News

Chairman's New Season Welcome and Update to Members

02 Sep 2024

Welcome all! I hope you have had a great summer and are as excited as I am to be starting another season here at Alton Football Club.

While most of our 50+ teams have been gearing up for their starts this week, our Ladies played their first game yesterday and our Men’s First Team have already completed a packed month of fixtures in August, with nine games on the slate, including a day trip to Jersey!

Just to update you on some of the things we’ve been doing at the club recently and what's coming up soon:

• In July we had a ‘Volunteers Day’ where you gave your time freely to help paint, clean, weed, tidy, and fix. It was great to see so many of you and something we hope to do more regularly.
• On the admin side, we have bolstered the team who manage the majority of our 600+ players, with Andy, Pete, Simon and Wez. It is a huge amount of voluntary work, so in doing this we have split it into do-able chunks and now have five people with the required knowledge to do this.
• We have introduced the LoveAdmin system and 500+ of you have successfully signed up, thank you. If you still haven't signed up you are running out of time. We can only manage our large numbers via this system so anyone who hasn’t signed up and is thinking “I'll pay cash when I'm ready”, please spare a thought for our admin team. If you need to discuss your membership instalments we encourage you to contact the club. Please do NOT cancel your direct debit.
• On the playing side, we are fortunate to start the season with another full house of coaches, who are all qualified or qualifying, meaning we maintain our exceptional standards on and around the pitch. A warm welcome to our new coaches, and thank you all!
• In support of the above, last week we welcomed ex-Alton (Town) player and ex-Woking Manager, Ian Dyer, who gave his time to run a ‘Coaches Clinic’. It was a huge success and a great turnout, with lots of useful information and demonstrations. We thank Ian for his time and expertise. Stay tuned for future sessions!
• Our kitchen and clubhouse will be soon be back open for Saturday mornings this season, thanks to Trish and her team of volunteers. And if you missed the news earlier in the year, we were successful with our application to the Howdens’ ‘Game Changer’ programme and have been awarded a new kitchen. We are funding the installation ourselves, which will be starting soon.
• Our welfare officer Kirsty will now be assisted by Georgina Timmins, again making this job more manageable and sustainable. If anyone else is interested in supporting in this vital area, please do make contact.
• We will be hosting a MacMillan fundraiser morning in the clubhouse on 28th September from 10am, thanks to volunteer Nick.
• Also the weekend of 28th/29th September we’ll be supporting The FA’s 'Play Safe' weekend in partnership with NSPCC - with all age group captains wearing special arm bands to highlight the importance of safeguarding across all levels of the game.

Opportunities for people to help in the running of the club

‘Many hands make light work’ goes the saying, so if you feel you are in a position to help at the club, would like to feel part of the community and potentially influence the future direction of our club, then we would love to hear from you.

Finance - We are looking for two volunteers for small roles:

• Someone to make payments for expenses, and potentially update our QuickBooks accounts - fairly straightforward work, needing nothing more than an eye for detail and a potentially a small amount of accounting knowledge. There are approx 20 payments per month. Additionally this might allow the person to get an understanding of how the club's finances work, and potentially be involved in the club's plans for the long term.
• Someone to assist in the collection of subs, reacting to questions from parents and carers about charges, administering the LoveAdmin system behind the scenes and monitoring our income. Again, fairly straightforward work for anyone who is adept at admin.

Clubhouse & Bar:

• Our adult teams run the bar on their match day afternoons, staffed by volunteers. If you would like to help out with a shift for them, or at other times through the week, please get in touch to discuss.

Outside & Grounds:

• We’re always looking for volunteers who can perform routine tasks on a regular basis - gardening, trimming, weeding, small repairs etc. If you or someone you know can spare a few hours a week please get in touch.

Adult & Youth Teams' Matchdays:

• Our adult teams and U18 Youth Team are always grateful to receive help on matchdays; whether that be stewarding, hospitality or fundraising, they’d be pleased to hear from you.

Finally, our Youth Team get underway TONIGHT in The FA Youth Cup! Please come along and give them your support, when they'll welcome Portland United to The Exclusive Networks Stadium. Kick off is 7.45pm.

Our club is in great shape and I wish everyone an enjoyable and successful season!

Best regards,

Carl Saunders
Chairman
Alton Football Club