https://ictfc.com/chief-executive-officer-stands-down

Unexpected...

Pressreader makes it easier to read and an even scarier story : https://www.pressreader.com/uk/scottish-daily-mail/20190307/283424897907476 . If true, this woman eclipses Mike Smith with consummate ease in terms of potential damage done to our club. 

Quote

Crook (pictured) now becomes the eighth member of staff to leave since January, cutting short her ten-month reign after directors rejected an ultimatum to choose between keeping her at the club or academy director Danny MacDonald. A string of senior figures have already quit in protest at the treatment of MacDonald and over Crook’s management style. Vice-chairman Allan Mackenzie stepped down in January. Stadium manager Andy Johnstone, head of finance Evelyn Brown, academy administrator Ronnie Duncan, child protection officer Graeme Cooper, youth coach Daniel Lamond and community coach Callum Ferguson have since followed suit.

If indeed true then good on the directors who rejected that ultimatum and good riddance ! This is another reason why we should not have a CEO meddling in football affairs. what does a CEO (any CEO we have had) know about the footballing side of the business. Nothing.

I would rather have a Director of Football and a Director of Business on the board who managers responsible for each part of the club report to. Let them do their jobs on a day-to-day basis with governance in place to make sure everything is fine. Robbo and the Academy head would report to the Director of Football and whoever is the commercial and stadium managers would report to a Director of Business ... Looking at who we have lost, that's quite a number of good people and it seems she only fell when trying to oust yet another good person with a long history at the club in a part of the business she has no f***ing clue about.  The more I re-read that article, the angrier I become at both her and the method by which she was installed in her position !

 

 

 

Questions then for the selection panel/hiring committee.  Where was post advertised, how many applications were received, who did the long listing and shortlisting,  was the interview process rigorous enough,  were the references followed up on properly....   

Oh, wait...

 

Well it looks like it was a she-rat leaving a sinking ship which she had well and truly gnawed at ?  Her style may well be the right one for corporate management but not in a "family business" scenario.

Who is this Glover guy ? ?

26 minutes ago, Glover said:

Questions then for the selection panel/hiring committee.  Where was post advertised, how many applications were received, who did the long listing and shortlisting,  was the interview process rigorous enough,  were the references followed up on properly....   

Oh, wait...

1

 

On 5/24/2018 at 5:45 PM, Caley Stan said:

Her husband is the Chairman's cousin. I'm not making any judgement on that, just putting it out there.

 

what a f*cking mess and more good people than is listed left the club last year including the very nice young lady who worked in the bar upstairs i think was called emma.

Seriously concerning. Any business the size of ICT needs to be run on the basis of consensus and cooperation.

It sounds as though we are well rid but presumably those responsible for making the appointment are still in place and there must, as a result, be serious questions about their judgement and ability.

If it was thought necessary to appoint a CEO last year why on earth was the post not advertised to try to attract the best and most suitably qualified candidates ?

It appears that this person's lack of basic courtesy did not just apply to those out with the club who had backed it since inception but to loyal employees within who were working hard to turn things around while she spent ten months drawing what was presumably a substantial salary and achieving nothing obvious or tangible.

As Scotty says, it's difficult to conceive of anyone with more disdain for fans and loyal employees of the club than Mike Smith but he does indeed seem to have a rival.

1 hour ago, Glover said:

Questions then for the selection panel/hiring committee.  Where was post advertised, how many applications were received, who did the long listing and shortlisting,  was the interview process rigorous enough,  were the references followed up on properly....   

Oh, wait...

  On 5/24/2018 at 12:45 PM, Caley Stan said:

Her husband is the Chairman's cousin. I'm not making any judgement on that, just putting it out there.

 

In that case if even half of what has been printed is correct then Rae needs to consider his position too. 

 

 

4 minutes ago, Kingsmills said:

As Scotty says, it's difficult to conceive of anyone with more disdain for fans and loyal employees of the club than Mike Smith but he does indeed seem to have a rival.

