 After four eventful years in their voluntary posts our chairman Gill Faherty and secretary John Faherty have decided to step down (please see Gill's statement below). They came to the rescue of the club at a very difficult time when it was in severe danger of ceasing to exist and, without their
dedication and hard work, the club's auspicious history, which began in 1880, could have ended. They are handing over the club in a much stronger and more optimistic position than that which they took over.
Lifelong supporter John and his wife Gill will not be saying goodbye as they intend to continue their support and encouragement but, with the club hopefully now in a position to begin to climb back to its former glory, they feel that the time is right for them to relinquish their official duties.
The position of chairman will be filled by Rob O'Brien while a new secretary will be appointed in due course. In addition to formerly running our reserves , a job now ably filled by Jeff Sears, and assisting manager Steve Munday as coach, together with Alan Dickens, Rob has been an active and enthusiastic member of our committee for some time and has worked with Gill and John in negotiations with the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham regarding our ground in Mayesbrook Park. It is hoped that these negotiations will soon come to final fruition. Rob has also been very involved in our work with youth and the local community. As well as the senior men's and women's teams and reserves we now have a considerable number of male and female teams at various age groups.
Rob will continue his coaching work alongside his duties as chairman and Steve will continue to be in charge of the male team matters.
One of Rob's first actions as chairman-elect (he takes over officially on June 5th following our presentation evening on the 4th) was to convene a working party of supporters and club officers to carry out annual maintenance work at the ground, which supplements the regular weekly work of a small band of volunteers. Any further volunteers would be welcomed.
The word volunteers occurs frequently in this report and it is probably worth stressing that everyone connected with the club is a volunteer and that nobody is paid.
We have made progress on the pitch too and this season achieved our highest Essex Senior League position for four years and equalled our highest position in this league since we were forced out of the Southern League, despite having reached the playoffs in two successive seasons, because of off field problems which have since been resolved. We ended the season with a terrific run, losing just one of our last ten games while winning seven and drawing two. We also took points off four of the top five teams.
GILL'S STATEMENT TO CLUB SUPPORTERS
A Farewell - John and myself have decided to retire at the end of this season. When we stepped into the breach our plan was to carry out our duties for two years. Our aim was to secure the future of the football club. This has taken four very hard years but we believe we have now succeeded in doing this. We know that we have built up a good reputation for the club and we leave it financially sound. We feel that the time is now right for younger and more ambitious people to step in. We have invited Rob O'Brien to take up the reign as Chairman and we are currently working to appoint a new Secretary. Rob has worked alongside me on the committee for several years. He has attended every council meeting with me over this period and helped forge excellent relationships with the council. He has designed a five year development plan for the club to engage the community and
help with the financial security. We very much hope you can give Rob all the support he needs to make Barking FC a club to be proud of once again. Our final official duty will be the Presentation Evening on 4 June 2011. We will still be supporting and following Barking FC and attending as many
games as possible. Thank you all for your support over the past four years and please show the same support for the new people coming into the club.
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