| •ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING |
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Thursday 31 May 2007 at 8pm Bull & Stirrup, Northgate Street, Chester The meeting commenced at 8.05pm, once the requisite number of members were present. The meeting opened with the Chair, Paul Reid, outlining the agenda: 2. Ratification of New Board Members 48 3. Presentation of accounts for the financial year ending November 2006 and Auditors report48 4. Changes in Audit Requirement for 200748 5. Football in the Community 48 6. Supporters Trust Honorary President 48
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| 1. | Chairman's Annual Report |
| Paul Reid presented his report, a copy of which is available by clicking here48 | |
| 2. | Ratification of board member candidates in the absence of challenging members |
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Adrian Williamson, as secretary, explained that there were four members who had put themselves forward to stand for election to the Trust Board
and there were four vacancies. Accordingly, only ratification of those standing
was required as opposed to a full election. Kevin Jones
sought re-election and Di Foulkes, Tom Jones, and Kevin Wilding all put
their names forward.
All were unanimously ratified to join the Trust Board. |
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| 3. | Presentation of audited accounts for the financial year ending November 2006 and Auditors report. |
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Campbell Smith, as treasurer, gave an explanation of the audited accounts that had been distributed. These accounts had been prepared by Guy Walmsley & Co., Chartered Accountants and Registered Auditors. A copy of the accounts is available to any trust member by sending a request by e-mail48 A number of questions were raised during the course of this agenda item both in relation to the accounting/auditing processes used by the Trust and other issues. Q/ What are the other debtors listed amounting to £1,128 (up from £80 in 2005)? A/ Campbell stated that ~£200 related to Devatxt, however, was unable to provide a full breakdown. The question will be answered at the next Trust Board Meeting Q/ Why do members living at the same address have things sent in two separate envelopes, wasting postage? A/ Adrian explained the way mail outs were carried out and Jacqui Forster from Supporters Direct highlighted the legal requirement to write to all Trust members, however, accepted that two copies of any communication could be enclosed in a single envelope and would ensure that Mr & Mrs Mathews only received one envelope. Q/ A question was asked about a number of missing cheques from the last period of 2006, and how much was lost? A/ Campbell explained the issue with the Co-op loosing a number of cheques, however, the majority has been replaced through contact with the members in question. A small number had not, however, it was not clear what value this represented. The question will be answered at the next Trust Board Meeting. The accounts were accepted by the members present as being accurate and fit for submission to the Financial Services Authority. |
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| 4. | Changes in Audit Requirements for 2007 |
Adrian presented the changes behind the two motions being brought to the meeting which would change the Trust rules removing the need for a full audit whilst the Trusts revenue was less than £25,000 and instead allowing an Independent Examination. This is in line with changes to the rules for membership of Supporters Direct to try and reduced the costs associated with a full audit, whilst maintaining a suitable level of transparency of the Trust accounts. Adrian read each of the motions below and a vote for each was taken: Motion 1
Motion 2
All members present voted unanimously in favour of both motions. 13 votes by proxy were received, 12 for motion 1 with 1 abstention, 13 for motion 2. Both motions were carried and the board would look to appoint someone to carry out the Independant Examination at the next Trust Board Meeting, following guidelines provided by Supporters Direct (a copy of which can be found on the Trust web site here) |
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| 5. | Football in the Community |
Paul introduced Pat Hendrie from the Football in the Community scheme, who spoke passionately about the work they had done during the last 12 months, and the plans they had moving forward. Pat works with Danny Jones, who are both coaches in the Centre of Excellence and were asked 12 months ago to establish a Football in the Community programme. There have been lots of hurdles, in part because of a similar scheme run by David James and working to gain the trust of local partners and the schools, although significant progress has been made with a number of schools, the youth offenders service, youth carer organisations and the City Council. The scheme is self funding, and as such is only paying Pat and Danny a salary of £74 per week. The FITC scheme have seen the value in supporting a local charity, in terms of helping to raise funds from the non-football community along with raising the profile, and