The Blog of Kris Middleton

  There are some projects that arrive in your life unexpectedly. You volunteer to help, intending to do a little bit of administration or lend a hand where needed. Then, before you know it, you find yourself helping to decide whether an organisation with more than a century of history will survive or disappear. That was the situation facing the Durham County Referees' Association (RA) earlier this year. And thankfully, a group of dedicated people chose hope over closure. Standing at a Crossroads For a number of years, Durham County RA had been slowly declining. Membership numbers had reduced, committee positions were becoming difficult to fill, communication had become sporadic, and there was a genuine question over whether the organisation still had a purpose in the modern world. At one stage, closure seemed not only possible, but perhaps inevitable. As Secretary, I found myself in an unusual position. While some people were looking backwards at what the organisation had b...