The General Managers Club
| The General Managers Club (85054) | |
| http://res.hattrick.org/federationlogo/1/9/86/85054/85054_t1.jpg | |
| Chief Officer | Broughy1322 |
| Founding date | 06/07/09 |
| Members | 274 |
| Languages | English |
The GMC
The General Managers Club (otherwise known as "The GMC") is a general purpose federation which boasts an excellent community vibe and fantastic features. Created by Broughy1322 on 6th July 2009, The GMC is now a very successful federation with over 250 members and plenty of things to get involved in.
History
The Old Youth League
The GMC name was born from an old youth league Broughy1322 used to run. It was a 16 team international league and was very successful as it ran for three long seasons. It eventually disbanded to make way for the GMC Youth League System.
The Difficult Beginning
So with a name all set it was time to get members. This was easier said than done though, as Broughy1322 sent HT-mails to all 15 other members of the old youth league, as well as every member of every league he'd ever been in and the top 50 teams in England. This naturally brought about a fine for spamming very quickly, but The GMC managed to get 5 members and secure it's existence. The first ever member other than Broughy1322 was Aces-manager of Anning's Aces, a team Broughy's Scorpions had shared a league with in seasons gone by. He joined the day after creation, on 7th July 2009.
Progression
Slowly but surely The GMC started to grow as word spread of the organised and active forum. After increasing his activity on other forums, Broughy eventually met Dyna-Mikey who put in a lot of work to attract plenty of people he knew from various other feds. The GMC was well on it's way and quickly hit 50 members. The forum began to be a lot more active and the first official cup and competitions were held. It was during this time that the Youth League System started too (see below).
Growth
After a few months of dedication from it's members The GMC had become one of the best communities in HT. A very tight knit collection of members who all enjoyed each others company. Broughy wanted more people to experience this though and what followed was a very steady but increased growth of the fed up to the number it has now. A lot of work along the way to keep the forums littered with interesting topics and allowing everyone to get involved on the various activities meant that a lot of people now are able to enjoy what The GMC has to offer. The quick growth continues to astound Broughy and it's rumoured that he considers The GMC his defining moment on Hattrick. The future looks bright.
Main Attractions
Community
(TO BE COMPLETED)The GMC community is one of the best on Hattrick
The GMC Cup
(TO BE COMPLETED)A cup every season with prizes for the winners
Youth League System
The GMC name came from a youth league and therefore the youth academy was always going to be a huge part of the federation's make-up. Early in the fed's life an idea was floated around for a multi-divisional youth league system with promotions and relegations. Each league would have 4 teams and each season break would be 3 days long, with teams leaving their leagues and entering their new ones as soon as possible. All detailed info on the youth system including results and past winners can be found in the "Forum links" thread on the GMC forum.
Organisation
Before any concrete system could be set up a mammoth organisation task took place to get everyone on the same league schedule. A sign-up thread was created and it gained immediate interest with lots of teams signing up to the idea. It was then just a case of figuring out how to get everyone on the same schedule by entering into 4, 6 and 8 team leagues. The idea being that whilst the 4 team leagues went round and round, the 6 & 8 team leagues would eventually finish at the same time. After a lot of excel documents, date calculations, and re-created leagues the GMC youth system was ready for it's first season.
Season One
The first GMC youth league season had 8 leagues for a total of 32 teams. It was a simple ladder system with teams being placed in the system based on the number of stars in their matches. Then the 4th placed team in the top league would replace the winner of league 2 and this would continue down the system. Initially there were two tiers, the "Football League" containing the Premier League and Divisions one, two & three, and "Non-League Football" containing Non-League A, B, C & D. The youth system proved to be very popular and a great way to increase enjoyment in the youth academy. The number of applicants on the sign-up sheet increased ever more.
Seasons Two, Three and Four
Three days after Season One finished Season Two began with the same number of leagues, as some great organisation and quick movements by members had leagues re-created and entered very quickly. The ladder system remained for the next three seasons but the number of leagues expanded as more and more people wanted to join - Season Three had 10 leagues and Season Four had 14.
Season Five & The Pyramid System
Continuing the ladder system any longer was clearly going to be a problem as it would take far too long for new members to reach the top (14+ seasons of 6 weeks each is a long time!) even if they promoted every season. Therefore a new "Pyramid System" was introduced based on Hattrick's own league system. This would have one premier league at the top with two relegated teams each season, then two leagues in division II and four leagues in all the divisions below that. This would allow a maximum of 23 leagues up to division VII and there would only ever be 7 steps to the top. See the picture on the right to see how promotions/relegations work. This proved very popular with all members and season five started with 15 leagues across 5 divisions.
Seasons Six, Seven & Beyond
Since the youth system is a massive organisational nightmare the decision was taken to cap the number of leagues at 23 (92 teams over 7 divisions). Season Six had 17 leagues and Season Seven had 19 leagues across 6 divisions. With lots of teams on the waiting list to join it won't be long before we have a full system of 23 leagues across 7 divisions. The Youth System is still proving to be a fascinating aspect to the GMC and one of it's best features. Long may it continue.
Other Attractions
Flag Chasing & Lotteries
The GMC has it's own flag chasing thread in which members can discuss all things to do with their current flag chasing exploits. Members will often also donate flags for GMC lotteries, which occur approximately once a week. Rare flags that can be won include Suriname, Al Urdun, etc
Team Kit Makers
There is also a thread specifically to get a kit designed for your team. The GMC has 5 kit makers and the quality of the kits they produce is always excellent.
Buying & Selling Players
Threads dedicated to advertising players are present in The GMC too, making searching for players to buy or getting an bit of money for players an easy prospect.
Competitions
Many competitions are held within The GMC and are usually based on a weekly entry system. The very popular "Predict Your Players" competition, where managers have to choose the three players that will gain them the most points in their league match based on pre-set criteria, has been running for many seasons. New season-long competitions are added all the time to keep things fresh.
Special Interest Topics
The GMC also includes a number of special interest threads, dedicated to those who specifically enjoy that topic. Threads of this kind include the "Battrick" thread, real life football discussion, music discussion, etc
