This item was updated on the 23 July with further information about the roles we’re looking to fill.
The Dons Trust https://thedonstrust.org/ is the membership organisation which owns AFC Wimbledon https://www.afcwimbledon.co.uk/ – the football club started in 1889 and which has been fan-owned since 2002.
Our board is looking for two additional members to help us with our work, initially filling two casual vacancies until the 2023 AGM in December. Our intention is then to reappoint successful candidates until the end of 2024. We are therefore looking for people able to serve from this summer until December 2024.
The board runs the Trust on behalf of our members, for the benefit of our communities We:
- set the culture, mission and strategic direction of AFC Wimbledon
- appoint and provide oversight to the directors of AFC Wimbledon
- manage our membership of around 4,000
- liaise with our communities and with other groups and organisations
We need additional board-level expertise. The knowledge, skills and experience we need most are:
Membership: This includes growing our membership, what we offer as part of the package of membership and how we make Trust membership enticing and important to Junior Dons as they hit 16. We want experience of growing membership in an organisation with a high public profile.
Strategic direction, culture & mission: We need experience of working at a strategic level in an organisation with a complex structure (see https://thedonstrust.org/our-corporate-structure for more). We are particularly keen to talk to people who have worked at or to board level to define medium and long term goals, formulate a strategic direction to meet those goals and communicate that strategic direction effectively to internal and external stakeholders.
You may have done this successfully in a business, volunteer, charity, education or other sector.
Equality, diversity and inclusion: We want to find someone who provides insight into these issues, and particularly how to recruit from diverse backgrounds into leadership and board positions in the trust itself, and the wider AFC Wimbledon family, and how to increase the diversity of our membership.
We are also short of fundraising experience on the board. We are particularly keen to hear from people with experience of planning and leading successful fundraising campaigns.
We have two positions we want to fill. And we don’t expect to find everything we’re looking for in a single person. So if you believe you would add value to our board but don’t tick all the boxes, we would still love to hear from you. Please get in touch to express your interest and explain the value you would bring to our board (details below).
We will recruit with an eye to board diversity. We particularly welcome interest from well-qualified members of groups currently poorly represented on the board https://thedonstrust.org/board/
Currently, the board meets formally once a month, with meetings scheduled at 3 hours. We also plan for two or three additional, all-day meetings each year. This year we have largely met face-to-face, at our home in Plough Lane, though members are able to join remotely. Meeting reports https://thedonstrust.org/category/news/meeting-summaries-news/ and summarised minutes https://thedonstrust.org/dtb-minutes/ are published regularly. All board members take part in at least one of our board theme groups:
- Culture & mission
- Community
- Member services and engagement
- Oversight
These also meet once a month, remotely. Board members are expected to attend members’ meetings three times per year and play a part in other activities on a rota basis, as well as undertaking board training. We estimate the minimum time commitment to average around four to five hours per week.
If you think you might be interested and could be suitable, and would like to discuss this further, please email chair@thedonstrust.org before 23:59 on Saturday 5 August. Please include a short (around 250 words) description of your relevant skills and experience and what you think you could bring to our board. Expressions of interest will be considered by a panel of board members and we will respond to each one, selecting the most relevant to meet the panel before the board decide to make any offers of a place.
To be appointable to the Dons Trust board, a person must at the time of appointment and while in the post be a member of the Dons Trust and must not be subject to a Disqualifying Condition under the terms of the EFL’s Owners’ and Directors’ Test https://www.efl.com/-more/governance/efl-rules–regulations/efl-regulations/appendix-3-owners-and-directors-test/ (NB the EFL’s OADT has recently been updated and the new details are yet to be published)