Home Truths

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

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.

MyFC gets closer to Web2.0 expectations

MyFootballClub now have a WordPress blog integrated into the site so that the Society Board and the CEO and Chairman of the football club can communicate regularly to members in one place. Something I’ve been going on at them to do for ages. I’ve also got them to use twitter for updates, though people are still getting used to it (both the society board and the guys who maintain the site!).

I’m still trying to get them to be more open about their team selection process and getting members to think carefully about it. There’s a big friendly match against Charlton on the 12th July where we’ll be choosing the team, but I think the “system” they’re using is a severe mangling of Wisdom of Crowds principles.

This is very dangerous: if the process has the effect of sanctioning of the Coach’s selection, members will lose faith that their opinion counts for anything, not bother taking part, and thus Pick The Team gets dropped. This was one of the core principles of MyFC and though it’s not critical for every member, there are many that would that would not renew next February if it was dropped. If their mechanism doesn’t correctly aggregate the selections it risks fielding an unsuitable lineup, again suggesting it should be dropped.

Now if they opened up their mechanism, even if only to a select group of statistics geeks, they could check that it produced a “good” average lineup. The solution I proposed had some problems when you had a split verdict (unlikely scenarios but couldn’t be ignored), but in discussion with others I’ve found other ways that bring a diverse set of selections closer to an single “average” lineup. And from that, it’s really not hard to accept the Coach overiding some positions, as long as he tells us afterwards why this was done and therefore improve the information we have for next time.  And of course if he overrules us and gets it wrong, perhaps he’ll learn something.

It’s not that hard, is it?

Wembley wobbles

A long gap between posts, the result of too many other things going on, mainly the pre-Wembley exctiement.

Shortly after my last post it seemed that things were getting really out of hand:

• The board and web team were being constantly criticised, with one board member in particular being singled out for not communicating with the members they were supposed to represent.
• The web team found themselves bogged down with preparations for Wembley, rather than being able to concentrate on the site, society and board.
• Team Selection was as contentious as ever – members were criticised by the web team for not using the application, members responsded that the application was not particularly useful and that they lacked the information to be able to make those choices. For example the BBC had fitness and availability reports long before matchday whilst the selection application was still showing out of date information. There was also little feedback on how the members selections compared to the Coaches.
• In addition to this there was a row about the Authority of the Forum team, moans about financial information, perceived “rubber stamping” of votes, and many a storm in a teacup.

The whole venture is still based around a web forum, with only a minority of society members taking part, and discussions going on for ages without any real resolution or means to take action. I think there’s a sizeable portion of the main forum users that have never used an internet forum as extensively. At the same time (showing my age here) it feels like the generations below me just don’t know how to deal with people and opinions they disagree with.

This is not helped by confusion from the top: the lines of communication are still not established, with the roles and relationships between the Operator, Board, club management, forum team still not clearly defined or set out anywhere. For me, this has to be the priority.

There is hope

Member contributions are starting to produce improvements. Diffdude created a simple calendar of Club / Society acitivies which can be viewed on the site, or downloaded into your own email client. The Podcast has been brought into the main site, and the weekly newsletter has also led to a daily newsletter. Best of all has been the MyFC Scout site, which aims to collate member’s scouting reports from matches so that we’re more informed for team selection.

These resources will only thrive if they are integrated or affiliated with the main site. The MyFC Foreign committee, set up by a group of users with the aim of translating important articles or propositions, also seems to have been left out in the cold for now.

I’ve been told that there is going to be a shift in emphasis of the main page, and hopefully some restructuring of the forums sometime soon. What I would like to see is a roadmap for development, so that we can see what is coming, and frame any discussions about functionality and requirements around that.

So there’s still a long way to go, and I hope the web team crack on with improvments over the summer and open up to the talent that’s available from the members.