Happy New Year!

Wow, 2011 already. Frightening isn't it? Last weekend Stevenage beat Newcastle in the FA Cup and apparently it was twelve years ago wkhen they last met when Stevenage were a non-league side. Twelve years since we played 'Boro in the FA Trophy? (the week before they played Newcastle), an unbelievable eighteen years since we beat them 7-1 in the league...

Time remains an issue when trying to update the blog, I just don't know where it goes. Obviously the winter has been unkind to football clubs so far this year, postponements and lost income do not equate to good news. As I have alluded to in programme notes, this makes it a real challenge for the Board...but having already written programme notes on that particularly story, I don't really want to go into all that again on the blog.

So what else is new? Well, it's a learning process all the time this football club business, and perhaps the most important lesson learned is the fact that you will never please all the people all the time, but if you can please some of the people some of the time, then you're not doing bad. Do I now regret being a bit of a mouthy git in my youth? Yes, probably. The club now, probably more than in recent years, is very heavily reliant on unpaid volunteers and everytime one of those volunteers is deflated by an off the cuff remark, posting on the website or verbal tirade, that effects the success of the club, because there is not a queue of volunteers waiting to take over....but that's enough of my moaning.

In the past 7 days we have completed the signing of Shane Gore on a contract. The details were agreed pre-Christmas when we were having to weigh up how we work out what percentage of wages to pay out, it just seemed logical to offer Shane a contract as, what many would agree, one of the best goalkeepers we have had at Chesham for many a year. Of course, we then got hit by the bad weather, games were called off and the contract was never signed until last weekend. In the meantime, the games we did play further enhanced Shane's reputation as a top goalkeeper at this level and attracted the attention of two higher level club's...their seven day approaches presumably getting lost in the Christmas post.

Last week we also had to have a real focus on bringing in some advertising/sponsorship to help the short term cashflow. We are still awaiting some sizeable sponsorship cheques, but we also made a focused effort on filling some of the blank match and ball sponsorship. A successful mission I am pleased to say (but still a long way to go). Perhaps we need to be in crisis mode more often, it seemed to deliver the results.

Within the football club budget there is a forecast of expected income from share purchases by the Supporters' Trust, for that to happen there needs to be some serious fundraising going on; I'd be a liar if I didn't confess to a little concern about us hitting these targets. We have a Race Night coming up on 29th January, these are fantastic fundraisers and if we can really work at getting around 80 people along to the event then we can make a decent amount of money, but that needs a bit of work, and organisation...it looks to be something else that has fallen on my plate (if you want to sponsor a horse for £5 and be in with a chance of winning a bottle of bubbly and a 2011/12 season ticket, email me now, like wise if you would like to sponsor a race for £25).

Another seemingly minor point, but one capable of giving countless grief, is the operating of the Boardroom on matchdays throughout February with so many home games, and regular helpers not available for the first half of the month. Not top priority for supporters I appreciate, but having gone to the effort of filling the match sponsorships, it is important that we produce an expected level of hospitality on a matchday, that's in addition to welcoming visiting officials and the match officials, plus other Boardroom guests which include Life Vice Presidents who over the years have done huge amounts for the club, including funding. If we fail to look after these people, there's got to be something wrong.

(Another lesson learned, I too used to look through the Boardroom window and think that people in there were just sipping free drinks and eating free food at the club's expense, it's just not like that. The general rule in the Boardroom is that tea and coffee is available before the game for the referee and linesmen and visiting officials and other guests. At half-time there is a provision of tea or coffee again, together with biscuits and cake, this tends also be open to Life Vice Presidents. After the match there is a free bar, and food supplied, during the cold weather this tends to be warm food - these are league guidelines, and not an unnecessary expense. Speaking for myself, and I believe the majority of our Board, I don't bother with a free drink from the Boardroom - because it's not really free).

Tonight we have a friendly against the RAF Senior Representative XI, again we will be providing Boardroom hospitality, but hopefully a little bit quieter to give us time to sort a few things out that still require addressing.

On the subject of Boardroom, on 1st February we are hosting our latest Business Partners Evening which will include the launch of the Corporate Patron Scheme for next season. There is still a lot of work to do to get invites out, plan the evening and cover catering and "mingling" on the night. This is followed later in the season with a match where we will be inviting all our Life Vice Presidents along to the game for a pre-match meal and hospitality. A big thank you for their contribution to the club over the years.

Another evening we are looking to plan is a 'Past Managers' Evening as we look to get as many past Chesham managers as possible along for an evening with some informal Q & A's, a comedian and a generally enjoyable evening. The idea being that we have the formality of a Sportsman's Dinner, but more affordable for supporters to come along and enjoy. I make no secret of the fact that the Sportsman's Dinners of the past couple of years have been massively difficult to sell and has caused countless sleepless nights trying to get up to the break even figure. If it hadn't been for the large number of tickets sold, and guests brought along, by my predecessor then these dinners would have been close to a disaster...which is a shame because the are thoroughly enjoyable evenings. Done well, they can be an amazing fundraiser, but you need to be able to sell enough tickets at £40-50 to achieve that goal, and then have people willing to spend money on the night with an auction. I'm hopeful that we will still have a Sportsmans Dinner before the end of the season, but it might be a little different, and it might not be at The Chess Suite...one to watch this space on.

Back on the field we have had a change of Reserve team manager, Geoff Glasgow deciding to call it a day prior to Christmas. The Reserve team managers role is a tough one, and I know Geoff just didn't feel he was delivering what we needed. Promotion last season for the First XI has made the gap between reserves and first team bigger, which makes it challenging because we want/need the Reserve team to provide support to the First XI as well as being a stepping stone for the youngster that have come up through the club from a very young age. With no funds available for playing personnel, or management, at reserve team level, it is a difficult task. Could a top player at Chesham United Reserve team level pick up a few quid playing his football a couple of steps down the pyramid? Perhaps a less ambitious move for a player, but an understandable decision if they chose that route.

After Geoff resigned Andy and I had a lot of long chats about what we wanted to do with the Reserves going forward, and how best to get that working within the aims of the club. Steven Benitez and Ross Eames both came along independently to the game against Bedford Town and met with Andy to discuss the role. Andy obviously fancying himself as bit of a Simon Cowell came up with the idea of combining their talents to create a new dream team that will hopefully make Chesham United Reserves a very important cog in the Chesham United wheel (I was desperate for it not to become a burden this season, just a struggle to field a team, and almost independent of the main club, I am very optimistic that this will not now be the case). Early communications have been very encouraging, the results are not as important as the development of the players and the club, though obviously good results boost the morale of everybody.

At this point may I just mention huge thanks to Lisa Welling who has literally within the last hour just informed us that we have received notification from the FA that Chesham United FC has achieved Charter Standard Community Club status, the highest level of charter status. I may have just spoiled the effectiveness of the PR to follow, but hey, you've got to shout about such fantastic news. Further proof yet again that we are true to our word about the ambitions of making Chesham United a real community club, and we are not just talking the talk.

I started this piece by saying about lessons learned, sadly one of the other important lessons is the need for serious money to run a club at this level. We need people now to realise that we are a proper club, worth investing in, because we are not just going to pour the money down the drain of hopeless ambition.

Thank you to everyone for playing your part, it's an ongoing task, but we are starting to prove the doubters wrong.