Att – approx 45
Committee Present – Phil C, Alan S, Martin R, Bill S, Paul I, Rob U, Julia U, Andy K,
Apologies – Alan D, Paul G, Alan J
 
Review of previous minutes – Paul I advised that a formal letter had been sent to Sam and to Charlie to request a meeting and the trust has now received a letter back from Sam saying that he will co-ordinate a meeting likely to be in June.
 A further request was put out the use of a van to help move the chairs from Peter Rigby’s house back to the club. Phil advised that the cost of hiring a van would be around £40.

Disabled facilities – Martin arranged a meeting with the club last week to show the sample lift for disabled supporters. The lift was seen as an excellent piece of machinery, however, there are further stumbling blocks to overcome.
 It was pointed out that there would be building work required to fit the lift and this needed to be priced up. It was also noted that removal of seats to allow wheelchair access into the stand might affect access for able-bodied supporters and a meeting needed to be set up with Sefton Council regarding the safety aspect.
 
Targets for 2009/10 – Martin went through the list of targets for 2009/2010:
1 – To arrange regular meetings with the club, Haydn and Liam. Steps were already in place as both Liam and Haydn were in attendance and Sam had agreed to co-ordinate a meeting with the club
2 – Initiative with Junior schools – The trust would like to work with the club to get the club into the schools more regularly. The club suggested offering free membership to these junior schools pupils and an introductory pack. Haydn was very positive and added that the club had just started a pilot project with Meols Cop
3 – Major Project – the trust to define a major project, possibly as a joint initiative with the club
4 – Increase in publicity – Martin was already sending newsletters to all members with e-mail addresses, looking at re-vamping the website and increasing media coverage within the local press
5 – aim to increase the membership to a paying total of 300 members – it was hoped that if project 3 could be defined that would encourage more members to join/re-join.
6 – build on activities – band nights and events during the year
7 – Involve more past and present players with TIY
 
Questions to Haydn and Liam:
 
Haydn advised that sponsorship renewals were going well in all areas from perimeter advertising, programmes and corporate. He advised that Aldi has agreed to form a community partnership and he was in talks with another company that may lead to a significant sponsorship.
 Asda are already on board as a community sponsor and have been providing refreshments for Liam’s squad on match days and the club and Asda have arranged a community fun day at Haig Avenue with a match involving some of the 1993 championship squad. Haydn asked for TIY to help out as much as they could. The event was to raise money for a charity supported by Bradley Wiggins.
 
 Youth development – Haydn advised that the youth development had now been recognised as one of the best in the country and was emulating many football league clubs. There was a lot of interest from football clubs in following our set up. Haydn also advised that the academy players were also half way through their 2 year term and there had been a lot of interest in players from football league clubs.
 The youth development would expand to a second age group in the summer, thus there would be over 60 youngsters involved in the project. Over 100 applicants had applied and Alan Smart would have to work carefully to select the right personnel.
 Further members of the playing staff would be taken on as coaches to join Matty McGinn and Alan Moogan, taking the total up to 5 players that were effectively full time.
 Haydn was also trying to secure some coverage from Setanta over the summer.
Haydn also advised that setting up the youth development had taken up substantial amount for time for both him and Alan Smart, but would generate a substantial amount of income and hopefully a few players that would progress through the pyramid. The income streams would start to come through in the next twelve months.
 
 The grandstand bar had trebled its barrelage over the past twelve months and advised that he was aware that the bar needed a refurbishment. Haydn advised that the cost for the refurbishment based on quotes he had received would be around the £35K and not the £250k that had been suggested as that quote was for a set up similar to Yates Wine Bar. He had also drawn up plans to renovate the toilet block, but advised that no discussions had yet taken place with the chairman on any of the refurbishment.
 
Catering – Haydn advised that there would be substantial changes to the catering facilities with a new menu and new eating areas and that further details would be advised at a later date.
 
 Liam advised that he had targeted five players and had already signed three of those already. Of the two remaining one would be a reserve keeper and the other may require a transfer fee and negotiations were ongoing. All four loan players would be returning back to their clubs and no decisions had been made on the current staff, although Liam admitted that there may be a chance that one or possibly two players may be asked to find other clubs. The current part time wage bill was on a par with the full time wage bill.
 
 Haydn advised that the admission price structure for next season was still being negotiated with the chairman and was very aware of the high prices, especially for the Juniors, where he admitted that £7.50 was too much for an under 16. Again a discussion was to be made with the chairman. There was also a suggestion to extend the junior season ticket to under 18’s and possibly change the junior schools promotion from free to £1 when accompanied by an adult to compensate for the potential price drop for juniors.
 David Jackson put out a plea for all supporters to be more positive and help promote the club, rather than constantly criticise and he advised on numerous examples where he had promoted the club.
 
Reserves – Haydn advised that the club needed progression form the youth development and the reserves was the logical step. Liam and Haydn both advised that they wanted a reserve side. Haydn also advised that a minibus was no longer on the club’s agenda due to the number of students currently taken on.
Haydn put a request out to the trust to consider taking on the cost of the reserves this year and advised that the cost would be a maximum of £12k to run this season. The club had advised that the budget had to be put into the first team and there was no resource for funding the reserve team this season. Any funding would reduce Liam’s budget. A full breakdown of these costs would be provided by Haydn, however these would include:
Reserve team manager
Officials
Physio
Administration
Transport
Laundry
Refreshements etc
 
The plan would be to enter the Lancashire League and Liam advised that ideally he would like to play the games on a Thursday night.
Haydn would try and find a sponsor to reduce costs and the club were happy to receive staggered payments. The club require an answer as soon as possible.
 Those present at the meeting were in general agreement that the club was urgently in need of a reserve team and were happy that the board should take this to the membership.
 The trust advised to Haydn that they would require shares to the value of the investment in return as per the objectives of Supporters Direct and Haydn advised that he didn’t think this would be a problem as the chairman had agreed this previously when the minibus proposal was on the table.
 
Further questions to Haydn – roles of the directors:
Haydn clarified that he is Chief Executive and not a director
Sam and Charlie are the financial backers at the club
Roy Holden responsible for the corporate hospitality
Steve Porter responsible for galvanising, lawn mower areas and VP bar on match days
Tim Medcroft – responsible for co-ordinating turnstile operations
Andy Pope – club electrician also works turnstiles
Haydn apologised if he had forgotten anyone
 
Haydn confirmed that there are plans in place to create an online shop and allow purchases online.
 The policy of no passouts to the bar on matchdays would continue due to ground regulations
The covering on the popular side would have to be completed all the way across otherwise it would affect the safety certificate. The club advised that grants from the football foundation have been reduced significantly that the project is not financially viable at present.
The ground meets football league capacity. The only upgrades would be floodlights and security camera added into the ground.
 Sefton council – the club has good relationship with John Pugh and several of the local councillors and there are no issues with the club and the council. Haydn pointed out that it was with Sefton council’s agreement that the club were allowed to amend the ground regulations to allow supporters to congregate by the walls.
 
AOB – with regards to coach travel for next season, Alan advised that he planned to offer a promotional discount for those that pay in advance in order to reduce the number of no shows. Further schemes were for discussion at future board meetings.
Accounts – Phil advised that he was working on the accounts and they would be completed within a month. Phil advised that the balance stood at £14,200. An AGM was thus recommended for the end of July.
 
 Next meeting – AGM 5th August