stocking horse

[andgarod]

how does someone get elected to the board
it might make the board sit up if one of the plebs was nominated for the board at the age
That said I don't think there is an agm needed by company law

[RegencyCheltenhamSpa]

I would suppose you have to demonstrate what value you would offer - either a specific skill, plenty of time, or good commercial contacts.

This is why M Toms in in the Board, for his marketing (etc) work.

The question is then, why would someone that qualified take up a voluntary role rather than working full time to earn money. And if they are working full time, then they are going to be in the same position as the current board.

[Ihearye]

For a split second I thought this should be in non footy / perversion then I worked out it was stalking horse LOL

[andgarod]

bloody predictive text haha
I need to have a look at who is 5th and 6th biggest shareholders
I don't think that rcs is right if you have enough votes you can muscle your way on.
I am sure there are lots of people with more shares than our current directors
which of course begs the question who is pulling the boards strings

[RegencyCheltenhamSpa]

bloody predictive text haha
I need to have a look at who is 5th and 6th biggest shareholders
I don't think that rcs is right if you have enough votes you can muscle your way on.
I am sure there are lots of people with more shares than our current directors
which of course begs the question who is pulling the boards strings

As per my list of the top five shareholders in the CEO thread, the fifth biggest is listed as Mr Simon Harrison who owns 6% of the shares.

Just checked and it looks like Mr David Lawrence is sixth biggest with 3.3%.

Seventh is Paul Godfrey with 1.5%. Colin Farmer is still listed with around 1% (as of September 2022).

But basically, with the three biggest owning 70% it is clear where influence will come from. The top five own 85%.

Quite a few of our directors are not named by name as owning shares, but may have fractional ownership under the ‘other untraced shareholders’.

My point is, if the shareholders don’t want to be on the Board, don’t have time, or don’t have useful skills then they won’t be on the Board.

The owners and other Board members obviously feel the current Board have the best to offer of those who want to volunteer time and effort.

I do think if someone approached the Board with a clear offer of what they could bring in terms of time, skills and contacts and the owners and Board felt it would benefit the club, then they would be invited to join.

[Lord Elpuz]

I may be wrong here, forgive me if the memory cells are letting me down … was it the case when Paul Baker was Chairman, the Board agreed to take on anyone prepared to invest £100,000 to join the Board? Whether inflation has altered this figure, or whether the offer still applies, for those with a bit of loose change in their pockets, under the mattress or floorboards, that would seem the most direct route.

[RegencyCheltenhamSpa]

I may be wrong here, forgive me if the memory cells are letting me down … was it the case when Paul Baker was Chairman, the Board agreed to take on anyone prepared to invest £100,000 to join the Board? Whether inflation has altered this figure, or whether the offer still applies, for those with a bit of loose change in their pockets, under the mattress or floorboards, that would seem the most direct route.

That changed when the Trust were made to pay £200k.

[London Exile]

I thought it was the case now that if you had a skill that appealed to the board, then you could be invited to join.
Clive Gowing - accountancy and Murry Toms - social media/comms being two examples where they’ve given a lot of time over and helped the club in key areas.
That’s fine but with full time jobs and families outside of the football club, it must be a huge pressure on all members of the board so I can’t fathom why they aren’t appealing for a couple of other additions to the board to help lighten the load?

[andgarod]

RCS you are correct that the then chairman increase it to £200K to get an FED but as I explained elsewhere he didnt want one on the board and any way knew the trust had £200K spare
He was challenged not only by trust members but by shareholders
At the end of the day the big 3 or 4 would stop any pleb getting on the board
I am sure there are a number of supporters who could offer to volunteer but they will only be accepted if they tick the boxes

No one has ever walked uo to me and asked what my views are
I have challenged and or asked for information at shareholder/trust forums but again we are talking about 30 or 40 people

The board dont need to worry when they have 85% backing them

[RegencyCheltenhamSpa]

I thought it was the case now that if you had a skill that appealed to the board, then you could be invited to join.
Clive Gowing - accountancy and Murry Toms - social media/comms being two examples where they’ve given a lot of time over and helped the club in key areas.
That’s fine but with full time jobs and families outside of the football club, it must be a huge pressure on all members of the board so I can’t fathom why they aren’t appealing for a couple of other additions to the board to help lighten the load?

There are two barriers here.

1. To appeal for, and get applications from, the right people with the right skills the Board have to know what skills they need. This takes time to think about. More importantly, organisations and companies are generally bad at self-diagnosing their knowledge and skills gaps without outside advice. Personally, I think the Club should hire a non-executive director to attend Board meetings. They will ask the right questions and the gaps in the Board’s knowledge and skills will become apparent. The Board can then appeal for more additions and to fill the gaps.

2. To identify the skills the Board needs they also need to know what the vision and main focus is they want to achieve. If the Board primarily want the club to be a pillar of the community then a new Board member who is plugged into local public sector, third sector and education networks would be best. If the number one focus is seeking external commercial investors to finance a new stadium then a new Board member with infrastructure financing experience would be best. And so on and so on, and any combination to meet the Club’s priorities.

A general appeal for more people, without addressing the above points, will probably be more hassle than it is worth as the Board will have to waste time filtering out all the unsuitable people who think “I’ll give it a go.”

The challenge is of course finding the skills and experience needed amongst the fan base - because no one who isn’t a fan is going to want to volunteer to do it for free.

I have challenged and or asked for information at shareholder/trust forums but again we are talking about 30 or 40 people

This is why the Trust needs more members. Rather than 30 or 40 people, imagine if Trust AGMs had 300 or 3,000 people.

[Jerry St Clair]

More realistically, join the Robins Trust. The more members we have, the more influence we have at Board.

[leohoenig]

Join the trust, join the trust board this November
Then apply to become FED a year later.