Att 20

Finances – currently stand at £10,246 which covers all coach payments, signs and race night costs. The race night raised around £1300. Phil will speak to James to get the accounts signed off.
Membership – current memberships stand at 249 prior to the meeting. Jon advised the Visiter were planning to put a tear off slip in the paper when space was available.

PA System – we have been advised that the speaker systems in the ground are the problem for the poor quality sound and in particular one speaker in the Jack Carr Stand.
The majority of the feedback from the questionnaire for projects issued with the anthem suggestions was the PA system to be updated.
Those present agreed to press ahead and investigate costs and potential football foundation funding for an upgrade of the speaker systems. Jon offered to take the matter forward and Dave Hunter of Southport Community Radio would be a first contact for information.

Credit/Debit facilities – at the meeting with the board, the club advised they were looking into providing credit and debit facilities for the club shop/online facilities. Despite assurances that the club were progressing with this nothing has materialised at present. Again the matter would be pushed with the club, with the hope of getting the facilities in place for the Christmas rush.
Follow up meeting with the club – the trust will start some dialogue with the club to try and arrange a follow up meeting with the club towards the end of the year.
Sponsored walk – Jon suggested that the Trust organise a sponsored walk to Burscough on New Years Day as a fundraiser. Burscough are doing something similar on their visit on Boxing Day. Volunteers are being sought to take part in the walk.
Next Match Signs – The next match sign due to go up on the A59 Southport Road has been scuppered by West Lancashire Council Regulations, which only permits wheeled signs to go up. The trust is now looking at other avenues to place the sign.

Road Signs – 4 wards have agreed to pay a contribution towards the roads signs and a fifth ward is expected to contribute as well. There will be a shortfall of around £1200. It was agreed that the Trust would fund and this would pay for these 8 signs around the town which would include council maintainance of these signs. Further developments would take place once confirmation had been received from the last remaining ward.

Question Of Sport – Tony Adams has put forward a proposal to run a question of sport event similar to the TV programme, which he has arranged before. It was generally agreed that this would be a good idea and that we could get the players and management involved.

Battle of the Bands – We have now received seven applications from bands in the over 18’s competition, but we are struggling for entries in the under 18’s and hope to have a minimum of four entries.
Paul G has a PA system and Alan D’s system will be used for stage monitors. John Siddle has offered to supply microphones.
Paul G has been promoting on Martin Hovden’s radio show and is trying to get demos from all participating bands. Paul G to advise Jon on details for press releases.
We are still looking for some staging and we have promotional posters to hand out.
Volunteers are required on the night and Nick Collins and Mick Huyton have offered their services to run the door.

Trust Building – the trust building is now open, however we require a sign to create awareness. Steve W agreed to arrange a removable sign. Rob and Julia were to forward Steve the artwork. It was hoped to promote the opening of the building, via a press release and be a focal point for the fireworks display.

We also had a proposal from a member to fund and purchase covering for the popular side. This was estimated at £80,000 of which half would be funded by grants. The suggestion to raise these funds was to ask for £100 donations from members and supporters.
Those present discussed the proposal and although they thought it was a good idea, the trust had other priorities to focus on and did not have the resources to raise that monetary value within a suitable timescale and the proposal would not be taken any further at present.

It was also advised that the trust would focus on promoting itself on the fireworks night and running the football game from the carnival.

Next Meeting:- Thursday25th October 7.30pm Grandstand Club