Board Meeting Minutes | 28 November 2009
Written by Administrator Monday, 16 November 2009 01:00
PUBLIC RELEASE
SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY SUPPORTERS SOCIETY LTD
MINUTES OF THE SOCIETY BOARD
Meeting held in The 2nd Floor Meeting Room, SWFC, Hillsborough, Sheffield on 28 November 2009 at 5pm
PRESENT:
JOHN GATH (JG) (Chairman)
PETER SHAW (PS) (Senior VC)
RICHARD DAVIES (RD) (Deputy VC)
PAUL HOLMES (PH) (Finance Director)
JEFF WILLIAMS (JW) (Services Director)
DAVE BARLOW (DAB) (Community Director)
IRMA KENNEDY (IK) (Director)
1. APOLOGIES
Apologies were received from Darryl Keys and Diane Cockayne.
2. MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING
The minutes of the board meeting held on 17 October and the special SWFC AGM electronic meeting on 17 November, to allocate our votes to named representatives, which had been circulated prior to the meeting were approved.
3. COMMUNICATIONS & CORRESPONDENCE
Two meeting reports - a meeting between Carol Axe and Mark Stuckey and Wednesdayite representatives about membership benefits and a meeting between LS and JG had been circulated. PH reported a communication with James Hargreaves about the responses from our survey about season tickets.
4. UPDATES / REPORTS
Web Site: RD commented on an ongoing problem with the host server which he was trying to get sorted. There was now much more frequent updating of content.
PH reminded us that if we think that something should be posted on the web site, then we should be preparing the content for publication to submit to RD. RD will be contacting people who have volunteered to produce material for the web site and also for a regular email newsletter. As we now have a page in the match day programme, it is hoped that we can drop the printed newsletter in favour of an email version using the service we use for our surveys.
Smile Tickets: IK deputised for DC and distributed all the Smile Tickets for the Swansea match and commented on the co-operation of the turn-style operators with the scheme.
Away Coach: JW reported on the current bookings for Doncaster, Leicester and Blackpool. DAB will pass on any PayPal bookings to JW. There was discussion about the possibilities for further collaboration with the club for away travel next season.
Car Park: Going well and for the last couple of matches, a volunteer has been helping out. PH reported on the situation with storing the portable office as the current location will be unavailable. Discussions are taking place with the club and it is likely that a location could be provided within SWFC.
Lounge: Provisional bookings have been made at the Niagara for the remainder of the season including evening matches. It was agreed to confirm the bookings.
5. SWFC MEETING - MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS
The Family Stand issue had been raised again at the meeting with a request for fans to be allowed to move back to the Grandstand. This had just been implemented. This issue was discussed briefly but it was clear that considerable discussion was needed. It was agreed that a working group should be set up to examine the issue and make recommendations and suggestions to the board and to discuss it with club representatives.
6. EVENTS
RD has produced a draft calendar of events for the first half of 2010 starting with the Phil King event on 29th January. SWP to fund accommodation costs of PK. It was agreed that proceeds of this event should be split 50/50 between The Children's Hospital and SWFC Community Programme. Also agreed that a no food option should be available to be advertised later (£1 non-members and free for members).
The next event should be a free members event in February with special guests to be invited to be followed by a Dinner event in March. It was noted that the calendar did not include the Wednesdayite AGM which needs to be fitted in.
7. MEMBERSHIP SURVEY
PH gave a brief summary of the results of the recent survey.
8. SWFC AGM REVIEW
The SWFC AGM was well organised although it was clear from comments made on the day, as well as from our own survey, that an evening meeting would be preferred.
9. DIRECTORS ISSUES
After several discussions, Jim Bainbridge has now confirmed by email that he wishes to resign from the Wednesdayite Board. Jim's resignation was accepted with all but one board member in favour. The remaining member abstained.
DAB repeated his concerns about Wednesdayite Board members posting on message boards. After more discussion it was again agreed that official statements should only be made by appropriate members (JG, PS, RD,PH) after seeking approval of colleagues. We should exercise self discipline and avoid being drawn into contentious issues.
10. ANY OTHER URGENT BUSINESS
All urgent items had been discussed during the meeting.
11. DATE OF NEXT MEETING
9 January 2010 5:00pm following the Peterborough match.
There being no other business, the meeting concluded at 19.15pm
Note that if any headed section includes ‘(abridged)’ then that section of the Minutes differs from the official Society version of the Minutes in order to protect confidentiality or sensitive information, where considered to be in the Society’s interests at this point in time.
