Call-out for the AGM....and why I am standing for Chair

If you're reading this, it's probably because you're a member of Gravesham Lawn Tennis Club. 

You may well have noticed that we have an AGM coming up – it's taking place in a few days’ time (on Tuesday 21st February) in the players’ bar of Gravesend Rugby Club.

Lots of people who are members of tennis clubs don’t take much – or even any – interest in things like AGMs and club constitutions. They simply want to concentrate on playing tennis. That’s an entirely understandable viewpoint – I know I used to be like that. 

And to be honest, most AGMs really aren’t worth bothering with. They typically consist of a handful of members (invariably the same people from year to year) arguing for hours on end over obscure Constitutional subclauses that have no discernible impact on anyone or anything. 

But the the AGM coming up next week is  going to be a bit different. As you’ve probably seen, a new, revised version of our Constitution is being put to members to vote on. And as you also may have noticed, several positions on the Club Committee are being contested, including that of club Chairperson. I am putting myself forward for that role –standing against our current Chairperson, John Stevenson. 

So why the sudden activity? 

None of this is happening by accident. It’s because a lot of stuff has been going on at Committee level at our club in the past few months, stuff which many members probably have very little idea about. The purpose of this blog is to tell you a bit about what has been happening – I can’t tell you about all of it, because of confidentiality restrictions – and in the process explain to you why I have put my hat in the ring to be Chair. 

Basically, over the past few months, a big rift has developed on the Committee between our current Chair, and the two or three people who support him, and the rest of the Committee. No less than eight members of the current Committee – myself, Phil Aust, Isabelle Eustace, Olga Solovei, Dee McKendry, Steve Fernandes, Angie Suleau and Michel Suleau – have become seriously concerned about John’s agenda, and the way he goes about trying to implement it. 

John seems to us to be motivated by one overriding goal, and that is to oust the current coaching team, led by Michel and Angie, from the club. He seems to believe that they wield far too much power – that in some sinister way they control the club – and that everything would be much better if they simply went away. It doesn’t seem to bother him that losing Michel and Angie would also almost certainly mean losing all the coaches who work under them, who understandably owe them a great deal of loyalty, and have a large range of further knock-on impacts on the wellbeing of the club. 

You can see John’s agenda at work in the revised Constitution that has been put to members, which isn’t a Constitution endorsed by the Committee. The single biggest change in it is that Michel and Angie are to be booted off the Committee – a Committee they have both served on for the best part fo 15 years. John, in fact, has already tried to boot them off the Committee – a couple of months ago he announced that they were from now on to be classed as “external service providers”, and were no longer members of the Committee proper. He even held Committee meetings from which they were excluded. Such actions were blatant violations of our current Constitution. 

John has done all sorts of other things designed to drive Michel and Angie from the club. Most of them I am not going to tell you about because a) it would mean that this blog post would turn into a very long essay and b) there are confidentiality restrictions that apply to Committee business. What I can tell you, however, is that in the eyes of the majority of the Committee, John has shown himself to be someone unsuited to running a tennis club like ours. He bullies and harangues those who don’t agree with him, and is often breathtakingly rude. He frequently speaks of the tennis club as a “business” – seemingly in the belief that rather than being the Chair of a non-profit-making community organisation, he’s in fact the CEO of a profit-making enterprise. 

When he doesn’t get his way – because a majority of Committee members oppose him – he simply tries to subvert good practice and Constitutional protocol in order to implement his agenda. One recent example (out of many): myself, Phil Aust, Steve Fernades and Dee McKendry were informed the other week that we couldn’t vote on a highly important matter because, having been voted on to the Committee during the last 12 months (rather than at last year’s AGM), we weren’t actually “voting” members of the Committee at all. That is just one of many examples of John simply making the rules up as he goes along. 

As I said, I could go on – but I don’t want to make this blog simply a personal attack on one person, something which gives me no pleasure. One other fact, however, is very important to note – something which club members also haven’t been told about. A few weeks ago, the committee was suspended by the Chair of Gravesham Rugby Club, on the grounds that the conflicts between its members were preventing it from operating properly. I (along with a majority of the Committee) disagreed with the logic of this decision: the problem, in our view, was not that the Committee wasn’t functioning properly, but that it had a Chairperson who completely ignored and overrode its wishes. But be that as it may, the Committee is currently suspended, and that’s why the AGM is being chaired by the Chair of Gravesham Rugby Club. 

So if voted in as Chair of GLTC, what would I do differently? It’s really quite simple. I would listen to the views of all members - not just one particular faction – and do my best to ensure that Gravesham properly functions as a club for all. I would work with, and support, our excellent coaching team – one that’s the envy of many clubs in the area – and ensure that our sizeable junior section continues to thrive, that our teams do even better than they are currently doing, and that the club provides great opportunities for people who haven’t played much tennis before to get into this wonderful sport. I would look to bolster and expand social play at the club, so that it’s easier for members to just turn up at certain times and guarantee that they get a good game. 

Club governance is very important – and it’s certainly true that our current Constitution is not fit for purpose. In fact, it is precisely because our current Constitution is silent on so many areas of club protocol that our current Chair has been able to manipulate process and abuse his position as he has. So I would work very hard with a newly elected Committee - and with Gravesham Rugby Club - to quickly ratify a new Constitution that genuinely enshrines good governance and good practice at the heart of the club. That way, the kind of abuses we have seen in recent months would not be possible in future. 

Above all, I would strive to make Gravesham LTC a truly friendly, open, non-judgmental place, where everyone can go and spend time away from their normal lives and enjoy the wonderful sport of tennis. Tennis has been a massive part of my life: I played at county level as a junior, I took up the sport again in my twenties and even wrote a book about my passion for Roger Federer; I continue to play regularly for Gravesham’s top teams, and captained our men’s first team last summer to gain promotion to the top division of the Kent League. In other words, I have a a genuine love for, and proper understanding of, the game of tennis – in addition to a range of other professional and personal attributes – that in my view make me a good person to be Chair of our tennis club. 

But of course, it’s ultimately up to the members to decide. So do please come along next Tuesday, listen to what people have to say – it will, I can guarantee, be an eventful AGM – and then vote for what you think is best for our tennis club. And if you want to discuss any of the issues raised in this blog in the meantime, please feel free to comment below or email me on: william.skidelsky@gmail.com

Best wishes

Will Skidelsky