Minutes of Part A of the Board of Society Meeting held at St James’ Centre on Monday, December 11, 2006 at 6.30pm.

Present: Denise Watts (Chairman), Rob Doidge, Martin Lawrence, Pete Martin, Ian Jubb, Adrian Hitchcox, Tony Badcock, David Treharne, Neil Le Milliere and Helen Bigwood.

Officers: Tony Boston, (Secretary) and Nigel Banks (Treasurer)

No non-BoS Trust members attended.

A/06/126 Welcome and Apologies for Absence:
Apologies for absence had been received from Trevor Manley, Chris Phillips and Nick Saunders.

A/06/127 Minutes of the Meeting of November 13, 2006:
(a) Under A/06/116, Financial Update, the seconder should be Rob Doidge and not Tony Badcock.
(b) Under A/06/120, Use of Red or Dead money for a Scoreboard, the latter part of the minute should read “Mike Cooper said that there was approximately £25,000 unallocated in the Red or Dead account. He would investigate the position. This would be put on the website and ask for comments before the second week in January.”
After these corrections, the minutes were signed as a true record of the meeting.

A/06/128 Matters arising:
(a) Re A/06/117(a), Time for a Change. David Treharne said that this item depended on the outcome of the additional BoS Meeting on December 19.
(b) Re A/06/122(c), Championship Shirt Design. David Treharne reported that he now has the paperwork for the patent on this, together with various other patents. He will hopefully bring the other items to the next BoS Meeting.
(c) Re A/06/114(b), Christmas Event. Tony Boston mentioned that he had not heard who had cancelled our booking in favour of the Club event. Whilst this is more important, it would have been more courteous to have told him, as he had made the booking. Furthermore, this meeting had originally been made for the Courtney Room and had been changed with very little notice to the Foster Room. Again, the Secretary had not been told, but just heard this secondhand. The fact that we were meeting in the Courtney Room was only due to the meeting for the Courtney Room had been cancelled. Denise Watts said that she would talk to Kelly Ingleson.
(d) Re A/06/114(a), Brick Scheme. Martin Lawrence reported that he had heard from Mike Cooper that nearly all of the people had now been contacted.
(e) Re A/06/114(c), the Grant Application from the Co-op. Tony Badcock agreed to remind Paul Wynne about this. Also in connection with this minute, Tony Boston said that he had not yet spoken to Football in the Community.
(f) Re A/06/114(d), Nina Wills. Denise Watts said that she was still awaiting a response from her family.
(g) Re A/06/114(h), Car Boot Sales. Martin Lawrence said that he now had the official license which gave the days on which these could be held and these could now be publicised. We would be investigating the use of the Fountain Centre if the weather is wet. The Meeting thanked Martin Lawrence for his efforts.
(h) Re A/06/114(i), Register of Members Interests. Tony Boston agreed to re-send the form for people to complete.
(i) Re A/06/115, Co-options. Neil Le Milliere confirmed that co-options are for 1 year at a time.
(j) Re A/06/122(a), Creditors. Neil Le Milliere suggested that we could contact them and put something on to the website, but David Treharne felt that we should not proceed at the moment.
(k) Re A/06/122(h), Chief Executive. It was mentioned that not only do we need to appoint a new Chief Executive, but we really also need a Commercial Manager. David Treharne said this should be left until after the additional Meeting on December 19, but it was emphasised that these appointments should not be left.

A/06/129 Co-options:
It had been confirmed by Neil Le Milliere that, according to our Rules, co-options are to the next Annual General Meeting.
It was proposed by David Treharne and seconded by Neil Le Milliere “That Helen Bigwood be co-opted on to the Board of Society on behalf of the Red Army until the next Annual General Meeting”. This was carried unanimously.
The meeting then discussed possible other nominees for co-option.
Tony Badcock suggested that a representative of “Kick It Out” and it was agreed unanimously by the meeting to ask them to nominate someone, having been proposed by Tony Badcock and seconded by Ian Jubb. The name of Fran Jenkins was mentioned.
The North Devon Grecians had been approached but had no-one who would be prepared to be nominated, while it was felt that the East Devon Grecians had 2 or 3 members already elected to the BoS.
Neil Le Milliere also suggested a local community group and Ian Jubb mentioned the Executive Club.
It was felt appropriate to defer any decision until after the Meeting on December 19, but not delay too long as it was pointed out that the Rules specify a minimum of 3 co-opted members.

