Chesham United Football Club

My first full CUFC board meeting was on 25th February. We held a further meeting on 20th March. My apologies for not reporting on this earlier.

You may recall that the previous meeting was at short notice. This was because I wanted to waste no time in laying the foundations of some of the structural changes that I want to make to the Club’s Management.

This is a summary of what happened at the meeting, with up-dates of things that have happened since:

• Brian McCarthy’s decision to resign as a director was discussed. I have already expressed my thanks to him for his service and commitment and would take this opportunity to do so again.
• At the previous meeting, we had agreed to invite the Supporters Trust, the largest holder of voting shares, to nominate a director. James Allen was duly nominated by the Trust and so we appointed him a director of the board.
• We had created four sub-committees at the previous meeting and written reports from each of these were considered. I won’t overload you with text but in essence:
  • Football

David Stanley leads this. He has spoken to the management of all our teams and they are keen to get together regularly but he had been unable to arrange anything to date as only evenings are available and, as the season draws to a close, there are many fixtures to fulfil. Concerns relate to the state of the pitch, use of the pitch, close season work on the pitch, the state of the dressing rooms and uniformity of kit.
David also reported on the progress of the various teams, including the first team, the reserves, the Youth and the Ladies.

• Finance

I lead this sub-committee. I reported that:

• The investment money from Mike Dickson and I had now been paid to the club.
• Everybody had signed the paperwork necessary for the restructuring so David Stanley, as company secretary, will now issue new share certificates to the non-voting shareholders (in substitution of their previous certificates) and to the three new shareholders (Mike Dickson, the Supporters Trust and I). The company’s annual return will now be sent to Companies House.
• We need to start seeing monthly management accounts and cash flow forecasts. I have introduced an outside accountant, who will work with David Stanley to produce this information. I anticipate having some models to work with around the end of April and these will be published on the web site. In the meantime, I do not believe that we know precisely where we are going financially although the effect of this will be limited as the season draws to a close. This accounting will cost the club about £500 per month but I, for one, will not serve as a director of any company where accounting systems don’t allow me fully to understand the finances and to be assured that they are subject to independent review.
• My meeting with Lisa Welling, who is keen to help us with our Business Development Plan. Taking this further will be difficult until we have an up-date on the finances.
• Other issues such as the reintroduction of regular stock-takes of the bar and the insurances.

I have now written to those that expressed an interest in buying shares, offering them non-voting “A” shares (non-voting as, at this stage, I don’t want Mike Dickson and I to be diluted, thus creating the potential for indecision). The company remains in a difficult financial position so I’d encourage any of you who can afford to and who wish to support the club in this way to contact myself or Martin Gould.

• Marketing, Sponsorship and Public Relations

This is led by Alan Calder and Martin Gould. They reported that:

• A folder and inserts had been drafted for use in all marketing / PR (now called “the pack”). Photographs were still needed. It was hoped that the folder would be available by the end of March although I think that’s a bit optimistic.
• Luther Blissett had introduced a contact, Maggi Howlett, who had met with Alan and Dave Jeffrey (a co-optee on to the committee) and does a lot of work with Luther. Priorities were identified as getting Luther into schools promoting the club/healthy living/sport. A letter has gone out to schools offering Luther as a visit – this will lead to free kids tickets being sent out. A master letter will be given to schools to copy and give to children offering 2 free kids entry with a paying adult, the copy of the letter will be used to gain entry on matchday - this cuts out our costs of printing tickets etc.
• Obtaining sponsors. Maggi made some observations on the enclosures and provided some insight into selling boards. Maggi will only sell to sponsors we will not otherwise get, taking commission on sponsors we would not otherwise get. Martin & Alan will meet with Maggi again to “plan our attack” once the pack is available.
• Chairman’s Dinner. Maggi & I are looking into costings of hosting an evening for some potentially major sponsors, ideal date being mid to late May.
• Other discussions involved golf days, sportsman’s dinners, charity matches and “exploiting” local celebrities.
• They had drafted recommended sponsorship prices on a spreadsheet that can be adjusted to project income. Feedback from this had recommended a few changes.
• Free child vouchers were provided for distribution at the opening of a new play area in Chesham in conjunction with Paradigm Housing.
• Matchday posters were now made available via www.cheshamunited.co.uk, plus Paul Campion distributes them to shops around town.
• Alan had had contact with a local Community Co-Coordinator about the Chiltern Show Heritage Weekend (July). He arranged for members of the Supporters Trust to meet her. They had also made initial enquiries with regards to the carnival. The Trust are interested in helping and are awaiting further details.
• Following discussions about a) the kit material and b) getting all teams playing in the same kit, Alan has allocated James Allen the job of getting feedback/input from all sectors of the club with a view to a single 2006/07 United kit.
• Both Alan and Martin had participated in the sponsored walk to Aylesbury, raising over £1,000 between the two of them. These funds will go to the Trust, not the club.

