At its conception, Clapton Community FC annoyingly had to follow convention and regulation and have a Board, including a Chair, Secretary and Treasurer. Throughout its existence the Board sought to break with tradition and devolve powers wherever rules allowed. Ultimately this enabled the membership to vote to replace the Board with a General Organising Committee.

The GOC is made up of representatives of each of the club’s Committees, with the primary responsibility of ensuring the club remains solvent. Beyond that, it operates as a support system for the club’s many committees and working groups, helping the club to succeed and grow. It also carries out operational duties like arranging AGMs.

Contact: secretary@claptoncfc.co.uk

Matchday’s varied remit adds up to doing the bits which ensure games go ahead. A lot of that is on, you guessed it, matchdays – coordinating set up of entrance and other stalls, greeting opponents and officials, arranging the pink high-viz safety reps, among other things. But we are also busy during the week confirming details with opponents, caterers and officials. It’s unglamorous but essential work. And the constant cycle means we are always looking for new folks to help out – especially now we have two teams at the Old Spotted Dog Ground.

Contact: matchday@claptoncfc.co.uk

The Women’s First Team and Reserves Team committee is comprised of players, CCFC members and team management. The function of the committee is to support the team, including organising coach travel, working with the comms committee to get information out to supporters, with the Matchday committee to make sure everything runs smoothly on the day and helping shape the direction of the team. It’s not essential to be at games, so if you’re interested in getting involved but are looking to ease yourself in, get in touch.

Contact: womensteams@claptoncfc.co.uk

The Men’s First Team committee is made up of the coaching staff and ordinary non-playing members. Our remit is to assist the players and management. That could be ordering kits and equipment or booking coaches to away games. We’ve also planned our pre-season schedule, such as arranging trials and friendlies. On match days there’s some admin such as filling in team sheets. There’s usually some trouble- shooting too, such as collecting wayward shots that have been booted out of the ground. If you’d like to get involved drop us a line.

Contact: mensfirstteam@claptoncfc.co.uk and mensdevteam@claptoncfc.co.uk

We run weekly youth training sessions for dozens of children in Forest Gate and Walthamstow. These are run on a donate what you want basis. We are always on the look out for new coaches and volunteers to help us run these sessions. We are committed to putting each volunteer through their level 1 coaching badge. We also need off field volunteers to help us plan and organise matches and tournament, as well as apply for grants to help the sessions grow.

Contact: youthtraining@claptoncfc.co.uk

Community Outreach is responsible for CCFC’s community engagement in Forest Gate, Walthamstow, East London and beyond… This primarily means developing our friendships with partners such as The Magpie Project for matchday collections or the Newham Recorder for our annual Christmas Toy Appeal, through to organising with charities close to CCFC’s heart for specific activities, such as our t-shirt printing and fundraising for Akwaaba, or volunteering at a Newham homeless shelter. If you want to help keep CCFC at the centre of its local community, contributing to causes we believe in, drop us an email.

Contact: community@claptoncfc.co.uk

Comms is a busy place because we operate the club’s social media, programme, interviews, filming, website, newsletter and more. The committee generates most of the content too. We’re always on the lookout for newbies to contribute. The only thing we ask for is commitment and hitting deadlines. Beyond that we debate ideas and collectively decide what to develop. There’s space for everyone but particularly writers of match previews, match reports and features. The tasks aren’t onerous and there’s always help available. We’re a friendly bunch, so come and join us.

Contact: comms@claptoncfc.co.uk

The merch committee is responsible for the design, manufacture, sales and distribution of Clapton CFC merchandise. We’re always on the look out for creative design ideas so if you’re itching to share your creativity then come and join us. It’s fun, brilliant and an important income stream for the club. We’ve also set up our own regular picking and packing sessions at the OSD and we send orders worldwide. If you have some spare time and would like to help out just send us an email.

Contact: merch@claptoncfc.co.uk

Membership are responsible for creating more ways for members to engage with the club and between each other, to strengthen members’ feeling of ownership and involvement and to reinforce the ethos of the club. This involves planning or facilitating social events for CCFC fans and members – at the OSD and elsewhere. Membership are also looking at opening up new types of membership for young members and for teenagers.

