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Dons Trust Elections - Questionnaire 2010
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| Q01 | Are you a member of WISA? If not, why not? |
| No, I am not a member. I have nothing but respect for the work that WISA did to help challenge the original club's proposals to move to Milton Keynes and the work which was done to both set up the Dons Trust and AFC Wimbledon. I was one of the original founding members of the DT and found that was sufficient to represent what at the time I felt were the important issues in the development of the new club. Consequently I never felt a need to join WISA once we had the DT but would do if I felt the DT was not sufficiently representing my interests. | |
| Q02 | What role do you think WISA has in the future of the Club/Trust? |
| Not being a member I feel it rather inappropriate to suggest what its role might be now but it has obviously carried out some very valuable work including negotiating the return of the original Wimbledon honours, the landmarks at Plough Lane and challenging MK where appropriate. WISA's main aim is obviously to focus on a return of the club to Wimbledon - which I support - but not at any cost. It is good that it is independent of the DT and the club and as long as it is able to maintain a healthy membership I think it has a useful role to play. | |
| Q03 | What personal qualities (other than professional skills, and a capacity for hard work) do you have that the Dons Trust Board needs? |
| My work with clients and on the various diverse committees that I have stood on previously has taught me to exercise a range of skills. I like to think I am confident and assertive without being arrogant, passionate without being aggressive, cautious without impeding progress. Where I have acted as Chair previously I have sought to build consensus without losing sight of key objectives. It's a difficult balancing act to play! I'm also imaginative, enthusiastic and prepared to challenge conventional wisdoms where appropriate. | |
| Q04 | What do you perceive the role of the Dons Trust to be? In particular, what do you see its role to be in relation to the club? What is the role of the members/owners? |
| The Dons Trust is the majority shareholder in the club and therefore is effectively the owner of the club. As we can't meet regularly as members we appoint a Board to act on our behalf and those representatives are - quite rightly - subject to a regular election. Board members are acting on behalf of the membership. The Trust has a number of aims and set out carried out a strategy review two years ago. Given the club's success over the last two years it will be important to revisit those. The DT Board is there to set strategy and set overall guidelines (eg financial parameters) for the AFCW Board to operate and run the club on a day to day basis. This is broadly how the system works at present and I can't see any reason for changing it. Obviously there must be scope to step in if things are going seriously wrong as the DT Board represent us as owners of the club. One of the key things to any successful organisation is to have a good relationship and a feeling of trust and respect between those running it on a day to day basis and the Board. Whilst I'm sure there have been issues from time to time between the club and the Trust Board my view as a fan is that we seem to manage our affairs well because that relationship is pretty strong. We should try to keep it that way. |
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| Q05 | Have you been involved in any projects / organisations / working parties or volunteer groups on behalf of the Club or the Dons Trust? If so, what was your role and what did you achieve? If elected, and bearing in mind the time consuming nature of the Dons Trust Board, will you still carry on this work? |
| As set out in my 'manifesto' I have sought to assist the club in a number of ways over the years, mainly on the Finance Working Group. In the early days I helped Erik and co with some of the work on business planning, the Share Issue, the Bond Issue and the efforts to secure a loan after we did the deal with Khosla. I also assisted in a small way on the bids for the KM Leisure contract and Morden Park and helped facilitate an early meeting of the DT Board when we agreed the Aims of the Trust. I'll be absolutely honest and say that in recent years I've not been as involved with the club, other than getting along to games - and bringing in new fans! This has mainly been due to a whole string of other commitments and extra responsibilities at work which resulted in me getting more involved in advising on the government's social housing agenda. I continue to be busy but think that at this key stage of the club's development I am in a better position to help now than I have been before. When I have found time I've been prepared to help out in various ways. Amongst other things I have done a couple of the clean ups and managed to get my son to do one of the Walk for Wimbledon events with me: I remember it well as we beat Slough 9-0 that day… |
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| Q06 | How will you get more people to volunteer and help out the club? |
| This is a difficult one. I think sometimes there has to be an added incentive other than the honour of supporting your club in whatever capacity you can. I think it is fantastic that we have as many people as we do willing to volunteer in a variety of ways. However I do sense that whilst we do get new people from time to time it does seem to be a lot of the same faces doing the work. I'd like to spend more time finding out more about our existing volunteer base, what they do and their own thoughts on how we can bring in additional volunteers where necessary and shake things up if necessary. I know from experience that once you volunteer for something it is difficult to stand down even when fatigue sets in and people get to rely on those same faces… | |
| Q07 | What are the biggest problems facing the Dons Trust? And what three things would you suggest to make it more dynamic? |