It was noted that Luther must sign off all press marketing that involves use of his name.

• Matchday, pitch and ground maintenance / development

Alan Calder reported on this:

• Pitch – Len Vockins is now doing the pitch maintenance at the same price as the previous company but will be giving it more time (after all, he’s a supporter) and he will be looking after the outside the ground, in particular grass, car park and banks outside the Boardroom and will include materials. The difference is already obvious. David Stanley has the final say on the pitch’s “playability”.
• Ground Grading – previous information on this had now been passed to Rob Goldhawk, who is investigating.
• Clubhouse – alarms and entertainment licence renewals were discussed.

There was also a discussion on maximising the income from food sales and whether or not things like burgers should be organised in-house rather than by licence – this would involve volunteers.

• Luther Blissett had prepared a report for the directors (which was as at 16th March and has, to some extent, been overtaken by subsequent events). In summary:
  • A report on the additions and departures to the team. Luther commented that performances had improved and that his initial focus had been defence. His changes to the team had been methodical, initially making no changes to the defence but after conceding 8 goals in the Yate and Chippenham games he felt that a change was due. Luther had told all the players that they would be given the chance to prove their worth and that they could take on board what was said and done at training.
  • Luther said that the new players brought extra quality and technique and that these new players, alongside our improving captain, Nathan Bowden-Haase, have been a huge factor in stabilising a disastrous run of results.
  • Luther’s next focus was to be up front, finding a class striker/s being a high priority.
  • Luther sees the youth teams as being an important source of players and he has begun to promote them to the reserves. Home grown players make economic sense as they are recruited for free and can move to bigger clubs for a fee.
  • Better players cost more. Luther and I will be discussing this in more detail.
  • Luther’s long term vision is promotion to conference level. But Luther says that this season is all about survival. He commented on his approach to training.

We can only do what the club’s finances will allow us to do and, whichever league we find ourselves in for 2006/7, we will build from there, within our means. We need help increasing those means! Luther has been set a weekly budget for the players, management and coaching staff and, to date, has worked well within this.

• The next meeting is on Monday 8th May.

 

Now that the restructuring is complete and as promised I would like to set out below the new structure:

The board of directors going forward consists of:

Charles Manchester (Chairman)
Mike Dickson
Rob Goldhawk
Phil Morgan
Alan Calder
Martin Gould
Mike Dragisic
James Allen

David Stanley is the company secretary and attends board meetings.

The shareholding structure consists of “A” and “B” shares. “A” shares carry no voting rights but otherwise they are no different to “B” shares in that they entitle the holder to attend shareholder meetings and to participate in dividends (an unlikely eventuality!). What this means is that the “B” shareholders control the company.

The “B” share structure is:

Name	No Shares	% of Shares in Class
Supporters Trust	40,002	40.002%
Charles Manchester	29,999	29.999%
Mike Dickson	29,999	29.999%
Total	100,000	100.000%

You will see that any two of the “B” shareholders can control the company. Mike Dickson and I have worked together for many years and know each other very well. It is therefore unlikely (but not impossible) that we would not vote together. That said, my style of doing things is intended to be such that there are unlikely to be significant disagreements – that would be a failure.

The “A” share structure is:

Name	No Shares	% of Shares in Class
P Morgan	55,701	49.900%
T.O Driscoll	27,625	24.748%
D Pembroke	18,108	16.222%
L Vockins	4,095	3.669%
C Scott	1,985	1.778%
C Morris	1,227	1.099%
S Wildman	1,227	1.099%
J Chambers	883	0.791%
R Jefferies	589	0.528%
R Campion	184	0.166%
Total	111,626	100.000%

I hope you find this interesting. More will follow after our next board meeting, when some real financial data and forecasts should be available. Feel free to contact me if you want to raise anything or if you know a potential sponsor. You can catch me at home games (although other commitments won’t allow me to attend the two remaining fixtures), write to the club or e-mail me at charles@cheshamunited.co.uk

Charles Manchester (Chairman)