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Date: Monday 7th April 2025 Cemetery Hotel, Rochdale
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Ref: April Meeting |
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| Present: | Trust: | Bob Morrisey, Murray Knight, Dave Earnshaw, Emma Loynd, Scott Goulding, Keith Hicks, Ruby Loynd, Vince Ashall and Siobhan McElhinney. | |
| Guests: | |||
| Apologies: | Received for: Michael Shepherd and Ian Goodwin.
Also not present: Jake Dowd and Harry Holt. |
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| Minutes: Emma Loynd | |||
| Interim Chair: Bob Morrisey | |||
Membership
Current Total 839
Adults 382
Exiles 269
Juniors 188
Renewing 768
New Members 71
Donations remain the same at £1,256
At the end of March, we closed this membership.
Family membership was again discussed and will be revisited before the start of next season.
Membership for the 2025/26 Season will remain the same at £7.50 per person.
The email system is being looked at so that we ensure that all PayPal payment emails are being seen/received by the relevant Trust members.
It has been mentioned about the possibility of providing members with some form of an ‘ID Card’.
This is very much a work in progress and is at the very beginning stages of discussions.
Trust Business
The minutes were agreed from the last meeting.
There was one amendment. The close of membership will be changed to say March, not April. A new amended copy will be sent out 08/04/2025.
After several conversations with the Interim Chair Bob Morrisey, Charlie Stansfield has decided to take indefinite leave from the Supporters Trust Board. For now, she has been taken off as a Trust Board Member. She has also been removed from the Board mailing list and the WhatsApp group. If/when she would like to return a meeting would be arranged to discuss her position moving forward.
Squad Builder/ Fighting Fund
The Squad Builder will be split 50/50 with Dale 1907.
This equates to £1906.58.
We will round this up to £1907.00 as a tribute to their new name.
The new name for funds raised moving forward is: 2025/26 Project Fund
2025/26 Project Fund
We have a sum of money available, and we would like to contribute a portion of that to the club as detailed below.
A full breakdown is available on request.
We are looking at donating £5,361.15 + £638.85 (held at the club) = £6,000.
One of the biggest issues at the club is the pitch. We are looking at something that would help keep matches on, remove the need for postponements, keep injuries down (eg. J. Bird) and in turn may improve the quality of football in the matches.
Murray has been looking at us donating 50% (£6,000) of the purchase price of ‘The Mini Blotter’.
It is used to remove standing water and is compact, economical and easy to handle and manoeuvre. It can be used on the rain covers and on the pitch at half time if required. It has been used by many cricket clubs and other football clubs. There are videos of it in use online.
This has been agreed in principle by the Board at tonight’s meeting as there is a long lead time for the product.
Murray will liaise with Bob and Dave once he has a response from the club, and it will be relayed to the Trust Board.
Coach Travel
We currently have 29 on the coach to Altrincham.
Posters are to be put on tables at the Ratcliffe for the live showing of the Sutton match and at the Saturday home match against Eastleigh.
Seats can also be booked at the Club Shop and the Trust desk.
Ruby will put out another push on social media.
Emma will send out a quick reminder email to all past travellers.
We are awaiting a comment from the club regarding coach travel for next season before we can make any major decisions ourselves.
Emma is putting together a survey to get an idea of what people want/ have experienced from our coach service. Questions will cover: – the booking procedure, the travel experience, the role of the chaperones etc.
A copy of the survey will be sent to the Supporter’s Trust Directors within a week for approval.
It will then be sent out first to past travellers and the put on all the Trust’s social media outlets.
Ruby will also speak to the club about them posting it on their website and socials for us as well.
Club Board Representative
A job description is being formatted and will be available within the next two weeks. This with then be looked through by the Board.
Anyone that is interested is invited to speak to Bob.
CAB Representation
Bob Morrisey and Dave Earnshaw are the named members.
If either of them are unavailable, a deputy from the board will stand in, so there are always two members present as agreed with the club.
All updates from any meetings will be fed back to the Board members.
Social Media
Primary account holders need to be more visible and report back to improve fan engagement and the growth of new members.
Followers: –
X 1,958
Facebook 1,230
Instagram 323
LinkedIn 85
Ruby is looking at getting Business Suites fully working. With a new Facebook page all four platforms should all be able to be linked together which will make posts easier.
Dave is going to get together with Ruby and Jake and discuss the new Facebook and Discord.
Ruby is also going to speak to James Devine about YouTube.
Lung and PSA Testing / Personal Health
These are still being investigated along with other personal health services.
We are looking to implement some form of testing/ health screening in the 25/26 season.
Trust Sponsored Hospitality
Moving forward, funds permitting, we are looking into Trust Sponsored Hospitality for the new season.
New Banner
The new banner has arrived and has a bright new modern look.
A second banner (of the same design) has been approved so that if we have an event at the same time as the Trust Desk being open, we can use both. (An example of this was Exiles’ Day).
This will be processed 08th April.
Former Player Speakers
We have a full set of ex player speakers through to the end of the season.
Bob is going to look into linking the Former Players posts to the Supporters’ Trust Facebook Page.
Fans’ Focus Meeting
The next meeting will take place on the 24th of April and will be about Matchday Experience. It will again be advertised as open to all fans.
POTM
The March winner is Jay Bird. He was a clear winner.
Ian Henderson was in 2nd place, again with a clear gap between him and the 3rd placed player.
The award will be presented on the 12thApril at the Eastleigh match.
Exiles’ Day
Ian thanked all involved for all their hard work, especially Scott.
It was well attended and was yet again a successful day.
Curry Night
A draft seating plan has been done.
Dave, Vince and Murray are meeting Thursday 10th at 7pm to finalise it.
All bingo/ Raffle tickets have been bought.
Raffle prizes to be taken to the 1907 on the evening itself.
A list of all roles and a plan of the evening with be shared 08th April.
Room set up from 5pm on the day. (Murray to confirm with the club staff)
AOB
There is a large amount of ongoing correspondence/ meetings between the Club, the Supporters’ Trust, GMP and the CAB following the Spennymoor match.
All relevant information will be fed back to the Trust Board as and when it is available.
The Articles of Association are being worked on. They are at present looking at all the legal aspects of the documents.
Easyfundraising: – Keep receiving payments as a cheque until it is no longer possible to do so.
Bob has been speaking to a gentleman who is interested in joining the Trust Board. He is a Trust Member. It was agreed that he would attend the next couple of meetings to see if he would formally like to join us.
Next Meeting:- Wednesday 7th May 2025 at 18:30 at the Cemetery Hotel.