By Dominic Lowe
Looking ahead to the election at this month’s Annual General Meeting, I wanted to talk about how I became a board member of OASF and what I’ve learned.
A little crash course on me: I’m 27, my favourite Latics memory was being in the Chaddy End when we beat Liverpool 3-2, and I grew up in Chadderton but now live in Pontefract, West Yorkshire.
Like others, it was the Lemsagams which made me realise that being a Latics fan is about more than just going to games. This is our club and it’s our responsibility to protect it, for the current and future fanbase, but also for all the fans who came before and introduced it to us.
When the first call came from the Boundary Park Alert System! Podcast for fans to get involved with OASF, I didn’t know any other OASF members to nominate me and I didn’t believe I could make a difference. I’ve spent most of my working life as a ‘generalist’ civil servant – I didn’t have any legal, finance or director level experience. I was wrong. I should have got involved sooner.
Nevertheless, I volunteered in 2021 to help out to help the fans who did stand for election to save the Club. I started volunteering for OASF by taking minutes during board meetings (thanks to Jason Partington-Russell for ringing me several times to recruit me).
Sitting in on those meetings really helped demystify OASF and its board. I discovered that they were just a bunch of normal Latics fans trying to figure out how to protect the Club. With the board short on numbers, and me eager to do more, I was co-opted onto the board in April 2022. That experience gave me the confidence and the contacts to stand at the next election.
I’ve learned a lot in my 2 years as an OASF board member:
You don’t need to be a lawyer or an accountant to get involved with OASF. You just need to be willing to give up some time every so often and be willing to get stuck in.
Getting nominations for my form was the biggest barrier for me. That’s why we’re offering help with finding other members to nominate potential candidates. You can contact us about this at hello@oasf.co.uk.
But I’ve also learned that being on the OASF board isn’t everything. Anyone can do their bit for OASF without being on the board. The most impactful members of OASF are often those who aren’t on the board, like Andrew who did the away travel survey with us, and David who has hand-delivered countless membership packs and bits of merchandise.
If you’d prefer to get involved in a discrete project rather than everything OASF does, you should still volunteer. You don’t have to be a board member to come up with a new idea.
We need more board members and volunteers. We all want OASF to be doing more than we currently do, but as volunteers who have work and personal lives too, we have reached the capacity of what we’re able to do.
To stand for election, complete the nomination form below and send it to oasfelection2024@gmail.com by 23:59 on Monday 22 July.
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