One of the big challenges in recent months has the issue of the home ground at Stonebridge Road.  Currently leased for the next 16 years, it’s not really the most attractive sporting venue in the world, though the pitch is immaculate, maintained by the rapping groundsman, Peter Norton.  The Club were looking at a new stadium before MyFootballClub took over, and discussions have continued since then.

These seemed to fall through in August when the local councils (Kent County and Gravesham Borough) and  said they would not support a community stadium on the old A2 site.  Following this blow, the freehold was put up for sale by the owners, Land Security, who also gave the club the opportunity to make an offer before the 21st Sept auction.  A group of MyFC members, directors and other supporters of the club got together to raise the funds – not an insubstantial amount, somewhere between £400-600,000.

New Player

And that was going reasonably well until Gravesham Borough Council stepped in on the 17th September and bought the ground.  This has changed the game again, as there are now two options:

1) Continue to raise the funds in order to buy the ground from the Council
2) Take up the offer of long-term, peppercorn rent

Learning to Juggle

Both have their good and bad points, but I feel that the Society Board members should not be pushing one argument over another, which has happened before and cause a lot of division.  Instead they should be monitoring the debate, providing information where needed and pushing things through at the club on behalf of members.  Despite the usual circular and emotive debate, thankfully both sides have been allowed to discuss the options.

As an organisation, we’re still struggling to deal with more than one item at a time, a shame as important issues are neglected whilst everyone’s energy is focused on the Big News.  Again, this is something that I was hoping for from the new Board – to each take ownership of different areas and foster groups of members to deal with the issues and come back to the Society.

Good news in this regard is that the Operator is planning a revamp to the website which should make this more of a reality.  This should also improve communications, allowing casual members to easily see what’s going on and feel involved.  This is essential for maintaining and growing membership beyond the hardcore MyFootballClub fans and local Ebbsfleet fans.

MyFootballGround

Incidentally, funds for the ground purchase are still being raised by the new company, MyFootballGround.  Going on what we’ve done before and the way the forum discussion’s been going, if the full amount isn’t reached MyFG will probably continue and become the company that develops the stadium.  All quite exciting, whatever the outcome!

If you’re interested you can email 0800 334 5605 or e-mail Trustboard@myfootballclub.co.uk

In August, 20 candidates campaigned for seats on the MyFootballClub Society Board and the “lucky” 7 will direct the strategy over the next year, a critical role as the Society is the main financial support for Ebbsfleet United.

Despite being elected to represent the members of the Society, some of the previous Board members sermonised about their view of responsible ownership, actively opposing the open, community decision-making way of thinking that MyFootballClub was based on.  In particular, this was seen in some of the more contentious issues during the year, such as the Club budget, membership fees and player sales.

The forum discussions about these decisions went on and on for dozens of pages, with very few new facts or analysis produced along the way.  The more vocal contributors quickly dug in their heels and the casual members had no way of tracking the debate or main points.  We still need something more than the forums in this regard, at the very least to get the main points summarised regularly.

I think one of the biggest factors in the state of anomie that sometimes seems to pervade the MyFC community is the lack of faith from the Board in the ability of the membership to make the right choices.  Alice Casey describes this perfectly:

…decision makers don’t give enough credit to public wisdom and intelligence, the press consistently portray the public as being respondent, passive and powerless rather than active and influential, and people themselves do not feel able to influence decisions in their communities. These three have worked together to ensure that many citizens remain as passive consumers.

Of course for many members, MyFC is a luxury item, so the constant peril at Ebbsfleet is that if members are not engaged with the Club or if the cost is too high (bascially value for money), they can walk away.  I don’t use the term  “peril” lightly: as widely predicted, 20,000 members did not renew in February 2008.  In the run up to that deadline the Board spent far too much time wringing their hands over this, rather than deal with the issues that were causing.

My view remains that the two most important roles for the Board are to build the community within the Society itself, and to implement mechanisms to inform and involve members in the activity of the Club.

Building a succesful internet community
I’m thinking along the lines of Slice the Pie or Zopa.  I refer to these two specifically as they were also featured in Ivo Gormley’s film, “Us, Now” alongside MyFootballClub.  Like MyFC, these organisations are set up in response to the failure of “real” institutions (like record companies and banks) for certain segments of those market.

They have a product which is easy for individual members to join, participate in, and contribute towards the development of the community.  Because of this openness, they are sustainable and successful.  It’s not the ownership that is the attractive thing about MyFC, it’s the participation.

