An update from the Board
It’s a little over five weeks since we came into our roles and met a number of the fans at Shielfield Park. Little could we have imagined how much off the pitch we would have achieved in such a short space of time and how receptive you would become to our change of approach.
In society social media plays a significant part in keeping us all up to date and with that in mind we have been constant, transparent and regular with our communications to you. It seems to be working and your responses and support have been overwhelming.
The story so far
Progress has been positive:
– Our 1881 Fund has smashed all expectations, breaking our February target of £5000 raised.
– Our hospitality and match sponsorship packages have largely been selling out, and a number of our old sponsors have returned already.
– Our Community Day was a major success, with attendance up 200 on previous and the club setting a new league record high attendance for the season.
– We have recruited three new players into the squad, all of which have had some form of Director support.
– We’ve launched Elite Player trials on the 9th and 10th of May, giving local talent from across Berwick, Northumberland and the Borders the chance to impress scouts from clubs.
– And we’ve attended a number of meetings with investors, councils, clubs and stakeholders as we continue to look to join things up more than ever before.
After an initial period of chaos, we now need to provide structure annd process for how we move forward.
The goodwill and trust you have shown us needs to be repaid, and we want to have a clear plan in place that outlines the outcomes we need to deliver, and when we do we’ll tell you. Likewise, if we fail on an outcome, we will explain why.
Our design principles for success
As we said at the open meeting in January, our focus is to stabilise the immediate financial position of the club between now and the end of the season and then start to plan a way forward. This alone will provide us with a platform to assemble a team fit to challenge for the league and promotion.
We have chosen as a board to focus on the following key principles as we continue to press for recovery:
- Increase sources of income for the club and reduce expenditure
- Increase attendances and improve the matchday experience for supporters
- Drive constant engagement in the community with equality of access for all
- Deliver clear, consistent and regular communications for fans, suppliers and others
- Improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the football club operations
- Make better use of our facilities and welcome more people into use it
- And finally strive for success on the pitch by building a successful team
Building a plan
An initial 30/60/90 Day Plan has been developed as well as a board structure that we believe can take us forward. We will share our new structure in the next couple of weeks, and with that comes vacancies that we have now advertised for, ensuring we get the skills and experience to deliver what we need.
The club has a great future if we continue to work as we are doing at the moment. No agendas, no personal interests – put simply all of the different badges left at the door and the best interest of the club and community at the centre of what we are trying to achieve.
As a Board we hope you trust and appreciate the level of communication we are providing. Whilst we are running your club, we are running a business and with that comes difficult situations. We, like you, want to see a successful Black and Gold team on the pitch, and we can ensure you we are working very hard on that.
We’re enjoying this very much, the hours are indeed crazy and the sleepless nights continuing but a lot of that now comes from the excitement that says we believe with your help we can do this.
