Minutes of Part A of the Board of Society Meeting held at St James’ Centre on Tuesday, June 12, 2007, commencing at 7.30pm.

Present: Denise Watts (Chairman), Trevor Manley, Rob Doidge, Christopher Phillips, Ian Jubb, Pete Martin, Tony Badcock, Martin Lawrence, David Treharne and Fran Jenkin.

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

No non-BoS Trust members attended.

A/07/48 Welcome and Apologies for Absence:
Apologies for absence had been received from Damien Mills, Adrian Hitchcox, Neil Le Milliere and Helen Bigwood.

A/07/49 Minutes of the Meeting of May 17, 2007:
The minutes were signed by the Chairman as a true and fair record of the meeting.

A/07/50 Matters arising from these minutes:
a) Regarding A/07/46 i) David Treharne said that he had written to the people on his list regarding the loans, but there were others still to do and he requested some help from the BoS, as the workload needs to be spread. This was agreed by the meeting.
b) Regarding A/07/47 f), Denise Watts said that she had sent a letter of invitation to Jimmy Ball for the Exeter City v Southampton match.

A/07/51 Chairman’s Report:
There was nothing to add to the written report circulated previously. David Treharne stated that the complaints regarding the coaches to Wembley had nothing to do with Ian Jubb and he said that the arrangements were extremely good. The meeting then passed a vote of thanks to Ian Jubb for making all the arrangements.

A/07/52 Secretary’s Report:
a) As Tony Boston is resigning at this year’s AGM, the meeting recommended that the position be advertised as soon as possible, certainly on the Trust website and perhaps in the Express & Echo as well. Martin Lawrence will deal with this,
b) The meeting agreed that the Trust needs new computing facilities as soon as possible, although this is tied up with premises for the Trust.
c) It was mentioned that Pete Martin and Martin Lawrence were meeting with Tony Boston and Mike Cooper next Monday to look at the Trust database
d) Trevor Manley asked about the Skills Database and it was stated that this used to be a part of the Trust database but it was passed over to Pete Bishop some little time ago.
e) Tony Boston reminded the meeting that reports were to be sent to the Secretary 7 days in advance of each meeting or they would not be discussed. He agreed to send out a reminder.

A/07/53 Reports from sub-Boards:
a) Finance:
i) Chris Phillips had previously submitted an update on the work of this sub-Board and this was agreed.
ii) Nigel Banks reported that we had finished the financial year strongly and there had been an increase in members. He mentioned that he hopes that the Annual Accounts will be out somewhat earlier than last year and Tony Boston said that this would help with the planning of the AGM. David Treharne then proposed a Vote of Thanks to Nigel Banks for the efficient manner in which he prepared the accounts each month.
The question of car stickers was mentioned and Nigel Banks said that he believed that they were being produced but we had not yet had the bill.
Fran Jenkin passed a bill for £94.41 to Nigel Banks for payment. This was in respect of the KIO Tournament
iii) Regarding the decrease in the monthly amount given to the Club by the Trust, Tony Badcock said that he had prepared a press release and this would be passed to Martin Lawrence and Pete Martin.
iv) Regarding the possible repayments to people who had lent the Club money, it was agreed to put this on the Agenda for the November Meeting.
b) Operations & Community:
i) Tony Badcock had circulated a report and he said that he had attended a meeting of the Club Operations Board. The majority of the discussion had revolved around the proposed appointment of a General Commercial manager and the amount of administrative support this appointee would need. It was suggested that a minimum of 1.5 support/administrative staff would also be required. The Meeting also looked at the Commercial Board’s budget line by line and this would now be submitted to the Club Board.
ii) Regarding governance, it was emphasised that the need for a framework document was becoming urgent. The question was asked as to whether this should be prepared now or when the Trust owns 75% of the shares.
iii) The sub-Board would be meeting on July 9 or 10 to plan its objectives.
iv) It was reported that the sub-Board were investigating the possibility of getting a Heritage Lottery Grant to fund a permanent exhibition space. Tony Badcock and Ian Jubb both said that they had memorabilia which they would donate.
v) It was mentioned that the Fairtrade initiative was moving along.
vi) Ian Jubb mentioned that Nick Saunders had set up a Disabled Supporters Association and Tony Badcock said that he would contact him.
vii) Fran Jenkin circulated a newspaper cutting regarding the KIO Tournament and said that the KIO Committee had bought a permanent trophy which would be displayed at St James Centre. She thanked Julian Tagg and Denise Watts for attending.
viii) It was mentioned that the Respect Festival would be held on July 8.
ix) Fran Jenkin also said that she had been in touch with the David James Foundation and suggested that we could set up a Question & Answer evening with David James. Ian Jubb said that the East Devon Grecians are considering doing something similar. It was then proposed by Fran Jenkin and seconded by David Treharne “That Fran Jenkin should progress this suggestion.” This was carried unanimously.
x) Fran Jenkin said that she would be interested in writing an article for Scott Hiley’s testimonial on July 18 and it was agreed that this should be cleared through Martin Lawrence.
c) Football:
Rob Doidge had circulated draft Terms of Reference and these were discussed. He said that he was looking for additional members for this sub-Group. Trevor Manley had already volunteered and he would like to get someone from the Centre of Excellence. Having been proposed by Rob Doidge and seconded by Chris Phillips, this was carried unanimously.
d) Commercial & Fund-raising:
i) Martin Lawrence said that he and Pete Martin were meeting with Tony Boston and Mike Cooper next Monday evening with the view of taking over the Trust database. Tony Boston said that he had been asked to ask the Trust whether the minimum subscription should be increased. There was a short discussion on this and it was agreed to leave this until after the AGM. Pete Martin said that it was better to have numbers of members rather than high income. Rob Doidge said that we really should get a grip on membership numbers and ideally the number of members should be reported to each BoS Meeting. However, Martin Lawrence said that this requires a better database system than we currently have. Rob Doidge said that we should go all out to get new members at the first few home matches of next season. He said that we should be more pro-active by speaking to all spectators as they entered the ground and not just have a note in the programme.
ii) Nigel Banks said that we could put on an event for Trust members only and suggested a pre-season meeting with Paul Tisdale and the new signings, i.e. a Fans Forum for Trust members only, although people could sign up on the door. Denise Watts said that she would talk to Paul Tisdale about this as it depends on not disturbing the team’s preparations.
iii) Tony Boston said that he had been told a few weeks ago that the players would be prepared to join the Trust but so far had not received any application forms. Martin Lawrence said that he would write to Julian Tagg about this.

