Membership News

AGM 2010 information

We can now confirm that our AGM will be held in the evening of Saturday 5 June, with a 7.30pm start.

As well as being our AGM, this is of course also our main social event of the year.  It is great opportunity to meet fellow Stokies and exchange footy related banter. All members and their guests are welcome (but please note that only members can vote).

The venue is a new one for our AGM: The Mad Hatter Hotel in Southwark.  It is walkable from Waterloo and several other tube stations. A map and directions are given further down this page.

Committee nominations - update on info provided with newsletter

Christine Bradley and Lisa Bibby have volunteered to join the committee and will be nominated. Any other members who wish to join the committee are welcome to put themselves forward in advance or at the AGM.

Most of the existing members of the committee will be standing for re-election. However, John Wood has indicated that he will be standing down.

In addition, Les Tuck has indicated that he will be standing down as Chariman.

The post of Secretary is currently vacant following the resignation of Paul Tunnicliffe earlier this year.

Agenda

The draft Agenda, draft motions and draft accounts can be found here (this is the same as sent out with the May newsletter). Minutes from the AGM 2010 can be found here.

The Agenda includes some motions drafted by the committee and some proposed topics for debate, including:

• Proposed enlargement of committee (click here for existing constitution)
• Dissolution of the SCSSC football team
• Should we continue with Player Sponsorship in future seasons?
• Membership rate to remain unchanged at £10, despite losses this year.

Any member may propose a motion or ask to add an agenda item.  Members who cannot attend may also write to us with their views on the motions. 

Annual raffle

As usual, we will be holding a raffle at the AGM.  Tickets can be brought on the night or in advance (use the form provided with the May newsletter).  The prizes this year are:

• Home shirt signed by Ricardo Fuller
• Home shirt signed by Mama Sidibe
• Next season’s shirt (your choice of home/away and size - or a retro shirt or other top if you really can't stand the new shirt!)
• Use of the SCSSC season ticket (in Boothen End) for match of your choice next season
• Stoke’s Greatest Games (book)
• Delilah Roars Again (book)

Venue details

The Mad Hatter is a short walk from Waterloo and Southwark tube/train stations.  Temple and London Bridge are also not too far away, but please don’t try to come via Blackfriar’s station as it will be closed until 2011.

Beer drinkers will be pleased to know that it is a Fuller’s pub with a good range of their ales.  As the name implies it is also a hotel, so if you are really keen and coming from afar, you could stop over for the night. More venue details here.

As you enter the pub/hotel, turn right into the bar area.  We have the exclusive use of the separate area located furthest from the entrance — bear left around the bar — you can’t miss it.

We will be providing a free cold buffet for attendees, probably at half time, but the pub also serve bar meals for those that would prefer to have something more substantial (or maybe like Jeff you will want both!).  We understand that food is served all day up to 9.30pm.

Directions - see map below

From Southwark:  Turn left on exit from tube station.  Walk north up Blackfriar’s Road, towards the bridge, about 400 yds .  Turn left at the  major junction with Stamford Street.  You will see the venue immediately on your left.  

From Waterloo: Follow signs to the IMAX.  Bear right around the IMAX and take the steps up on to the east side of Waterloo Road.  Turn left up the steps so that you end up on the corner of Stamford Street.  Walk east along Stamford Street for about 600 yds.  Venue is on the right hand side.

Player Sponsorship

As always, a select group of members including our prize draw winners enjoyed their day in the Waddington Suite at the Hull match.  A win helped of course!  Pictured below are Richar Lewis Williams with Ricardo Fuller and Christine Bradley with Mama Sidibe.

We have decided to renew our sponsorship of Ricardo Fuller for next year despite a significant cost hike.  At our AGM we propose to debate whether to continue sponsorship in future seasons in the light of this.

Stoke's Greatest Games...

. .. is a new book by SCSSC member Simon Lowe and David Lee. Click here for more details.

