Chris and I are friendly non-confrontational people. People like us we are friendly and fun. But I dig in when necessary which is now. Ask the local accountants who recently sued me and ended up losing; suitably hacked off with their arrogance I ripped them to pieces in court and saw them humiliated. They assumed I was a Lewes hick. People who know me know it is not my style. I like beers, a laugh and am one of the remaining singers at the back of the Philcox. But when push comes to shove I can be a tenacious Rottweiler. So gloves will be off for issue 17 at Christmas.
Nobody likes upsetting people especially when they do an honest hard job and that is what we do… upsetting that is. I have it on good authority we hit the wrong notes with some people but we are a fanzine and it is what fanzines do. I am often uncomfortable with it. But it is tough love, we love our club and when we think things are wrong, we have a right to say so. The club has a great, if in our opinion misdirected board; it now needs a new great volunteer structure directed by the board.
The fanzine is a labour of love and fun to do. We have as the years drag by, become more and more disillusioned with how the club is run. But maybe because the main jobs are mainly carried out by people on pay roll and not volunteers (who would be more willing to provide gossip and tittle tattle) it has not been clear how things work at the club. The furore over budget parity clarified so many things for us. In writing and in person, the formerly quiet hierarchy have broken rank and come forth. We have learnt a lot recently and it is not good.
Like when the smoke clears after an explosion we have had time to survey the post-parity landscape. It has come at a time when Lewes puts on the equivalent of a cup final at Wembley with the vast, world renowned bonfire celebrations, big articles in the Washington Post and all. The preparation, volunteers and amazing planning highlights for us the crass nature of the ‘business model’ we are following at Lewes FC and the financial resources squandered keeping us unsustainable. We have six paid staff involved with the day to day running of a club just on a level above county football to help put on games for 400 people at the Pan.
We must become a volunteering self-sustained club. Lewes has the most amazing will and generosity of spirit within its DNA. Why does Lewes FC fail to tap into it? Bonfire shows where there is a will there is a way. Either there is no will at board level to have our club run by volunteers or no trust were it run by volunteers for it to be done properly and a reluctance to do things as they should be done.
But sorry that is for the board to implement and tap into, to oversee and make sure it is done properly. That is what boards are for, to oversee the day to day running and finances… ’Oh well you don’t understand’… hey, well, yes I do because every other bloody club at our level is run by volunteers and our bank of operatives on pay roll is a joke.
Moving on.
The budget parity shows how out of touch some of the board is and if they force it through how undemocratic the club is. What pisses me off to blowing up point is Darren Freeman has done the most amazing job and the focus must be to get 100% behind him not budget parity etc. The idea of parity was almost presented as a fait accompli by the dominant forces on the board. It was ill judged and ill timed. The plan must have been hatched as we were going through a dire patch at the start of the season. It beggars belief. FOCUS chaps.
Lewes FC needs to break away from this almost corporate vision of running the club. It is not working, unviable, unloved and divisive. Yes I get the thinking behind it and how it would work in business, but it is not fit for purpose in an environment where we are annually competing with the unseen methods and resources of other clubs and we have the advantage of the untapped natural resource of proven volunteering talent in Lewes.
The board must take heed that views on the fans forum are from a hardcore couple of dozen fans, many disenchanted, but I can promise the silent majority are deeply concerned how things are going and change is needed before the project blows up in their faces.
This would be written if we were top or bottom, it reflects our beliefs and in that the team are doing brilliantly under our great manager shows it is not a whinge because of bad results, this is a deep seated belief that the very foundations of our club are rotten
#communitynotcommercialism
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