Minutes of Part A of the Board of Society Meeting held at St James’ Centre on Tuesday, January 16, 2007 at 6.30pm.

Present: Denise Watts (Chairman), Rob Doidge, Martin Lawrence, Ian Jubb (part), Adrian Hitchcox, Tony Badcock, David Treharne, Neil Le Milliere, Trevor Manley, Nick Saunders, Helen Bigwood, Fran Jenkin and Chris Phillips.

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

By invitation: Frances Farley, Julian Tagg and Steve Williams (Directors of Exeter City AFC)

No non-BoS Trust members attended.

A/07/1 Welcome and Apologies for Absence:
Apologies for absence had been received from Pete Martin and Damien Mills.

A/07/2 Minutes of the Meeting of December 11, 2006:
a) Under A/06/131, “Ownership of the Generator”, it was agreed that the final sentence should be amended to read “It was agreed to write to the Club asking them if they would be prepared to accept the generator as a donation.”.
b) Under A/06/132, “Behaviour of supporters”, the second paragraph was amended to read “Ian Jubb said that the Supporters Club had been trying to get to the bottom of this and Chief Inspector Adrian Brigden had asked to attend a meeting.”
After these corrections, the minutes were signed as a true record of the meeting.

A/07/3 Matters arising:
a) Re A/06/134, Use of red or Dead money for scoreboard, Adrian Hitchcox said that he had e-mailed Paul Morrish and Bruce Henderson to say that £20,000 is available.
b) Re A/06/128(d), the Brick Scheme, Tony Boston said that he had spoken to Mike Cooper earlier and he has spoken to virtually all the people. He was meeting with Pete Mason of Whitehall Builders to finalise matters. There would be a 3-week turn-round.
c) Re A/06/128(b), Championship shirts, David Treharne said that he would be talking to SHO to get a quotation. He also showed the new Trust tie, but its marketing needs to be decided first. Trevor Manley asked why there would be such a limited number available and David Treharne responded that he had to pay for them up front, but he calculated that they should produce about £1,700.
d) Re A/06/128(f), Denise Watts said that she had not yet heard from Nina Will’s family. Neil Le Milliere said that he had heard and her family were agreeable for the BoS to do whatever we wished. It was also agreed to see if something similar could be done for Paul Palmer and this is to be put on to the next meeting’s agenda. Action TBoston
e) Re A/06/128(g), Car Boot Sales, Martin Lawrence distributed some flyers and said that he and Mike Cooper would be doing a drop near to St James’ Park on Friday. There has been an item in the Express & Echo recently. The first would be held on Sunday January 21 and would be very much a try-out. He asked for assistance on the day and various people volunteered. Also, it was agreed to ask Paul Morrish and Bruce Henderson whether they had a banner that could be adapted and hung on the railings in St James’ Road. Fran Jenkin mentioned that there is an “events” listing in the Express & Echo each week and wondered whether we could get involved. It was agreed to run a Trust stall as well.
f) Re A/06/128(k), Chief Executive, Neil Le Milliere said that he had one person who might be interested, but there should be a Job Description developed. David Treharne said that he had 2 or 3 people who might be interested and it was agreed that David Treharne and Tony Boston would liaise to produce a suitable Job Description as soon as possible. Action TBoston/DTreharne

A/07/4 Co-option:
Fran Jenkin had been put forward by Kick It Out to be co-opted on to the BoS. After introductions, it was proposed by David Treharne and seconded by Trevor Manley “That Fran Jenkin be co-opted on to the Board of Society on behalf of Kick It Out until the next Annual General Meeting” This was carried unanimously.

A/07/5 Club “Wish List”:
The Club Board had produced a “wish list” of projects which they felt needed doing and had made a first at prioritising them. This was introduced by Julian Tagg and Frances Farley. There were 176 items on the list and they had been split into 3 categories, viz. those which should be implemented as soon as possible, those that should wait until after the Drivers-Jonas report has been received and the remainder.
Tony Badcock said that this was certainly a step forward and we should be looking at the income-generating projects first. Trevor Manley said that this list requires the cost of each item. Adrian Hitchcox said that there was still a considerable amount of money pledged to the Red or Dead account that had not been collected, which could be applied to the “wish list” when collected. Nigel Banks asked whether the £9,000 per month that the Trust loans to the Club would be set towards these items and Julian Tagg responded that this money was needed elsewhere.
Nigel Banks said that the Trust would only be able to continue loaning the Club £9,000 per month for probably another 6 months. David Treharne said that we should look at income sources other than those which had been implemented previously and he hoped that the meeting of the Trust on January 25 would help in this regard.
Finally, Denise Watts thanked the Club Directors who had produced the list.

