Davies leaves for Walsall (Confirmed)

[Todd Sweeney]

Originally Posted by John Neals Dynasty

For me to have the answer I would need to be a sugar daddy. The quote by me you highlighted was meant as a professional football club (not part-time) we are after 10 yrs not progressing where it matters, I said when Ricketts was appointed I prefer an experienced manager, we all know it's hard to go up with only 2 places up for grabs, we were top in February and finished like a burnt out longest distance runner, even with the 2 extra play offs places we couldn't manage that.
Mellon has just achieved his 3rd promotion one in league 2, 2 from here and only missed out in the final last yr experience for me everytime to get out of here.
We can't even hold onto a manager over 18 months. Running a club with unpaid volunteers imho will never work.
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I disagree. It's worked well for us since we took over the club, which was then at death's door. It's also worked well for the likes of Exeter, Wycombe and Newport.

It's true to say that they are unpaid volunteers, but as an example, our finance director is also the finance director of Moneypenny, a large and progressive business. Isn't it better to have someone who is highly qualified and experienced doing the job for free, than to have someone with less experience who we have to pay for?

[pagl]

Originally Posted by Todd Sweeney

I disagree. It's worked well for us since we took over the club, which was then at death's door. It's also worked well for the likes of Exeter, Wycombe and Newport.

It's true to say that they are unpaid volunteers, but as an example, our finance director is also the finance director of Moneypenny, a large and progressive business. Isn't it better to have someone who is highly qualified and experienced doing the job for free, than to have someone with less experience who we have to pay for?

If they have time to do both jobs then fine. What we appear to lack is a WAFC figurehead and also a board that has the right structure.

No-one doubts the volunteers give their best with the time available but will this progress us? I again refer to memberships - what time does everyone have available to follow up lapsed members and also grow the membership or is the work just mainly around maintaining the status quo and just adding new members when they appear? I don't know the answer all I know is that we should have some targets - say 4,000 by the start of the season and something to measure against.

We can go round this loop forever - yes the volunteers are fantastic but we need to grow and not just standstill.

[The Only Way Is Up]

Originally Posted by Todd Sweeney

I disagree. It's worked well for us since we took over the club, which was then at death's door. It's also worked well for the likes of Exeter, Wycombe and Newport.

It's true to say that they are unpaid volunteers, but as an example, our finance director is also the finance director of Moneypenny, a large and progressive business. Isn't it better to have someone who is highly qualified and experienced doing the job for free, than to have someone with less experience who we have to pay for?

Absolutely correct Todd Sweeney. Which all goes to highlight that being called a volunteer doesn't mean "second rate" or "inexperienced" or any other derogatory term.

[Todd Sweeney]

Originally Posted by pagl

If they have time to do both jobs then fine. What we appear to lack is a WAFC figurehead and also a board that has the right structure.

No-one doubts the volunteers give their best with the time available but will this progress us? I again refer to memberships - what time does everyone have available to follow up lapsed members and also grow the membership or is the work just mainly around maintaining the status quo and just adding new members when they appear? I don't know the answer all I know is that we should have some targets - say 4,000 by the start of the season and something to measure against.

We can go round this loop forever - yes the volunteers are fantastic but we need to grow and not just standstill.

It's hard to know without being on the board. I do think that there has been a shortage of people volunteering over the last few years, so that does make things tricky. We do have a full time commercial manager and Geraint there as secretary, so the club isn't entirely run by volunteers.

Chester went down the route of having a full-time paid CEO, who was an experienced football professional, and their fans thought it was a waste of money, didn't like it, and wanted him gone. He was tasked with bringing in a certain amount of additional income and wasn't able to do that.

I suspect fans on the whole judge things by what happens on the pitch. If we went out and employed some full time people to run the club, and then failed to be promoted next season, I expect most people to say that it was a mistake. If we were promoted, however, it would be seen as a masterstroke.

Ultimately, it's a fact that paying people to run aspects of the club means less money to pay for players on the pitch. In the long-term perhaps this would pay off, but like anything, it is a gamble...and most supporters aren't interested in the long-term.

[The Only Way Is Up]

Originally Posted by pagl

If they have time to do both jobs then fine. What we appear to lack is a WAFC figurehead and also a board that has the right structure.

No-one doubts the volunteers give their best with the time available but will this progress us? I again refer to memberships - what time does everyone have available to follow up lapsed members and also grow the membership or is the work just mainly around maintaining the status quo and just adding new members when they appear? I don't know the answer all I know is that we should have some targets - say 4,000 by the start of the season and something to measure against.

