View from the Chair (from Bradford matchday programme)

 Dons Trust Board Chairman Matthew Breach gives some background on the way that the Board now works, and some future fundraising.

 Making The Dons Trust Board More Responsive

Historically, the Dons Trust Board has always struggled to find the most efficient way of operating, switching between a ‘ministerial’ approach where individual members have responsibility for a portfolio, and a ‘cabinet’ approach where all decisions are made collectively.  In truth, neither approach has worked as well as we might have wished.

 Two years ago we set up a cohesive strategy for the Trust and Club, with a common vision from which aims, objectives and actions were derived.  That framework has enabled us to make progress on several fronts, but it was felt that we could still improve how we dealt with time-critical issues.  This will be particularly important if, as hoped, we pass the next hurdle on the path towards our new stadium in Wimbledon.

Looking back on how we have worked in the past and comparing that with what works well in other businesses of our size, we have decided to trial a new approach based on “works streams”.  We have identified the three areas that are currently the most critical for the Board and divided ourselves to address these, based on creating small groups who can work well together and have the right range of expertise and experience to address the issues.

The three teams are finance/fundraising (Kris Stewart, Iain McNay and myself), organisation and delivery of the new stadium project (Mick Buckley, Sean McLaughlin and Tom Adam) and people (Dave Growns, Nicole Hammond and Zoe Linkson).  These teams will work closely with the Football Club Board, existing working groups and any new volunteers who can contribute.  The whole Board will continue to meet and undertake its core job of oversight of the FCB, but the work streams will have autonomy to get things moving fast in their areas whilst keeping the rest of the Board informed to ensure everyone is “on the same page”.

These groups are now working on detailed plans for making concrete progress in each area.  The fruits of this will be captured in an update of the strategy – including all the new actions – to be presented to Trust members in advance of the next SGM in early May.  A huge effort from volunteers has already paid dividends on the fundraising front, and lots of work behind the scenes has kept us in with a real chance of progressing with plans for a new stadium.  So things are certainly moving fast, and we will strive to maintain that momentum.

 Walking Further For Wimbledon 6

 This year the “Walk Further” team will be gambolling to Gillingham; a 45 mile walk over the Thursday, Friday and Saturday, arriving to watch our last away game of the season at Priestfield on 20 April.  Last year ten of us completed the walk to Barnet via the London LOOP path, enduring what appeared to be a monsoon that followed us through London!

Proceeds from the event (which has raised over £15,000 to date) are split between the Dons Trust and charities selected by the participants (last year. Macmillan Cancer Support and several local charities benefited).

If you are interested in taking part in what is always a challenging but fun occasion, please get in touch with me via email at matthew.breach@thedonstrust.org.