Board Meeting online using Teams
Wednesday 4th March 2026, 7:00pm
PRESENT
Board: Stu Rogers, Miles Hendy, Marie Day, Shahan Miah, Jon Watts, Katrina Watts, Jon Darch, James Nicholls, Nathan Riddiough, Terry Hamlin
Supporters: Tracey Carter, Christine Chard, Paul Hunt, Alan Payne, Neil Palmer, Teresa Short, Matt Seward
Bristol City/Sport: Jerry Tocknell (SLO), Amy Beard (DLO)
Avon & Somerset Police: Tom Williams
Apologies: Tom Williams (Avon & Somerset Police), Mark Newman, Leah Davis
1. Welcome
Chair Stu Rogers (SR) opened the meeting and welcomed attendees. Stu confirmed that the meeting would be transcribed for ease of minute-taking.
2. Minutes and Matters Arising
The minutes of the February meeting were confirmed as a correct record.
Updates were given on matters arising:
· Misogynist chants. Action taken by club including use of big screen. It was agreed that there has been a reduction and that the item drop off the agenda unless required again.
· Lansdown concourse: shelving has proved more difficult and expensive than anticipated and the club are exploring alternative options.
· Multi-faith prayer room: Launch was well supported. Disappointment at the negativity and (minority) outright hateful comments on social media. However, this must be balanced with significant support from many fans.
· Mark Kelly: no response to date on actions taken from the February meeting.
· SC&T job profile: SR to complete shortly with input from the Treasurer.
· Feedback on Steve Lansdown interview: SR has been unable to feedback views from February meeting following Tom Rawcliffe’s departure but will do so when he meets the new CEO.
· End of Season Awards: James Nicholls (JN) has met with the men’s side of the club and agreed a process. The response from the club has been positive and constructive. Likely that voting will take place 8-21 April. There was a discussion about the approach to the Champagne Moment awards, and the general consensus was that we should include the Champagne Moment awards as they can also remind us of some positives from the season or provide some light relief if the season ends a bit flat.
In response to questions from Terry Hamlin (TH) and Shahan Miah (SM) it was confirmed that the presentations will be held pitch side after the final games and that there will be separate voting for the men’s and women’s awards
· Ticketing: SLO reported that no progress had been made in resolving the persistent update notifications. Jon Darch (JD) suggested that we should take the matter up with the person at the club with overall responsibility for IT and DLO agreed to approach Gordon, the IT person.
· Rail seating: JD will follow this up with Mark Kelly and SR will support.
· Recruitment and membership: both deferred to a future meeting.
3. SLO & Police Update
3.1 SLO
SLO provided an update on the following:
· New Ticketing system: SLO confirmed that he and others are now cautiously optimistic that the switch will go well. He stressed however that an email address will be needed for each user – although one email address can ‘manage’ multiple ticket accounts.
· Multi-faith prayer room: echoing earlier comments SLO had had unpleasant conversations, some with people he knew, and found the response from a minority to be disappointing.
· In Tom Williams’ absence, SLO commented that the Swansea game had given rise to a few concerning and disappointing incidents, including lumps of concrete being thrown and complaints about one supporter exposing himself.
· In response to questions, SLO said that
– it is probable that physical season cards will still be available (TH)
– three season tickets will be able to be linked to one email address (Marie Day (MD))
– in the absence of a separate SLO for Bristol City Women, he is happy to pick up queries for their supporters (SM)
3.2 Disability Liaison Officer
DLO reported a busy month and stressed that she has a presence on OTIB where she will answer queries and the response will be visible to all.
She is aware of queries about the new ‘Nimbus’ system and is happy to respond to any concerns via OTIB or individually by email.
4. Bristol City Women
SM updated the meeting:
· The Fans Forum took place on Wednesday 11 February. Disappointingly, of 60 tickets booked, approximately 20+ turned up to the meeting in the SC&T bar. This meant that unnecessary costs had been incurred by the club booking the space at Ashton Gate. It is likely that the club would want future fans forums to take place at the HPC to save costs.