We can go round this loop forever - yes the volunteers are fantastic but we need to grow and not just standstill.

If the implied criticisms were valid, most would agree with them, but you ask your questions of people who aren't here to answer. Why not ask the Trust directly, and then post their reply here? As you say, we can go round this loop forever - if you don't look in the right place for the answers. But it does feed the rumours that some want to spread.

[Bagger Vance]

Originally Posted by Todd Sweeney

I disagree. It's worked well for us since we took over the club, which was then at death's door. It's also worked well for the likes of Exeter, Wycombe and Newport.

It's true to say that they are unpaid volunteers, but as an example, our finance director is also the finance director of Moneypenny, a large and progressive business. Isn't it better to have someone who is highly qualified and experienced doing the job for free, than to have someone with less experience who we have to pay for?

Taking Newport aside who's board have been at loggerheads for a while and concentrating on Wycombe and Exeter look at their board profiles and compare. They have the same profile in terms of an FD like Mark etc but then they have people who have built businesses and had skin in the game, every board needs operations, HR and finance skills but it also needs vision and leadership and that generally comes from those that have built, have been the number 1 and led. I wonder if the board needs that skillset to compliment what they have. That sort of person who sees the vision, sets the goals, excites people about it and gets everyone to give that extra percentage of effort to go above and beyond.

In working life I don't see lots of creativity in my finance, HR or IT teams, I see people I depend on for essential services and advice, I see people who are building blocks but not the architects.

[Todd Sweeney]

Originally Posted by Bagger Vance

Taking Newport aside who's board have been at loggerheads for a while and concentrating on Wycombe and Exeter look at their board profiles and compare. They have the same profile in terms of an FD like Mark etc but then they have people who have built businesses and had skin in the game, every board needs operations, HR and finance skills but it also needs vision and leadership and that generally comes from those that have built, have been the number 1 and led. I wonder if the board needs that skillset to compliment what they have. That sort of person who sees the vision, sets the goals, excites people about it and gets everyone to give that extra percentage of effort to go above and beyond.

In working life I don't see lots of creativity in my finance, HR or IT teams, I see people I depend on for essential services and advice, I see people who are building blocks but not the architects.

On the football club board we do and had that experience of people who have built businesses or been involved in a high level of football. However Don Bircham and Barry Horne, towards the end of their tenure, became hate figures for many on here. It's difficult to see how the club can win sometimes.

However, we are lucky that we do still have leaders and people who have helped build businesses on the current football club board. We still have Spencer Harris, who is the Senior European Operations HR Manager for Kellogs, John Mills, who is the European IT Director for a US business, Gavin Jones, who built his own business and has an MBA in "The Business of Football", Phil Salmon, who built AEC Engineering, and Mark Williams, who helped build Moneypenny:

https://fdrecruit.co.uk/blog/general...-mark-williams

If we employed people to do their jobs at the club, instead of them doing them for free, I find it difficult to see how we could afford or attract better.

[Bagger Vance]

Originally Posted by Todd Sweeney

On the football club board we do and had that experience of people who have built businesses or been involved in a high level of football. However Don Bircham and Barry Horne, towards the end of their tenure, became hate figures for many on here. It's difficult to see how the club can win sometimes.

However, we are lucky that we do still have leaders and people who have helped build businesses on the current football club board. We still have Spencer Harris, who is the Senior European Operations HR Manager for Kellogs, John Mills, who is the European IT Director for a US business, Gavin Jones, who built his own business and has an MBA in "The Business of Football", Phil Salmon, who built AEC Engineering, and Mark Williams, who helped build Moneypenny:

https://fdrecruit.co.uk/blog/general...-mark-williams

If we employed people to do their jobs at the club, instead of them doing them for free, I find it difficult to see how we could afford or attract better.

I haven’t said replace them with anyone - I am saying add to them. Look at the profile of some of the Exeter board and with respect to ours they are at a higher level with a more diverse skill set.

[pagl]

Originally Posted by Bagger Vance

I haven’t said replace them with anyone - I am saying add to them. Look at the profile of some of the Exeter board and with respect to ours they are at a higher level with a more diverse skill set.

Exactly what my points have been. No-one is saying WAFC board members have to be replaced in fact quite the opposite.

We need a bigger and better skill set and ones that will work with current members but add that missing something.

Thanks BV. Someone has seen the same light.