| • 2005 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING |
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Chester City Supporters Society Ltd
Annual General Meeting
Chairman’s Report
Chester City Supporters Trust, as with many Trusts, was formed at a time
of crisis. None of us need too much of a reminder about the nature of that
crisis, and this is not the time or place to be revisiting those dark days.
Since Stephen Vaughan took control of our club, we have witnessed a
remarkable turnaround, culminating just over 12 months ago in a highly
successful Conference campaign, which saw us return to the football league
after a four year absence. Success on the pitch and
For the Supporters Trust though, this relative stability has given us
problems of our own. Over the last few years, the chairman’s report has
acknowledged the difficulties we face in recruiting members to become active in
the Trust. This year I have to report that this situation is unchanged.
Recruiting active members is easy in a crisis, but continues to be a problem
for us in the current climate, and once again the activities of the Trust, with
a few exceptions, have been carried out by around half a dozen of the Trust
Board members.
I would therefore like to express my sincere thanks to our two most
recent board members, who have given us new ideas, and fresh motivation.
This year, for example, has seen our first fundraising prize draw since
the Trust was formed in 2000. Tickets were distributed to members and sold on
match days during autumn 2004, with the draw taking place at half time during a
home game in early November. This draw provided around £1,500 to Trust coffers,
a much needed boost, and was also useful in raising the profile of the Trust to
supporters, albeit on a temporary basis.
I would like to thank all of you who took part in the prize draw, as our
members were extremely instrumental in its success, with around half of ticket
sales coming directly from the assistance of you, our members.
Around the same time as the prize draw, we also had to deal with the
sudden resignation of our then chairman, Graham Ross, for personal reasons.
Graham has been a central figure in the Supporters Trust since our formation in
November 2000. As well as his constant injection of good humour, his legal
expertise has at times been invaluable. We thank him sincerely for his endeavours.
One other resignation, much more recently, was that of
Indeed Richard had made his intention to stand down from the board of
the club known to the Trust board over a year ago, however he was persuaded to
stay on for another year. That year too has now elapsed and Richard has decided
that this time, it is right for him to stand down. Richard has given up a lot
of his own time during this period in order to serve the Trust and the Club
fully during his tenure. His commitment has far exceeded what we could
reasonably have asked of him and I thank him very much for all his hard work.
It is the wish of the Trust to appoint a new Supporter Director on to
the board of the football club. However, we do have a few concerns which we wish
to address before we believe it would be prudent to do so. The board needs more
time to discuss the appointment of the new Supporter Director. However, we also
wish to take the opportunity to address a few issues with the club before
putting another candidate forward.
Firstly, we do have some concern over the clubs apparent policy to play
games of brinksmanship with the courts over the payment of bills. Directors,
including supporters directors can become liable for debts should a court
decide that a company is trading whilst unable to fulfil its debts. We need
reassurance from the club that our replacement director will not need to fear
being placed in such financial peril.
Secondly, despite two years of lobbying the club, we need to report that
the shares which we purchased from them to secure our board position have still
not been logged in the register of members which the club needs to present annual
to Companies House in their annual returns. Whilst we accept that this was due
to an administrative failure of a previous club employee, we have been
unsuccessful so far in getting the club to rectify this issue.
We therefore believe that it is prudent to take the opportunity to
resolve these issues before a new supporter director is appointed. Relations with
the club remain strong, and we do not believe they will suffer or be
jeopardised in any way by not replacing our supporter director immediately.
The Trust continues to sponsor and maintain the Club’s Official website.
Progress again here has been slow, and news feeds from the club remain sporadic
to say the least. However the site continues to receive a huge volume of
traffic to such an extent that we have had to increase our bandwidth package up
a level as long ago as August last year, around the time of the resignation of
Mark Wright. The site is slowly improving, and the Trust will work with the
club to ensure this remains the case.
Due to the sponsorship of the Official Club website, we have also taken
the decision in the last year to end our three year sponsorship of Deva Chat,
Deva TXT, our match day text message service, continues to go from
strength to strength. The service has a loyal core of subscribers who provide
the Trust with a small but steady income source, and give the Trust another
avenue to raise its profile. I’m also pleased to report that in the last year,
Deva TXT has been one area where the Trust has been successful in getting
additional help from our members. Nathan Auty and Lee Wilcox have provided cover
on several matchdays, both home and away, when Trust board members have been
unavailable. We thank them for their help, and with their continued support I
am sure that Deva TXT will continue for many years to come.
Overall though, the Trust remains quiet with low activity. This is a
situation which is far from ideal if we wish to continue the good work that we
are doing in building a relationship with the club, and preparing ourselves
properly for whatever the future may hold.
The next year, therefore, will be a crucial year for the supporters
Trust. Firstly, once the other issues have been resolved, we need to appoint a
Supporter Director to replace Richard on the board of Chester City Football
Club. Secondly, we desperately need to get more Trust members involved in our
activities in order to raise our profile and our relevance amongst the wider
audience of
In the past year you will hopefully have noticed some improvement in our
communication with you, and all members should have received their occasional
copies of our Newsletter, ‘Spreading the Blues’. During the coming year, we
will continue to update you on our activities through this newsletter,
hopefully on an increasingly regular basis. In addition, we also need to target
communications to
The Trust is therefore in a period of reflection and direction finding.
In the absence of a crisis, we need to assess our priorities and sense of
purpose. A strong Supporters Trust working better and harder with the football
club would build a stronger community based football club to the benefit of all
parties. However we need to concentrate on the basics first in order to get
there. We need to communicate this message to those supporters who are not
fully aware of what the Supporters Trust is trying to achieve. We need
additional fundraising in order to finance these activities. We need more of
our existing members to become active within the Supporters Trust in order to
get the show properly on the road.
In finishing then, I’d like to thank all of you for continuing to
believe in us and for your patience during the past year. If you have any ideas
that would assist us in increasing the relevance and profile of the Trust to a
wider audience then please let us know. If you can volunteer some of your time
to become active in making the Trust happen, we would be delighted to have your
support.
I look forward in twelve months time to being able to report to you that
we have made progress in these areas to build a stronger Supporters Trust.
Let’s not wait for the next crisis to come along to build a strong Supporters
Trust. Let’s get started. Campbell Smith |
© 2004 Chester City Supporters Trust | webmaster