This may well be the most boring post you’ve ever read! Sorry!

We have lots of CTSA Board Meetings. We also have lots of Sub Committee meetings. In short, we have far more meetings than we need to have, constitutionally. As we’re still a new organisation, and still building our long term structure, we have lots to talk about and lots of decisions to make, unfortunately!

We haven’t been regularly posting our minutes up here as it’s rather time consuming given how many of them there are, the amount of reformatting required, and the lack of IT professionals on the board! Also, unless you watch paint dry for a living we think you’d find them rather sterile, minutes generally are. But we’ve decided that we need to start posting them again, so below you’ll find minutes from December, January and February.

We didn’t post September-November, so if you’d like to see them, please email secretary@ctfcsa.co.uk and we’ll send them to you in pdf format. They will, of course, all be available as hard copies at our AGM in the summer. So, here goes:

 

Minutes of CTSA Board Meeting December 15th 2011

Present: Ian, Chris, Barb, Ken, Colin L, Owen, James, Paul, Colin B, Angela (interim Secretary)

Apologies: Simon S, Simon H, John
1. Previous minutes: Agreed.

Action Points from previous meeting:-

a) Mini World Cup Boxing Day

Ian advised that this was now off as Owen had been unable to get enough groups together in the time available. Owen is aiming to re-arrange this for next summer to coincide with the European Championships.

b) Oxford Community Bus

Owen currently has 72 people booked for the trip and is hoping to get 100 in total. Ken advised that he has taking 40 bookings for Oxford so far. Ken and Owen will liaise and finalise the details but will hopefully take 2 coaches.

c) Travel Insurance

Ian advised that this had now been paid and was effective from 1/1/2012. The total cost was £608 and the paperwork will be given to John H.

Actionpoint:- John H. To review cover and advise if any issues. 

d) Liaison Meeting with club

Ian reported on the meeting he and John had had with Alan Williams on 2/12/11:-

Stalls in County Mall, Crawley – This event had gone ahead but as the Club are allowed to sell merchandise but not promote they were unable to advertise the CTSA or give away any of the  cards  promoting it’s travel club. Ian advised that the stall had been very successful. .

Website Blog – Ian advised that he had recently put an article on the CTSA website advising people of the fact that only 55% of turnover could be spent on players wages. This included monies from commercial sales and events.

Disabled Enclosure – Alan Williams has there may be a need to relocate the disabled enclosure in the West Stand but could not say exactly to where at present. The new stand has not been designed to have disabled access.

Chris advised that the lift which the disabled people currently use keeps breaking down. This is likely to be because of its use by heavy catering trolleys.

Signage – Car Parking on match days – the club will be announcing this on the website and improving signage.

Bewbush Training ground – reserve matches cannot be advertised as the council do not allow additional signage.

Redz Bar – It was agreed that better signage was required in the car park to advertise the whereabouts of the Redz Bar following comments from away supporters.

 Actionpoint:- Angela to escalate to Club.

Food on matchdays – From now on rolls and jacket potatoes will be available in Redz. There is no plan to have burger vans in the ground as the club lose a substantial amount from this even though the vans are charged a fixed fee.

There will be 2 refreshment facilities in the new stand.

Removing bottle tops – it is in the League safety rules that bottle tops must be removed.

Crewe Trip

Ken advised that there were now 65 people booked on the Crewe coach and it was agreed that the CTSA mugs would be given out on the coach.

Actionpoint:-Ken advised that Andy T was in hospital and it was agreed that Ian would arrange for a get well card to be bought and signed by the players.

 

2. New Items

a) Golden Gamble

James handed out spreadsheets showing the results of each of the draws to date which showed an overall profit of £185. As it was only in the last draw that prizes were paid out of the net profit it was thought that the overall profit should gradually increase.

