Board Strategy Day Report

In response to members’ requests for quicker reporting of FC United board meetings; we’ll be posting brief reports of the proceedings of each meeting ahead of the official minutes being published. We hope this will keep supporters better informed, updated and in the loop on the key issues being discussed by board members.

The most recent meeting of the FC United board was a special one-day strategy ‘away day’ held on 17 January 2012. These away days are held at least once a year and enable the board to take stock and look at more strategic issues than maybe they have the chance to at the regular monthly board meetings. For these strategy days, board members take a day out of their own work to attend the sessions, the latest of which was held in a Manchester College building in Newton Heath last week.

The meeting discussed three main issues. Firstly, governance – how FC United runs itself as an organisation and how areas like the election process can be improved so that it is seen to be more transparent and open. The Moston stadium project was also on the agenda, with officials from Manchester City Council invited along so board members could ask them questions on the progress to date and get a feeling for how the council saw things. Board members also took the opportunity to get an update on the community shares scheme and discuss the best next steps to enable FC to raise its funding targets to get the club to Moston.

The discussion on governance was part of ongoing work by the board to develop a new set of standing orders, streamline, tighten-up and improve the elections process and generally to respond to members’ questions, raised at the recent AGM and other FC members’ meetings, to make the club’s procedures more efficient and easier to understand. The board has been working with a number of members to help develop some ideas and proposals in this area, prior to releasing them for consultation with the wider membership. The board has had some valuable member input in this area and whilst our constitution clearly makes FC one of the most accountable clubs in the country the board recognises there is room for improvement, member scrutiny and involvement in all the club does is a key element of our governance processes. The results of these discussions and this ongoing process will be shared with members very soon.

The board meeting also heard from Manchester City Council Head of Community and Cultural Services, Eamonn O’Rourke and Principal Sport Development Manager Lee Preston. This was an opportunity for the board to discuss the Moston project with senior council officials and to ‘take their temperature’ first hand, as it were, on how they saw the latest developments. Being able to ask representatives from the local authority how they view FC’s progress on the project to date, what the current and future obstacles might be and what they want from FC as a partner was tremendously helpful and gave board members a real insight into how the council views the scheme.

The board was very encouraged by what they heard from Eamonn and Lee and it is clear from what they said that there is a firm long term commitment from the council to FC United, the scheme and the residents of Moston. The council clearly understands that FC is proposing to build much more than a football ground and that the community facility aspect of the project, and the delivery of real and lasting community benefits to the local area, is well and truly grasped by the local authority - and at the very highest level.

The final item up for discussion during the away day was the community shares scheme and the latest progress towards achieving the financial targets. Board members were delighted with the magnificent efforts of members in raising 85% of our shares target and the point was made by more than one board member that to achieve £1.4m in the current economic climate was fantastic. Board members took inspiration from this in their discussions on developing a strategy to raise the remaining £200,000 to make sure that FC hits its targets that will unlock other funding and grant income.

The board discussed ways to continue the active involvement of members and the need for all members to be part of our ‘sales force’:

Key community shares targets and messages:
Conversion of remaining TAL investors
Social impact and tax benefits
Members who have not yet invested
Wider promotion of the instalment scheme
Top ups from existing investors

The next meeting of the FC United board will be a special meeting to further discuss the stadium project on 6 February, followed by a full meeting of the board on 13 February. We’ll be posting updates on the FC website on the key issues discussed at those meetings, so watch this space.

Access to full board minutes are only available to members of FC United, these minutes are published in the members’ section on the site’s front page.