Enabling members to collectively contribute
This means more than “give us your money, now f**k off”, which is sometimes how it can feel as MyFootballClub member.  It means being open about the decisions that are being made, and that requires a philosophical change of attitude from the Club as well as the Board.

But the most urgent task for the new Board must be to sort out the communication between the Club and the Members, and maximise members involvement with decisions.

The election result:

The above was draft before the election but I didn’t post due to work things & holiday.

I’m a little bit disappointed that a couple of candidates with more technical and financial nous narrowly missed out, but the bad eggs either stood down or didn’t make it through nomination.  They’re a reasonable crew, don’t agree with all of them all of the time, but that’s democracy for you.

In general they are starting well, and the new Chairman is also keen to improve communications.   There have been a few big issues that have cropped up over the last couple of months that have served to rally people to the cause and bring cohesion to the organisation.  But I’ll talk about them later.

I keep moaning about how MyFootballClub doesn’t always engage the principle of Wisdom of Crowds, but I neglected to mention this year’s kit manufacturer vote.  It’s a process I think we should have been shouting from the rooftops.

Similar to how Dave Pollard described in this post from 2004, the crowd (members) were employed to provide opinion and make the final choice, with the experts (The CEO and Chairman) using this information when going through the confidential tenders, but presenting an impartial summary back to the members.  This was a completely different approach than the previous season’s decision.

08/09 Nike Vote
In March 2008, shortly after taking over Ebbsfleet, we were approached by Nike, who offered to run our club shop, provide a wide selection of merchandise and all kinds of goodies, including the chance to choose a kit design.  It was a take it or leave it vote.

Like the spotty geek invited to the prom by the Netball captain, we jumped at the chance, though almost 10% of those that voted didn’t want it: Nike were too big, unethical, and that we were being pressure into making the decision.

In the end the chosen kit designs meant that a 3rd kit was required later in the season, because of colour clashes.  Nobody at the club or Society saw coming, but one might expect Nike would be aware of that kind of problem.  At the end of the season, there were piles of unsold shirts that the club still had to pay for, despite the promise of levels stock based on demand.

Oh, and the no penalty opt-out clause were told about – we’d “misinterpreted” this (and that’s not necessarily Nike’s fault, I hasten to add).

09/10 Ebbsfleet Kit Manufacturer process

As the time for exploring the contract approached, the Board and CEO drew up criteria list and asked individual members to rank them.   These included cost of kit, prestige of manufacturer, local supplier, variety of additional merchandise amongst others.

When three suppliers tendered for the contract, the CEO and Chairman used their judgement to give a point score for each criteria for each company.  There was a clear distinction between the three, with some companies scoring high on some criteria but low on others.

The results and a summary of the reasons for the point score were given to members.  The terms of each deal were confidential, but the companies agreed to demonstrate the expected profit to the Club at varying levels of merchandise sales.  The members were allowed to make their choice from the three (we chose Vandanel).

As far as I know, this was the first time a commercial decision has been made in such an open way from start to finish, passing back and forth between non-expert crowd and experts at the club.  We should try to do more business this way.

MyFootballClub members are about to hold their second full Society Board election since taking over ownership and management of Ebbsfleet United in February 2008.

The first election had a strange result, not least because the role of the Board in relation to the Club management was not defined.   Six local candidates  (and 1 from elsewhere in the UK ) were elected, none of whom had any experience of any social media,  internet governance or other qualities that would suggest they could take MyFootballClub from a good idea to a succesful organisation.

As a result, all but one of the original candidates had resigned by February 2009, at which point the level of dissatisfaction with the project was made clear.  20,000 of the members chose not to renew their subscription, putting the club in a dangerous financial situation, despite the existing debts having been cleared by the takeover.  This is just about resolved thanks a tight budget prepared by a group of members, and a top up of the playing budget (which is now higher than when MyFC took over) by member donations.   Compare this with many clubs facing crippling debt and/or administration at the moment.

An interim election was held in March 2009 to fill the missing places on the Board, and bizarrely, two of those who resigned only months before stood again.  The new interim Board promised to allocate specific roles to individual Board members, but I don’t feel that this has improved any communication between the Club, Members and the Board.  Some are standing again, boasting of their work for the club, e.g. “spent 6 hours dealing with the electrical wiring” when what is needed is people who can make the MyFootballClub organisation what it promised to be:

Mr Brooks has no qualms about describing his project an ethical mission. “My starting point is a firm belief in the wisdom of crowds. It’s the fans that have the club’s best interests at heart: so why shouldn’t they run it?” he asked.

