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Minutes
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31st JANUARY 2005
Venue: Boars Head PH, Dover.
Present: Mick Padfield, Tim Padfield, Bill Browning, Gary Cattermole
Apologies: Haydn Powlter, David Browning, Darren Herbert, Paul Padfield & Mark Padfield
AGENDA ITEM 1- There were no matters arising from the meeting of 8th November 2004. The minutes were adopted.
ITEM 2 – All the people present thought that the Christmas dinner had been a success. Mick presented the meeting with a set of accounts which covered the period until 31st December 2004. These show that at present we have a credit balance of £104.22. These accounts shows that we collected £1,342.00 in ticket sales for the dinner and spent £1,290.00, this figure included £50.00 for our guest’s meals and £20.00 for the guest’s gifts. It was felt that due to the success of this year’s dinner we would look to hold the 2005 dinner at Bluebirds again and follow a similar format, with an after dinner speaker and guest speaker, if possible. As per this year it was felt that an extra £1 could be added to the price of each meal to cover the cost of the guest’s meal and any gifts that may be purchased for them. It was pointed out due to Mick’s hard work we were able to secure all of our raffle prizes, at no cost to the club. Mick confirmed that the amount raised for ChildLine, from the raffle, was £750.00. He also confirmed that he has now written to all the companies that donated the prizes thanking them for their generosity and informing them of the amount that we raised.
ITEM 3 – Gary informed the meeting that his son James has continued to update the website at regular intervals. He had hoped to put a section on the site displaying photographs from the Christmas dinner as well as 3 small video sections. Unfortunately, when he tried to down load these on to the site he realised that we only have 10Mb of space available. The meeting felt that James should contact Stuart Honey, who hosts the website, with a view to purchasing some more space space. Any further payment could come from the existing club funds.
ITEM 4 – Gary informed the meeting that our membership has continued to grow steadily and we now have in excess of 100 members. He informed the meeting that he had recently received an e-mail from a Silver member, who had just moved into the area and was interested in joining, but unfortunately he was having problems getting his membership released from the Supporters Club that he was leaving. Gary has sought clarification from Jill Smith regarding this situation . The committee then looked at 5 applications from people looking to join the club, 1 was proposed, the other 4 were not. After discussing all of these applications it was felt that they would all be accepted. Gary is to write to all of the applicants and supply them with a copy of the club rules.
Mick then raised the issue of charging an annual fee for membership of the Dover Gooners. He intends to raise this at the AGM so that it can be discussed fully and voted on by the membership. The rationale behind his thinking is that all monies brought into the club, so far, have been at the goodwill of the officers, e.g. the funding of the website and from the sale of dinner tickets or the GunFlash. It would appear that we are the only supporters club who do not charge an annual fee or an extra fee on top of any match tickets purchased. He suggested that no fee would be more than £5, we are aware of one club that charge a minimum of £15. He felt that the extra funds would enable the club to expand the website, purchase any raffle prizes for the Christmas dinner, should we not be so luck with donations in coming years and it would also put off any person who was looking to join the club purely because they see the Dover Gooners as ‘a good way to get match day tickets’, this has been said by a number of people who have shown an interest in joining the club. Tim felt that should this proposal be adopted at the AGM then the extra funds could be used to subsidise any future trips that the club might run, like the stadium tour, or if the funds became excessive then we could make a further donation to a nominated charity. Mick agreed to get a full proposal together in time for the AGM.
ITEM 5 – So far we have about 22 people who have paid their money for the stadium tour on 18th March 2005. We also have about 5 members, who do not live in Dover, who will meet us up at the ground. Mick has not yet booked the coach, as it will cost £375. He estimates that to cover the cost of the coach we need about 26 people, who will travel from Dover, to pay their money, in order that the club do not have to bear the cost of empty seats. It is hoped that should the trip go ahead then the coach will leave Dover at about 1030hrs and return by about 1900hrs, the tour is booked for 1500hrs. Prior to the tour members will be able to purchase anything from the club shop at a 20% discount.
Mick then outlined 2 further events that he was hoping to organise for the members. The first would be a trip to watch RC Lens at home, in about April. Nothing has yet been organised, but Mick felt that it would cost about £30 a head, which would include ferry ticket, coach transfer from Calais to Lens and match tickets.
The second proposal was for a golf day at Stonelees. He hoped to be able to organise this for June/July. Again nothing has been booked, but he hoped to organise it along the following lines;
2 rounds of the nine hole par 3 course, a prize for the nearest shot to the pin, on a nominated hole and a meal, possibly at the Dewdrop after the golf. To date he has no estimate as to what this would cost.
ITEM 6 – Gary informed the meeting that he was hoping to organise an end of season BBQ, which he proposed to hold at the Stile Bridge bar in Marden, which is run by a very good friend of the Dover Gooners, Matt Rudd. Gary proposed to hold it at the end of May / beginning of June. He would speak to Matt about the viability of this proposal and he would also cost a coach, so that all members and partners could have a drink.
AOB – The meeting agreed that the AGM should be on the 2nd or 3rd Monday of June. Tim said that he would look into the possibility of hold it at the St Paul’s club, if this was not possible Gary would look in to the possibility of using the Rugby club. Mick informed the meeting that he had purchased a shirt from Arsenal, at the cost of £8 to the club and that this had been sent to Arsenal with a view to it being signed by the first team squad, the shirt will then be raffled at this years AGM. Any members, who attend the AGM, will be given one free raffle ticket and the winner will get the signed shirt.
Mick then said that he was looking at the possibility of changing the supplier of the merchandise that we sale. The new supplier will be able to supply a wider range of items, including ties, a test purchase of 10 has already been made.
Gary informed the meeting that it looked as though Haydn Powlter would be moving away from the area by about September 2005; this meant that he would no longer be able to sit on the committee. Gary suggested that Darren Herbert could be asked to take Haydn place; this was agreed by the meeting.
Meeting closed at 2025.
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