Well we’ve been inundated with feedback – and as a result have struggled to respond to your requests for advice and guidance. To be frank the score-hut looks like the Donny Osmond Fan Club office circa 1975 and we’ve just not been able to get on top of it.
While we have quite a few overnighters in the score hut (with just a few scented candles left over from Christmas and Scrabble) we have not had time to read all your fan mail.
As well as the letters we have been trying to keep on top of the day job as life coaches (Sale now on: 15% reduction for our Twitter followers).
Quite a few letters have been seeking advice on the successful running of Clubs and asking whether we’d be willing to get involved in sorting out some of the world’s tougher geo-political problems. A recurring theme is effective Committee meetings. Well earlier this week Farmyard and Crofter did some field work and slipped un-noticed into The Oddfellows* to look at a Club Committee in action – and share our thoughts on the good, the bad and the away dressing room.
Now the Club Committee is pretty much as it has been since they sat down in The Bat and Ball in Hambledon back in 1750 and discussed whether the scarifier was beyond repair. The only difference between then and now is the arrival of laptops and ipads which in theory allow you read the meeting papers – but in the hands of an expert can allow you to feign intense interest while watching the 1975 work cup final…and let’s face it, working through the league rule amendments or watching Clive and Collis go mad isn’t a contest.
At the meeting we observed there was plenty to, well, observe – from where we sat everyone seemed to have a go at being Chair, the toilet break was cancelled because the Secretary’s laptop was running out of power and everyone took a turn at doing something daft with a sample of artificial turf. The main worries seemed to be that the President’s retirement would free him up to do more odd jobs round the ground – and whether the new kitchen design could handle two beer barrels – but in the great tradition of Committee meetings it ended after exactly 1 hour 45 minutes. Like all Committee meetings at every club, they pretty much last the same length of time. If there is nothing on the agenda, it gets spun out, if there’s too much on the agenda then you just thrash through the death overs and get on your way.
But in the end it all gets sorted, a rattle of the laptop before the battery runs out and hey presto all the people who were going to do the things they were always going to do are going to do them.
So what lessons should we take out into the wider world – the boardroom, the cabinet office, the main assembly of the United Nations? What could world leaders learn from the cricket committee – well, Tuesdays are good, if there’s a lot of you pull two tables together, having a list helps, and with a bit of a team effort things can get done.
So over to you guys, don’t say we didn’t tell you how to do it.
*name changed to protect the innocent
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