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| 'THST Board Minutes - 03.06.08' posted by Darren Howlett on 09/03/2008 |
President - Steve Perryman M.B.E
Tottenham Hotspur Supporters?Trust
www.tottenhamtrust.com
Meeting of the Board of the Tottenham Hotspur Supporters?Trust (THST) held on Tuesday, 03 June 2008: 7.30pm
Attending: Daniel Wynne, Tim Edwards, Bernie Kingsley, Darren Alexander, Danny Keene, Derek Ridgers, Darren Howlett, Graham Wilkinson
Apologies: Paul Smith, Helen Dodds
1. Formal confirmation of Approval of Previous Minutes (02.04.08)
?Minutes approved
2. Matters Arising
?DR re-iterated that he will look at re-designing the website but will need technical help.
?With regard to the Club adopting "Cant smile without you", BK has been in discussion with Donna Cullen (DC) who remains keen but needs to obtain buy-in from other Club personnel.
3. Treasurers Report
?TE advised that there is ?2,692.48 in the interest bearing Account and ?,427.07 in the cheque account.
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4. Membership Report
?No Update as HD absent.
5. Membership Issue
?Dan Mckinn who is based in Devon has offered to take over the Membership Secretary role, as the role has not worked out for Helen due to private reasons.
?Lauren has kindly offered to assist with the hand over due to the fact we are approaching membership renewal time and with Dan in Devon there may be some logistical issues.
?All board members agreed with this change, DA will action.
6. Current relationship with the Club
?As this was the first Board meeting since the ticketing meeting with the Club DA & BK were invited to relay their impressions of the meeting.
?It was felt that the Club were slightly hostile choosing to refer to last year’s problems. In light of this Paul Barber (PB) would not give us all the season ticket renewal prices. PB upset that trust had issued a statement within a couple of hours of THFC press release regarding price increases last year. (Additionally they did not like the Trust claiming victory over the North stand enforced relocation issue. Finally, they had also felt that we had released some private information in that the Club was to freeze match day prices.)
?When pushed regarding renewal prices PB would only give prices for a handful of specific seats, for example DA, BK and DK's. The Trust representatives present at the meeting pushed for a full disclosure, as we were only two days away from when the club would announce the renewal prices but PB would not budge.
?DC had asked for reaction and comment. BK felt there was no justification that some of the increases were three times the rate of inflation and took the opportunity to express personal opinions regarding what THFC should have done re player transfers this summer, given that supporters would be expected to accept that price rises went partly to “improving?the squad.
?DA asked PB how we were supposed to justify these increases to our members. PB replied the Trust does not have to justify them.
?DH pointed out the hypocrisy of THFC's stance. Compare the position they were now taking towards the Trust regarding season tickets to that of earlier in the season when DL had contacted the Trust regarding their poor handling of Martin Jol.
?DC turned to BK seeking an undertaking that the trust would not make a song and dance about the increases, which was refused.
?DA asked if THFC would introduce compulsory auto pay to which PB replied they would not.
?In general the meeting was not as friendly as it could have been.
(Impressions given, Board discussions ensued.)
?DR re-iterated his position that we should not have gone as the meeting was called so late in the process, a point not accepted by the Board who felt that regardless of lateness of meeting we needed to be present to hear what they had to say.
?Discussions led onto the response from Daniel Levy (DL). We are aware that the message boards have been complaining regarding delays in the board updating the members on DL's response whilst we considered our response.
?DK said he did not feel THFC generally met with us unless we pushed them.
?The Board discussed how the Club/Trust relationship was not where we wanted it to be. Our dialogue needed to be meaningful and meetings held in time for our constructive suggestions to be taken on board. So how do we get our message across to the club? Should we issue a full-bodied response or should we issue a quick reply seeking a face-to-face meeting. The conclusion was that we should issue a short reply to DL requesting a meeting with him and the board. If they cannot meet we would go into writing.
?The Board discussed the fact that Trust memberships were due for renewal on 30th June, the subject would be discussed in greater detail later on in the meeting.
?It was agreed that BK would draft a three liner requesting a meeting before the end of June. The Board agreed that we needed to advise our members immediately after we had sent this request.
