Jim, an old school friend from England, recently tracked me down through the power of a Google search and his first two comments were "You've gone completely bald" and "I can't believe you are the Chairman of a Football Club". I'm not sure what was the biggest shock to him! The last time I saw him I still had some of the curly hair seen in this picture of me as a U12 player for our school St Bonaventures R.C. in Forest Gate in London. That picture was taken during the warm up session of a school match and as you can see there was not a lot of warming up going on with only one boy, Brosnan, chasing the ball off camera with the rest of us standing around looking a bit the worse for wear.
In those days a Football Club Chairman looked like the character played by Jim Broadbent in the excellent Damned United. Coincidentally the film depicts events at Leeds United happening around the same time the photo of me was taken. Presumably my mate Jim sees me as a bald version of the ruddy faced, cigar smoking, pin stripe suited, whiskey drinking Jim Broadbent, conducting nefarious Football club Chariman's business behind closed doors in a smoke filled room.
Well fortunately there is not a lot in common between the Chairman of DC Stoddert Soccer in 2009 and Derby County in the early 1970s. Aside the smoking ban at our Jellef offices the biggest difference is transparency. The way we conduct club business is very different now than was the norm back then.
At DC Stoddert we are using this blog, an overhauled club web site and Google Groups to increase communication and allow greater discussion and exchange between club volunteers and parents and staff. All club Board meetings are open to club members and minutes are posted on the club web site (note to self, check that they are up to date). We are just about to launch some parent surveys to gather feedback on issues important to parents of our recreational and travel players. Those surveys will provide input to a planned strategic retreat as we seek to align our club programs with identified priority needs. Earlier feedback from recreational coaches and commissioners identified fields and the reach of coach education and support as two key issues. Our recent Premier Partnership Agreement with DC Department of Parks and Recreation is a start on the fields issue. But we have a lot more work to do there to improve field quality and support DC DPR in expanding their programmtic reach.
One pending action item is for the club to undertake a strategic assessment of our field needs for both our rec and travel programs and then work out the different options for meeting those. This includes the DC DPR partnership and investing $180,000 a year in fields and equipment. We are also purchasing time on DC public school fields and private school fields as well as continuing our relationship with the Maryland Soccerplex in Germantown for our "home" travel games.
In the coming weeks I'll look to share something on what the DC Stoddert Board is doing and will look for comments and feedback from club members on what we are doing well, and what we need to do better. If you really want to confirm that we are not making decisions behind closed doors in smoke filled rooms, join us at Jellef on May 6 at 7:00 PM for the next fun packed Board meeting.
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