable the detailed work to take place over a number of months. This would need some decisions at the club AGM (due in June and by 28th July at the latest) to plan for interim arrangements before moving to the establishment of a new structure and elections etc.
This would also have the benefit of strengthening the club’s community status and activity with the ambition of more community use of facilities, and the possible establishment of a women’s team and junior teams.
Other contributions
There were a range of contributions from the floor and questions also. I won’t go through these in detail, but there were opportunities for questions and contributions, some of which were supportive of the committee, others were constructively challenging.
A Personal View
On the basis of what I heard last night there are still some uncertainties about 26/27 regarding ground grading, finances and a competitive budget – if we remain at Step 4. The club seemed confident, but we will see how this pans out over the next few weeks. I hope that it all goes well. If some things do not go as hoped we will have to address the issues when known.
There was an acceptance that some things could have been better handled – ground grading, the Gino Maccio proposal, the HMRC issue and communications with fans. This was positive and is hopefully a basis for moving forward together.
The real positive of the evening was the commitment to move to a new democratic, fan led and community led approach to club structure, constitution and running of the club. This is something that I and others have called for and is needed for the club to be well set to meet the challenges of being a Step 4, or possibly a Step 3 club.
A CBS (if it’s that the model) operates as a business but with two key differences. 1 It has a democratic structure with one member, one vote elections to a board that run the society. 2 It has an asset lock so that society assets are retained for the society and cannot be transferred to others. FC United of Manchester is legally a CBS that is controlled by supporters. FC United finished 3rd in the Premier Division of the NPL – Step 3. So, the model can work effectively at this level of football.
Overall, whilst the meeting was tense at times and some issues are still not clear for 26/27 the meeting was helpful in setting out a commitment to longer term changes that will hopefully put the club on a sounder footing for the future.
I hope the above helps.
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