And what a year 2012 has been! It has been a year of great progression for the main club, the whole football side and, not least, the Supporters Club.
We can all be proud of our collective efforts and developments.
The catalyst for this progress on and off the field of play has been the move to our own club here at The Vale where we are finally in control of our own destiny. That is at least until the lease runs it’s course but let’s not go there because we need to be grateful for the huge benefits that having our own base has brought and having a place that we can all truly call home. This is a priceless asset – any of us that have supported the club through the long ground share years will tell you that!
In January the committee welcomed two new members. I agree with Clive when he said after the AGM that we didn’t gave this enough prominence for the affect it’s had on the rest of the group. Both Seth and Alan have been a revelation and we are delighted with how well it’s turned out. Both give valuable time, experience and good humour to the committee’s proceedings. Alan is a showman who was at his finest when we hosted the Huddersfield fans. Seth and his delightful wife Jeanette have consistently come up trumps when help is needed.
Having had the Senior Harrow Councillor Keith Ferry come along as a guest for one of our meetings was enlightening and ground breaking for the Supporters Club, as was the chance for us to talk with Stephen Haynes the new Wealdstone Youth Chairman. Stephen definitely feels part of the bigger picture at the club, the recent addition of having regular match day mascots stems from our meeting and is generally agreed all round to be a fantastic development and step forward. We should also remember the great work that Neil ‘Ranos’ Rands has found time to do during the year for the Supporter’s despite not being officially a committee member.
Of course things haven’t always gone to plan! For example the Ruislip Manor summer Fun day wind tunnel where all our leaflets blew away, some of the coach trips where we have learnt valuable lessons. But if you counter this with the things that did go well, like the end of season awards evening that we ran, the fund raising, the brilliant new Megastore – Mark and Adam have done a fantastic job to get the new shop in place under the project leadership of Mickey Kane and the many helpers during the summer, and the fantastic new WFCSC website launch.
All these things have made it a memorable year for so many good reasons. Onwards and upwards in 2013!
