Firstly, we at last we made it through a round of the FA Cup, now facing a difficult away tie at Chertsey a week on Saturday. Thank you for all 251 that came on Tuesday night to cheer our lads on. The FA Cup is the world’s oldest competition, and it is always fantastic to be part of this. The monetary gains from this competition might not mean much to Premier League clubs, but to those of us at this level and below it becomes very significant.
This week we had an excellent management team meeting, and I am delighted with the way this is evolving. As we all get to know each other better we are bonding as a unit, everyone feels free to speak open and honestly and there is a joint determination to work together and succeed. There are several exciting initiatives to come from that meeting which will develop over the coming weeks and massively enhance our engagement with local businesses, supporters, and the community at large.
At the meeting we also discussed at length the organisation structure of the club and a need to allocate club representatives with ultimate responsibility for different sections of the club (Commercial, Finance, Matchday, Sales & Marketing, Clubhouse & Facilities), ideally with a team of people working with them to help delegate some of the responsibility and have a clear reporting structure to myself and the Board. A big thank you to the management team for their enthusiasm in supporting this and I am hoping that we will be able to present this and our other initiatives at an open meeting with supporters in the coming weeks.
I would like to say a big thank you to those volunteers that stepped forward following our last-minute plea for help ahead of the cup replay on Tuesday. You that did make the evening run very smoothly! We have your names and will hope to see you again in the future. There are just so many holidays at present and we get left short with people now belatedly able to take advantage of having a holiday in the UK or abroad.
Elsewhere, we have a kit man at last and may I introduce you all to Peter Howes. It is his first time in this type of role but having been a very keen local sportsman and having the time on his hands, he is now integrating well into being a very important member of the football management team. He lives locally and it one job less for me! Although due to illness, I had to do the tannoy on Tuesday evening, for the last time, I hope!
We also welcomed Michele Brookes as our advertising/sponsorship commercial manager. Michele has joined the management team and was a valuable addition to this week’s meeting, she is working tirelessly in bringing valuable extra revenue into the club to help up maintain our self-sustainability and grow relationships with local businesses, existing sponsors and new. A big thank you to all our sponsors that have responded and been so supportive, look out for details in the coming weeks about how we intend to thank you as our guests with some matchday hospitality in the boardroom.
We are also looking at appointing someone for an important new role within the club. – A Supporters Liaison Officer.
In Summary: An important role within the club, working closely with fans, the Supporters’ Trust and the Board, providing a first point of contact to all supporters.
The candidate will be visible and accessible to fans, providing a conduit back into the club about fan ideas and feedback to keep an open dialogue and providing the fans with an additional independent voice and complement the work being undertaken by the Trust.
The successful candidate should be a first-class communicator, with a proven track record of engaging and promoting people and groups. At the heart of this role will be to bring ideas and harness those of fans to enhance match-day experience and fan engagement.
Chesham United is a friendly community club run by incredibly dedicated volunteers and the candidate will be someone who doesn’t mind rolling up their sleeves and pitching in as required, both on match-day and in-between as required.
Ultimately, you will help fans feel Chesham United Football Club is something to be proud of, in the community and beyond and to be part of taking the club forward and help achieve its aim of becoming a Conference South side.
For a job description and key responsibilities for this voluntary role, please apply to chairman@cheshamunited.co.uk.
We have signed some new players over the last 10 days and Adam Martin has decided to move on. We thank Adam for his time and effort over the 157 games he played for us and wish him well for the future. Injuries have blighted our start to the season with Steve Brown now being added to that list on Tuesday evening, but some players are close to a return and have trained at least once on their return to first team action.
The managers are looking at new blood all the time and we will let you know as soon as possible with regards to new additions to the squad. Wedding and holidays are now over, so we hope to see a more settled team over the coming matches. I am very disappointed that this Tuesday’s local derby with Beaconsfield has been postponed is to them, like us having an FA Cup replay this week and their scheduled League Cup preliminary round match that was postponed taking priority over our scheduled league game.
Many of you will be aware that the new scoreboard has had some glitches, like a lot of new electronic items seem to, we have tried switching it off and then on again, but this is now being sorted by the supplier so that at our next home game it should be working correctly. There will also be an advertising board in place for the people and companies who donated to the club so that you supporters can enjoy an enhanced experience here.
We are looking for a matchday scoreboard operator to help get it fully set up, and then improving its use during the matchday so that it is not just being a scoreboard, but an information board for you all to see and enjoy.
Thank you to the large number of supporters who have complimented us in getting this into our ground and to the financial assistance of those that donated. There are some who do not wish to be named and some that will be shared on the new to be installed board below the scoreboard.
One final, small thing, on home matchdays now, if we lose a ball outside the ground and behind the goals, we will pay anyone £2 for finding and returning this to us after my incident two weeks ago. Match Balls are new for every home game and cost us £38 each time to purchase. After the first game they are then used as training balls by our senior team.
Thank you as always for your support
