Developing MCT/GMFC Board Situation

[HamCam]

When parties whether they be employees, partners and/or directors leave a role one of the first things you do is initially share and then redirect all communications to someone else.  It is difficult to believe Morton did not have such basic systems in place. I accept the club is run on a shoe string but it seems to be anytime someone new comes in they start out by listing all the failures of what has gone before before bumming up what is now being achieved. In reality they just seem to be making it up as they go along with minimal oversight from Laird and the GMFC Board. MCT are also culpable as they have appointed representatives on the GMFC Board - how are they held accountable as all we hearing is they are self-serving free-loading individuals who like wearing a club tie? It really is difficult to see where we go from here. As and aside, I would add when the club has asked for people to come forward in the past to offer their services the norm is not to even get the courtesy of a reply. 

[Dirk Gently]

14 hours ago, TONofmemories said:

Hiya G Barr, hiya son

Hiya, Wrongy McWrongface

[Alibi]

Not sure who is trying to steal owndership of the club from the fans, but things are clearly out of control.  All we need is for Hugh Scott to step out the shadows and we'll have come full circle.

Who appointed the GMFC board? I'm getting the impression it's full of parasites and we're paying for their free lunches.  We need a clearout.

[Cet Homme Charmant]

35 minutes ago, Alibi said:

 We need a clearout.

That's obvious, but unless there are more willing and able replacements ready to step-in, it'll just be like rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic

Edited May 14, 2025 by Cet Homme Charmant

[CM48]

Not sure how you go about this, but there's been so many backroom members of staff that have come and gone in the last few years that maybe whoever might be taking some sort of temporary overseeing of the club gets some honest feedback on why they left (not just petty gripes) and what they felt was wrong at the club.

The same should be asked of the current staff still there, without any repercussions.

Anyone on here who might know some on any level will surely be familiar when chatting to any of them about whatever is happening/not happening at the club of that defeated look you get while they bite their tongues.

[Mr Toon]

I don't subscribe to the 'it's always someone's fault' ; unforseen circumstances can arise and occasionally it is just one of these things. However simple fundamental things like knowing exactly who does what  and checking periodically that they do is an essential part of a General Manager's duties and therefore , not all but much of the blame must lie with Dale Pryde MacDonald. He needs to have a good long look at his performance and improve it or allow the club to find someone who can do better.

[SpoonTon]

42 minutes ago, Mr Toon said:

I don't subscribe to the 'it's always someone's fault' ; unforseen circumstances can arise and occasionally it is just one of these things. However simple fundamental things like knowing exactly who does what  and checking periodically that they do is an essential part of a General Manager's duties and therefore , not all but much of the blame must lie with Dale Pryde MacDonald. He needs to have a good long look at his performance and improve it or allow the club to find someone who can do better.

I can't really make judgement on Dale's performance, but I've always thought that there's not enough hours in the day to do everything he's been expected to do - never mind on the hours he's paid to do it. It's his first role of this type and in that sense it wasn't the best appointment if he was going to be given that level of responsibility without the required support. It was always going to be an impossible job  in that sense. This isn't an endorsement or defence of Dale's performance, but it's not at all surprising if he's out of his depth in a role he hasn't done before if he doesn't have proper support. On the FIFA issue, there has to be more than one person making sure that our responsibilities are seen to. 

Ultimately, the responsibility of running the club falls on the chairman and the board. Simply hiring one person to run the club for you is destined to fail, but I suspect he's also hamstrung by the instructions that he's under. 

[vikingTON]

1 hour ago, Cet Homme Charmant said:

That's obvious, but unless there are more willing and able replacements ready to step-in, it'll just be like rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic

I disagree because there are also structural changes that could be made to increase accountability, regardless of who sits on either board. For example:

1) Each GMFC board meeting should have full minutes recorded for future reference - board directors can scrutinise these before validation and suggest (but not enact) necessary corrections. Even something as basic as using automatic minute recording/summary, then manually correcting any errors is an improvement in terms of scrutiny on the club statement mechanism. 

2. Those minutes should be made available to view upon request by the MCT board as well as any other significant shareholder. For MCT, I would establish this as a routine matter of course - but it should also be open to other non-trivial shareholders too. 

3. A summary of the board minutes - not disclosing any sensitive information, effectively a list of each topic discussed - should then be made available to all stakeholders, including MCT members. 

4. Other change needed: resigning from MCT should lead to a time bar on returning to said board - at least 6 months (possibly over 12) seems reasonable enough. 

These are just some that spring to mind - others with insider knowledge can adapt or suggest different reforms (such as the club chairman).

The point being that the issues are not necessarily down to officeholders being either incompetent or nefarious - we haven't yet built a reliable enough structure for governance and accountability. It was an understandable oversight when the Raes picked up the ball and left quickly - it clearly has to be addressed now. 

[Cet Homme Charmant]

1 hour ago, vikingTON said:

I disagree because there are also structural changes that could be made to increase accountability, regardless of who sits on either board. For example:

1) Each GMFC board meeting should have full minutes recorded for future reference - board directors can scrutinise these before validation and suggest (but not enact) necessary corrections. Even something as basic as using automatic minute recording/summary, then manually correcting any errors is an improvement in terms of scrutiny on the club statement mechanism. 

2. Those minutes should be made available to view upon request by the MCT board as well as any other significant shareholder. For MCT, I would establish this as a routine matter of course - but it should also be open to other non-trivial shareholders too. 

3. A summary of the board minutes - not disclosing any sensitive information, effectively a list of each topic discussed - should then be made available to all stakeholders, including MCT members. 

4. Other change needed: resigning from MCT should lead to a time bar on returning to said board - at least 6 months (possibly over 12) seems reasonable enough. 

