Minutes of Part A of the Board of Society Meeting held at St James’ Centre on Monday, March 12, 2007 at 6.30pm.

Present: Denise Watts (Chairman), Rob Doidge, Martin Lawrence, Ian Jubb, Tony Badcock, Chris Phillips, Helen Bigwood and Fran Jenkin,

Officers: Tony Boston, (Secretary) and Nigel Banks (Treasurer)

No non-BoS Trust members attended.

A/07/25 Welcome and Apologies for Absence:
Apologies for absence had been received from Neil Le Milliere, Trevor Manley, Adrian Hitchcox., Pete Martin and David Treharne.

A/07/26 Minutes of the Meeting of February 19, 2007:
a) Re A/07/16b), tour of St James’ Park by BoS. Tony Boston mentioned that he had 10 people interested in this and would be talking to Dacre Holloway shortly to fix a suitable date. It was suggested that 5.30 prior to a BoS Meeting would be appropriate. Action TBoston
b) Re A/07/16a), Nina Wills Trust Member of the Year. Tony Boston agreed to circulate the BoS regarding the criteria to be used in determining this. It was mentioned that the presentation would be made at the end of the season, so Rob Doidge suggested that the closing date for nominations should be April 9, for confirmation at the next BoS Meeting.
c) Re A/07/23, Fans Forum. The intention had been to arrange this for late March with Paul Tisdale attending. However, as the season is reaching its climax and Paul Tisdale will be extremely busy, it was agreed to put this off until early May.it was agreed to defer this until early May.
d) Re A/07/17a), List of members contributing annually. Tony Boston reported that he had not got anywhere with this yet.
e) Re A/07/21, Meeting with Police. Tony Boston reported that he had contacted Chief Inspector Adrian Brigden and he had agreed to come to St James’ Park for a meeting. Tony Boston said that he intended to also invite the Club Directors and representatives from the Supporters Club and the Executive Club. He asked for questions in advance, so that these could be given to Adrian Brigden in advance if research was necessary. Of course, this does not preclude questions raised at the meeting. Action TBoston
f) Re A/07/24b), Search for Chief Executive. Tony Boston said that he had not had any applications so far and urged the BoS to keep trying to get someone. Action ALL

A/07/27 Chairman’s Business:
a) Denise Watts mentioned that we had acquired some turnstiles from Arsenal, but they would not be put into place until after the Drivers-Jonas Report had surfaced.
b) Regarding catering, Denise Watts said that the new contracts would be discussed at the Club Board Meeting on March 23. Rob Doidge asked whether the Trust could take over the catering at the Park. After some discussion, it was decided to be impracticable for various reasons.
c) Regarding the kitchen, Nigel Banks said that he was awaiting an e-mail from Frances Farley and it was noted that the balance of this account was £600. In addition, it was noted that the Club need some more chairs in the hospitality area and we were awaiting the cost of these.
d) Regarding the Trust Office, Denise Watts said that she had spoken to Frances Farley and things are moving. There are still issues to sort out, the most important being staffing. Tony Boston said that there seemed to be an assumption that the Trust Office would be in the old shop and would be shared with the Club. It has also been suggested that this could be used to sell tickets on matchdays, especially if there was another good cup tie, but he said that he would be unhappy to have lots of people milling around the desks and any equipment there, such as computers.
It was mentioned that Whitehall Construction had offered to gut the old shop and not charge for it. Rob Doidge asked whether Whitehall could hold off for a time, as it is not being used at the moment.
Denise Watts said that she would talk again to Frances Farley. Action DW
e) Denise Watts said that Paul Wynne was not very well and is not working at the Club at the moment. The meeting expressed its good wishes and hopes for his speedy recovery.
f) It was mentioned that the next Club Board Meeting was set for March 23 and the question of Joint Boards Meetings was on the agenda. Rob Doidge said that the last Joint Boards Meeting was 4 months ago and it was about time that we had another. Further, he felt that Joint Boards Meetings should be much more frequent than hitherto. As the dates for future BoS Meetings comes up later on the agenda, this matter will be raised again at that time.
g) Ian Jubb mentioned that Bruce Henderson would be leaving soon as he has got another job in Albania. His replacement is Mark Jenkins
h) Tony Badcock said that he had 3 optional designs for next season’s away shirts. Julian Tagg had asked for these to be publicised and voted upon. Martin Lawrence said that he would put them on the next Trust bulletin.

A/07/28 Secretary’s Business:
a) Tony Boston said that he felt that the minutes of the last Annual General Meeting of the Trust should be put on to the website and asked whether the BoS agreed. The conclusion was that this is OK, but to check with Neil Le Milliere first to ensure that this is allowable according to the Rules. Action TBoston
b) It was agreed that the request from George Griffiths to join the Trust was OK and Martin Lawrence said that he would write to him. Action ML
c) Tony Boston had received a booklet from the Devon Racial Equality Council and it was suggested that this be passed to Frances Farley to see if it should be incorporated into Club training.
d) David Treharne and Tony Boston had visited Weymouth to offer support to their formation of a Trust. It had been a very successful meeting and resulted in approval by the meeting to form a Trust.
e) Tony Boston reported that he now had a plaque to be fixed outside the Trust Office, when it is operational.

