Please find below the minutes from our Interim Board meeting on 25th August. Over the next few weeks you will find all of the minutes from all of our meetings dating back to the beginning of July displayed here (once I’ve managed to convert them all to plain text!). It is important to us that you, our members, have a view of how we are managing your organisation, so that you can comment, suggest improvements or simply understand our decision making processes. I hope you find them interesting reading! I’m sure that some people will be quite surprised by a few nuggets of information.
Minutes of the Crawley Town Supporters Alliance Interim Board Meeting, 25th August 2011
1. Present – Ian Townsend, Ken Blackmore, Simon Smith, Colin Lowes, Mark Ogbourne, Chris Cheshire, John Hooper, Barbara Robinson
Apologies- Simon Hall
2. Minutes of the last meeting on 11th August 2011– agreed
3. Constitutional matters– new model rules now on hand from Supporters Direct. They need review as they replace the original constitution and we need to ensure that they include our agreed additions from the old SC constitution. Mark making changes ready for submission to SD. Election issues- existing interim board members and any additional applicants from within the membership must provide their 100 word election statement by 6th September. Email, or posted, invitation to go to all members next week, but including a reminder that the board vote for positions within it at their first meeting after the election. Simon has set up new Alliance bank account- all signatories need to go to Lloyds with a photocopy of their passport, the original and a utility bill. Actions: Ian, Mark, Simon S, Ken, Barb.
4. Travel Updates– Palace game made profit, Torquay game made loss. Expect to make profits on shorter journeys, but longer ones maybe not. Cheltenham – should be looking at 40 plus on the coach. We understand from both the football club and from Crawley Luxury Coaches that the other rival coach operator is not willing to work with us for the benefit of CTFC supporters, which is a shame as it will not lead to the best possible service for Crawley Town supporters and will also impact on the amount we have to invest in community projects. We need to look at how we provide the best, most cost effective service to our members, and decisions need to be made on that basis. The club will be offering various incentives to those who travel with us, and providing dvd’s of the last home match (and possibly away matches) to show on the coaches. Discussions with the membership have put forward questions about rest stops, pub visits, late departures after the game to allow a fish and chip visit etc. and these will be discussed with our members. PC Taylor is very happy with travel arrangements to date. For Saturday, on the way, we plan not to stop to allow supporters to get to Cheltenham early- the ground is a ten minute walk from the main shopping centre. On the way back we’re having a fish and chip shop visit! Ken to ring and order 26 seater coach for Southend Tuesday. Ken to forward coach booking sheets to Mark for input on spreadsheet. Mark to arrange signage for the cabin. “Away travel book here or call ………” Mark to also look at taking the additional panels out in order to create space inside the cabin to allow Ian Hands to sell his programmes. Ken has fixed the door. Actions: Ken, Ian, Mark
5. Membership Updates– Another large increase, and another £634 of membership funds now ready to pay in. Can we arrange an “open evening” including players for November/early December? Ian to discuss with club. As a matter of interest, Bruce Winfield’s brother and nephew have joined even though they live in East Anglia, as it’s “what Bruce would have wanted”. All present expressed their delight with this gesture.
6. Community Updates– John and Colin had a very productive meeting with Dave Francis, CTFC’s Head of Community, re our “Winfield’s Winners” scheme. Dave has written a draft letter, to go to schools, to be agreed. Letters should go to schools and the chair of governors. Three schools have already been agreed with Dave and we would like to add a fourth. John and Colin to suggest some alterations to the draft letter as agreed. We’ve also approached Crawley Soccer Youth Leagues to see whether we can do some work with them. Chris raised the issue that Broadfield’s “Escape” Youth club could also benefit from our help and support. Chris to pass on details of Stephen Pearson from the West Sussex Youth Services, to John/Colin and they will speak to him and the club, to see if there is any way we can help. Action: John, Colin & Chris.
7. Fundraising Updates– Simon H absent, so awaiting progress in printing of the Golden gamble tickets. We hope to be in a position, from Bristol Rovers at home, to sell these. Funds into “Winfield’s Winners” scheme. Action: Simon H to update.
8. AOB– Too many emails are circulating between us at the moment, so we must look at ways of reducing these. Ian to send draft outline roles and responsibilities of all board roles for all to discuss so that we work more effectively within small groups. Action Ian & All
– Should we have a dedicated press officer and a communications officer to ensure our messages get out there? To be discussed at next meeting
– Can we look at placing timings for away travel departures to all games on the website? To be discussed at next meeting
– Mark to look at printing business cards with travel details- will investigate tomorrow and report back ASAP. Action Mark
– John to look at procuring merchandise with our logo and travel number, and report back ASAP. Particularly looking at free gifts to our Junior members. Action John
Next Meeting: 8th September 2011, Wingspan Club, 1900 hrs.
Re involvement with local schools. Is consideration being given to involvement with those not in Crawley? In much the same way that season tickets were promoted in the Horsham, Mid Sussex and Horley areas, same for the schools? I live near Oathall in Haywards Heath and not far from Warden Park in Cuckfield if there was anything you’d like me to do? (Plus junior schools) From where I live I can be home in 20 minutes (which is a lot easier than getting to/from the Amex) so maybe some initiatives could be promoted to get a bigger catchment area of youngsters attending?
Mick, to answer your question, we absolutely want to look at the rest of Sussex- I’m from Hassocks myself, and Burgess Hill also seems to have a growing number of reds fans. But we need to be realistic about what we can manage, start local, get the basics right and then expand. So we’ll be glad of your help, but it may be a few months before we’re ready to use it! Take care, Ian
Sounds good – will await developments.
Just another thought, the Seaweed seem to allocate a player to a school. Do we do that or are we thinking about it?
A good idea, and one we’ll suggest to the club.
Burgess Hill school for girls for Tubbs?