Management Report
A Board Meeting was held on Saturday 25th February. At the Meeting, it was agreed that the running of the Club should be as open for Supporters as reasonably possible so the Directors agreed that I should publish summaries of Board Meetings and (when we have them) Management Accounts on the Club's Web Site.
This Board Meeting was held at fairly short notice. I wanted to lay the foundations of some of the structural changes that I want to make to the Club's Management:
1. We agreed that, as the Supporters Trust would be a major Shareholder, they should be invited to nominate a Director. This will give the Trust a real say in what happens and an intimate understanding of why things happen as they do.
2. My desire is that Chesham United should be a Community Club, embracing Youth and Ladies Sections (to the extent that they and we believe that this will be good for us all). I will be talking to key people over the next weeks.
3. We created four sub-committees of the Board:
Football
Matchday arrangements, Pitch and Ground Maintenance / Development
Marketing, Sponsorship and Public Relations
Finance
At least one Director or the Secretary will lead each committee, setting terms of reference and co-opting other members as necessary. The Board will expect regular Reports on progress. At present, too much work falls on too few shoulders and that needs to change so that people can remain enthusiastic and so that more can be achieved.
4. A number of people have expressed interest in buying Shares. I will write to them in the next few days inviting them to subscribe for shares. I am abroad until the 4th March so this will happen after that. I will also write to others that might be interested. The injection of cash from Mike Dickson and I is only enough for a short period so additional Equity Funding remains very desirable (as well as new income streams). Contrary to some suggestions on the forums, we are not throwing around the new cash carelessly - for example, Luther Blissett is working for us for Expenses only - although I've promised him a bonus if he keeps us up.
5. We agreed that the club needs a Business Development Plan. We need to know where we want to go and we need to plan how to get there. Easily said. This will take time and work will start once I've spoken with more people.
6. The new committees will take time to become effective. Meanwhile, we need to generate more income through sponsorship etc. Alan Calder and Martin Gould are working on a short term Marketing Plan for this Season.
7. I am anxious that the club's money is carefully controlled. We agreed to amend the Bank Mandates such that all cheques must carry two signatures (as is the case at present) but one of these must be myself or Mike Dickson.
8. We agreed to create several new Life Vice Presidents. More on this shortly.
We also discussed a few less interesting but important administrative issues including Insurance, Key Holders, FA Fit & Proper Forms for new Directors.
I still need to receive documents signed by Tony O'Driscoll, formerly one of the club's largest Shareholders. Once I have these (expected any day), I'll publish a statement on the restructuring.
Charles Manchester (Chairman)
