I started by revealing that during the past week, two significant businessmen had approached individually and separately saying that they admired the youth development programme so much that they wished to ensure we had sufficent finance to develop it. The potential for significant funds is there, we are currently talking and it looks really good. The youth programme now includes association with Kevin Keegan, Soccer Circus, Hibenian football Club and soon Newcastle United Football Club. We are exploring links with other youth clubs and these now include Lois United, and Ech and Kemney clubs. We are well on our way to make Huntly FC THE centre for footballing excellence for young people in the area, which is our goal. We talked at length about this, and about how to turn the potential into reality.
We then turned our attendion to points made in the Anderson Assessment document. Whilst we are delighted with the many items which brought warm praise from Anderson, we felt the right thing to do was to examine his points of warning and see if these would be corrected.
We examined the role of the committee, and who was on it, suggestions were made to me, and I agreed to put these together into a form to be considered by a small work party consisting of the Chairman, the Chief Executive and David Morrison. Names for addition to the committee were put forward.
We examined two major gaps at the top of our management structure, pointed out by Anderson. The first is finance. Since David Morrison resigned from the post, Robbie McKay, our chairman, has taken over the role of finance director. However, without any back up staff, this has taken up vast amounts of his time, and the Anderson report has recommended that we find a new financial director, and give him or her two back up staff, who could on a part time basis look after the wages and the general payment of bills etc. We agreed to go along this route and are starting to look for volunteers.
The second gap is sponsorship and fund raising. With only up to 10% of the funds needed to keep the club going coming from gate money, we have to have a really active sponsorship and fund raising programme to keep us in the black, a situation we currently enjoy. At present our Corporate Sponsorships are bigger than ever, we have a good shirt sponsor, but the time needed to keep these sponsorships going means we are not doing a good enough job in other areas, such as the advertising board programme. The situation was illustrated dramatically last Saturday when, with a record number of corporate sponsors, the very few people available to look after them were fully stretched. Also, our fund raising programme which currently consists of the Sportsmans Dinner, The Golf and the Boxing, needs better organisation. It was agreed we should find a Sponsorship and Fund Raising Director as soon as possible and until then, Robin Dunseath should take on this role.
We looked at areas where some of our acceptance of rules have become blurred. In particular, we agreed to tighten up our supervision of the established procedure for use of the team bus and attendance at away Board Room Hospitality. The rule was affirmed that the only people on the club bus should be team members, Directors, and Committee Members and, if there is room, some guests invited by the Board in advance and accompanied by that Board member. It was also affirmed that the only people who could enjoy hospitality in away Board Rooms and Directors boxes were those who had been issued with Highland League cards by the club and it was our job to make sure that this was policed properly. We agreed to produce a new tie and that this would only be available to Directors and Committe members and some special invitees agreed by the Board, and no one else. This would mean that the club tie would be a ready indicator that the wearer was a genuine club official.
We discussed our facilities, it was clear that the club rooms urgently needed a new roof, plans have been drawn up, this will clearly eat into our finances, but it is essential. We are waiting for the estimate to see just how much we will need to raise and how this is to be done.
REgarding fund raising, Steve Allan had suggested a concert featuring the Red Hot Chillie Pipers. Whilst there was significant enthusiasm for the idea, an investigation by Steve had shown that the costs would be sufficiently high to make the promotion too risky-we would need to attract an audience of at least 2000 and investigations showed that this was unlikely. So we abandoned the idea of using the Red Hot Chillie Pipers, but keep in mind the general idea, as we did need at least one more annual fund raiser. We have agreed to the idea of a May Day Brunch in the Social Club, more details later.
Finally we talked about how to help the Supporters Club to grow and it was agreed that Robin take this one in hand.
your idea of a tie is fine if the people who get issued one actually stick to the rules and dont give them away as has been done many times before, so will you penalise someone if they do???
as for the bus well the trip to nairn sums it up fully doesnt it? once upon a time noone cept players were on the bus cause it was felt like it distracted the players if there was others on the bus, and i fully understand this, and in connection to making the supporters club bigger or whatever its simple get these people who go to games on the player bus to go on the supporters one!!! is it not that simple am i missing something??????????????????????
your people working hard to accomodate the sponsors on sat.... well i saw a very worne out mr t but everyone else that i saw looked fine!
events in the social club> there has not been a race night nor a casino night for a long time both of these if run well can take in great money i am sure.
so i am glad these issues have been rose and look forward to actually seing what actually is done about them!!!!!!
I can ensure you that the people that get the new club ties will be very heavily fined if they lose or give away the new club tie.
For your comments with regards to the bus i have to agree with you 100% This will be something that we will be stricked on Players Officials and selected guests will be the only people allowed on the bus.
Everyone involved with the sponsors on saturday did a great job and i have had allot of really good feed back from the company's that were there and everyone enjoyed it very much.
We have a fund raiser coming up in the Social Club soon and will announce this within the next week once everything has been sorted. This is a good and cheap fundraiser so please get behind us and help us on this one.
Excellent news regarding the youth development programme.
This would appear to be shaping up to be a success story which the Club can be proud of.
Slightly more alarming is the "two major gaps at the top of our management structure". Do you intend to recruit a Financial Director from within the current set-up or are you looking for additional person(s). Surely within the current Board or Committee numbers we can get someone to pay the bills?