A/07/29 Treasurer’s Business:
a) Nigel Banks said that for him to get the up-to-date financial information to the Trust, the Trust meetings would have to be in the third week of the month. Tony Boston said that he felt that the BoS needed the most up-to-date financial information each month, so he suggested that the necessity for information to be with the Secretary at least 7 days in advance of the meeting be waived for the Treasurers report. This was agreed by the meeting.
b) Regarding the kitchen refurbishment, it was reported that Justin Quick had approximately £600 of invoices to send and that should finish this item.
c) Regarding Footypitch, Nigel Banks said that he was having a meeting with Trevor Gilbery and Mark Walker to hopefully move to a sale. If an agreement is not reached, Webselect would not buy it.
d) It was agreed by the meeting that a cheque for £367.50 be drawn for the premium on our annual Public Liability Insurance and Denise Watts signed the proposal form.

A/07/30 Reports from sub-Boards:
a) Finance: Chris Phillips mentioned that the Terms of Reference and Job Descriptions had been agreed at last weeks meeting and it was hoped to have a meeting in the next few weeks. It was also mentioned that Ian Jubb had just joined this sub-Group.
b) Operations: Nothing had happened so far. Tony Badcock reported that he was waiting for the dates of the next meetings of the Club’s Operations committee.
It was stated that we do need to review at regular intervals how things are progressing.
Tony Badcock mentioned that “Fair Trade” fortnight had just finished and he would like to get the Club to become a “Fair Trade” Club. Denise Watts asked about the costs and Tony Badcock suggested that this be put on the Club Boards agenda for their next meeting.
c) Football: Rob Doidge said that he had nothing to report, as he was still trying to liaise with Julian Tagg.
d) Commercial: Martin Lawrence said that there was nothing particular to report.
Rob Doidge raised the question of catering again. He felt that the Trust might be missing a major opportunity as he felt that there could be big advantages in the Trust doing the catering and running it as befits a community-owned Club. Tony Badcock said that this would need to be run as a proper business and not run by volunteers (there could be a reliability problem with volunteers). We should feed in what we want and not actually run it. Rob Doidge was asked to draft a proposal, which would depend on the skills database. However, Denise Watts pointed out that the Club Board Meeting at which this would be discussed was only 11 days away. Rob Doidge said that we should have discussed this at a Joint Boards Meeting. Chris Phillips suggested that that time has now passed..
e) Fund-raising: This sub-Group does not have a Chairman, so no report was produced.
f) Community: Damien Mills had agreed to become Chairman of this sub-Group. Helen Bigwood mentioned the Red Army Spring draw and passed around tickets. The Club are not doing anything for Red Nose Day this year and it was suggested that Helen Bigwood should contact Andy Gillard to try to book the nearest Saturday next year both for this and Children In Need.
Fran Jenkin mentioned that she had sent round the minutes of the KIO Meeting of February 26. The 5-a-side Tournament will be held on either May 20 or May 27, depending whether the Club are in the play-offs.
She also mentioned whether the Trust would be prepared to help to sponsor this event and Tony Badcock proposed “That the BoS sponsor this event up to £100 for the trophies”. This was seconded by Helen Bigwood and carried unanimously.
The question was asked whether KIO could have a bank account set up by the Trust, but Chris Phillips said that KIO is independent of the Trust, so this could not happen.
Fran Jenkin also asked whether anything had been done yet about the racial chanting at the match at Rushden & Diamonds. Denise Watts said that the Club had written to Rushden & Diamonds requesting the CCTV coverage, but that had not yet been received. It was requested that Fran Jenkin and Martin Lawrence write an article for the next match. It was also thought desireable that there should be a more prominent pitchside poster than at present and it was agreed to pass this over to Frances Farley. The BoS also wants to know the names of these people and would then consider what action the Trust should take in addition to whatever the Club decide to do. Action FJ & ML

A/07/31 Any Other Business:
a) Dates of BoS Meetings for the rest of 2007:

The meetings will commence at 6.30pm
Monday, April 16*
Thursday, May 17
Tuesday, June 12
Monday, July 16
Monday, August 13
Wednesday, September 19
Thursday, October 18
Tuesday, November 13
Monday, December 10

• * This meeting will be preceded by a Joint Boards Meeting commencing at 5.30. It is hoped to have Joint Boards Meetings before several of the other meetings as well.
• There will also be a meeting to discuss the Drivers-Jonas findings and this date will be circulated later.
b) Regarding the Car Boot Sales, Helen Bigwood said that the attendance at the second one had been slightly better than the first. Martin Lawrence said that they do need more help, mostly prior to the event with promotion, etc., but also on the day. The next Sale is on March 25 and an appeal for help would be put into the next communications bulletin from the Trust. In addition, posters would be produced and Tony Badcock said that he would persuade shops to display them.

There being no other business, the meeting closed at 9.20pm.