No Confidence in Laurence Overend as Trust Chairman

[Snakebite]

Not just him but the rest of the BOS. To them a crisis is a typo in the latest rewrite of the constitution, or whether they've got a representative to send to the next Supporters Direct meeting as some other team at the other end of the country looks to set up a Trust themselves.

As Harris has put it many times, it's all a bit village fete organising committee with them and the constant need to get bogged down in beaurocracy. It'd be nice if they actually did something tangible and reported on that, rather than triumphantly hailing the latest diversity or community five a side competition that attracted fifteen teams to a tournament in Feniton as an example of positive action.

I completely agree.

 

[barry sansom]

Al, in my view, there is no need for the BOS to resign en masse and stand for re-election. That process would take too long. Instead, their role needs to be massively re-defined. The entirely acceptable short-term route is for the Trust to dramatically overhaul the club board, appointing two independent non-execs (who would be paid a commercial rate) to sit alongside the Chairman of the Trust (not Overend), the CEO (probably not Wolfenden) and the Company Secretary (definitely not Conway).

I am pretty certain the non-executives would want to embrace the expertise of the wider business community for the benefit of the club’s commercial operation. But all that can be done outside the current Trust Board set-up. Having effectively delegated governance of the club to the non-execs, the Trust Board can concentrate on two things - growing its membership (and it might need some distinct commercial help to deliver this objective, ideally provided by a new Trustee but possibly offered by employees of the club) and taking care of all the community interest stuff which it seems to do reasonably well.

The present set-up will never attract anybody with business expertise because they simply won’t want to waste time in such a bureaucratic structure especially when entirely sensible commercial proposals might still be voted down by entirely clueless Trust Board colleagues.

I Can't argue with that.

 

[hatch4england]

The final paragraph is why I have been describing the Trust model as a failed experiment for a while. I would have thought it would be fairly easy to find experienced NEDs who would do the job for small/nil remuneration. To be honest, I have been a bit shocked that people who call themselves supporters who are NEDs would want to be paid for it in the first place... and then charge through companies (tax savings) a fee which would be appropriate for a much larger business. I bet they don't pay for their entry to the ground on match days either.

The present structure would drive me bonkers - when things need to be done, us business types just get them done. We don't faff about with committees and subcommittees: competitive business seldom gives the smaller business that luxury and if you are not light on your feet and decisive, you fail.

 

[Edward]

Hatch, I agree some might question the need to pay the non-execs for their time (especially if they are keen supporters) but you need people with more ability than appetite. We have tried the latter and it doesn't work. Nobody can question Tagg's desire to do the right thing but there is plenty of evidence to suggest he hasn't managed to do the right thing. That comes down to a lack of ability. You need to pay for talent. Mind you, I would be thinking that the non-execs could both be remunerated for what is currently paid to Chorlton. Two directors at £500-£600 per day for 10 days per annum each is £10-£12k. Job done.

And for the avoidance of all doubt, I have absolutely no time to do it but there are capable people who have more time, more appetite and more ability. Appoint them.

 

[blackdown red]

The trust is a spent coin letting the club freefall to a point where we in DEVON will not have a club to support. Please hand over to somebody who has the time to look after the interest of the real supporter. We need to try get a partner on board sooner rather than later. I say to Perryman TAG and the rest of so called board LOOK AT THE SITUATION AND CLIMB DOWN FROM YOUR HIGH TOP TREES ROLL YOUR SLEEVES UP ,AND WORK AT THE CLUBS FUTURE not sit around in some hotel lounge planning how to make your next £100 grand.

 

[rightwing]

The guillotine has probably kicked in at 9.00pm without firm action being taken. I remember several meetings going on past 10.30pm when we had a crisis in the early days of the Trust - I see Laurence is online at the moment.