After discussion it was decided:-

• to continue as things were and review the number of sellers at the next meeting;
• to continue doing the Golden Gamble only at afternoon games;
• to put the winning numbers on the CTSA website and on a board outside the Travel Hut;
• that the Golden Gamble sellers would go round with a board displaying the winning numbers at half time.

b) Engaging more CTSA members

It was agreed that a structure of responsibilities/ roles needed to be set up within the Committee itself before engaging other members to help;

c) CTSA Coverage in the Programme

The club are prepared to give a full page to CTSA coverage.

Barb has written a review of the year to be published shortly and it was agreed that an article about the Golden Gamble could also be included.

d) CTSA Newsletter

It was agreed that this would be emailed or posted to CTSA members only due to cost.

e) Junior Reds

The Club has indicated that this may restart but the idea has to be agreed with the board.

f) Redz Club Draw

Ian advised that the organisation needed to be given updates on travel arrangements for away games so they could publicise them on behalf of the CTSA. The organisation has also asked if the Golden Gamble sellers can sell Redz Club draw tickets.

Actionpoint:- James to discuss.

 g) CTSA Committee Structure

Paul Prendergast was proposed as Vice Chair by Chris Cheshire, seconded by Colin Bowman. Elected unanimously. Angela Townsend agreed to act as secretary- a non voting role-until another interested party expresses a wish to take on the role.

Committee Structure as follows:

Ian Townsend- Chair

Paul Prendergast- Vice Chair

Simon Smith- Treasurer

Angela Townsend- Secretary (interim)

Sub Committees:

Travel: Ken Blackmore- Lead Travel Officer, James Laraman- deputy, Paul Prendergast, Ian Townsend

Membership (and Junior Reds if it restarts): Barb Robinson-Lead Membership Officer, Chris Cheshire- deputy

Press & Promotions: Colin Bowman- Lead Press & Promotions Officer, Ian Townsend- deputy (press), Owen Pickering, Paul Prendergast

Fundraising: Simon Hall- Lead Fundraising Officer, James Laraman –deputy (Golden Gamble coordination), Owen Pickering, Paul Prendergast.

Community: John Hooper- Lead Community Officer, Colin Lowes –deputy

Constitution: Simon Smith- Lead Constitution Officer, Colin Lowes- deputy

Website: Simon Hall, Ian Townsend

A discussion took place on the merits of the CTSA presence in Redz. Unfortunately due to space constraints it cannot be moved closer to the front door, which limits its usefulness. In reality we need a larger cabin to be used as a one stop shop,or better use of the original- but we need to think more about this in the summer. It was also agreed that all board members would need to take on matchday responsibilities such as leafleting etc- childcare issues permitting.

Actionpoint: Colin B and Simon H to organise meetings of the promotions and fundraising sub committees to brainstorm ideas of how to best promote/raise funds for the CTSA. Owen to continue with organisation of Mauritian disco etc.  
h) Dates of future meetings

It was agreed that meetings scheduled four weeks apart was too infrequent at present due to the amount of ongoing work and organisation, but that the previous two weekly meetings were too often. As such it was decided that meetings would be three weekly, scheduled as follows:

Thursday 5^th January

Thursday 26^th January

Thursday 16^th February

And so on.

 

3. Any Other Business

a) Making and Communicating Decisions– it was agreed that to cut down on email traffic and ensure that the entire board are aware of decisions made that, where feasible, Lead Officers of sub committees would pass details of sub committee meetings to the secretary who would send out necessary updates on a weekly basis.

b) CL advised all on behalf of JH that he would be available to do some administrative work in January/February as he’ll be off work for 10 weeks. It was suggested that he may be able to help keep the website up to date etc.

Actionpoint: Ian to speak to John.

Meeting closed at 8 PM

 

Minutes of meeting on 5^th January 2012

Present: Ian, Chris, Barb, Ken, Colin L, Owen, James, Paul, Colin B, Angela, Simon S, Simon H, John

Guests: Susan and Ian Carter

Apologies: None
1. Previous minutes: Agreed.