| One of the biggest issues in recent years appears to be the falling DT membership. Ironically this contrasts with the continuing success on the field (putting aside the recent FA Trophy defeat!) which has led to larger crowds and more interest in the club. The consequence of the promotion last season and potential promotion this season has meant bringing forward some of our thinking around how we adapt to the next stages of our evolution. I suspect we also need to look at how the DT itself operates both at Board level and through the various working groups to assess whether they are working effectively. So the three things I would suggest at this stage are: (i) We need to tap into the increased fanbase over the last year or so where possible and try to promote the benefits of becoming a DT member and the importance of this at a crucial stage in the clubs development. (ii) We need to review those members whose membership has lapsed to find out why and try to address any concerns where appropriate (eg cost of subscription?) Are they still fans? (iii) It would probably be useful to review how the Board and various Working Groups operate at present and whether there is scope to improve any of their operations. If there are new board members elected this year that might help otherwise it may be helpful to bring in a separate facilitator. |
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| Q08 | Why do you believe you can put your views into practice and deliver on any promises you make? How much time do you have to devote to Trust matters? |
| My main promise is to serve the DT members to the best of my ability using wise judgement and in the best interests of AFC Wimbledon. On key decisions such as the future ownership and location of the club I will seek to ensure that all members get an opportunity to vote and we continue to consult fully with other stakeholders. I will devote as much time as might be allowed given my work, family and other commitments including attendance at as many DT Board and relevant subcommittees / working groups as possible. My attendance at Wandle Housing Association where I was voluntary Chair of Finance and Development was around 90% over the 12 years I was on the Board. | |
| Q09 | Do you have any financial interests in the club, associated companies or Trust? If so, please could you specify? |
| I originally bought 16,600 shares in the AFC Wimbledon Share Issue in July 2003 which I split between myself and my wife. I have no other financial interests other than being a DT member! | |
| Q10 | If we are not promoted this season, do you think we should try to get a league place and / or go professional (i.e. take on full-time players) as soon as possible, whatever the cost (financial or otherwise)? Is fan ownership non-negotiable? |
| The issue of going fully professional is a difficult one but actually something which I think we appear to be handling reasonably well this season given our unexpected success and the amount of injuries we seem to be accumulating. Like everything I think we need a proper evaluation of the costs of the options of a continued mix and going completely full time. Terry and his team will obviously have their views on this and I would be surprised if this hasn't been the subject of serious discussion and consideration already with Erik. Against the extra costs we also need to carefully assess the income we can generate from going up - and if we don't - as a consequence of going full time. The other thing to say is that going full time doesn't necessarily mean better players, just fitter players. There are many very good players at our level who can't afford to go full time because their daytime jobs are more lucrative and often offer better prospects! There seems to be a mixed experience at other clubs. Some seem to be managing better than others and we need to keep a watchful eye on how others do it - and learn from their successes and their mistakes where appropriate. The issue of fan ownership may be partly linked in so far as a new owner may be able to bring in significant extra investment - initially. However from a personal perspective I would prefer the club to stay in the hands of the DT. However benign and rich an individual owner - or consortium - may seem at the outset, circumstances change and we all know what happens when their business empires begin to crumble. There are different reasons why people get involved in wanting to own and run a football club and getting behind their motives is quite important. There are of course the occasional unscrupulous owners who see it as a property deal - collapse the club and sell off the assets for housing or some other commercial use. But most people don't do it to make money - they're deluding themselves if they are! They'll do it as a plaything, a bit of a power trip - and sometimes because they genuinely want to leave a legacy and get some respect from the community. I think that one of the reasons we run our affairs so well is because we are set up the way we are. That and the outstanding quality of leadership and integrity we have within those who have been running the club. We're not reckless because we don't have some sugar daddy pumping money into us. What we have is a lot of good will from the fans and a huge amount of voluntary effort. The danger with bringing someone in with lots of cash to invest is that we dilute that good will and that voluntary effort. Suddenly when things go wrong it becomes us and them again. Having said all that I think we should always keep our door open to proposals. I think that one of the roles of the DT Board is to filter any such proposals and then put any serious ones back to you, the members. But personally speaking it would need an awfully convincing pitch to make me, as a member, give up DT ownership. |
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| Q11 | What schemes should / would you put in place to help reduce the club's debt? |
| I think the DT and the club have done an extraordinarily good job to get the debt down to a manageable size. And I have supported quite a number of the fundraising events that have been run. I think the existing debt isn't actually a big problem. The bigger issue is going to be raising funds and taking on new borrowing to support the next stages in the clubs development if we are to rise up into the league and beyond. We should continue to look at ways of raising funds from our existing and - hopefully - our expanding fanbase where possible but also look further afield including any new commercial opportunities. That said we must recognise that the national economy is likely to get worse before it gets better (despite what the government statistics say!) and accessing funds from individuals as well as public / private sources will be difficult as more of us begin to feel the pinch. |
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| Q12 | What action will you take if you feel the Club is committing itself to ventures it cannot afford? |
