Board Meeting online using Zoom
Thursday 4 March2021, 7.00pm
Board present Stuart Rogers SR (chair), Miles Hendy MH, Mike Adams MA (minutes), Luke Jones
(guest from South Carolina) LJ, James Nicholls JN, Jon Darch JD, D-M Withers DW
Shahan Miah SM, Terry Hamlin TH. BCFC Jerry Tocknell SLO JTk.
Apologies Marie Day MD, James Thomas JTm, Jon Watts, Katrina Watts
1. RE-ENGAGING FANS – STAYING RELEVANT
SR referred to the meeting on17 February for which notes had been circulated. Shehan Jayasinghe is now head of Supporter Services, having previously worked for Cardiff City.
2. SUPPORTERS LIAISON OFFICER
a) In a drive to reach out to young supporters, the Club had allocated £30k to over 70 groups, each of which had a dedicated parent and manager from the Club. The groups include Bristol Rovers U14, Gloucester City Academy and cover an area from Cardiff to Chippenham. Whole families are being targeted.
b) The stadium is moving to entirely cashless. The idea of stadium cards, which could be topped up with cash was suggested to help those without credit cards. [ACTION SR & JTk at next meeting]
c) Events will return from 17 May IF the plan to exit lockdown proceeds as planned. Test events will be organised before that date.
3. WATCHALONGS
The first was held for the Bournemouth game on 3rd March—48 applied for a link and 15 attended—one was in South Carolina, another was in Sweden. More publicity is required—Ryan Morgan, BCFC’s media officer, to be approached to help publicise the next Conti cup watch along on 14 March. [ACTION JTk]
The second was planned for the Women’s Super League Cup final v Chelsea on 14 March. This was scheduled to be broadcast on BT Sport but negotiations were ongoing for it to appear in public media.
A third is now planned for a non-match day to incorporate:
PoY awards | Interviews with winners either live or recorded | AGM 2020
Jonathan Pearce will be approached to conduct the interviews
Initial dates suggested are Wednesdays 5 or 12 May. [ACTION MA to liaise with BCFC via Matt Parsons}
Zoom – a monthly account was taken out for the March Watchalong and either a second month will be taken for May or the period March to May will be covered. [ACTION SR]
4. AGMs
In addition to the May online AGM 2020, it was agreed to hold another AGM 2020 session within our recent format before a home game as soon as practical after we return to the Supporters Bar. We hope to return to normal timetable with the AGM 2021 taking place before a home game in December 2021. [ACTION SR, MA]
5. AOB
Season cards for 2021/22 JTk asked—if season cards for 2021/22 go on sale, how many do we think would be purchased (there were 13,000 for 20/19/20)? The consensus of opinion was 10,000.
Memorandum of Understanding SM reported that the MOU was being taken to the BCWFC board. The informative letter was encouraging. It did suggest that some changes of text might be necessary to be acceptable.
6. OUTSTANDING ITEMS
SR mentioned the items specifically:
Important documents for access online [ACTION D-M] | Placement on match days [ACTION SR]
Items for future meetings:
Manifesto update | Communications Plan | Fundraising Project | Diversity & Inclusion
Maximising Assets | Best Practice based on National Initiatives
7. NEXT MEETING – Wednesday 7 April, 7pm.