2. Action Points arising from last meeting:

a) Travel Insurance –John/Ken to review travel insurance coverage issues. Action: John and Ken

b) Signage – Susan Carter agreed that JL should talk to Extreme Signs regarding the additional signage required around the ground. Action: James

3. New Items

a)   Youth Engagement Strategy

It was agreed that IT would help to write a youth engagement strategy to help address the issue of getting younger people coming to watch Crawley.Other ways of making children aware of CTFC were considered:- presence of CTSA at school fetes selling club merchandise, 5 a side tournaments, holiday time events and the reintroduction of Junior Reds.

Susan Carter said that she would discuss the latter point with Bruce Talbot.

b)   Legends match

Susan Carter promised to look into the possibility of a legends match taking place either before or after the pitch is taken up at the end of the season.

c)    Schools Football Initiative

CC advised that there was an open invitation for Silpa to go to the Bewbush school to see how the football initiative was progressing for herself. CC said she was happy to accompany her.

Actionpoint:- it was agreed that Chris would contact Silpa to advise her of the invitation.

d)   Media Gallery

CC said that she was concerned about the clubs plans for the new stand which involved a proposal to move the disabled spaces from their current position to make way for a media gallery.Action point: It was agreed that Ian and Chris would arrange a meeting with Alan Williams to discuss this point.

e)   Golden Gamble 

JL asked for volunteers to sell Golden Gamble tickets in the West Stand from 230 to 3pm on match days.

Paul and both Simon H & Simon S volunteered to do this.

f)    Travel Issues

JL advised that he and IT were attending a further meeting with Clarkes coaches next week to try and negotiate prices for future away games.

Raffle – IT advised that the net profit from the recent raffle was £278. OP advised that the net profit for the community coaches was £178.31. 102 people travelled on the 2 community buses; 34 under 16’s, 9 under 7’s and 68 adults.

Action point:- OP to provide email addresses of those who travelled so that they can be added to the CTSA database.

g)   Reselling of Season Tickets when the owner cannot use them

Action point:- It was agreed that IT would talk to Alan Williams about the possibility of selling these tickets at the travel hut on behalf of the club.

h)   Fund Raising

An end of season prize draw was suggested with tickets being sold now until the end of the season. Proceeds to CTSA and Centre of Excellence.

Action point:-

IT to ask Alan Williams what prizes the club would offer. All to think about engaging with business for prizes.

500 club-Alan Williams has agreed that this can go ahead but a direct debit system will need to be put in place. Simon H to research this. Agreed to discuss further at AGM to gauge interest before sorting out the procedure for next season.

Any Other Business

Raffle –It was agreed that a raffle would be run on the coaches taking supporters to the next FA cup match. Actionpoint: Ian, Ken, Paul and James to coordinate.

CTSA mugs

It was agreed that these would be given out at the Bristol Rovers game.

 

Minutes of meeting on 26^th January 2012

Present: Ian, Chris, Barb, Owen, James, Paul, Colin B

Guests:

Apologies:Simon S, Simon H, Colin L, John, Angela, Ken

 

1. Previous minutes agreed.

 

2. Action points arising from last meeting.

a) Signage issues at the club were agreed- JL met with extreme signs and Susan Carter.

Locations agreed. Closed.

b) Youth engagement strategy ongoing. No update from Susan re Junior Reds. Action: Ian to call Bruce for an update next week.

c) Schools Football initiative- Chris has emailed Silpa to invite her. We cannot get a player to be available –they’re in Portugal. Presentation on 1st February at Broadfield East Junior School. Obby sending a journalist. Action: Colin and Colin to coordinate.

d) Issues re meeting with AW held over to early of February. Action: Ian to rearrange.

e) Legends match- cannot use the Broadfield simply because the pitch will be dug up immediately after the last game of the season. Alternatives? Action: All to consider.

f) Golden Gamble- Paul and Simon S sold at the last game, Simon H didn’t but should be in future. Reintroduce it for the midweek games using two hired sellers and us? Let’s try it for Cheltenham on 7th. Action: James and Simon H.

g) Barb needs Owen’s database. Ian will bring on Saturday- but we will add to the contact database we make up at the Hull game. Action: Ian

h) Reselling of season tickets- Ken too busy and cabin not big enough! Proposal to be reconsidered at later date.

