The Accountability Committee was recently approached with allegations about the personal conduct of a member of the club.
Unfortunately, this message did not include a way for the Committee to reply to the individual who contacted us, but suggested instead that we speak to other people.
There are many very understandable reasons why the prospect of talking about difficult issues can seem daunting, but it has limited the options available to us to try to offer our advice and support.
This is because the Accountability Committee does not “police” every aspect of members’ conduct within the club.
Instead, every member has a shared responsibility to step up when a problem arises. This means any member (or group of members) can intervene directly with a person who has caused harmful behaviour that they believe is in breach of the Accountability Agreement we all signed up to.
Our role is to assist members and club committees with this process and if necessary, we can act to make sure all parties feel an appropriate outcome is reached.
The emphasis is on healing harms done and on rehabilitation, rather than simply on punishment. It recognises that individuals who cause harm are part of our community and that we are made stronger by holding them to account (should they choose to engage), rather than by shutting them out without the resources to learn and change.
To support anyone who contacts us, we need to discuss with them the options they might wish to consider and that means we need a way to talk.
The Accountability Committee is available at accountability@claptoncfc.co.uk if you’d like support or want to volunteer to get involved. This would be particularly well suited to members who are based remotely.
More information on the Agreement, alongside the Accountability Handbook for further advice can be found here: