Minutes of Annual General Meeting - 11 July 2010

July 13th, 2010

Mid Sussex Blues – MCFC Official Supporters’ Club
11 July 2010 – Witch Inn, Sunte Avenue, Haywards Heath

Present
John Joyce – Social Secretary – acting Chair (JJ)
Mark Seacombe – Secretary (MS)
Julie Joyce – Minutes Secretary (JJ2)
Rod Cummins – Treasurer (RC)
Martin Smith
Jake Smith
Harvey Smith
Gilly MacLean
Iain MacLean
Mike Rolfe
Jack Rolfe
Del Bromley
Peter Simpson
Fraser Simpson
Phil Purdie
Stuart Purdie
Heidi Robinson
Paul Dronfield
Ian Hinley

Apologies
John Dean, Alan Toft, Dave Bennett, Aidan Fitzpatrick, Pete Dutson

Chairman’s report
JJ2 read a report from the outgoing chair, Pete Dutson, welcoming everyone to the 6th AGM of the Mid Sussex Blues branch.  Pete thanked the outgoing committee for their contributions.  Successes last year include another rise in branch membership, attending the 60th anniversary event for the Official Supporters’ Club at Eastlands and hosting a fantastic legends night with guests Glyn Pardoe, Steve MacKenzie and Premier referee Mark Halsey.  Pete particularly thanked JJ for the time and effort he put into arranging that latter event.  Pete asked everyone for their continued support in helping us remain a strong and well numbered branch.

Secretary’s report
MS talked about the bright future of Manchester City Football Club, his own journey to becoming an MSB and how he wants to be even more involved with the branch this coming season.

Treasurer’s report
The accounts on 1 July 2009 started with a balance of £1055.59.  By the end of the season, on 30 June 2010 the balance was £763.51.  RC went through the income and expenditure statement (if you were not at the meeting and would like to see the figures please contact RC).

Income included:

• Subscriptions and city card purchases for 83 members, an increase of 20 members on the previous season.  We had 60 adults, 22 juniors and 1 OAP during 2009/10
• Special delivery charges where we purchase more than 6 tickets for a game – RC adds 50p to the cost of each ticket to cover this
• Profit from the legends night which was £86 – 35 individuals attended at a cost of £25 per person, RC asked members to provide ideas on how we could increase the numbers of people attending in future
• Branch commission for the OSC Christmas Raffle; we sold 50 tickets with £20 of the proceeds going to the branch – RC thanked JJ2 for selling those tickets

Expenditure included:

• Branch registration for the year and membership fees for our members
• Cost of a branch table for the OSC 60th anniversary event and a ticket to the game against Hull the following day for Gerry Ryan; a thank you to our lifetime president – total of £389
• Buffet for the 5th anniversary celebration for our branch - £150
• Postage - £65.33

Last season we sold 61% more tickets for matches but the price of those tickets went up 85%. RC had to lend the branch some money for a short period when we were paying out for tickets for 2 games simultaneously.  We need members to pay for their tickets promptly and we should not rely on our treasurer to use his own money to handle any shortfalls, albeit temporarily.  We have therefore decided this year to increase the cost of MSB membership, to ensure we always have a healthy balance for buying tickets.

We are still unclear on the future cost and availability of citycards for 2010/11.  MCFC is encouraging fans to buy seasoncards.  We have been given an indication that it will be £20 but will confirm.

Action – all members to pay RC for their branch membership - £10 per adult, £5 for OAP/juniors
Action – RC to confirm price of citycards

We then discussed RC’s request for ideas on how to encourage members to come to the annual event.  We agreed to ask people why they did not come so that we could identify any particular issues, such as cost, timing etc.  JJ confirmed that the next event would be before one of the London fixtures, excluding Tottenham as this is the first game of the season.  We agreed that we would try to identify which of those dates with as much warning as possible but it will depend on legend availability and changes to the match dates due to Sky coverage.  JJ also commented on the fact that we had given advance warning of our event with Ian Cheeseman but this had not been well attended either. JJ will start talking to potential guests sooner rather than later.  We also talked about whether in future we should increase subscription costs so that access to the legends night is then discounted.

Action – JJ to write to members to ask them for feedback on the last legends night, any reason for non attendance and suggestions for the future

JJ thanked RC for his work as treasurer.  He then gave an update on various issues:

• Retirement of Gerry Ryan, our lifetime president, who is keeping in touch as he travels this year and will be back in the UK in early 2011
• The merge of the Official Supporters’ Club and the Centenary Supporters’ Association. Kevin Parker contacted us from the club during the meeting to say that membership across the new merged club will be around 10,000.  He confirmed that the merge would not affect ticket allocations as both clubs had their own allocations in the past.  In effect it will make it easier to handle the administration of branch ticket requests.  Following the merge there is a new website which we will need to update in respect of our branch
• Membership of MSB covers a much wider age range this year, from a 1-year-old junior member to a new member who is 87 years old!
• New venue for watching games – whilst we will continue to show our loyalty to the Witch Inn for events and some meetings, there is no longer ability to watch Sky/ESPN here.  We have therefore agreed with the St Francis Social Club, Princess Royal, Haywards Heath to use their facilities.  The branch will pay for 3 couples to join the social club at a cost of £30 per couple.  Those members will then be able to sign in other MSB members, including children, on the day of a match for a cost of £1 per person

Nominations 2010/11
The outgoing committee confirmed they were all prepared to stand again.  There were no other nominations.  Those present agreed to allow the committee to continue for a further year.

Ideas/AOB
MSB website - www.midsussexblues.co.uk – this has not been updated recently.  JJ asked people to register so that they receive update alerts and send in or post match reports

A number of members suggested a loyalty points scheme where we decide which events/meetings/matches attract a larger number of points. Suggestions made were 100 points for the legends dinner, 20 points for meetings, 50 points for the AGM and some points for home/away games. Points balances would then be taken into account when our allocation of tickets for a match is in sufficient to meet demand, with a lottery if more than one person is on similar points.  We agreed to explore the options.

Branch members were interested in travelling to Europa league games this season.

Action – JJ to talk to Martin Smith about updating the new OSC website
Action – Martin Smith to e-mail members with details of how to login to the site
Action – committee to discuss the concept of a loyalty points system and present options to the next meeting

Next meeting:

• 23 August
• St Francis Sports and Social Club, Princess Royal Hospital, Haywards Heath
• 7pm for 7.15pm start, the Liverpool game then kicks off at 8pm
• Items for the agenda to JJ2 at chez.jules@uwclub.net

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