I'm happy to say that there has been one response to today's email to the Board. It is more of an acknowledgement in that it doesn't fully address the issues raised, but it does contain some information that I wasn't aware of. There that response, in full, which should be welcomed as a step towards better communications, despite there being a bit of a "home truth" there, directed at those fans who are claimed to have forced the club into diverting funds from the squad budget for next year into finding a paid member of staff to fulfill John Mills' voluntary role. There will be voices who will suggest that had John been seen to provide the service expected of his paid successor, then that diversion of funds would not be necessary, as there would be no room to criticise him to that degree which is leading to his departure.
It is now almost 3:00 am here, and a reply to him won't be sent until tomorrow. That will address points not covered in his email, as well as responding to those that were made.
So, he wrote:
Good evening Rob,
I’m replying to your message just in case any of my fellow board members, including those that would have seen your original message to the
membership@wst.org.uk address seem to have ignored. I did not see this myself.
I agree totally with your observation that there is no set agenda for the upcoming Members meeting, but, to be honest, such meetings would not be dictated to by any set agenda, as has been shown in the past. Rather, the agenda sets itself by the attendees, and their perceived grievances, which, in all honesty, is where these meetings should be, the voice of the owners is paramount to the success of the Club.
One of the main points I would like to address is that the ownership of the Club has changed dramatically what the WST actually stands for. We are now running a multimillion pound business, not just a pressure group of fans, and it is that reality that causes a lot of issues with the Club owners and fans. With the best will in the world, I would like to see the community aspects of the WST continue to progress, and I do believe that this is still in the forefront of anything we do. I know myself that at any opportunity I promote the work of our DSO and the fantastic work she does. I am also conscious of the work of the DSA, but, for a lot of reasons, that group and some of their officials seem to have caused friction, resulting in 3 WST board members actually leaving the board due to ‘personality clashes’ with one particular DSA official. These are facts, not social media rumours. Personally, I have run businesses much larger than Wrexham AFC, and have a brief from the WAG to work with businesses across Wales up to £40 million turnover to improve their chances of success in the business world. However, given the abuse, threats and character assassination that has gone on on social media platforms, after this season, I will no longer be giving my time and skillset to the Club.
Regarding the WST board minutes, I have been chasing these up for a while now, and, although the December minutes are ready to be published, because of the change In Secretaries. The November minutes has been difficult to finalise, and I would be reluctant to publish the December minutes before the November minutes. You would possibly understand that if a month’s minutes didn’t appear, there would be the usual social media storm that the WST board were hiding things. This isn’t the case, I’m just waiting on the new secretary to approve the minutes, and they will be up ASAP.
Apologies for the above over long message, but, as you addressed your email, I am a Wrexham AFC fan, and I find it despicable that other fans are questioning my dedication to the club. The fact that next seasons available player budget will be reduced by a minimum of £50k to replace the services I have provided to the club for free for the last decade is very, very sad. Finally, the forum referred to is a management forum so that Board members can interface in a medium that is instant, and thus mean that any decisions are timely and relevant. I have previously provided a Members forum on the WST website, which was active for two years, and had 3 posts from WST members. I have suggested relaunching this to the current WST board, and that may happen.
I have tasked the board with providing information to the membership, and tonight, hopefully, you will see information . How this works going forward will be dependent on response. My view is that we should be providing all the information we legally, and business sensitivity aware, can do. You then have the Board members having to step up and provide this, which is in their remit.
Finally, if you ever want to talk about anything (while I’m still around) please let me know. I’m very much a ‘gloves off’ type of person and always welcome a good chat. I apologise for the long email, I just wanted you to understand my views.
Best regards,
John