Trust Board Meeting, 4th December 2001

Present: James Proctor, Blair White, Garry Fyfe, Tom Phillips
Apologies: Neil Langtree, George Howie

Minutes of previous meeting (5 Nov 2001)

Meeting agreed they were a true record.

Treasurer’s report

Reported £6,444 in the account, with income of approximately £480 per month from standing orders.

Noted that the Trust had recently received a donation from a Celtic fan who had commented “with that anniversary coming up I feel I should contribute something.”

The bank account, Standing Order forms, cheque authorisation details, etc had been altered to reflect the current name and board.

Membership update

Membership now stood at 68. Secretary commented that he would soon be starting a rolling programme of writing to members who paid by annual fee. It was hoped that these members would renew their membership but it was inevitable that some might not.

Chairman tabled a letter which he was intending to send former “Friends of the Rovers”, who were not already members of the Trust.

Constitution update

Chairman reported that he had contacted three local solicitors who had agreed to the request to use their premises as the Society’s Registered Office. He stated that all three had been approachable and accessible. The Board decided to opt for Gibson & Spears, Dow & Son. The Secretary would write to all three. After this aspect had been confirmed, the Chairman would put in motion the process for formally registering the Society.

Investment in Youth Development

The meeting with Jim White and Eric Drysdale had been positive. The money would initially be used to purchase tracksuits, training tops and strips for the U18s.

JW would open a separate bank account and the Trust would have one of the three account signatures. All these items would be receipted and the bank statements would be monitored.

The mechanism for payment to the club would be quite straightforward:

• Trust provides cheque(s) to club in return for shares
• Club subsequently writes cheque(s) to Youth Development account

TP agreed to be the liaison person with the club on this investment

Promoting the Trust

Chairman noted that there were opportunities in the coming months to provide some stories to the FFP.

These might include details of:

• The Youth Development initiative
• Trust raises £10,000
• Trust achieves 100 members

The Trust logo was considered. Agreed that the design needed to use the stronger colour combination, especially if it was being photocopied.

Secretary reported that he’d received a brochure from a badge making company. Agreed to obtain quotes. If cost not prohibitive it might be possible to provide all members with badge.

Consideration given to producing another newsletter for distribution at Boxing Day Falkirk game. Agreed that production timeframe is tight. All contributions to TP by Fri 14 Dec.

Chairman’s visit to Charlton FC

Chairman reported that he’d had a productive meeting at CFC.

The main points to come out of the meeting were:

• Charlton had very successfully managed to position itself as a “community-based” club
• It had successfully instigated various community programmes by being smart at finding funding from a range of sources
• This community involvement had dramatically increased crowds and season ticket sales

Chairman hoped that he might have the opportunity to put these points directly to RRFC.

Any other business

Meeting agreed the following for publication of Society Board and Society General meeting minutes.

• Minutes of the Board meetings would be published on the Society’s web site
• Minutes of the General Meetings would be initially published on the Society’s web site, and subsequently a copy would be sent to each member at the same time as notification of the next meeting.

Meeting agreed to contact “Back the Bairns” to discuss their success at fund-raisung. Maybe arrange meeting for the next Raith v Falkirk fixture after the Boxing Day game.

Chairman noted that the RR AGM was on Wed 19th Dec.

Date of next meeting

Board meeting sometime during 2nd week in January 2002?

General meeting: looking to 1st or 2nd week in February 2002?