Trust Board Meeting

Minutes from the latest Trust Board meeting held on 15th July 2020 which was held virtually via Webex.

Present: Peter Warrilow (PW), Mo Razzaq (MR), Simon Goodyer (SG), Jonny Gould (JG), Stuart Paul (SP), Nigel Canin (NC)

Apologies: Neil James (NJ), John Taylor (JT), Kris Carr (KC)

Not received: Karl Bowater (KB)

1. Opening remarks (PW)

• Accounts should be out by end of month
• Balance approx. £9,400
• We no longer pay FCA or Football Supporters Association subscriptions

2. Update on Areas

• External Relations (e.g. FSA) KB not present
• Community Links – KC not present
• Social Media – NJ not present – but noted recent good responses to adverse comments
• Membership (SG)
  • Need to have better understanding of membership events – lost 98 due to non-payment & 65 not paid in June
  • Present approx. 550 (July 2020)
  • Club collect – ask if it could be one stop process – currently problems paying for more members than we have
• Heritage (SP)
  • Spoken to Nicola Ibbotson about what the club are doing
  • Museum on hold (again) A lot depends on when we get out of Covid and when we know which league we will be in next year!
  • Nicola is also on Commonwealth Games legacy committee
  • Heritage might be developed online as well as projects such as museum
• FCG (MR)
  • Meeting with Kappa (now in second year), Club Retail Management & Fanatics – different from Fanatics / Luke set-up
  • All time 11 project
  • 1 fan was to be banned – matter now resolved
• Media (JG)
  • Personal Trolling – JG has spoken with main troll – 45 mins of constructive/amicable conversation. Invited him to join us as a member.
  • Lockdown output – Radio WM, Gloucestershire, H&W
  • PW asked about the criticism JG received about his views, but this was not his views expressed as a member of AVST it was a podcast in JG’s other media work. The remarks were misinterpreted.
  • Emphasis on what we do as a trust
    • Support of local community
    • AGM – worth the £5 on its own – CEO in attendance

3. Future meetings (MR)

• We need to put dates in calendar
• 3 or 4 times a year
• Rest of year – after accounts – then AGM which may need to be virtual
• Mid-August/September next one?
• Mix of Online – Face to Face – dependent on restrictions

4. Objectives

• Need to be achievable / measurable
• Some for this year – Some for long term
• Email from AV Foundation about the work they do – but often we get lack of response when we contribute to their work.
• Local Community

5. Three Objectives

• First/Main objective to increase membership – Target 20% increase year on year
  • Some think we are in cahoots with the club which we’re not
  • We need to promote what we do well e.g. work on Asset of Community Value, community contributions
  • Need to update website – better promote what we do
  • What do members want – survey was done couple of years ago – maybe time for repeat?
  • What do other trusts do well? (NC)
  • What do they do on behalf of supporters?
  • Facebook (c4,500) Twitter (c11,000) why don’t they join as members?
  • What do they get for £5?
• Will look at Objectives 2 and 3 – at next meeting

6. Actions – Things to do.

• Get accounts sorted and then arrange for AGM
• SG asked PW about do we need 10 directors – when some don’t contribute much – PW promised to tackle this – in next 2 months
• JG to look at next podcast – no volunteers – so perhaps approach Adil Ray – via MR.

Meeting closed at 8pm