3. New issues:

a) Fundraising ideas- JH- Use of Redz bar- quiz night, race night, beer festival, combine the beer festival with the quiz. John has been in discussion with a quizmaster and is awaiting a price. John has also spoke to kissinggate brewery and he will make us a CTFC real ale! A firkin of ale- 72 pints- would cost 88p a pint! We would have to serve it. Friday 13th April? Day before AFC Wimbledon arrive! Action: John to look into pricing, Ian to propose to club.

•  Dates for use of Redz- Ian to look at the calendar and will email AW tomorrow with a selection of dates. Owen’s disco for end February- Saturday 25th-  looking at a disco with Mauritian dancing etc which Owen could get for free. Action: Ian

•  Alan Bourne has contact with a collection of musicians who play in East Sussex – Alan to liaise with Barb and she will make some enquiries. Band who played Wingspan went down well, we can ask them too. End of season awards coupled with a funday- we can make some ancillary income. Action: Barb to follow up.

• Battle of the Bands, Racenight. We may need to start with a loss leader and promote it vigourously. Which bands are up and coming in our area? Action: Owen to ask, Ian to ask on Facebook. We shall all enquire on the coaches. 

 

• 500 Club- a good idea which we should run with. Although we can’t add up the prize allocations suggested- can Simon H clarify? Action: Simon to set this up asap.

 

• End of season raffle- Action: Ian to speak to AW and Simon Rusk about prizes- profits between CTSA and Centre of Excellence.

 

b) Travel issues– raising funds to subsidise costs discussed. Action: All to consider.

So far 575 booked for Hull- Mercedes coaches have 49 seats- 5 of those- Scanias have 53- 7 of those. First coach in at 0630, others in from 0630 to 0700. We meet at 0700 to get packs etc and reserve front four seats on each, then we can let people on. Events feedback forms to be given out on each coach- prize draw- they must give them back to us! Contact cards to be given out- prize draw- Give these all out on the return trip.

Raffle- do the ball draw on the way up before the service station, put all tickets together at the service station and then do the main draw on coach on the way home prior to the services, so that these can be communicated at the services. Do the scratch card on the second half of the outward journey.

b) Travel Savings Fund- Should we offer a savings club for away travel in operation over the summer? Perhaps we should sell club gift vouchers and then the club can swap them for cash/services? Discuss with the club, get Simon S’s input. Should we also look at a cost price coach season ticket for next year? Action: James to consider these issues.

c) Membership for 2012/13- 329 memberships (more members- family memberships have 4) so far this season, by the way- process of renewals and incentives. Will the club do the 5% discount on season ticket sales next season if they’ve renewed? Should we do a life membership scheme? Action: Ian to speak to AW for details. Perhaps we need to charge £15 next season but £10 for renewals? We need to spread the renewals from the AGM onwards. If they’re putting a coupon in the paper can it be the same deal we get?

AOB:

Website- can we get the picture on front page updated? Ian sent it to Simon H some weeks ago. Action: Simon H.

 

Minutes of meeting on 16^th February 2012

Present: Ken, James, Paul, Barb, Colin B, Colin L, John, Owen, Jason Bates, Ian, Angela

Guests:

Apologies: Simon S, Chris
A. Simon Hall – resignation due to work/domestic circumstances

Ian said that he was grateful for the contribution which Simon had made during his time on the board, and all agreed that our thanks and best wishes should be recorded.

Ian said that he had invited Jason along as he was interested in taking over the fund raising role vacated by Simon.

After discussion everyone voted in favour of Jason being co-opted onto the board as Fundraising Lead.

