Directly electing people to run an organisation is never a good idea, because those who stand may not have the required skills, or the group as a whole may not have the required breadth of skills. That is why other successful cooperatives don’t generally do it. As an example, the Co-op retailer (the Co-operative Group) has an elected group board, but is run by an Executive Management Team, appointed by the board.
Chester was run by a directly elected board and it didn’t turn out well, for the reasons mentioned above.
Of course things aren’t perfect at our club. We have made mistakes but who doesn’t? We are, however, doing things sensibly here. I feel even more strongly that is the case when I see the likes of Ebbsfleet potentially going under because they have been run so badly.