| Frankly I hope it wouldn't get to that stage otherwise I think the Board would have failed in its job! I do think we have managed our financial affairs exceptionally well to date and I have faith in the current management to continue doing the same. I think the role of the DT Board should be to set the strategy and give clear financial parameters around how the club should operate both in the short term and the longer term. I suspect a lot of those controls are already in place though some may be more informal relying on the good judgement of those in charge. But if it does emerge that we have made a commitment to something we can't afford we would need to work out a strategy pretty quickly to mitigate the impact or try to extract ourselves from the arrangement. The DT Board may need to take action with the club management as well if it turns out that the actions have been reckless and without due reference to the DT Board. |
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| Q13 | If the Club makes a profit from FA Cup or Trophy runs, or from the sale of players, should that windfall be used to improve the infrastructure of the Club or be used to improve the playing squad? |
| There are a number of things that the money could be used for as well including repaying the debt (subject to our not being liable for any excessive redemption penalties!). I think the whole issue of how to spend the resources we have in the next few years needs to be kept in fine balance. We are going to be facing some significant growing pains in the next few years and decisions such as whether to invest in the squad against the infrastructure - including staffing - will be key to that. Clearly there's no point having a great stadium but a poor team to play in it and there's similarly no point investing in great team if we are up to our ground capacity. My feeling is that given the back to back promotions in recent years this is a key stage for reviewing the previous strategy work and we need to get the balance right between how we raise funds and how we invest those we get - even those which are perceived as 'windfalls'. |
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| Q14 | Do you see The Fans Stadium, Kingsmeadow, as a temporary or permanent home for AFC Wimbledon? |
| My preference is to see us re-establish a permanent base in Wimbledon but we have to weigh up the opportunities now being presented in Merton (see answer to 15 below) with a potential future at Kingsmeadow. I think the next two or three years will be quite critical in deciding which way forward we go and a clear assessment of the finances of each option, the impact on the fans and the structure of the club will need to be taken into account. Ultimately we have to be able to present a clear position to the DT membership with the Board's views and recommendations. |
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| Q15 | What is your opinion on the possibility of a move to the Greyhound Stadium what would you do if elected to make it a reality? |
| The idea of moving back to Wimbledon really excites me as I started supporting the club back in 1972 at Plough Lane as a kid. The Greyhound Stadium presents a tremendous possibility (as do other potentials sites in Merton) but it is a much larger deal than when we acquired Kingsmeadow and we have to be realistic about how much effort and money we put into investigating that and other opportunities. The deal will involve the current vendor, Merton Council and the other interested commercial parties for the site in Merton. It will ALSO mean doing a deal at Kingsmeadow engaging with Kingston Council, Kingstonian and other relevant stakeholders. There will inevitably be a need to raise extra funds from somewhere in order to bring it to fruition and we have to be realistic about how we might access those funds (either from grants, borrowing or other sources) - whilst retaining the integrity of the club. We also need to ensure that any site can cope with our ambitions for the future. It is a huge challenge and one I would like to become involved with - whilst recognising it may ultimately be unachievable. |
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| Q16 | What will you do to improve communication between the Trust members and their board? |
| I think there are various ways in which existing communication can be enhanced from the website through to the matchday presence, internet chatrooms, email and postal communications. It is important to try to continue to get feedback on both day to day and key strategic issues (eg by questionnaires) - but we have to be careful not to go into consultation overload. A lot of the fans just want to come to the games and enjoy the football and the matchday experience. I haven't spent a lot of time looking at how communications work at present at the DT. However having spent a lot of my working career assisting local authorities and housing associations helping with their communications with their tenants and other stakeholders I have picked up some thoughts on how best to engage with different audiences and would hope to bring that experience to the Board. |
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| Q17 | Do you believe that the Trust should adopt a clear stance on issues such as Milton Keynes’ inclusion in the England 2018 World Cup bid, or do you think that the Trust should maintain a diplomatic silence and leave such issues to WISA? |
| As mentioned in answer to question 2, I think WISA has played and continues to play a useful role in challenging the whole approach to 'franchising'. My feeling is that any response to MK's inclusion in the 2018 World Cup bid should best be left to WISA and the DT focus on the issues that are facing it and the club in the future. We have enough on our plate! | |
| Q18 | Should Trust board members always be bound by ‘collective responsibility’? |
| My preference is wherever possible to reach consensus at the Board and present a united front. I think where there are differences, as there inevitably will be from time to time, you have to choose your battles! I think if there are key points where you really cannot accept the collective responsibility line then I think you should agree at Board level how this is presented to the membership. The worst position is to break ranks without having first agreed your stance. One option is to identify who supports the different options (as was done with the issue of the Executive sitting on the DT Board for example). If the issue is so fundamental and you feel that it is an issue of conscience, for example, then obviously you have the option of standing down from the Board. The club is set up on democratic principles and we should expect to be bound by the majority view. |