MyFootballClub’s new board – 3rd time lucky?

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.

Crowdsourcing: the ping pong approach

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.

Crowdsourcing at Ebbsfleet United: building the Republic of Football

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.

Bishop’s Move

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.