FC United of Manchester FC United of Manchester FC United of Manchester Badge FC United of Manchester Pitch In

FC United Board report - 16 April 2012

The latest meeting of the FC United Board took place on the evening of Monday 16 April 2012. Chris Hammond reports.

This was my sixth board meeting since being elected and they have flown by. As usual the meeting started at 6.30pm and we didn’t finish until after 11pm. It was a pretty wide-ranging meeting with over 20 supporting documents to be read beforehand - and we do read them all.

The first part of the meeting was taken up with an update on the ground. We heard positive feedback from the funding bodies that we are waiting on and everything is on track, which was good to hear.

Our community shares total was reported as close to £1.7m if all the pledges of support and standing order payments are honoured. We are going to keep the share scheme open as we believe there are still people out there who wish to put money in and every penny we receive from that source will reduce the need to borrow. It was also reported that we had raised £10.5k for the Development Fund during March.

We’re continuing to work with our preferred contractor, fine-tuning the ground plans and when we are in a position to do so we will announce the name of that contractor. Press reports of a possible judicial review were discussed, but to date we have not been made aware of anything being received by the council.

The meeting also reviewed all the papers in advance of the FC United General Meeting on 19 April and we looked again at the budget for next year. There was still no clarity as to what league we might be playing in next season, so two budgets have been prepared - one for the Northern Premier League and one should we be promoted to the Conference North.

Board members also reviewed the management accounts and it was reported that we are on course for a balanced budget this year.

We discussed the players’ disciplinary record and expressed some dissatisfaction at the number of bookings and particularly sendings off that we’d had this season. The board agreed that it is an area that we need to improve on next season.

The meeting discussed the community programme we are running and heard that the Easter projects we ran in schools were particularly successful with some very positive feedback received. This was very pleasing as the work we did over the holiday period was more extensive than we’ve done in the past and shows the development of this part of our activities.

We also received for review and comment a volunteer handbook and an employee handbook. These will act as induction tools and will help to formalise the way we recognise volunteers and the job that they do. It’s all part and parcel of FC United professionalising its approach as we move towards our new ground. It is very important we get things right off as well as on the pitch.

Other items discussed by the board included forthcoming meetings and events that board members may attend on the club’s behalf, including league meetings. It was also reported that we’re now a senior member of the Manchester FA and the board discussed representation on that organisation’s various bodies.

Finally, we discussed potential pre-season friendly fixture dates. These have yet to be finalised, but as soon as they are we will let members and supporters know.

Chris Hammond is an FC United Board member.


First Posted ~ 14:44 Mon 23 Apr 2012
News ID ~ 4198
Last Updated ~ 00:47 Tue 16 Feb 2021