Communication, Transparency, Governance and Engagement

At the AGM in October the Board gave an undertaking to improve the club’s communications and transparency. We are rightly proud of the democratic structure of the club and the level of engagement we have with members but recognise that there is always room to improve, indeed other clubs and supporters organisations often look on enviously at what we have achieved in this respect.

But that does not mean we should not keep our processes, rules and way of working regularly under review or that improvements cannot be made.

Since the Autumn, we have been examining how improvements can be made to the way we communicate, addressing issues that both the Board and members had identified as needing attention: the transparency of board activity, our governance and the level of membership engagement.
The following are some changes that will be introduced in the coming weeks to improve the way we do things.

Minutes of board meetings

There will always be a natural ‘lag’ in terms of when minutes are taken and when they get published. The minutes have to be agreed at the following meeting as a true and accurate record before they get published. We will continue to review this particular way of working, but accept that this means that by the time they do get published the matter discussed may no longer be pertinent. Therefore we propose to introduce a ‘digest’ board discussion to be published on the main page of our website in the week following any meeting. This will give supporters a better insight into the key issues that are under discussion.

Members’ forum

The Q&A forum that was introduced before the last AGM was popular and allowed members to ask direct questions of prospective Board candidates. This forum will be resurrected.

The members’ forum will allow members to put direct questions to individual board members as well as allow members somewhere to freely debate and discuss other matters of interest.

Supporter and volunteers’ liaison officer

Following his election in October and having been involved in initial meetings with members regarding transparency, Paul Farrell (Faz) has been given responsibility for supporter and volunteer liaison. Faz is currently in the process of drafting a discussion paper for wider consideration. Jules Spencer will continue to help facilitate the process of re-drafting our election processes and will offer assistance to Faz where necessary.

Press and communications officer

The board has appointed Andy Walker to the voluntary position of club Press and Communications Officer. In the past the club’s external press and media role has been filled from within the board. Andy is an FC United member with extensive professional experience in this area and he is currently reviewing our external communications and assisting the board and relevant volunteers in the development of a comprehensive communications strategy.

Board responsibilities

A full structure of how the club operates that includes Board members areas of responsibilities will be published soon.

Review of election rules and standing orders

A process that was started by the Board last year has continued post AGM with the help of members’ input. We intend to publish the latest draft on the members’ area of the website as soon as it is back up and running. We want to encourage members to have their input, ahead of a final version being put to the Spring General Meeting, for debate and potential adoption.

Members’ blog

Initially introduced to provide a means for more informal news and activities, we accept that the existing members’ blog has not been used as such of late and instead has been used as a means of imparting official, sometimes sensitive statements. We propose to introduce a new blog to help improve the flow of information on club activities.

Members’ meetings

At the 2011 AGM the Board made a commitment to hold two additional informal meetings of members a year. The first of these meetings will be held on Saturday 18th February 2012 at Bury Social Club, Gigg Lane, commencing at 10am.

We will also announce further stadium consultation meetings soon.

Survey

Over the next few days we will send out a survey to supporters specifically on the subject of communication. Your input into this survey would be greatly appreciated and will help shape future policy

More

This isn’t the sum total of any improvements that can be made. We have been consulting with others from outside of the club to see if any other lessons can be learnt or whether a different perspective can be offered. There are some interesting and exciting suggestions that have come from this, which we hope to develop after the General Meeting as we build towards the AGM in the Autumn.