Trust Board Meeting, 22nd February 2010

Venue: Novar Bar, Kirkcaldy

Present: Blair White (BW), Graeme Condie (GC), John Mainland (JM), Tam Cunningham (TC) and Tom Philips (TP)
Apologies: Alan Russell (AR), James Proctor (JP) and Steven Lawther (SL)

Minutes of the Previous Board Meeting

Minutes of the meetings held on 1st February 2010 & 28th September 2009 were agreed.

Matters Arising

Action Points from 26th October 2009:

• AR to produce events calendar – ONGOING
• TP to organise the licence and the payment for the Beer Festival. TP reported the event planning was in hand and progress is good. We agreed the Trust would sponsor a barrel of beer with the added proviso the possibility of sponsoring a second barrel if required. Updates on the event progress will be made as and when required – COMPLETED
• AR to discuss the possibility of a Trust member joining the board – ONGOING
• SL trying to get a piece on the Trust in the FFP for every home game – Good PR news has been achieved. SL provided the following note: The press coverage is getting better hits as time goes by. Fans Survey got good coverage and the local MSP joins Trust got good coverage in the FFP and is on Trust website. Press Release to be done this week on how our membership drive reaped rewards – COMPLETED

Action Points from the teleconference on 1st February 2010:

• AR – Beer Festival – continue discussions with TP, see above
• TP – Raith Forum Contact – TP to add JP email address to forum distribution list – To be completed – CLOSED
• All – Provisional date for Trust Board Away Day 15/16 May 2010 – Await final date – CLOSED. SL provide the following update: The intention is to pull together the survey, groups, message development into one fairly strategic paper for the Board which we could focus on at the away day. Then once a decision has been made on the message etc., we can purchase the banner stands to professionalise south stand concourse.  Just looking at the great pictures of the fans up in Aberdeen think that we should consider approaching Jim Foy to see if he would be willing to let us use these images or other fan images as these could be a really warm/nice part of the visuals.
• JM – Arrange production and collection of leaflets – John Mainland designed and produced the leaflet and received the 3000 leaflets from the printers – COMPLETED
• JP/JM/SL/BW/TC and volunteers – Distribution a success at Stark’s Park prior to kick off Aberdeen match – COMPLETED
• JP – Next AGM to be scheduled prior to a home match at a venue close to Stark’s Park – agreed – COMPLETED
• JP/AR – JP to forward AGM Minutes to AR. AR to post on website – COMPLETED
• All – Consideration will be given to appointing a vice chair at the next Board Meeting – After a discussion JM was asked to stand as vice chairperson. After expressing his concerns the position he was in regarding standing in the forthcoming General Election he was persuaded by the committee which JM duly accepted – COMPLETED
• SL/TC – Southstand concourse: See also the Trust Away notes: Board to purchase pop-up display systems when the key messages and images have been agreed after away day.  Action Point SL & TC to provide costs and examples of display boards, pop-up boards, etc.

Treasurers Report

GC provided an update financial report.

Membership Update

BW reported the success of the recent leaflet campaign and up to ten new members had joined. The total membership was now 232.

Raith Trust Communication Issues

Trust Fans Survey
SL uploaded the Fan Survey onto the Trust website and advertised it on Fantalk – any comments back have been very positive.  It was also promoted on the Treatment Table  – COMPLETED

Strapline and key messages
Action Point ALL – to suggest three straplines

Southstand Concourse
See above Action Point

Leaflets
Leaflet campaign at Aberdeen game – COMPLETED

Fans Group Fundraising

BW suggested a new fund raising initiative for fans who cannot manage to the games to contribute to fund raising: Basically the clubs website on match days there will be a method where fans could contribute through PayPal by pressing a for example a red button next to the match updates. Further investigation of how this could be applied to the website with the links to PayPal.
Action Point TP to investigate methodology.

Trust AGM

Updates – no further business – COMPLETED

Trust Fundraising

Beer Festival – see above action points.

AOCB

GC inquired if there was news back from the club regarding New Raith Rovers share capital – ONGOING

With no further business the meeting closed at 9pm.

Date of next meeting: Monday 29th March 2010