A/06/130 Financial Update:
Nigel Banks had already circulated a report and said that there was not very much to report. Pete Martin said that there had been a number of failures on Paypal recently and Nigel Banks said that he would keep an eye on this.
Nigel Banks had obtained a couple of receipt books and these were given to Tony Boston and Ian Jubb.
Tony Badcock mentioned that less money was coming into the Trust now. This is because the Club is doing more fundraising events and it becomes that much harder for the Trust not to clash.
Pete Martin asked whether we should offer the members more for their subscription.
Martin Lawrence said that he had now received the final approval for our Car Boot Sales and passed the licence to Tony Boston.

A/06/131 Ownership of the Generator:
Tony Badcock said that the generator is used by he Club and there is no logical reason why it should be owned by the Trust and why the Trust should pay for its servicing. Nigel Banks agreed to write to the Club asking them if they would be prepared to accept the generator as a donation.

A/06/132 Behaviour of Supporters:
David Treharne said that the behaviour of fans on the train back from Woking was totally unacceptable, but a lot of this was due to provocation by the police. At Honiton, the train was met by more police than there were passengers and taken by coach to St Davids, even though the train was due to go to Central and was met there by another considerable number of police. There were 7 arrests, but he noted that there were 9 on the same evening in Plymouth. He suggested that we need to enter into a dialogue with the police in the New Year and see what can be worked out.
Ian Jubb said that the Supporters Club had been trying to get to the bottom of this and Chief Inspector Adrian Brigden had asked to attend a meeting
Denise Watts said that she would check at the next Club Board Meeting to ensure that something is done. She said that Frances Farley had the names of the 7 arrested supporters and we should check as to whether they are members of the Trust.
Pete Martin asked whether people banned from the ground are banned from the St James’ Centre as well, and David Treharne said that Alan Derrick had been banned from both the ground and the St James’ Centre. Rob It was reported that he had been in the St James’ Centre.

A/06/133 Communication:
Martin Lawrence referred to the e-mail regarding support at matches for the Club. He said that he would liaise with Pete Martin.
Pete Martin said that we should approach the membership along the lines of promoting ourselves rather than saving the Club. He also said that we are probably the biggest Trust and there was a letter in the Independent newspaper recently which gave a very balanced argument for and against Trust ownership. He suggested that we instigate a membership drive (see later under Any Other Business)..

A/06/134 Use of Red or Dead money for scoreboard:
Adrian Hitchcox asked whether there was £25,000 available from the Red or Dead money? He said that he believed that it would pay for itself within 1 or 2 years. David Treharne said that he had got 3 quotations ranging from £12,000 to £15,000. Adrian Hitchcox then proposed “That the BoS give the Club £20,000 from the Red or Dead money for a scoreboard.” Tony Badcock wanted to have confirmation from Mike Cooper first. Neil Le Milliere left the meeting briefly to call Mike Cooper who reported that there is about £25,000 unallocated in the Red or Dead account.
Rob Doidge suggested that the BoS instigate a 6-month fund-raising drive for this specific purpose, but Tony Badcock thought that this would not be attractive enough for fans.
After this discussion, Neil Le Milliere seconded the above proposal and it was carried unanimously. Action AH/DTreharne

A/06/135 Framework Document/Constitution:
Neil Le Milliere stated that he was now about halfway through the Rule changes.
Regarding the framework document, he said that he was somewhat worried as he has had 5 different versions from 5 different people. David Treharne suggested that this be discussed at our additional meeting on December 19.

A/06/136 Meeting Dates for 2007:
After some discussion, it was decided to only look at the first 3 months meetings and the following dates were decided:
Tuesday, January 16 (subject to any replay)
Monday, February 19
Monday, March 12
In addition, it was noted that the Drivers-Jonas draft report was due out on February 15 and the final report on March 8.

A/06/137 Any Other Business:
Adrian Hitchcox distributed a report and said that he had signed up about 40 new Trust members recently just by talking to them and said that a membership drive could easily be done. Neil Le Milliere’s reaction was whether we needed a membership drive in view of the report from Drivers-Jonas.
Pete Martin suggested that he and Martin Lawrence prepare a paper for the Club Commerecial Board. Tony Badcock said that we should look at the benefits available by becoming a Trust member. It was pointed out that Trust members only get a 10% discount on SHO merchandise, not Club merchandise.
David Treharne asked that this be left until the meeting of December 19, as it would be raised then as part of Chris Phillips’ paper

There being no further business, the meeting closed at 9.00pm.

ECFC SUPPORTERS TRUST - ANALYSIS OF RECEIPTS AND PAYMENTS

DECEMBER 2006

Notes:-
Bank Balance at 31 December adjusted for outstanding cheques was £22,970 and there was £718 in the Paypal account which I have now transferred.