Board Meeting Minutes | 13 July 2010
Last Updated on Tuesday, 24 August 2010 22:42
PUBLIC RELEASE
SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY SUPPORTERS SOCIETY LTD
MINUTES OF THE SOCIETY BOARD
Meeting held in Box 14, SWFC, Hillsborough, Sheffield on 13 July 2010 at 7pm
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)
DIANE COCKAYNE (DC) (Director)
IRMA KENNEDY (IK) (Director)
NIGEL SHORT (NS) (Invited as Director-elect)
1. Apologies
Apologies were received from Darryl Keys and David Blunkett. Charles Dickens who was invited to attend as a Director-elect also apologised as he was unable to attend.
2. Minutes of previous meeting
The minutes of the board meeting held on 1 June 2010, which had been circulated prior to the meeting were approved. PH asked for the information about Steve Adams' summer coaching to be posted on our web site.
3. Communications and Correspondence
Reports of meetings between JG/PH/DK/DB(via phone link) and LS on 10 June . This was talk through the aftermath of LS's resignation and any possible effect on Wednesdayite. LS gave his view of the circumstances which the has since made public.
JG/PH with LS 23 June to clarify the situation between LS and the club followed by a meeting between PH/JG with NP 23 June on the same issue. There has clearly been a considerable breakdown in the relationships.
DAB reported that he has talked to ST (SWFC) who has asked for a meeting to be set up to discuss community issues.
PH has exchanged emails with CA (SWFC) about tickets for the friendly match with Grimsby in which PH instigated moves to get 500 free tickets for Owls fans with the possibility of additional funds from Grimsby to compensate for their offer of free tickets to their own fans. He also commented on the arrangements for the 'Open Training Session' which had been arranged for Monday 2 August to reduce staffing requirements and costs.
DC has been talking to ST(SWFC) and obtained a raffle prizes for the Smile Tickets Appeal and to arrange for a bucket collection to be held at the first home match of the season.
NS has talked to CA(SWFC) about arranging supportive links with Weston Park Hospital.
NS will talk to ST(SWFC) about this. It was agreed that NS this should explore this further on behalf of Wednesdayite. Some interesting suggestions about were made about possible activities.
4. Wednesdayite Elections
IK will be retiring at the AGM. Nominations have been received from DAB, DC, CD, DK, NS and JW. As there are fewer nominations than vacancies, there will be no need for a ballot. Instead, members will be asked to approve the appointment of the nominated candidates to the board at the AGM.
We will discuss what skills we will ne need after the AGM and look at filling shortages through co-option.
5. Updates/Reports
Web Site - RD is now able to modify the front page so the banner items can now be kept up-to-date.
Smile Tickets - bucket collection has been approved for the first match. The intention is to buy the tickets as soon as possible - probably to start in September. It was agreed to include Weston Park Hospital in the scheme. A request has been made to Owlstalk allow us to promote the appeal more effectively. A 'donate' button had been suggested. PH posted an item on the main forum but it has been moved to the Wednesdayite section. We need to ask Owlstalk to help us to give this more prominence. The appeal will also be featured in the match day programme.
Car Park - needs a clear up but this should be ok. Car park season tickets will now be called Car Park Permits to avoid confusion. After discussion, it was agreed to use the same basic design as last year with a different colour. Some discussion with SWFC will be needed to plan for future use of the Car Park land.
Club staff will be allowed free parking as long as they arrive before 1pm.
Away Coach - For the first away match, Colchester, we have already filled a coach from advanced requests before any announcement, so we will book a second coach. We intend to run at least one coach for all the away matches except perhaps Plymouth and Southampton but we will look at that later.
It was agreed to offer the Loyalty incentive scheme again next season and so we will be keeping a record of who travels on each trip. Steps need to be taken to obtain payment for all bookings made.
Lounge - All the league games as currently detailed on the fixture list, have been booked. On two occasions we will have to use the much smaller Bradfield Room. We have not booked the facility for the cup matches. It was agreed to try to book the smaller room for the Bury Cup match as a trial.
Programme Notes - We have offered this again for next season and it was agreed to continue with this. NS agreed to take this on.
WTID/Box 30 - PH, RD and JG have been participating in the WTID group discussions and helping where they can. A third meeting has taken place and we would be passing on contacts we find. A WTID LTD company has been set up and a web site (www.wtidgroup.co.uk) is being developed by the group.
6. Membership Push
15,000 new leaflets have been produced and 11,500 have been supplied to the club who have sent them out by the club with the new season tickets.
7. Membership Database
We have been looking at a membership database system which is available through Supporters Direct. It is comprehensive and flexible package which we can work on collaboratively on-line. It will incur reasonable costs in the future but is available at the moment for free for the first year. It was agreed to try it out for the first year.
8. Events
Q&A with Howard Wilkinson and Alan Irvine on Monday 19 July starting at 7:30pm. This is a free open event. There will be a raffle and a bucket collection to benefit the Smile Ticket Appeal. We will not be appealing for questions in advance. NS, DAB and RD will be introducing and conducting the meeting.
Wednesdayite AGM - due to delays in completing the data collection to send to the auditors, they will now not be able to carry out the process in time to allow us to hold the AGM until the end of September. Due to the delay, it was agreed to co-opt the two directors-elect (NS and CD) to serve on the board until the AGM. We will try to arrange a date when we may be able to invite some of the new playing staff.
9. Working Groups
No decisions were required and so this item was left until the next meeting. JG asked working group leaders to take responsibility for arranging their own volunteers. Details of volunteers will then be passed to a volunteer coordinator.
10. Board Meetings from August
Using the fixture list, the calendar of meetings for next season was agreed provisionally to fit in with scheduled home games. The list will be circulated to board members.
11. Any Other Urgent Business
There was no other urgent business.
12. Date of Next Meeting
21 August 2010 - at 5 pm following the match against Brighton & Hove Albion
Meeting closed at 8:45pm
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.