1. Previous minutes agreed.

 

2. Action points arising from last meeting.

2b – Junior Reds will not be re-introduced this season.

It was agreed that the board would email Ian with any ideas regarding the future format of Junior Reds which he would then escalate to the club.

2c – Chris and Silpa will be going to Bewbush school next week.

3. New issues:

3a. Meeting with Alan Williams

Ian advised that this had now taken place. Minutes of the meeting were sent out to board members this morning.

3b. CTSA Cabin

The club have agreed that the current cabin can be replaced by a larger one situated in the same place. However we would have to fund this.

Action point:- John to look into the supply of a new cabin.

3c. Coaching in schools

The CTSA is currently paying for coaching in 2 schools in the most deprived areas of Crawley, and this will continue until the end of the season.

Discussion ensued as to whether this should be expanded to 1 more school or whether to instead provide funding for 2 children nominated by each school to attend a holiday training school run by the club using school agreed criteria. The latter idea won approval.

Action point:- John will talk to the club on this point.

3d. Fundraising ideas:-

The Board agreed the need to:-

Focus on Golden Gamble sales;

Concentrate on having one event per month at Redz; End of season get together for all supporters to be combined with renewal of CTSA memberships and push for new members; Fun day promotion; Raffles.

Mauritian nights.

Action point:- Ian to arrange an fundraising sub board meeting next week and send invitations to Paul, James, Jason and Owen.

•  Golden Gamble

James advised that from the next home game there would be a new selling arrangement with new sellers. Whilst we’d like to thank Blackjack for their help and professionalism the costs have proved unsustainable.

James will talk to Xtreme Signs regarding signage for the girls to use to display the Golden Gamble winning numbers. To increase revenue from Golden Gamble Paul and Jason will sell tickets in the area of the West Stand where they sit and Ian will sell tickets in Redz.

•  Use of Redz Bar

 

Ian is waiting to hear from the Club which dates will be available for the CTSA to host events in Redz.

Some suggestions for future events were:- *Quiz night – the cost of this to include a quizmaster would be £60.

*The Collaborators – these are available 5 & 26 May, 6 & 13 April and 8 June, all Saturday nights in April, all Saturdays in June except the 16th. Normal fee is £180.

 

3e. Travel Season Tickets

 

James is still looking at this idea.

 

3f. Finance & Constitution

The financial report which Simon had sent round had caused concern as some of the figures differ from the income and expenditure accounts maintained in respect of different activities. Simon and Ken to discuss and rectify. However we’re showing a healthy balance.

The board agreed that CTSA accounts would be published just before the AGM .

3g. Coach Travel list

 It was agreed that Barb would stop recording the names of those travelling on the coaches for each game in a separate database.

 

3h. Minutes on the website

 It was agreed that the website would be updated monthly.

3i. Sponsorship of CTSA

Barb advised that IG, a local driving instructor, would like to sponsor the CTSA in some way.

The following ideas were suggested:-

*Advertising on seat heads of coaches- this was discounted.

*Advertising on the back of any new cabin – this would help cover the cost of the cabin.

*Advertising on travel information sheets,

*Advertising boards around the perimeter of the Astro turf pitch opposite Redz.

 

Action point:-

Barb to discuss sponsorship ideas with IG.

 4. Any other Business

*Alan Hudson night – this is scheduled to take place in Redz on Saturday at 7.30 pm.

 

*Chestnut House Quiz – Ian has booked this for 20 people on Friday March 2^nd. Cost is £5 per head and includes food. Teams will be made up of 10 people.

*RL has expressed an interest in being co opted onto the board. Ian to discuss with him.

 

* Claim for travel insurance has gone in for the Bradford City match which was called off.

 

*Website training – following the departure of Simon Ian is going to arrange further training.

 

*The CTFC website link to that of the CTSA is out of date. Ian will contact BT.

 

*Possible dates for ‘Community Days’ – 9 April & 21 April.