· Away travel: 23 of the 34 coach seats for the Crystal Palace game had been sold. The next coach was likely to be for the Sheffield United game although there is a possibility that this game will now clash with the final men’s home game of the season. SLO advised that he had already been given a quote from Turners for a coach, which could be approximately £1500
· Mercury13: SM and SR met with Mercury13 & other officials from the club, and relayed that some supporters are keen to see a FAB set up for City Women. A case was made by Teresa Short (TS) & JD that separate ownership and the different issues, perspective, fanbase all made this desirable. After some discussion, the meeting concurred with this view.
5. Other Supporter Groups Updates
5.1 Fan Advisory Board
TS said that the Men’s FAB is now up and running, was into its second cycle of meetings, but was still finding its feet. Much of the work currently is establishing ways of engaging with fans, setting up email, social media, and its own website.
5.2 Former Players Association (FPA)
· Neil Palmer (NP) said that much work is currently taking place to plan events for next season. Nothing to share yet but it is going well. Robins Memories continues to grow in popularity, and the next meeting takes place on 9th March.
· SM asked NP about an event marking the 40th anniversary of the Freight Rover trophy win taking place at Weston-super-Mare’s Grand Pier. NP confirmed that the FPA were not involved in this, and they had no plans to do an event so soon following the 50th anniversary of First Division promotion activities in January
5.3 Robyns Round
· Leah Davis had provided an update for SR to report. The Coventry game on March 7th marks not only International Women’s Day but also the first anniversary of Robyns Round.
· The group is about to launch a new ‘travel buddy’ scheme to support fans who would otherwise walk to and from the ground alone. The group is also planning the launch of a free Robyns Round safety pack.
5.4 Future Reds Collective
SLO reported that this group of young people had met several times recently and he was very impressed with the group. With the support of club officials, a trip to the away game at Charlton Athletic is being planned: this will be the first away experience for many.
5.5 Senior Reds
WR reported that the group continues to thrive, providing a vital social link for many as well as raising funds for the club and academy.
6. Fundraising for 2026
· SR began the discussion on fundraising this year by providing the context of discussions he had had with people at the club, the Robins Foundation, and other supporters’ groups about the potential for a collective goal for fundraising that all groups could sign up to and support.
· TS commented on the importance of considering how that collective effort is framed and ‘sold’ in order to get as many as possible on board and the pre-empt negativity.
· A possible focus for this might be a health project: the Foundation had applied for Premier league funding to run a project, but this would require 50/50 match funding from elsewhere. SR will provide further updates as the bid progresses.
· In the meantime, a specific proposal for the provision of suicide benches was outlined by Katrina Watts (KW). It was agreed that the SC&T fund the provision of a bench within the boundary or vicinity of the ground (anticipating that gaining consent here would be easier than elsewhere) and this might become the catalyst for further provision.
7. AOB
· David Clarke (DC) said that an email to the FAB had prompted a discussion about the difficulty some have travelling to the men’s evening games, and the possibility of a centralised ‘lifts offered/wanted’ resource, possibly as a pinned thread on OTIB.
· MD said that experience suggested that pinned threads can lose their impact after a while and that a normal thread, bumped from time to time, may be better.
· DC to discuss this further with Mark Newman (MN).
Actions
· Stu Rogers to ensure that deferred matters arising are carried forward to April agenda
· Jon Darch and Stu Rogers to push Mark Kelly on rail seating
· Stu Rogers to circulate secretarial/admin job profile
· Stu Rogers to feedback views on SL interview to new CEO.
· SC&T to arrange voting for end of season awards
· DLO Amy Beard to pursue solution with ongoing issue of ticketing update notifications
· Stu Rogers to speak to club about provision and siting of a suicide bench.
· Dave Clarke to speak to Mark Newman about a travel thread on OTIB
· Shahan Miah to follow up with BCWFC on End of Season Awards presentations & potential women’s team FAB set-up
Minutes recorded via transcript, reviewed and written up by: Dave Clarke on 4th March 2026
Next meeting: Wednesday 1st April 2026