Magazine spares for sale

We have a handful of spare 08/09 magazines that we are willing to sell to members.  There are also a few left from 07/08 (promotion special), 06/07 and just one from 05/06.  If you would like one of these, or perhaps you are a new member that did not get one first time around, please send a cheque for £5 (for each magazine) payable to “SCSSC”, to the editor (details at bottom of next page). 

Alternatively, please contact us (newsletter/magazine) about doing an online bank transfer if you prefer.  If it is one of the earlier season’s editions that you want then please say so at time of order. 

FSF membership FREE

Anyone can now join the Football Supporters Federation for free, and we encourage you to do so.  Please note that you will have to pay extra if you wish to receive their printed publications: the ‘Football Supporter’ and ‘Free Lions’.  Join online at www.fsf.org.uk.  SCSSC will continue to hold ‘club’ membership.

SCSSC members in the news

Some of our members found their way into Evening Sentinel newspaper (or at least the online version) over the summer, including Paul & Carolyn Ruane, Monica Hartland (now President of the FSF)  and Nick May (Dartmouth Arms). 

We have also now added the link for Keith MacKenzie-Ingle.

Here are the links to the articles:

Keith MacKenzie-Ingle - 42 year glory hunt paying off for southern Stokie

Paul & Carolyn Ruane - City fans enjoy perfect match

Monica Hartland - The first lady of football becomes president

Monica Hartland - Fans chief hails Coates

Nick May - Would you Adam and Eve it? You can get oatcakes dahn sarf!

Home match tickets via SCSSC!

With the large majority of tickets for games at the Brit taken up by season tickets, which are not a viable option for many Southern Stokies, there was some discussion at the AGM about what we, as a club, could do to help members get tickets for one-off matches. After some debate, it was decided that SCSSC should look into buying a ‘club’ season ticket. This would be offered to members on a ballot basis. If successful we would look into buying additional tickets in future years.

At the AGM, it was thought that it may have been too late for us to implement this for 2009/10 given that the second season ticket deadline was approaching. However, the committee (especially Julia and Garry Zuk) have been successful and we are now up and running.

In addition, with help from Stoke City we have been able to resolve the difficult issue of handing over a season ticket book. SCFC have agreed that the member attending each match can pick up a ‘normal’ ticket on the day from the ticket office.

Full details of the scheme are given here.

Your own @scssc.co.uk email address – FREE!

Fed up of having JohnSmith678@btinternet.com or some other incomprehensible email address. SCSSC is pleased to announce an alternative!

We can now offer to our members, completely free of charge, club email addresses using the @scssc.co.uk domain. For example, you could be john.smith@scssc.co.uk or delboy@scssc.co.uk or whatever takes your fancy (as long as no-one has beaten you to it!) Your scssc address will only be a ‘forwarding’ address and you will still need a ‘real’ email account and address (such as BT, Tiscali, Virgin, Tesco etc.). In other words, any emails sent to your scssc address will simply be 'bounced' on to your 'real' address.

If you wish to take advantage of this offer, this is what you need to do:

• contact us usign the contact form (select "This website" option)
• state your preferred email name, i.e. the bit before the @scssc.co.uk
• state which address(es) you wish your emails to be forwarded to (we will check these before setting up the forwarding)

This service is offered as a favour to members, and we reserve the right to withdraw it if circumstances dictate (e.g. we have to change web hosting provider to one that doesn't support this). In addition, we reserve the right to withdraw the service from any individual if we suspect that it has been abused.

For reasons of privacy and security, only the webmaster and assistant webmaster will have the necessary permissions to set up the service.

You can instruct us to stop the forwarding at any time.

SCSSC business cards

We have created some SCSSC ‘business cards’, incorporating our contact details. These are handy for giving to any potential new recruits that you may meet. If you would like some of these cards to hand out, please contact us (using the "General club matters" option, nd we will send them with your newsletter.

Any news to share?

If you have any ‘news’ to share with us on this page (and in the Newsletter column), such as births, weddings, qualifications, relocations etc., or anything else of interest to other members, then please contact us (using the "membership info" option).