Rather helpfully, the OS has given us a second installment from the Conference AGM this weekend. It is a bit odd seeing references to WHAS rather than WHAK. Though I suppose we can be thankful that they don’t hold AGMs in North Korea…
Anyway, what did we learn? Well, the first impression I get is that it’s a bit, ahem, chaotic. Last year we were so in awe of being in a division that people have (sort of) heard of that it all seemed new and exciting and “proper”. Remember the infamous quote from the OS last year, “in a different league”?
This time round, it didn’t sound quite so fun. Dare I say a tad anarchic? Certainly disorganised, if the elections to the board are an indication. I get the impression that if we’re expecting a smooth running operation now in the league we’ll get disappointed very quickly. One only needs to read other clubs’ messageboard (especially Oxford) to see what awaits us.
Usual talk about everyone living within their means etc etc. I advise anyone not to hold their breath over this. At least you can guarantee that the same thing will be said at next year’s AGM.
From our point of view, Erik Samuelson didn’t get elected on the Conf Board, so he can spend more time with us. Now, some would no doubt breathe a sigh of relief over this, because of his workload being pretty high as it is.
Unfortunately, there is a tendancy at Wimbledon (both eras) to have a particular individual to “do it all”. Some of our fans practically require it, or at least seem to. The “Erik Is God” attitude that some have is a bit on the dangerous side. Not only to poor Mr Samuelson but the club as a whole.
Look at our setup and compare it with Luton. They have not only a Chairman, but a Managing Director, Financial Director and Financial Controller. I suspect in reality Erik does all four tasks by himself, at least to some degree. That’s not a good situation, either for the individual or the club. Remember when Erik got pneumonia? OK, the club ran well enough without him, but that was a warning shot in more ways than one.
Yet another good reason why it’s good to be a Conference club (and yes, it gets better every time I write that) is that it’s going to force us to delegate things. It’s going to force us to employ a separate financial director, or comms/media bod, or at the very least make us realise that we just can’t rely on one or two individuals. Quite simply, the club will grow too much and be too big for it to be run like it has since 2002. It’s not as though we don’t pay wages for specific positions – we employ Keith McGuinness after all.
I expect if Erik stood for the Conf Board next year he’ll get on. Just think of the kudos and contacts he would make if he did. Assuming he’s not knackered out beforehand…
Elsewhere, it does look as though Setanta will be rescued in time for our inevitable televised fixture with Stevenage. Another bidder for them is Endemol, the bastards behind Big Brother. On the surface of it, it seems strange for a company that specialises in gibbering idiots who have poor communication skills and sub-par intelligence to bid for a sports channel.
But then, Setanta do employ Paul Parker…
UPDATE: Well, whaddya know? Seems like the club have already started to take some steps towards what I mentioned above. And no, I don’t have a hotline to AFCW where they drop hints to me.
What a junior administative assistant is I don’t know, apart from tea maker, but if nothing else it does illustrate that we’ll be relying less and less on volunteers in the future.
Does anyone know what a salary for that job would command by the way?