Minutes of February 2021 meeting

The meeting was held over Zoom at 8pm on Wednesday 3 February. 15 members were present when the meeting began

Apologies were received from Neil Walmsley, who sent the following:

One comment - a former work colleague that has no connection to Chorley has asked me 'how does he get involved with CFC' having seen/heard of the club as a result of the FA Cup run. I have passed him links to CFCST and CFC websites/twitter/facebook - and will leave him to make his own decisions.  The point of my message is that he surely isn't the only person in the world to take a new interest in CFC as a result of the TV coverage, and so I'm wondering if there is an opportunity to promote CFCST to non league football fans globally to test whether there are a few more people amongst them (with time, skills and/or money) that might just want to get involved?

League postponement

Pete Thompson (Chair) – a large amount of money has been invested thus far. I would like to see the season continue if possible. I understand that many clubs will not want to take on loans no matter how good the deal is, especially if they are already in debt.
Carole Turner – it would be nice to see the season continue but not to the detriment of clubs
Pete – Clubs are at the hub of their community, and it’s important to a lot of people. It would be a shame if they were not there ready for the return to normality
Jue Vass – There is also the mental health and wellbeing of supporters to consider
Carole – some people attend as much for the company as the football
Jue – We are playing well and could challenge for the playoffs
Pete – Points per game is unrealistic given so few matches have been played
Mark Rees (Secretary) summarised the National League resolutions and noted that fan owned clubs who have declared their intentions so far are voting for the season to end

Treasurer’s report

Thanks to a lot of effort from Jue in particular we are in a much healthier position financially now.

January Income

Membership 87.00
Golden Goal sales 343.00
Golden Goal sponsorship 250.00
Online raffles 456.00
Pledges 203.00
Donations 110.40
January walking challenge 1046.00

Total 2495.40

January Expenses

Golden Goal prizes 100.00
Raffle prizes 278.00
Paypal / Local Giving fees 99.14
Rackspace 9.56

Total 486.70

Bank balance

Working account 3141.72
Fans Ownership Fund 2448.71
Unbanked cash 25.00

Total funds £5615.43

Membership report

145 members
124 adult
21 junior

This is the highest total of paying members since 2016-17
It’s hard to motivate people to become members, or to convert people from being Facebook/Twitter followers to members

Wolves match

Thanks to Jue Vass, Martin Ramsbotham, Mark Rees and Jack Hepworth for their work on the lead to the Wolves matches, especially the videos.
The excellent Chorley performance in the Wolves match was discussed

Supporter Director update

Pete has been very busy at work and been spending less time at the club as a result
Jue – Derby shirts are being posted out
Peterborough shirt auction has concluded
We have asked the club for the final total of Wolves virtual tickets sold, they have said they will provide it but it has not been forthcoming as yet
The Trust put a great deal of effort in selling virtual tickets
Roy Smith asked how many shirts had been sold
Ian Hargreaves has heard 700 Derby shirts and 300 Wolves shirts from members of the Watkinson family

Sponsored Walk

£1330 was raised in total. We agreed to donate £350 each to Rosemere and Sporting Memories
KeithMcIntosh – a pleasure to take part and was well organised
Jue – we could try another sponsored event in the summer

Player of the Month

Elliott Newby won the vote in January

Next month – we will do a player of the month poll on Facebook and Twitter

Last Man Standing competition

50/50 between the winner and the Trust. Ben Kay is helping us out with this. You can buy tickets on the website

Any other business

Keith – Colin Hall and Nigel Chadwick are in the same care home in Coppull (Arundale). Sporting Memories have donated 22 DVDs to the home for all of the residents. Ian Wilson also regularly stops by. The home will also be given two Sporting Memories kitbags with home exercise kit including exercise bands. There is a visitor’s pod at the care home and Nigel will get a face to face visit from his niece this week.

We should do something with a local food bank. Organising donations is difficult at the moment but there is a lot of demand. Keith suggests contacting Living Waters food bank for help, as they can coordinate with other food banks, and also feels that they get better value for money. Tom Holgate at Chorley Council is involved in community support and could be useful. We could approach him in the first instance.

£290 donation to a food bank (representing £2 per member) was proposed and unanimously agreed – Pete to organise this

It would be good if we could get a Trust member to present the Player of the Month trophy – Carole will speak to Ben Kay