Contact: membership@claptoncfc.co.uk

The Fundraising committee is responsible forplayer sponsorship, organising fundraising events, such as quiz nights and film screenings, and identifying and securing sponsorship for different aspects of the Club’s activities, including the Match Programme. The committee develops a fundraising strategy for the Club, based on the annual funding target, with the finance committee. If you’ve got fresh ideas, like organising events and getting involved in community projects and have a bit of time to take on new fundraising projects then we’d love to hear from you.

Contact: fundraising@claptoncfc.co.uk

The Club Development committee is responsible for the expansion of the club. We’re the point of contact for anyone wishing to launch a new branch of the club, or wanting a separate organisation to join or collaborate with us.
We make sure any expansion is in line with the ethos and goals of the club, and help all proposals to be brought to the wider membership. We meet and chat regularly to manage proposals and support the club’s smaller initiatives.

Contact: development@claptoncfc.co.uk

If you’re up for a bit of physical activity and like the outdoors, then come and join us. We’re responsible for the pitch, the terracing and the surrounds. If you have turf care and building experience we particularly want to hear from you!

Contact: ground@claptoncfc.co.uk

Our committee is in charge of building and developing relationships with international clubs and supporters groups. We organise international trips and support CCFC members’ groups outside of Britain wanting to set up and run local supporters groups or networks. We act as the main contact point for supporters of overseas teams who want to visit our club. We are especially looking to build connections with other anti-fascist and fan-owned sports clubs.

Contact: international@claptoncfc.co.uk

The Finance committee isn’t the most hyped, but it does make a major contribution to our club, helping to account for every penny and helping budget for what members want the club to do. Finance includes banking, recording transactions, liaising with accountants, creating pro-forma budgets and narrating the results in newsletters. You rarely get to see cash but you do see how club projects translate into income and expenditure. If any one of the following is your thing: numbers, accounting, planning, budgeting, or even narrating monthly income and spend, then you should join us.

Contact: finance@claptoncfc.co.uk

League Liaison committee consists of the Club’s League Rep (elected at the AGM), Secretaries of the men’s and women’s teams, and other volunteers. The committee is the point of contact with the relevant Leagues and Football Associations for the club’s teams. Responsibilities include registration of all players, processing transfer of players, management of fines and disciplinary matters, rearranging fixtures, and (very occasionally) responding to rule breaches/charges. The committee holds the league rulebooks and oversees the rules in different competitions we enter, such as the substitution structure in the FA Vase, which differs from the league.

Contact: leagueliaison@claptoncfc.co.uk

The Open Access committee is responsible for CCFC’s Women and non-binary Open Access football: weekly training sessions on Saturdays, the Open Access 5-a-side team which plays in the Super5 League, 11-a-side friendlies and a new 11-a-side league team, and occasional tournaments. All ages and abilities are welcome at Open Access, and in particular beginners and those returning to the game.

Contact: openaccess@claptoncfc.co.uk

The aim of the Welfare committee is to ensure everyone who participates in football at Clapton CFC should be able to take part in an enjoyable and safe environment. As the committee responsible for safeguarding in open age adult teams at CCFC we are a point of contact for anyone with concerns about safety or wellbeing at any club activities. We work with player wellbeing reps and other committees to make sure safeguarding is prioritised within the club. The Club Welfare Officers sit on this committee, are DBS checked and have completed FA safeguarding training.

Contact: welfare-club@claptoncfc.co.uk

The Accountability Committee has a devolved remit to provide an independent and confidential sounding board for other committees who are handling issues about members’ behaviour, before they escalate to the position of a formal complaint.

Ultimately, the emphasis is on everyone to take collective responsibility for holding each other to account. The Accountability Committee will not “police” every aspect of members’ conduct within the club; every member has a responsibility to step up when a problem arises and to share this responsibility.

Our aim is to look at any issues in an objective and timely manner, prioritise the needs of anyone harmed, act in good faith, avoid cynicism, and where appropriate, provide resources for individuals whose behaviour or language has been questioned, in order to educate themselves. It can act to make sure all parties feel an appropriate outcome is reached.

Contact: accountability@claptoncfc.co.uk