A New Era Beckons

When Clyde shareholders gathered at Broadwood for the recent Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM), they did so knowing that 11th November would go down as an historic date for the club. Just as Clyde FC set out in 1877 as a member-owned club, it reverted to that democratic structure just ten days ago when shareholders with holdings ranging from just one share to 150,000 shares re-enforced their commitment to the Community Interest Company (CIC) model.

The official website will, over the next few weeks, be highlighting various aspects of the change to the club. As an introduction to the series, club secretary, John Taylor, gives some background to the move and how the board is taking shape.

Vision into Reality

“A total of six special, and two ordinary resolutions were unanimously approved, allowing the club to change its status to a CIC, thus turning the vision of the Board into the first step towards realising its medium to long term plan designed to ensure the lasting health and well being of Clyde FC as Scotland’s first true community club.

“The move, that sets Clyde apart from others in the Scottish senior game, is the establishment of a one member one vote within a single structure.

“Clyde have in fact been ‘owned’ by supporters since 2004. However, until now the club remained a private limited company. Ownership was shared among the Trust and other Clyde shareholding supporters in a complicated structure in which three boards were responsible for running the club; the main Clyde FC board, the Clyde Development Consortium and the Clyde Supporters’ Trust. The move to the CIC has merged these groups into one board within a more appropriate ownership structure for a football club in the 21st century.

“Fundamentally, the new legal status will require the club to be community focussed and become far more accountable to all its members through the new Articles of Association.

“These Articles must now be delivered by the board, in a manner which will be fully transparent to the membership. Operational meetings for the board take place each month, with full board meetings held on quarterly basis with minutes from those circulated to members.

“Directors have been allocated posts that align to the new Corporate Governance Structure. Roles including: Legal, Finance, Fundraising, Membership, Community and Volunteering have been developed. Subsequent features will outline each of these roles in detail to allow all members to become fully conversant with these posts and accountabilities.”

Next up will be details of how you can join the Bully Wee as membership is described by club director Gordon Nisbet.