will be supporting Guide Dogs for the Blind (from Bolton and Helsby) with the aim of sponsoring a dog over the next 12 months. Their main focus is to increase the number of "bums on seats" and achieved an extra 110 kids for the last 2 games of the season, under somewhat testing circumstances. They are looking for any support our members can offer, especially around helping to support the "match day experience" they aim to provide. They are also looking to join the national FITC scheme, with the quality marks which go along with that. It would also open additional avenues of funding unavailable to them outside the scheme. Finally Pat described a soccer school that has been run 3 days ago at which 5 kids attended wearing Chester City kits. A similar school run 12 months earlier has seen only 1 child attend wearing a City kit. A number of questions were taken from the floor: Q/ Some local schools were looking to use the Saunders Honda Stadium for the finals, but the member had heard they had been played at The Racecourse instead? A/ Pat asked if the school in question was Newton, which it was, and confirmed that the finals had been played at Chester City Q/ Do the FITC get any funding? A/ Until they have joined the national FITC scheme they cannot access any national funding. Chester City are one of only 4 clubs not signed up. Q/ Do they cover the Ellesmere Port area? A/ Not actively, however, if they were approached by an organisation in that area they would be happy to talk with them. There are 64 schools in the Chester area which gives them enough to be going on with. Q/ Do they get any support directly from the football club? A/ The FITC office is based at the club and they have close links with the youth team and Centre of Excellence, however, more could be done with the first team. Pat recently visited the Derby County FITC and they have balls and shirts donated from each match signed by the players. Q/ What one thing would they need to take them to the next level? A/ The ability to work with School Partnerships, which would be possible once they had joined the FITC scheme. This would allow them to fund local football schemes, reducing the cost for local kids to participate. In the past where schemes have only cost £1 to join they have had over 80 kids sign-up. The last scheme ran cost £3 and only 16 joined. More first team involvment would also help, as would Sports Match funding which would be available as part of the FITC scheme. Paul Baker offered whatever help he could and would contact Pat in the coming week. Jacqui Forster also mentioned funding that would be available to the Trust on behalf of the FITC programme, and that support was available (Tom Hall at Supporters Direct had recently joined to help specifically in this area) to access the funding once a suitable business case has been prepared. Pauline Meakins also offer the support from the Exiles who were looking for alternative ways to the usual match day sponsorship to help the football club. Pat suggested that everyone kept an eye on the FITC of the club web site, which can be linked from here. He was also hoping to have arranged a Guide Dog demonstration for the first home game of the new season. |
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| 6. | Supporters Trust Honorary President |
Paul introduced Grenville Millington, who had kindly accepted the invitation to become Honorary President of our Trust. Grenville spoke about the reasons why he'd been so happy to accept the offer made, and talked about where the money raised goes.and how he would be ensuring that every £1 raised was spent in that way. He talked about his frustration when people say that Chester "isn't a footballing City" - it is as lots of people are interested and talk about football, it's just not Chester City Football Club! Grenville offered praise for the excellent work Pat Hendrie had done, and express how important it was that the kids were brought into the game from a young age. Grenville talked positively about the new managerial appointment, and encouraged everyone to get behind the club. He's been involved with the club for a very long time, and has even been thrown out a few times, but still sees a positive future for the club. One of our younger members was in attendance, and Grenville jokes that he still had 60 years to enjoy being a Chester City fan! |
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| 7. | Any Other Business |
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A question regarding the share issue was asked: Q/ Can you please clarify the current share position? A/ The Trust currently hold 426, 361 shares in Chester City Football Club which represents a 2.11% stake in the club and for which the Trust had paid £8,600. Paul Baker finally added his support to Paul Reid's opening message, and supported that statement that Steven Vaughan needs our support, but won't be at the club forever, and that when he did leave it was important that the club be taken over by the fans of the football club. The meeting was concluded. 3 adult members joined on the night, along with 1 senior citizen member. Campbell Smith took the £17.50 to be banked. |
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