Minutes of Meeting held on Wednesday 6 November 2019 at 6:00 pm

Present:

Ray Hedgman (Chair)
Victoria Bell (Treasurer)
Bobby Blair (Secretary)
Mark Butler
Steve Francis
Sian Blair
Steve Benham
Stuart Puttock

Apologies:

Kath Leech

Minutes of Last meeting

The minutes from the meeting held on Wednesday 23 October were circulated prior to the meeting.  BB asked if anyone had any changes they wanted made. None were requested and the minutes were agreed to be a true record of the meeting.  It was agreed that copies of the minutes would be put on the Shots website for people to access.

MB to talk to Shahid to enable this.  

Membership Package

MB had sent an email round prior to the meeting.  The scarfs will cost £4 including VAT and the membership cards cost £1 to produce, these will be without photos as the cost will be too much to include these.  The membership draw will not cost and the club will provide the prize. A page in the Programme is ok. MB was happy to give discounts to members to hire the EBBs Lounge for functions such as birthday parties etc. He was also happy to give discounts to members for mascot packages. Members will get free entry to the Chelsea U23 games. 

The discount in the shop is still being negotiated with MW.  His concern is members giving their cards to non-members to make use of the discount.  This could be overcome by having a minimum spend in order to gain the discount so the shop doesn’t lose out.  MB to update on this at the next meeting.

RH advised that supporter’s club members would get 20p of a pint in The Crimea.

SB advised that she had been into Colourways printers and they have agreed to give members a 10% discount.

Membership Form

The membership form was circulated prior to the meeting.  It was agreed that for under 18s a parent/carers counter signature should be added.

BB to Action

Email Account

BB advised that the supporters club email had been set up and that at present RH, VB and herself had the login details.

VB pointed out that as membership grew if we start receiving numerous emails a day that this may need to be expanded to reduce the load.

Bank Account

RH advised that he had spent an hour at the bank on Monday, he had to answer a lot of questions.  He needs to take in his I.D. and then the account will be set up. He has put the Football Club’s address for the bank account.  It will be a community bank account.

VB suggested that the supporters club be ‘un incorporated’ to start with and read out the definition of ‘un incorporated’.

She has started to set up a spreadsheets for the bank account to monitor spending.  

RH will go in to sort I.D. should then only take about a week to set up account.

Any Other Business

MB advised that Shahid had asked that we sort out a constitution.  BB had circulated a copy of another supporter’s club constitution and aims and objectives prior to the meeting.  The constitution was discussed and amendments made to the circulated copy. VB advised that one of the judges at work had agreed to look over it for her.  VB to finish constitution and get checked by Judge.

SBL advised that she has set up a Facebook Group with MW’s help.  It was agreed that this should be a closed group for members only and that a code of conduct should be included on the page.

RH asked if the venue for the meetings could be changed to The Crimea.  Proposed by MB seconded by SP. All future meetings to move to The Crimea.

MB advised that in light of the cost of the scarf and membership cards that we may need to revisit the membership fee.

The committee agreed the following:-

£10 for 11 to 18’s

£15 for Over 18’s

Under 11s to be Junior Shot members via the Foundation.

MB asked if we still planned to launch on 28th at the Fans Forum.  RH advised that we hoped to launch at the next home game on the 23rd.

Membership forms for the Supporters Club and Junior Shots to be available in The Crimea, The Club Shop, behind the gates (weather provided), The EBBs Lounge and all of the Football Clubs Bars.

MB advised we would also need to have them at the member’s forum and some members of the committee available on the night.

MB to ask MW what the lead time would be for the Scarfs as it would be good if we had them on the day.

MB, VB, SBL and SF paid their membership fees at the meeting so that RH had funds to open the account with.

MB advised that if we are launching on the 23rd we need to write a page for the programme.  BB to action this.

MB asked that the supporters club arrange its first event asap, perhaps a race night.  BB mentioned with it being close to Christmas perhaps a Christmas Do

MB advised that he had met with The Trust and that they have welcomed the new supporters club.  He also advised that a couple of people had contacted him about donating some money, he had given then several options including a donation to the supporters club, he will let us know what they decide.

MB wants to set up a lottery scheme. He will look into this further.

Would we be able to do a Supporters Club player of the Month? MB advised that as The Trust currently do one it wouldn’t be appropriate but this may change in the future.

VB will create a mission statement ready for the launch.

Recap of items required for the launch:-

RH – finish opening bank account

BB – amend membership form and write programme page

VB – complete mission statement and constitution

SP – create some designs for the scarf 

MB: –

find out scarf lead time
speak to Shahid about link on Shots Website
look into Lottery Scheme
confirm shop discount
find out how the Football Club will bank money for the supporters club

Date of next meeting Thursday 14 November at 6:00 pm