A/07/54 Any Other Business:
a) Grecians Charity. David Treharne said that he had circulated draft aims for the Charity and no-one had objected, so he was prepared to go ahead with this. He said that he had already ‘recruited’ a solicitor who would be happy to help with this and he proposed that the next stage would be for him to circulate his ideas regarding appointment of trustees, conditions of membership, financial affairs, etc. It was proposed by Fran Jenkin, seconded by Trevor Manley and approved unanimously that David Treharne should go ahead with these plans.
b) Regarding the Old Club Shop, it was proposed by Martin Lawrence and seconded by David Treharne “That the BoS actively seek a place for administration and a presence on matchdays”. This was agreed unanimously. Tony Badcock suggested that Martin Lawrence should talk to Frances Farley regarding signs.
c) Regarding the Annual General Meeting, the discussion revolved around elections. Tony Boston said that the Rules say that there is a maximum of 15 elected members with the longest-serving 5 resigning – of course, they may put themselves up for re-election if they so wished. The position at the moment is that there are 4 vacancies and Chris Phillips has intimated that he would resign and offer himself for re-election so that gives us the 5 vacancies available for election at the AGM. Trevor Manley said that he would not want to lose important people from the BoS. David Treharne said that we need new members, otherwise we could be laying ourselves open to a charge of ‘jobs for the boys’. Rob Doidge stated that the BoS resigned en masse in January 2005 and since then there has not been an election because no-one was prepared to stand apart from the existing members. After some further discussion, Denise Watts asked that if any other Trustees wished to resign, would they let Tony Boston know within a week.
d) Aims and work groups Reports. Chris Phillips had produced a Progress Chart showing the aims within each Group. This requires updating and amending where necessary.
e) Regarding an additional Trust member on the Club Board, David Treharne said that this is necessary and quickly. Rob Doidge said that the Club Board members had earlier said that the Trust have 2 representatives on the Club Board and he pointed out that this is incorrect as Tony Badcock attends by invitation, not by right, and cannot vote. He also said that Denise Watts has a conflict from time to time and so it is important for the BoS to have input from an independent Trustee. Denise Watts said that she would talk to Neil Le Milliere when he returned from holiday regarding bringing the framework document up to date and she would bring this to the next Club Board Meeting. Rob Doidge and Tony Boston asked for a copy of the existing framework document and it was agreed to discuss this at the next BoS Meeting.
f) Regarding Supporters Trust Communications, Martin Lawrence said that he was investigating setting up places round the ground for leaflets.
g) Helen Bigwood had sent an update to the Red Army activities and the Spring draw had raised £3,173 for the Centre of Excellence. The meeting congratulated the Red Army for this superb total.
h) Denise Watts said that she would not be at the next BoS Meeting and asked for a volunteer to Chair the meeting in her absence. David Treharne said that he would do so.

There being no further business, the meeting closed at 9.15pm.