A/07/6 Club Finances:
Steve Williams (the Club Finance Director) presented the draft accounts for the first 6 months and various aspects were discussed.
Neil Le Milliere said that he believes that the decrease in gate receipts and season tickets arose as a result of the rise in the cost of season tickets at the beginning of the season.
Rob Doidge said that when the Club prepares its budgets, the BoS should see these at an earlier stage, i.e. before approval by the Club Board.
Adrian Hitchcox mentioned that the administration of the bar was not as tight as it should be and Steve Williams said that Justin Quick had been looking into this and now it was being looked at independently.
Finally, David Treharne thanked Steve Williams for attending. He said that we should be kept up to date and asked for an update every 3 months. Action DW

A/07/7 Sale of Footypitch:
Nigel Banks said that he had spoken to Ed Probert about the sale which seemed to have stalled.
Nigel Banks proposed calling WebSelect to ascertain whether they were still interested in acquiring this.
Daivid Treharne proposed “That Nigel Banks be empowered to call Webselect to ascertain whether they are still prepared to acquire this and to take all necessary steps to complete this.” This was passed by 11 votes to 0, with 1 abstention. Action NB

A/07/8 Financial Update:
Nigel Banks mentioned tht the income from subscriptions was down this month and he believed that this was due to cash not being banked quickly enough. This will be addressed.
On a proposal by Neil Le Milliere, seconded by Martin Lawrence, the meeting unanimously authorised a donation of £50 for Paul Palmer in recognition of his services to the Trust
Nigel Banks asked for authorisation to pay a cheque of £375 to Tony Boston for secretarial services and £7,700 to the Club for the first instalment of the Drivers-Jonas account. It was proposed by David Treharne and seconded by Rob Doidge that these cheques be paid and this was passed unanimously.
A Mr Bovey had loaned the Trust £1,000 as an interest-free loan in 2003. David Treharne had sent letters to all loaners and Mr Bovey had misunderstood the letter in that he thought the offer was to repay the loans now, whereas the intent is to repay them in 2008. There was some discussion on this point and David Treharne agreed to write to Mr Bovey to confirm the arrangements. Action DT

A/07/9 Community Matters:
Martin Lawrence reported that he had spoken to Dacre Holloway about the Grecian Goal+ Scheme as to whether this money should go towards a specific project on the “wish list”. Martin Lawrence said that he was pursuing this.
Fran Jenkin said that she would e-mail the minutes of each Kick It Out meeting to Tony Boston so that these could be attached to the agenda of each BoS Meeting. She also reported that they had established a 5-a-side Tournament and this had been very successful. It was hoped to run this years Tournament as part of a “cultural weekend” and there would be a meeting about this on January 31. The main difficulty is finding an appropriate date. Tony Badcock said that she should talk to Julian Tagg about this and Denise Watts added that the dates should be fixed as soon as possible. Fran Jenkin said that she was trying to raise the event’s profile by advertising on the website.

A/07/10 Communication:
Martin Lawrence mentioned that there is a need for a Trust article in each Matchday Magazine and we need to set up a rota for each Trustee to write 300 words or so.

A/07/11 Constitution & Framework Document:
Neil Le Milliere said that the new Rules had been on the website for some time now and he had had very little response, so he intended to sign off on these soon. The new Rules do have to be ratified by the FSA and they should have been sent with our Annual Return, so he needs to check whether they will accept an interim report. He also said that he would be turning to the Framework Document soon. Action NLM

A/07/12 Use of Red or Dead money for Scoreboard:
Mike Cooper joined the meeting for this item and summarised the position. The main question discussed was whether we should approach people who had contributed as to whether they would be agreeable for their money to be used for this purpose. Chris Phillips said that we should take notice of what people have agreed to and Neil Le Milliere said that he would be happy to send a letter to these people to this effect and he would draft a suitable letter for approval by the BoS first.
Mike Cooper said that he wanted to pass this over to someone else and proposed that a small working party be formed to look after this. To this end, he had arranged a meeting with Ian Jubb and Martin Lawrence on January 23 at 5.30pm. to discuss this.
Denise Watts asked whether there would be sufficient unallocated money in the account to pay for a scoreboard and Mike Cooper said that he would have to check this.
Neil Le Milliere proposed that “In the light of the further information received from the Club , together with the “wish list”, the question of the scoreboard should be held in abeyance for the time being.” Trevor Manley disagreed and said that it was our money and why should we not spend it as we please? Tony Badcock said that the use of this money had been approved at the last BoS Meeting, but things had moved on and he did not want the BoS to possibly be in the position of approving this now and finding, 3 months later, something dramatic happens. Denise Watts said that we need a business case before we authorise the release of this money and take a global view as to what is most necessary. It was agreed to request that all Category 1 items on the “wish list” should be costed and prioritised and be available for the next meeting of the BoS. The proposal by Neil Le Milliere was seconded by Martin Lawrence and approved by 10 votes to 0, with 2 abstentions.

A/07/13 Any Other Business:
a) It was mentioned that there would be a Fans Forum on Monday, January 29 and Martin Lawrence volunteered to take the minutes.
b) Martin Lawrence said that he thought that there should be a Trust Fans Forum fairly soon and David Treharne said that the Discussion Documents produced would give a lot of information for this. It was agreed to fix a date fairly soon.
c) The date of the additional meeting of the BoS to look at the discussion papers was set at Thursday, January 25 at 6.30.
d) Ian Jubb mentioned that he had taken over as Bond Manager from Barry Sansom.

There being no further business, the meeting closed at 9.40 pm.

ECFC SUPPORTERS TRUST - ANALYSIS OF RECEIPTS AND PAYMENTS

JANUARY 2007

Notes:-
Bank Balance at 31 January adjusted for unpresented cheques was £14,466. Paypal balance transferred 2 February was £934.05.