7. Thoughts on the Trust moving forward
?DR suggested that we should more away from the stadium issue as this was getting us nowhere. DR believes the owners?strategy is so short term it is highly likely they are preparing the Club for a sale. DR feels we should write to the all-party parliamentary football committee in order to protect our club from any possible new undesirable new owners. DA and TE said that we should liaise with Supporters Direct to see what input they are giving to the all-party parliamentary football committee.
?DA feels that we must service our members first and that we should arrange more events in a calendar year. We should use our funds to host more Q&A's with past players or managers.
?DA also feels we should reduce the ?0 annual subscription though DR felt we should concentrate on building value for the ?0 not seek to reduce the charge. TE asked if you could run a Trust for free. DW said no this was against our (Trusts in general) rules. The minimum price is a ? per person. We all agreed that we need to attract new members as DC has questioned before how representative of the fans is the Trust? DA commented that all Trust are having problems at the moment and all were aware that the Aston Villa Trust maybe about to fold. DA proposed new one year, 5 year, 10-year prices and a general discussion followed regarding whether this would make a difference.
?A general question as to why do fans join supporters Trusts? TE he felt that is was ultimately to give the fan the feeling that they were closer to their club.
?DA said he would love to get back to enough active interest that each board position was subject to election.
?The subject of Q&A’s was extensively discussed, as we do need to offer members more. One obvious benefit we could bring to Members would be to offer attendance at these events to members only at a slightly reduced price than non-members.
?DA felt that we should introduce our own THST hall of fame. These events would be on a completely different scale to those hosted by THFC and would enable the Trust to award this honour to players based on their playing contribution to THFC not their ability to put bums on seats at expensive dinners according to THFC's commercial team.
?DA also proposed a memorial board for supporters. (The idea behind this proposal was to create a perminant memorial on the internet for both Spurs players and the clubs supporters)
?DK felt we should do our best to get the three meetings per annum with THFC we have previously been promised.
?DK still feels we should produce 2-3 newsletters per annum. DK also felt the club should do a proper Q&A.
?DA suggested that “Cant smile without you?be re-recorded, DK had reservations about this. At only 79p per download we would need to sell an awful lot to break even. However, if the Club did adopt “CSWY?there would be a greater chance of marketing a cover version.
?A general discussion was held regarding raising money for Paul Gascoigne, various suggestions included different charity matches and maybe raffling an Opus.
?The board agreed that it needed to meet again before any possible meeting with THFC.
8. Members Meeting
?The Board agreed this should be held mid July before the schools break up. A final date would be agreed and announced once we knew where we were regarding meeting with the Club.
?Could DK approach Haringey council seeking venues for such public meetings?DK agreed.
?The Board also discussed the possibility of having an open meeting with interest registered in advance.
9. AOB
?DA is aware of an individual who is keen to get involved with a local government background. This individual offered to assist on PR issues and also representing disabled supporters.
?DW advised that a lady from Bishops Stortford had also expressed willingness to get involved.
?The board agreed that DA and DW should follow these approaches up.
?It was agreed that it would be a good use of trust funds to investigate how we could upgrade the THST website.
?GW apologised for non-attendance at the last few board meetings. Combining a full time job and studies had proved very demanding, a point noted and understood by all present.
?DR proposed that an executive committee be formed to speed up our communication to members. The board, who went with BK’s suggestion that a 24hr time limit on response be introduced, did not agree this.
?DK asked if anything has been heard from Howard Mather and his group. The response being no noting HM’s comments on the THST Message Board.
?BK advised that from time to time he gets calls from the Tottenham Journal. The latest subject being the suggestion of a mural to cover the hoardings on premises purched by THFC around the ground. BK felt this to be quite a good idea but questioned whether THFC would be willing to fund the project ?the Journal had not yet asked them.
?BK felt the Trust would benefit from a focal point on match days and we should push THFC for some space along the High Road whilst certain premises remain empty.
?DA said that at the last police forum it was discussed that the police were stopping some fans on the way to the ground under section 44 of the Anti Terrorism Act. This was felt to be ludicrous. We should investigate if this is happening generally at other clubs.
,b>10. Date, Time and Venue for next board meeting
TBA subject to response from THFC to our request for a meeting with them.
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