The CFU Board held its first full meeting since the AGM last night and here are some highlights:
CFU Officers: At the first full meeting after the AGM the Board is required to appoint its Officers for the coming year. Tony Durkin indicated that he would wish to stand down from his role as CFU Chair and following discussion and unanimous agreement Grenville Millington was elected to serve as CFU Chair for the coming year. Grenville will be assisted in his role by Jim Keegan, as Vice-Chair; Jonathan Freeman as CFU Treasurer and Marion Needham as Board Secretary. All these appointments were unanimous. Grenville said he was delighted and honoured to be appointed to this role and he paid tribute to the work Tony had done, which reflected the strong position the Club was now in. Tony will continue in his role as Director and will take the Lead Portfolio for key commercial sponsorships and external relations.
Communications: The Board recognised the concerns of members in this key area and agreed a series of monthly CFU meetings between now and the end of the season, to be held on the first Thursday of each month, as follows: 6th November; 4th December; 5th February; 5th March; 2nd April and 7th May. The idea is that the first meeting will be a formal report back from the Board to members, rotating the next month by an informal meeting with a guest speaker and an open Q and A forum in a more social atmosphere, then back to the formal meeting etc. Neil Bellis, who has the Lead Portfolio in this area is also working on a range of initiatives to improve the regular flow of information.
Volunteers Meeting: Grenville confirmed the arrangements for the Volunteers Event he is holding this coming Thursday evening in the Blues Bar and all current and potential volunteers are invited to attend. A more informal volunteers’ event, hosted by the Former Players Association, is planned for Thursday 13th November, with further details to follow.
Scholars Academy: It was confirmed that funding had now been secured from Mid-Cheshire College to allow the Pilot Scheme to run. The aim is to recruit 20 Scholars to the Academy in this year but a minimum of 14 are required for the Scheme to be viable. If sufficient numbers cannot be recruited this academic year, due to the delay in the funding being confirmed by the College then the Pilot will be rolled forward to next year, with recruitment starting in late Jan/early February 2015. It was confirmed that the costs relating to this initiative would be meet in full by the funding received through the College and would not fall on the Club.
As regards the concerns raised in relation to this matter then the Board agreed that Brian Burns and Mike Day, along with Grenville would carry-out an immediate review and would meet with all the key parties in the Youth Section and the Scholars Academy and the Football Management Team etc with the aim of providing a full report back to the next Board meeting.
Brian Burns and Mike Day also agreed to jointly carry the Lead Portfolio for the Youth Section in addition to their other responsibilities and the Board recorded its thanks to Brain and Mike for undertaking this.
Commercial Update: Tony Durkin provided the Board with a comprehensive Commercial update and advised of the recommendation from the Operations Board not to proceed with an immediate replacement following Dave Riche’s appointment to the AFC Fylde job. The main reason for this being that the Club had been offered a free of charge analysis for its Sales and Marketing Strategy to be undertaken by a Company experienced in this area, which would produce a plan for us going forward. In the meantime, a small in-house team including Directors, Volunteers and Tracey our Operations Manager were handling the commercial portfolio. The Board agreed this as a sensible approach.