These are just some that spring to mind - others with insider knowledge can adapt or suggest different reforms (such as the club chairman).

The point being that the issues are not necessarily down to officeholders being either incompetent or nefarious - we haven't yet built a reliable enough structure for governance and accountability. It was an understandable oversight when the Raes picked up the ball and left quickly - it clearly has to be addressed now. 

Fair points, and in the main I agree with all of them. But even getting these basic structural changes in place will require people with the willingness and wherewithal to step up. I really hope there are such people standing in the wings, because if there aren't, I really can't see where any sort of meaningful change will come from.

[irnbru]

23 minutes ago, Cet Homme Charmant said:

Fair points, and in the main I agree with all of them. But even getting these basic structural changes in place will require people with the willingness and wherewithal to step up. I really hope there are such people standing in the wings, because if there aren't, I really can't see where any sort of meaningful change will come from.

Aye, that's always been a big risk. Will need about 6 people with the time to do it to cover the roles (including the vacancies I'm assuming will come up) on both boards. Even if there's 6 people with the time, the skills might not be there. A lot of the candidates for the MCT board had on their profiles that they helped youth coaching, etc but it's more business experience they need - the football side shouldn't really be anything to do with them. 

I'm sure theirs something in the articles of association about having to be on the MCT board first (not sure if there was a time frame) but that could be an issue too. Both the club and MCT boards have to work in line with them so they might be quite restrictive. 

[Greacen2000]

Agree with the above points re succession in the boardroom.  With a lack of competent people who are willing to spend their valuable time for little/nothing in return, we are vulnerable to attracting the wrong types of people.  For sure, measures such as those that VT suggested can definitely put some governance in place to mitigate against the sorts of monumental fk up which we are witnessing unfold at the moment.  
 

Graham McLennan & Gordon Ritchie are the types of people who we need to be getting involved, but unfortunately these sorts of people aren’t exactly queueing up to donate their time & expertise.  
 

At the same time, we have persons involved in the MCT board who have never had a good thing to say about the organisation since day 1 and who voted in favour of the previous proposals to sell a stake in the club to an undisclosed party.  I hope I am wrong here but it does hint at a little more than incompetency/negligence going on.

Edited May 14, 2025 by Greacen2000

[gmfc_craig]

As much as I am a fan of the fan ownership model and if it's done correctly, it can work brilliantly (like clubs in Germany). 

However since day one of fan ownership, my overriding thought was how sustainable it actually is for a club the size of ours. We do not have hundreds of thousands or millions of fans all over the world that can contribute. 

Granted there is no millionaire sugar daddy waiting in the wings so our only option is to make this work but it's going to take some extraordinary effort to first of all clear this current mess up and then firmly hit the reset button, learn and move forward. 

[Brian Skelton]

All those involved in this absolute shit show should remember not one of them is bigger than the club and would do well to remember that.

[Hej]

I'm hearing that Graham Richie's email account has been found in the blind fans toaster room.

[TRVMP]

On 5/1/2025 at 4:49 PM, TRVMP said:

A bit tinpot having old email addresses floating around in these systems, frankly. It should be something consistent between employees. If we're actually banking on youth we're going to get a lot of these cross-border regens, so making sure our FIFA TMS login wasn't XxX_McKinnon69_XxX@hotmail.co.uk or whatever should be part of the club's admin work. 

Assuming Ritchie's statement is, again, to be taken at face value: it is so much worse than the scenario I posited above, because the emails weren't just disappearing into the void, but Ritchie was actively telling the club to deal with the FIFA situation, only to be ignored.

[Mr Toon]

That is the point I was making earlier. He should not have had to tell anyone. It is hard to imagine any professional Football Club which does not have a system for dealing with communications from/to its governing bodies. 

Good management is about systems, practices and procedures to deal with the daily nuts and bolts of the operation of the organisation rather than the once in a while great idea.

Generally the Chair and Board would have no role in these matters and would be responsible for policy and direction but would expect regular updates from the General Manager and would be available to give him/her advice/support and in terms of change of policy/direction or decision regarding a matter of import outwith his remit, instruction.

The recent emails and releases suggest that things at Cappielow are perhaps in need of urgent review.

 

 

 

 

 

[tondaft1874]

Time to get Laird back off the board and get rid of Dale. Gets worse every day dreading what I'll read next.

[LargsTON]

On 5/13/2025 at 5:31 PM, Charles_Joe said:

What are Dalrada actually getting out of sponsoring a middle of the road second tier Scottish football team??

If we rule out altruism, is their motive being scrutinised?

It’s starting to feel very shady. 

Tbh I've always wondered this too.

[TRVMP]

If you look around lower league sponsorship a lot of it is just labor of love stuff. Albion Rovers were sponsored by Reigart Demolition for donkey's years and I can't imagine that was anything other than a loss for that company. A lot of these B2B companies realistically have a small customer base among fans of lower league football. I don't think it's shady prima facie.

[Cappiecat 1.2]

1 hour ago, Mr Toon said:

Good management is about systems, practices and procedures to deal with the daily nuts and bolts of the operation of the organisation rather than the once in a while great idea.

When MCT first took ownership from the Raes, they were offered the services of an auditor who specialises in auditing policies and procedures.  This lifelong Morton supporter was a senior auditor for Deloitte and Touche for 20+ years, then was freelance for several years carrying out audits for Strathclyde police, then Police Scotland and also several audits for various government departments at the Scottish Parliament.

He was willing to work with the club, pro bono, to produce a report that could be used as a roadmap for the future.

The email offering his services was never answered. I know this to be true as the auditor is my brother, and it was me that sent the email.