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[bumble]

HELP! YOUR CLUB NEEDS YOU
The following article by Peter Foster of TASC appeared in Saturday's matchday programme...
"Most Altrincham fans understand the facts of football and financial life for the club, however for any of you that are not aware, here goes:

The club shares are held by many different individuals, (if you are interested in buying shares contact Grahame Rowley), with no-one having a controlling interest. The club is run by a Board of Directors who are basically supporters who have been willing to take on the responsibility for guiding the club. They contribute as much time to the running of the club as their day jobs allow.

We have one full time employee – Jenny, who looks after the bar, the shop, making sure the players have clean kit, the Yankee, and lots more. Kenny, Stuart and the players are all part time, and that’s pretty much it from the perspective of paid staff.

So how does the club function in a league which includes clubs that have 20-30 full time staff running their clubs? Simply through volunteers – all of the day to day functions are covered in this way – Secretary, Matchday Secretary, stewards, Kit man, doormen on match days, club marketing, matchday hospitality, catering for fans, Groundsman, ball boys, Youth team manager, staff at United reserve games, organising of fundraising events, programme editor, programme contributions, coach travel, Press Officers, Robins' Shop and website - apologies for those I have missed!

So the club just about competes in this league where so many teams have more resources, (is the Conference really non league as we know it?). It manages by scrapping for every penny it can through the gate, from advertising, match day sponsorship, bar takings, income from fund raising events, etc, and keeps outgoings as low as possible to ensure as much money as possible is directed to the playing side.

Which brings us to the point of the article – how do we move on from here? We have to assume that there is no millionaire benefactor reading this piece – if you are, ring the Chairman straight away! Without such good fortune, we must make our own luck.

As mentioned earlier, every fund raiser – whether it is Meet the Players, Sportsman’s Dinner, Race Nights, Raffles, Friends of Altrincham FC, Golden Goal, etc are all run by volunteers, and usually the same people. All of the proceeds for these events go to funding the playing budget and if we are to increase our income, and generate more funds for the playing side of the club, we need more people to step forward to support, organise, and help with events and initiatives such as these.

Clearly most fans recognise the importance of such things, and support the events as much as possible, however reading the forum recently there have been a few threads discussing fund raising, or ideas that would raise the profile of the club – ideas that may well be workable and worthwhile. They seem to run out of steam when they reach the point of someone taking the idea through to fruition, as if there is an expectation that someone at the club will pick them up and deliver them.

So in answer to these and other questions:

Why don’t we put up more posters?
Why have we not published a centenary book?
Why do our ideas get ignored?
The club does not have the resources!!!

Unfortunately, the club is just about running out of manpower. Many of the voluntary functions mentioned earlier are done by the same people. They are also often the same people that run the TASC events, and all have their day jobs as well. The club needs the ideas for raising funds, or the clubs profile; however it needs people such as you to be willing to get involved, to take a bigger role in the club, and to help to deliver these projects. At present this is the only way in which we can generate more funds to support the playing side, which is ultimately what we all want to see developing.

If you are interested in helping in any way, contact Grahame Rowley (Club Chairman), or Brian Flynn (TASC Chairman).