More new signings last week in the shape of Shane Toal, Jono Smith and Martin Aspinwall has taken us up to 19 players signed on for the new season.

I’ve gone on record as saying that we want 25 players, but I’m very happy where we are and won’t be rushed in to signing the remainder for signings’ sake. The coaching staff know the positions we require to fill, but already we have a balanced look with every position covered.

Off the field, the board of directors are having a development planning away day next weekend and instead of focussing on the day-to-day issues and actions that a normal board meeting would consist of, we will try to do some strategic thinking.

Where do we want to be in a year’s time? Where do we want to be in three to five years’ time? It can be too easy to get caught up dealing with day-to-day matters that long-term planning goes out of the window.

However, we need to know what we are aiming for and we need to set a flexible plan to start that journey. For me, I want growth in every area; commercially, our community work, our crowds, our events programme, facility improvement and, of course, the team.

I could direct all our finance in to the team and then focus on those other things, but I prefer to lay the solid foundations that will stand us in good stead for the long term.

It is easy to say that we will run a community programme as soon as the team gets better on the field, but the reality is that the easy option is to continually focus on the team. And when the crowds dwindle, you have nothing to fall back on except the begging bowl to sponsors and fans alike.

We took the brave decision last season to run a community programme, totally self-funded with no help at all from the RFL, who provide financial support to a number of other clubs.

The benefits since then have come thick and fast. We have obtained a number of grants, with a couple of major ones still to be announced.

We have sponsors who see the great work we have been doing and want their name associated with it, but best of all, we have engaged with youngsters who have joined us at camps, have seen our players in schools and have become the supporters of tomorrow by coming to the games and getting hooked, hopefully for life.

I’d like to end by plugging a charity football game in aid of Children in Need that is being planned at the ground in November.

A Barrow Raiders team will line up against a Barrow Celebrities team with the aim of raising a lot of money for charity.

At the same time, the organisers have planned a Guiness World Record attempt for the number of people in one location wearing a party hat. Tesco have provided the hats and the target is just over 1,200.

I’m sure the Furness public can smash that record and at the same time raise a lot of money for the cause.