To be elected means to have been subjected to a vote of an electorate. In Lewes FC parlance to be elected means you applied for the right to be in that vote for the Board but the vote did not happen. You were therefore NOT ELECTED. Doh !
Little attention is paid to the elections to the Board at Lewes FC. We are a small club and Board members do what nearly all fans wouldn’t and that is to dedicate a large slice of their lives to forwarding the interests of our club. Therefore anyone getting onto the Board is seen as a Super Volunteer and we all applaud that.
So it seems churlish to question the method of election. Or as the case is at Lewes FC, the self appointment of Board members. In the next fanzine we will be arguing that the club has effectively drifted into a community focused private ownership from community ownership and these elections add pure weight to the thought.
I don’t doubt that all Board members regret the current situation where most of them are not actually elected but get a wild card as nobody else is standing. But in that case why the hell don’t they do something about it ? Is it arrogance or haplessness that sees them all seemingly happy to act without a proper mandate oblivious to their responsibilities to the club owners ? Or is simply an unhealthy disregard to our democratic constitution ?
At the last 2017 elections to the Board of Lewes FC a farcical result ensued. With five places up for grabs only 5 people stood. They automatically went onto the Board. This is a dictionary definition of undemocratic. In a town known for proud strong political stirrings this went surprisingly unnoticed.
We are a ‘community club.‘ Supposedly. A core value is that the members of the board are elected democratically by the owners of the club.
The 2018 board elections were for three places this year. As is seemingly customary only three people stood and were mathematically therefore what the club call ‘elected’ to the Board. Which of course they were not.
So in twelve months eight members, over two thirds of the ‘democratically elected’ Board at Lewes FC has changed without one member being elected by a vote.
The last time anyone was voted on was 2016 on a turnout of 20-25%. Two of those voted on were the two major club benefactors. Turkeys, Christmas and all that.
You can play around the figures but the Lewes FC Board has next to no electoral mandate. That is a fact.
So after the farce last year what steps have the Board taken to drastically improve this totally unacceptable state of affairs ?
Er…..nothing. Indeed I contacted the club a couple of months ago and expressed an interest in standing and got a mere terse generic reply, when some enthusiasm and encouragement would have maybe sufficed to get me standing and a proper vote. Despite my interest there was no follow or chase up email when not enough numbers applied to make a vote necessary, which with not enough candidates would you would of thought been in everyone’s interest. Indeed an obligation.
This situation should never have arisen. With 5 places up for grabs in 2017 and 5 candidates, 3 places up for grabs in 2018 and 3 candidates the obvious thing to do was to remove one of the places up for grabs in each election forcing a vote. After all under our constitution the loser, if the Board felt would be a pivotal member, could be co opted onto the Board after the election. But at least we would have had ticked the basic minimum needed to call ourselves a democratic club. But this incredibly simple solution was sadly beyond either the will or the collective competency of the Board. Yes there is an enormous workload to running the club the Board carry out voluntarily, but the principles of community ownership should be a priority as concentrate on this and the members and volunteers will come. Proof of this is the enormous nationwide publicity Lewes FC are getting but the poor take up of new members and volunteers. Why do either when you are voiceless in how your club is run.
At a club from the town of Thomas Paine it really shows the problem of having so many people on the Board with no long record of A) being involved with the club. B) living or any history with the town. Because they see fit to ignore a core the value of democracy and the culture of our town. Read up on and spend some time studying what Lewes is about. Maybe even spend some time getting to know the town. I would humbly suggest might be a starting point.
I am just left to conclude that the Board, as their inertia shows, couldn’t give a fig about democracy and the fans having a proper say in how the club is run. Maybe if club members were properly involved and had a say and role in how the club is run you may get more joining organically rather than your failing cranky branding. Members of the Board have admitted to me they recognise the club is aloof from the town. Running a pivotal part of our democracy as a sham will not buck that trend.
Why does it matter ? The club is slipping into being run by a self elected cartel. Those self elected are highly competent and run a football club very well. But being self elected and a cartel means there is nobody to stop this drift into a hybrid private / community model which is not what the board are supposed to stop happening but are merely facilitating it.
The Rights of Fans. 