I will give her her due in one respect ... she did not call me up at home (in Toronto) at 5am on a Saturday morning asking me to remove a critical post from CTO !!! If she had, she would have got the same response as he did !! 

Another fine mess...becoming very good at finding our own troubles these days.

With regards to all the academy/youth staff forced to leave - is this why parents of youth/kids teams are being asked to put names down on a rota for driving minibuses to games??

Her husband's company now does the catering for hospitality and apparently it's much poorer than when red poppy were doing it. Not nepotism though, I'm sure it was a fair tendering process.  

I agree having had experience of the hospitality this year the standard in food has dropped. Red poppy were excellent when doing the catering. Can we get those who left and were doing good jobs back?

Oh well this doesn't look very good.....

1 hour ago, Fraz said:

Her husband's company now does the catering for hospitality and apparently it's much poorer than when red poppy were doing it. Not nepotism though, I'm sure it was a fair tendering process.  

If thats the case I'm sure the club would be happy to show transparency on what the bids were and the manner for selection. Maybe not guy public but certainly at the request of a fans group leader. Any refusal would be seen as trying to hide something.

Well the Scottish Cup high didn't last very long! 

The only "turmoil," at the club is financial,  this is the same sensationalist garbage as this front page on Sunday.

12 minutes ago, AncientMariner said:

Well the Scottish Cup high didn't last very long! 

The only "turmoil," at the club is financial,  this is the same sensationalist garbage as this front page on Sunday.

Believe me, the fact that an incompetent and disruptive employee has parted company with the club has done nothing to reduce my Scottish Cup high.

Yvonne Crook is no more now than an unfortunate footnote in the club's history. The cup semi final may well be a step on the road to a brighter future.

16 minutes ago, AncientMariner said:

The only "turmoil," at the club is financial,  this is the same sensationalist garbage as this front page on Sunday.

If this were a front page article I might agree with you .. but its an article by their chief football writer who typically has decent content despite the rag-like content of the paper itself. (a bit like Bill Leckie and the Sun). 

Which part of his story is incorrect ? 

I think that Scotty hit the nail on the head earlier. It has to be a major positive that the Board did not succumb and it was possibly a case of "enuff is enuff". I can see a lot of reasons to employ her in the first place BUT - as I have alluded to before - she probably had an outstanding - probably unbeatable CV - but what is acceptable in corporate business is not acceptable in a more family run business scenario. I would bet against anyone that our losses were nowhere near what they could have been but the savings were also probably made by "savage management" - looking at the "books" and not the people involved. I should know as the NHS has gone the same way as have a load of organisations. So perhaps she has done us a favour and possibly saved our skins. However if her attitude and "non-football" knowledge has put off potential investors then the sooner we appoint a personable, local and football (ICT) individual to go back through the log of "dissenters" the better. Lets get rid of the feckin CEO position. Lets put in a General Manager and add some "Club Ambassadors". Have also to admit that the "Hospitality" contract has to be looked at as well. Lets face it Stephen McGowan is a journo who knows his way around ICT. unfortunately I doubt that this will alter the finances available on the playing side. But has it affected us on the pitch ?? And as Stone Cold once said to me in a sparring session - "And that Johndo is the bottom line". And once again all the off the field shenanigans attract the posters rather than Dumfries and yet another Scottish Cup Semi-Final.

Everyone knows there are always two sides to a story and you shouldn't believe everything you read in the paper! It is easy to lay blame at someones door when we don't know the individual or all of the facts. 

When Mrs Crook was appointed by the board her task was to reduce overheads significantly, increase T/O, and work with the community. Everyone at the club knew there had to be significant change as the club was hemorrhaging cash. We know most people don't like change - with change you expect people to step forward and offer support to address these challenges. When you're suffering financially like we are it's common practice that individuals will have to exit the business, thats a fact!  Don't get me wrong it is great that people are loyal but loyality cannot be sacrificed for competency or cash! 

