Stoke City Southern Supporters Club AGM

6th June 2008 at The Dartmouth Arms, NW1

These minutes are ‘draft’, subject to agreement at our 2009 AGM. If you were in attendance and have any comments, please forward them to Gary Kemp or contact us.

Present

Les Tuck; Jeff Lea; Neil Chadwick; Julia Zuk; Garry Zuk; Norman Croucher; Gary Kemp; Ted McCoy; Keith Mackenzie-Ingle; John Maguire; Margaret Croucher; Gordon Morse; Monica Hartland; Maureen Sparks; Mick Osborne, Paul Tunnicliffe; Isobel Tunnicliffe; David Banefield; Dave Richards; Chris Thornton; Nick May; Steve Smith; Paul Edwards; Eddy

Apologies

John Wood; the Fowler family; Steve Henry; Sean Meckin; Denise Faulkner

Minutes previous meeting

These were accepted

Chair's opening remarks

Les Tuck welcomed everyone to the AGM. He began the meeting by reminding everyone that 12 months ago we were hoping for the play offs but here we were promoted automatically.

Turning to internal matters, he said it's hard to imagine all the hard work and dedication it's taken committee members during the last 40 years to make the club the success it is. He thanked all committee members, past & present, for their efforts.

Officers Reports:

Membership

Julia reported that the club ended the season with 121 paying members, down on the previous total of 135. She thought this was because we were no longer able to offer cheap rail travel.

On a bright note, since the season had finished there had been an upsurge in interest in membership. All membership inquiries are through the web.

From the floor, Dave Richards reported that the NW Stokies booked away tickets en bloc and wondered if the Southern Supporters would consider approaching Stoke to see if they could have a similar arrangement. Les Tuck agreed the Club would approach Stoke.

Treasurer

Neil provided members with a breakdown of the accounts (click here). He advised them that he had budgeted to break even but in fact were running with a slight surplus and that the bank balance was £1,643.25, though the end of season review still had to be paid for.

Neil advised members that the committee had agreed to pay £500 towards the cost of the John Ritchie Bust and hoped to get the money back from member's donations. We were still £150 short of the £500 target.

Neil advised members that the committee wanted to keep membership subscriptions at £10. Although the Club's finances were healthy it was hoping to produce a 64 page end of season review to celebrate its 40th and promotion to the Premier League. In addition the club was hoping to hold an anniversary dinner and would need money in the bank for up front expenses. Members unanimously endorsed the Club's recommendation.

From the floor, Monica Hartland thanked Neil for his presentation and asked, for the benefit of those members unable to attend the AGM, for a copy to be sent to members. It was agreed to send a copy with the next newsletter.

Press & Publicity

Nothing to report

Newsletter/Magazine

Neil made a plea for more contributions for the newsletter from members.

Neil reported that for the end of season review he wanted to provide a history of the football team during the Club's 40 years with a shorter history of the Club itself. This too would require contributions from members.

Website

Neil advised members that the website was attracting a lot of interest. Most people found the site through the normal channels such as Google or from links on other Stoke sites. However, apparently 240 hits were obtained via the Total Fishing Network website!?!

Travel

Gary reported that because of Virgin's intransigence it had proved impossible to run rail trips to games. Les, on the other hand, advised members the club still ran minibus/car trips to all midweek matches outside the London area. Neil also advised members the Club would shortly launch a car sharing page on its website after all agreed that this would be a good idea.

Fans Forum

Julia advised members meetings were now held during the working day, which was hardly convenient for anyone. Julia had agreed with the FF Chair, Terry Hughes, we would be a paper member and that although we would only attend in extremis we would still be able to raise items of concern.

Sports & Social.

As with the previous season, Les reported some sporting success. Stoke A beat Stoke B in the Martin Ward 5-a-Side final.

The Sunday team finished mid-table.

40th Anniversary

Stoke had confirmed we would be unable to organise an anniversary dinner on the day of a game at the Britannia Stadium. Therefore, using the format from previous dinners, the committee had decided to try to organise an event the evening before an away match in London. Until the fixture list was published and further discussions with Stoke had taken place, the Club would be unable to issue any further details. It was agreed to invite as guests of the Club all founder members to the Dinner.

Motions

Election of Officers

Les advised members that the Club was always looking for volunteers to join the committee. All committee members were willing to stand for re-election and Paul Tunnicliffe had volunteered to join via email. The committee was re-elected enbloc and Paul Tunnicliffe was also elected to the committee.

Shirt Sponsorship

Gary explained that Stoke had wanted an instant decision on continuing with the sponsorship package. As the cost was only £350, including free tickets to a Waddington suite package, the committee had agreed to continue with the shirt sponsorship. The members present retrospectively endorsed that decision.

Subscriptions

See Treasurer's report – it was agreed to freeze subscription rates at £10.