Independent, 20th August 2007

Certainly there are a fair few candidates standing who are passionate about the Club, but are also clear about the distinction between organising a large group of people through a website, and making decisions and undertaking activity on their behalf.

MyFootballClub is still a rollercoaster ride. A couple of weeks ago the Club Secretary resigned and we lost several key players who were out of contract  to other clubs in the Blue Square Premier, in fact half the main team have gone.

Some of the remaining players are being sought out by rival clubs, and we’ve voted to reject offers on Michael Gash and Darius Charles.  This was a tough call, as the sale of these players could boost the playing budget for the rest of the squad.  But these two in particular have performed well this season and are firm favourites – both were bought after fundraising drives by members.  I think the most positive thing is that it’s raised the profile again, and seen the biggest vote turnout in a long time, almost 3,000 taking part.

The coach, Liam Daish,  announced that he’d like to stay on at the club, working with the “prudent” budget we’d approved; we voted to offer him a new contract.   The tight budget meant that we lost the assistant coach, but Paul McCarthy’s stepped up in this role, something members had been suggesting for a long time on the forums.

But we’re still better off than many other clubs at the moment, with no debt and a unique revenue stream.  Today it’s also reported that Setanta Sports, who have TV rights for Blue Square Premier matches, face administration, potentially a loss-earner for many clubs, but could actually be good for us  as our ability to provide TV coverage to the global membership has previously been hampered by the broadcast rules and contracts.

But you’ve gotta make up your minds. If you want to stay alive, then ante up. If you want to play it cheap, be on welfare the whole winter. I don’t want no volunteers, I don’t want no mates, there’s just too many captains on this island. Quint – Jaws (1975)

So it’s going to be an interesting summer as we fight off the circling sharks, try to boost the playing budget so that the coach can build a better team. And we’re still going through a process of organising ourselves, with votes on the size of the Society Board, and how we communicate with the Club management and each other.

One of the exciting principles of MyFC was that it would allow ordinary fans to get involved in the decision-making at a football club, in a way that had never been achieved before, the theory being that the crowd could make a better decision than experts.

In recent weeks, for example, we’ve been voting on:

• Season Ticket and Matchday ticket pricing
• Home and Away kits for 09/10 season
• 09/10 Season kit supplier

as well as some of the internal Society governance and club management issues.

Firefighting leads to disengagement

The voting process is far from smooth: there’s a constant balancing act between transparency and privacy, between “authority figures” recommending an option or a free vote.

There are also situations where the members approval is sought in order to authorise a Club officer to undertake an activity,  usually a forgone conclusion because we don’t have much choice in the short term but to accept the recommendation.  These kinds of votes cause the most division and the Board of MyFC really should have learned long ago that long term planning was needed as well as the short-term fire fighting.

MyFootballClub's Working Groups process

Groups, working

This is where the Working Groups come in, allowing a group of ordinary members to tackle an issue, break it down into to manageable tasks, and make well reasoned recommendations to the members, with open-ended votes.  They’re still in early stages, but already we’ve seen progress from the active groups.

For example, the Financials Working Group came back with a procedure for arranging and publishing the Society and Club accounts, something that had previously been bogged down by lack of ownership and inertia.  This will add clarity to discussion and allow decisions to be made with full awareness of the implications for the Society and Club.

These are the groups that are currently in progress or being considered,  all initiated and given the go-ahead by ordinary members of the Society, and approved by the Society Board.  Links require MyFC login.

Financial WG
Aim: Strengthen the flow of financial information and prepare forecasts and draft budgets for the Club and Society (full aims)
Status: In progress, Private, Open Forum
Leader: rugbyswift
Last weekly review: 15/4/09

Marketing & Advertising WG
Aim: Focus marketing and advertising campaigns for Club and MyFC Society (full aims)
Status: In progress, Group Area, Original thread
Leader: roca
First weekly review: due 27th April

Communications WG
Aims: Make recommendations to improve communications between members, Board, Club and general public (full aims)
Status: Awaiting Greenlight Vote, Forum Discussion

Surveys WG
Aims: Facilitiate surveys to members on behalf of Society and WGs
Status: Forum Discussion

Live Streaming WG
Aims: Investigate options for providing cost-effective live streaming of TV footage to overseas members
Status: Forum Discussion

Calendar & Planning WG
Aims: Establish timelines for activity leading up to important deadlines and improve Calendar functionality
Status: Forum Discussion

Get stuck in!