If you review Mrs Crook's short tenure she did achieve some significant milestones for the club

Stadium now secured as an asset of ICT

ICT Foundation established

Financial position improved with operationing costs reduced. £810k loss not in her tenure.  

I agree with previous comments that a CEO is not needed at our club, our T/O is c£1.6m - surely the board can manage a business of that level.

I mentioned earlier it's not nice to lay blame. However, we have to ask serious questions of the board at the AGM. It appears once again we have an incompetent board at the helm of our club. The board should have been transparent with Mrs Crook's appointment, and what communication did they have with the CEO during her tenure. 

Never mind all this s***e - we've got the Scottish Cup to win!

22 minutes ago, Jagger said:

Everyone knows there are always two sides to a story and you shouldn't believe everything you read in the paper! It is easy to lay blame at someones door when we don't know the individual or all of the facts. 

When Mrs Crook was appointed by the board her task was to reduce overheads significantly, increase T/O, and work with the community. Everyone at the club knew there had to be significant change as the club was hemorrhaging cash. We know most people don't like change - with change you expect people to step forward and offer support to address these challenges. When you're suffering financially like we are it's common practice that individuals will have to exit the business, thats a fact!  Don't get me wrong it is great that people are loyal but loyality cannot be sacrificed for competency or cash! 

If you review Mrs Crook's short tenure she did achieve some significant milestones for the club

Stadium now secured as an asset of ICT

ICT Foundation established

Financial position improved with operationing costs reduced. £810k loss not in her tenure.  

I agree with previous comments that a CEO is not needed at our club, our T/O is c£1.6m - surely the board can manage a business of that level.

I mentioned earlier it's not nice to lay blame. However, we have to ask serious questions of the board at the AGM. It appears once again we have an incompetent board at the helm of our club. The board should have been transparent with Mrs Crook's appointment, and what communication did they have with the CEO during her tenure. 

Never mind all this s***e - we've got the Scottish Cup to win!

something i would like to add, is how do we know who at the club has done what, how do we know what person played a part in something, is this still because of a lack of communication with fans? it would be nice to hear when things happen what person helped with it, honestly i don't remember hearing Yvonne's name much (please correct me if i am wrong)  but then again we don't hear much at all. I try and keep up to date with things as much as i can but i still feel like some things are being kept from the fans. I feel as though most of the information i hear about the club is from a fan hearing it and putting it on CTO rather than actual communication from the club.

6 minutes ago, northstandfan said:

something i would like to add, is how do we know who at the club has done what, how do we know what person played a part in something, is this still because of a lack of communication with fans? it would be nice to hear when things happen what person helped with it, honestly i don't remember hearing Yvonne's name much (please correct me if i am wrong)  but then again we don't hear much at all. I try and keep up to date with things as much as i can but i still feel like some things are being kept from the fans. I feel as though most of the information i hear about the club is from a fan hearing it and putting it on CTO rather than actual communication from the club.

Spot on northstandfan!  The communication from the club has been shocking to say the least in the past few years and the thing they can't seem to grasp is we are the customers and we are loosing customers at an alarming scale!

Was this not why Crook was appointed with her background in PR? To improve the communication and image of the club. This is just another episode of poor communication I saw it several news sites before ICTFC released a statement.

The more that comes out, the higher the danger of this becoming our 'banter years'...............

I have no idea what goes on behind the boardroom doors at the club, but it seems to me that these battles have been ongoing for nearly two decades!! What's the reason? Is it purely egocentricity? If so, then that's a pretty pathetic way to behave. This club does not belong to one person nor to one clique! You'd think that after 25 years the club would by now have found a settled method of being run in a sensible, mature way!

2 hours ago, MorayJaggie said:

Was this not why Crook was appointed with her background in PR? To improve the communication and image of the club. This is just another episode of poor communication I saw it several news sites before ICTFC released a statement.

And the same with Gordon Fyfe appointed to the board. 

2 hours ago, bdu98196 said:

The more that comes out, the higher the danger of this becoming our 'banter years'...............

...What you saying this isn't???