Not the easiest year, better times ahead though.
A year that was always going to be difficult and that is exactly how it has turned out to be.
The aims for the year were stabilisation, clearing the decks as far as the last two years were concerned and building the foundations to go forward with a business model that gives the Club a sustainable future.
Financially, we were not in a good place a year ago and there have been further ups and downs in the last year. People and process are critical to any organisation and as a Club, we were extremely fortunate to bring on board Suzanne and Stuart Dixon. Without their efforts I am sure we wouldn’t be in the position we are today. Suzanne and Stuart worked so hard to ensure that the Junior Subscriptions were collected which was essential to the Club’s survival. Suzanne has worked tirelessly investigating the many features of Xero, our accounting system, not previously used by the Club, to give us far better control of the Club’s finances. Knowing where we stand financially gives everyone associated within the Club the transparency to see that bills are paid on time and allows us to invest whatever small surplus we have into maintenance and equipment. For us to become financially sound there were key targets for the year;
1) To resolve the outstanding issues with regard to the payroll - mission accomplished.
2) To resolve the outstanding issue with the firm of Architects. Just 10 days ago we reached agreement with the Architects. As things progressed it became clear that failure to settle the debt, which the Club still vehemently denies it sanctioned the work which led to the debt, would potentially have taken the Club under. A plan was developed and executed and we have now settled the claim. This is not reflected in 2018/19 accounts, however, it is important that I share with you the fact that a large majority of the settlement was funded via donations. So mission nearly accomplished, the final payment of the settlement will be paid on the 25th July 2019.
3) Convert the money invested in the Club by myself to a loan, this has now been agreed by the executive. The loan will be interest free with repayments to start once the Crowborough Town Council Loan has been repaid. The monthly repayments will be equal to that paid to Crowborough Town Council - mission accomplished.
4) To make the Club self sufficient - mission in progress.

Self sufficient
For the Club to become self sufficient it was essential that we resolved the issue with Crowborough Town Council with regard to usage of the Clubhouse, this issue has now been resolved with the allowed usage minuted by the Council in their May Meeting. We can now implement our plans for music nights and actively advertise the Clubhouse as a Party Venue. In my mind we can double the bar take over the next 18 months. An aggressive
target given that the fact that the bar take doubled last year thanks to all the hard work put in by our Bar Manager, Paul Rawson. - So mission accomplished and a plan in place bar wise.

Future
The here and now is all well and good but the Club has to have a clear vision for the future. The Executive spent some time putting together a wish list which will be turned into a 10 year plan. The wish list is extensive and over the coming year we will be sharing this with you. We will also be holding some brainstorming sessions so that all interested parties can have input into the plan. One thing on the wish list has been achieved. At the start of last season it became obvious that some young adult players are not quite ready for senior football at our First Team’s level, not because they lacked technical ability, but because they were not physically quite strong enough yet. The Executive are delighted to announce that we have re-introduced an U23/Reserves Team. The Club is delighted to welcome Barrie Pickett and his Coaching Team to Crowborough Athletic, opportunities to secure a coaching team of this quality do not happen everyday, which is why the Executive acted swiftly to secure their services once it became clear that they were going to become available. The U23 Team has been accepted into the Suburban League. Barrie Pickett, Trevor Weller and Sean Muggeridge have been working hard behind the scenes and have developed a strategy for both the U18’s and the U23’s. The U18 Team will play in both the Bostik South and the Kent Youth Premier Leagues. Over the coming years we hope that this investment will feed through into a host of home grown talent for the First Team. We are also delighted to welcome Jim Smith and his U14 side to the Club. Jim Smith is an excellent coach and this Team will supplement our two teams that we already have at this age group.

Facilities
The Club has been talking to the Scientologists who are willing to offer their support to the Club in a variety of areas. A series of meetings have taken place over the last three months and we are close to an agreement for the First Team to use their indoor sports hall, swimming pool and gym once a week for their
Tuesday training sessions. The First Team, Management and yours truly, made a visit to view the facilities last week. The Team at Walshes Manor are planning some serious renovations to their three quarter size pitch in the coming weeks and this may become available to the Club once the works are complete. Danny, the facilities Manager at Walshes Manor, a fanatical Plymouth Argyle fan and budding photographer, helped the Club out by photographing our last two home matches. I wish to thank Danny for capturing our Junior Presentation Day in pictures, these will be published in the next few days. A big thank you to our first team manager, Sean Muggeridge and First Team captain Tom Boddy, for their help with the presentations, a day that was well received and hopefully enjoyed by all.

