Cod Almighty | Diary

Diversity

5 May 2020

Another week without football but at least we have some exciting news to cover. Grimsby Town have a new chairman. Our days of being a rudderless ship drifting around Division Four and non-League are over. If you will pardon the pun, a new Day has dawned. Yesterday the club announced that during a virtual directors' meeting (how exciting) Phillip Day was appointed our new chairman; I would use the term chairperson but as our board consists wholly of over-50s white men it doesn't seem appropriate.

Casual Diary was pulled up a few weeks back when Mr Day was "put in charge of the day-to-day running" of the club for mistaking him for Mr Marley: another of the sycophantic goons who made up the panel on the infamous fans forum night. Diversity hasn't quite reached GTFC if it has reached North East Lincs at all. The board of directors is made up entirely of people who act, think and behave like our once non-chairman, and major shareholder, so it is not always easy to tell them apart.

Even the representatives of the Mariners Trust are those least likely to rock the boat. I well remember attending a trust AGM at which one of the representatives stated he had no interest in taking over the club as a fan-owned entity. Personally I have to question why in that case did he join the trust, and why was he chosen to represent the fans. He was indicating that regardless of how badly the club was run by any succession of local boys made good or loaded foreign carpetbaggers, he would unstintingly help them in their endeavours rather than attempt a fans takeover.

I believe in the trust, for all its flaws, and do not for one minute forget the fantastic amount of volunteer hours which go in to making it function. However surely the ultimate goal of the trust should now be to bring the club under fan control? Rather, those in charge mirror the current leadership of my other passion, the Labour Party. They don't seek change to the status quo: merely to manage it better.

Even if we accept the limitations the trust puts on its own ambitions, it could use its position to begin to alter the diversity of the board. I can hear the howls of the anti-PC brigade even as I write. There are however prime candidates active within the trust who would bring knowledge and a certain feistiness. I don't know any of the three well, but their record of achievement speaks for them.

First, Sharon who runs the bars for the trust. What insight and first hand knowledge and experience she could provide to the board meetings. Now I have no doubt she does via a third party but how much better to have her present for expert, on the spot opinion. Second: Kelly Billings. No disrespect intended to the current post-holder but before Kelly stepped down for health reasons, she did a fantastic job as Family Liaison Officer, providing excellent pre-match activities for junior members to encourage return visits. What better person to advise on what young families seek from their local club to encourage attendance? Finally I give you Kris Green. A recent university graduate in a related subject, but more importantly a vital link to the clubs most passionate fans. Her ability to inform what would and would not play with those fans could be vital. It is hard to imagine a fans forum panel she was a member of degenerating into a shouting match, but she has proved more than willing to tell truth to power.

Given that, with the exception of our major shareholder, Day is the only board member with shareholdings that the likes of you and I couldn't purchase, it is probably correct that he is chair of the board. The trust on the other hand may wish to consider introducing a maximum tenure for board representatives to stop them going native, with at least one of them a woman. Failing that, maybe we could have a fundraiser to raise the £500 it took to get MC Chapman a seat at the table and purchase a place for ourselves.

UTM