Weekly reports allow the wider membership to keep a casual eye on the situation, meaning they can get on with working on areas that interest them.  Other members may stick to discussions or just engaging in casual chat.  Nothing wrong with this, as it still contributes to the fabric of the Society.  Governance and communication are likely to be ongoing issues: the need to keep all types of member involved and informed.

This framework can take MyFootballClub from an unfocused mob to a more constructive, forward looking organisation.  Providing the Society’s Board, the Website Operator and the Club management cooperate with the recommendations of the members, finally MyFootballClub can get to grips with the fundamental problems and start owning Ebbsfleet United.

Many months ago, MyFC members started organising lifts across the country to get to games.  Like many of the inspiring possiblities, this fell by the wayside as the competent coders left.  Yahoo pipes offers some interesting possibilities, but I’m no coder.   So I offer it up as a challenge.

I’d like to see a mashup that:

• Retrieved a set of fixtures for a particular club
• Allowed users to offer or request a specfied number of lifts to a match
• Match up requests to offers based on deviation from route and other preferences, e.g. time of travel
• Allow people to create groups / networks for trusted lifts/offers.  E.g. there may already be a supporters trust that want to coordinate lifts.
• Print off a simple map / contacts list for the driver & passengers
• Provides an easy way to spot new offers/requests

This could be used by lots of lower league clubs to boost attendance, home and away.  Alternatively as a plugin to lastfm.  Anyone interested?

The Working Groups framework, which I mentioned last week, allows small groups to go off and undertake some research or an activity on behalf of the Society of Club.  One group has been formed and approved by members and Board to sift through the Finances and produce some solid recommendations for a sustainable Club.  Another group is being formed to look at Advertising and Marketing for both the Society and Club.

I can’t tell you enough how exciting it is to see these come to fruition, and the change in tone that I observe in the forums.  It’s like the sound of F1 car changing up a gear.

Willfull neglect
But despite my optimism, looking back to last September’s update on MyfootballClub and Ebbsfleet it’s sad to see that the problems I described are still there.

Any attempts to draw attention to the impending peril that the MyFootballClub Society and the Club faces are still met with disdain by some members.  As the day of reckoning approaches, the same people resort to illconsidered, out short-term panic measures.

The two Working Groups I mentioned above could provide recommendations or solutions within a month or so.  Some solutions that have been mooted could be implemented within a matter of weeks if allowed to be properly pepared, but there are still calls for these activities to be abandoned in favour of recruiting more members or just donating more cash.

Cumulative effect
When you add this attitude to a poorly run website which can’t adequately facilititate communication between the dwindling membership, and a Board who aren’t willing to tackle either of these issues, you can see how perilous the situation is for both MyFootballClub and Ebbsfleet United.

MyFootballClub just isn’t learning from it’s mistakes.

Cassandra
I predicted several possible scenarios in September as follows:

Things carry on as they are, the renewals don’t materialise and the club goes bust sometime between now and next christmas.

Membership dropped to 10,000 total probably 2000 regularly active.  Current projections are May/June.

The Operator starts to open up to suggestions and criticism, the site becomes more democratic and open and useful, people get engaged, the project continues as it should have.

Has not happened, despite my attempts to nudge him in this direction earlier in the year.  Even basic changes to improve navigation get ignored.

The FreeMyFC people produce an alternative to the Operator and come to the rescue of the Society.

Sadly there was too much anger, argument and resentment from both sides for this to happen.

The FreeMyFC people start a new venture without the baggage.

And so they did.  Southill Alexander FC have applied to join the Spartan South Midlands League, and appear to have modelled their venture based on the MyFC experience.

They are starting with a brand new team, with no baggage, several levels below Ebbsfleet.  Many members wanted MyFC to use this approach, rather than buy Ebbsfleet or even an existing team at this lower level.  They also don’t have the problem of “Traditional Fleet Fans” vs “MyFC football manager wannabes”, which could have been resolved quickly by bringing the existing supporters trust into the MyFC fold, as partners rather than rivals.

Like MyFC, they’re using member subscriptions to finance the club, at a low entry price of £25 per share.  But in the first year they’re only issuing 1,000 shares, and members can buy up to 5 if they want to contribute more to the pot.