By all accounts last Saturday was a financial success despite the result on the park and full marks to whoever for bringing such numbers to the club.
However as "richard" says, Mr T looked like the only busy or worn out person and I suspect an uneven distribution of the work load. I appreciate that hosts are required to ensure that our guests enjoy the "Huntly FC experience", but do we really need more club ties, or "hangers on" as they are referred to in another thread?
Good to see that the situation regarding the bus is being addressed as that was started to cause resentment amongst the regulars who travel to away games at no small cost.
However, I could just about name the "special invitees" now and not much will change. Prove me wrong!
Keep up the good work.
andy i am behind you and the club every step of the way, there is nothing i would like nore than to see it being a huge success!
cant wait to hear what you are planning in the social club either.
i do recall however getting back to this tie malarcy that past managers and even our current one has/is known to hand over the tie of their neck to sponsors/ hot chicks etc, so on this i really do hope you can prove my negativity wrong.
the ties are an issue simply cause who knows who is actually part of the club when anyone can wear one these days, for gods sake even the guy in the social club wears one!!!!!!!
This message has been edited by huntlyfc on Feb 19, 2008 6:53 PM
Its great to have the youth development linked to the likes of Kevin Keegan, Sir Tom Farmer, and Newcastle UTD FC,but in my opinion all is not a bed of roses in the youth development as the picture is painted here ! IF word of the way the under 16s coaches treat their substitutes on match days gets out, then i can guarantee you NO ONE will want to come and play for Huntly FC.
why is it that kevin always seems to put the youth development home? i don't think i've ever read a postive coming from him. Is it maybe due to the fact he has a son in this set-up?? thats just the way things are, i remember even playing for school teams this was the case, its happened for years and will always happen and i hardly think its going to put children off, personally i believe its going to push them to become better to break through into the first team as i have experienced this with mine.
Im curious to know more on what your "links with other youth clubs" is all about? two of the teams you mention are already linked up lewis-> lewis & kemnay -> kemnay, dunno who the other one is (sorry robin!) but i guess in most peoples eyes huntly -> huntly is also already a link?? im confused a bit. what do you mean here exactly?
as for the club ties, well i feel a bit bad now as it was me that posted that on here earlier in the week and now we appear to have world war 3 starting up, but well done club. time to turf out the deadwood and let us know for sure who is actually a club official and who isnt.
others' sentiments echoed by the way too on "invited guests".
Well AH is upset at startimg WW 3
Nothing new there then !
This tie debate is just nonsense.Who gives a stuff ?
We all know who cuts the grass every week and puts in the real effort.
Suppose this sort of daft debate is the downside of a great website.
Did any one see Grant wearing his tea cosy on Saturday ?
Maybe a Black and Gold Tea Cosy should be 'granted' to real supporters !!
A.H. could do the award ceromony each year.
Ha Ha (sorry mean Ah Ah !)
Looks like a lot was achieved at the board meeting. Well done to all, especially Robin Dunseath who seems to be holding all together. What is
next Robin?
Always like reading Robin's feedback regarding Issues from within the Board Room.
Appreciate this "overview" on future planning as the Club moves forward.
"Positive" actions from a forward thinking Club, which will leave the FC in a strong position both
on and off the field for many "good" years to come. Well done!!
Andy R thanks for this. and thanks to all of you for making your views known. I started the board reports on the web site some time ago and it was a bit disheartening when no one seemed to be reading them, as often I got no feed back on the web. I need to hear from you, good and bad, so I can best do my job for you. Can't do everything you ask, but it does give me a steer.
Andy, thought you and all the others would like to know that yet another businessman has offered sponsorship for our youth development programme!!! Am trying to sort it all out, but it is very exciting how much support we are now getting.
Robin,
another "Rabbit" pulled out of the Hat. Excellent news to read for the Youth Policy, particulary in a time where many Companies are now tigtening their Purse strings on spending in general.
The Huntly FC "Brand" name carries for many miles, as you are aware.
I was in the Scottish Border Town of Melrose a few weeks ago and one person I met who was a Rugby man
was very well aware of Huntly FC. The League that the Club play in, but more importantly the Clubs
achievements and runs in the Scotish Cup in years gone past.
Not bad from a "Chap" who has no connections to this part of the Country!
Apart from Deveronvale, he was struggling to name any of the other Teams in the Highland League.
So what does that tell us about our opposition!!
Another good week at Huntly off the Park, lets hope we cap it off with a win up at Fraserburgh.
Thanks Eddie, I appreciate that. What's next? I do have ambitious plans, but I have to remember that we can only move forward at a speed we can take.ButI am enjoying myself!!!!
i am still intrigued as to what is going to happen in the social club?
and on that topic i notice there is nothing in your report on the restructure of the social club, revamp etc, just wandering if there is any news on this? its a shame the plans seem to have been up forever but nothing major has come of it.
Richard, we did talk a bit about the Social Club, but our minds are wonderfully concentrated at the moment on the now urgent need to get a new roof on the changing rooms etc, and what this is going to cost and where the money is going to come from-we need to do something very fast here. But we continue to work on how we can help the Social Club. Sorry not to be able to be more specific.
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