Fiesta
The last two years Fiesta’s have been outstanding successes, these were led by Eric Gillett and Trevor Weller and we all owe them a huge debt of gratitude for their hard work, however, events cannot be run by two people and these events typify the Club’s motto. ‘Together we Achieve’. I would like to place on
record our thanks to everyone who helped out at these events, all I heard was how well organised the events were. This year’s Fiesta also made a cracking profit which bolstered Club Funds.

Growth
Another area of success for the Club over the last year was the continued growth of the Mini and Junior Teams. This growth is down to the dedication of every single coach. The time and effort invested by these people is unbelievable. The role of Mini and Junior co-ordinator is an extremely time consuming role and I would like pass on my thanks to Jim Redford who did the
role for first part of the season - before his day job got in the way! Jim was succeeded by Trevor Weller for the latter part of the season and he has carried on from where Jim left off. Trevor has been talking to the Coaches and it is clear that we need to support these people in many areas. To ensure we are better placed moving forward, the Club is going to fund five boys and girls from the junior teams through their FA Level One Coaching badges. The Club has also agreed to fund two coaches per year through their FA Level Two Coaching badges should they wish to progress up the coaching hierarchy. Additionally, this
coming season we will have a significant amount of coaching available to the Mini and Junior Teams from EMC. The Club is delighted to announce the arrival of Jamie Leggett to the Club, Jamie is working with the England 6 a-side Socca Team presently and will be joining our Senior Side’s Management Team, he has also agreed to perform one coaching session per month with the Mini and Junior Teams. Attracting Jamie to Crowborough Athletic is a tremendous coup for the Club. With the U18 and U23 Teams in place, the strengths that we already have, coupled with our ambition to build on the Mini and Junior Teams, I see no reason why the future should be not be bright. I have also have been listening to our coaches and I am amazed that so many of the Coaches plough their own money into equipment for the teams. I thank each and everyone of them for doing this but moving forward we have to evolve to
make sure that the Club provides the coaches with everything they need.

Successes
Last season we saw our U13 Wolves Team win their League, our U14 Team were pipped into second place, excellent results for each of theses teams. They were not the only successes, our Club provided Football Training and Competitive games to 257 young people. When one sees the Wolfe, Alderbrook and MOD sites buzzing at the weekends there really is no better site than seeing the array of emotions experienced by players, parents and
coaches alike.

First Team
For those of you that follow my ramblings on-line you will have heard me waxing lyrical about the excellent job that the First Team Management Team, led by Sean Muggeridge, performed all of last season with the Senior Side. Starting the season with just two of the previous seasons squad, the initial signs were to say the least not encouraging. We stabilised and moved forward and finished the season 13th in the league. Maintaining our
Step 5 status at first team level is of paramount importance to building the Mini and Junior Teams, entry to certain Mini and Junior Leagues being governed by the seniority of a Club’s First Team.

Facilities
A Football Club cannot survive without excellent facilities and our first team pitch is an area where we continue to invest. The first team pitch last season hosted games at U13, U14, U16 and U18 age groups and obviously the first team. Last year the first team did not lose a single game to the weather. On behalf of everyone I would like to thank and congratulate our Groundsman, Nick Collick, for all his hard work and turning our pitch into one of the best in the league.

Vacancies
The Club has several vacancies which we are looking to fill, some at Executive Committee level and some that do not necessarily need to be at that level. We have ambitious plans to build a sustainable future for the Club which does mean we need help from the many to ensure that plans are turned into reality.
Please talk to any of the Executive Committee for information about the roles we are looking to fill.

Summary
To summarise then, a successful year, we have a platform to build upon, for the first time in a few years we are masters of our own destiny. Should we fail, which we won’t, it will be together, if we succeed it will be together. Every player, every parent, every member, every coach and every Committee Member is an Ambassador for this great Club, let us go out into the Community with confidence and tell our colleagues, friends and family all of
the good things that are happening here at Crowborough Athletic FC. We have started a new journey, a journey that will make the Club stronger. A journey for the many not the few, regardless of ability. A journey that places our Club
into the wider Community of this Town. A journey where together “We will achieve”.