There are other aspects that show how they have learned from MyFC’s mistakes:

Finance – Full Access to Club Financial management, budgetary planning and joint decision making.
Marketing – Members will drive recruitment, develop new income streams and marketing the club both locally and globally.
Website / IT – Work with the Clubs IT Managers to implement the tools Owners need.
Match Day Management – Help plan & add resources to create the best Match Day Experience for SAFCs fans.

Board Directors will serve either a 2 or a 4-year term of office, to ensure that there is both injection of new ideas alongside ongoing stability.

Starting at a lower level will enable Southill Alexander to develop these structures and procedures organically as they progress, something MyFootballClub hasn’t been allowed to do.  And they’re likely to succeed as they’ve got some the most enquiring, intelligent, witty and resourceful members that MyFC ever had.

Whilst I’d love to join them, I still think MyFC and Ebbsfleet United can be saved, though the attempt might drive me potty.

February 20th 2009 and MyFootballClub is left with just under 10,000 live members, with 22,000 having decided the venture wasn’t worth staying involved with for whatever reason.  Communications are still a problem, both in terms of the infrastructure we use to disseminate information, but also there’s great confusion about who does what.

We are currently holding another Board election, this time an interim election to fill the 5 missing board members.  That’s right, of the 7 members we elected last year to drive and monitor the strategy of the Society, only 1 remains, with 1 more having being coopted a couple of months back to fulfill legal requirements.  Bizarrely, one of the candidates is someone who resigned in December.

There are still a lot of passive members, but on the positive side, there seems to be a lot more willingness to challenge each other on issues we disagree with.  This almost always descended into personal argument, but perhaps we’re recognising the challenge we face to turn the organisation round and keep the club going.

The biggest plus point was the implementation of a Working Group structure, which I steered through, mindful of the need for a clear process and understanding of Roles and Division of labour that I picked up from Activity Theory.  This framework should allow us break down the many problems that the Society needs to deal with into manageable chunks, and give a mandate for small teams of members to go off and do the work, presenting their final findings to the wider membership for a decision.  David Pollard’s post on the appropriate use of Crowds and Experts in the decision-making process was a good reference point in this.

So yes, there are still problems, but it was too interesting not to stay involved.

Today is the day of reckoning for Ebbsfleet United and MyFootballClub.  Membership runs out for all those members who joined during the pre-takeover period, i.e. the 24,000 or so who signed up and paid their £35 between August 2007 and February 19th 2008.  The website has been dominated by talk of renewals for months, once it was realised that 24,000 memberships would expire on this date, leaving the club in financial jeapoardy if not enough people renew.  This has been reported all over the place – but the underlying reasons for the lack of engagement still seem a bit of a mystery to many.

All the comments I’ve been posting over the last year, about understanding the dynamics of an online community, of using existing tools and research, of enabling members to get involved in an online democracy – they’re still not resolved and I think it’s because Brooks doesn’t live in this sort of ideaspace. (can’t think of a better term).  Not his fault, but he needed to open up to Web 2.0 and the different paradigm a long time ago.

There are signs that he may be loosening control, and that his employees are starting to approach the site in a more collaborative spirit.  (if only they could learn to hold their temper when posting under an official avatar!).  And it’s not a massive job: many of the communication issues could be solved by automation and slight tweaks to the navigation and site structure.

There is also the hope of the new Board, the role of which is still being defined.  Originally, the Board elections didn’t take place until the club had been taken over, and communications lines were still flimsy.  Over the past year, they have resigned one by one, citing issues such as lack of support from Members, CEO and Operator; only two of the original 7 remain, with another member co-opted to fulfill the legal obligation.  So with a fresh election, can we get a board in place that is fully committed to the direct democracy model, a membership that fully supports them, and an Operator who will work with them to fulfill the Society’s aims?

The members themselves are also responsible for some of the problems.  A member wrote to me this morning:

“I think the general apathy in the membership to date has also played a role. It’s tough to get things working democratically when hardly anyone is interested in the governance issues. The smaller, more involved membership we’ll have going forward may help with this, but I wouldn’t bet on it making a massive difference. I’ve got some optimism that the polarisation will decrease now that many of the disillusioned will have left. I’m hoping that this will decrease the defensive mentality and allow progress to be made.”

With the change in membership numbers and participation, this may improve – there are certainly plenty of people willing to keep plugging, despite all the problems.  As another member said “For £35 it’s too interesting not to stay involved”.  My hope is that “renewal”will apply to the Society as well as the individual members subscriptions.