Attendees
Dan MacLennan (Chair)
Tony Wightman (Secretary)
Matt Spooner (1921 representative)
Samantha Jones (Vice Chair)
Kieran Bulman
Claire Winder
Ross Parkinson
Martin Robson
Apologies
Billy Atkinson
Riegan Thompson
Acceptance of previous June minutes
Accepted but May minutes have still not been published
Matters Arising
None
Discussion regarding Minutes
MS started the discussion with regards to minute taking and the timescales.
MS It is important that we challenge and let members know that we do challenge
SJ where do amendments go?
MS we do minutes within 3 days at work as soon as the minutes are out we try to make amendments then
SJ stated we are looking to have a summary rather than verbatim as this will be read by the members.
RP agreed that a summary would be better than verbatim. RP stated that a 2-week timeline for minutes to come out would be a good step forward. Go on the website in week 3.
We need to give people time to produce minutes and we are all volunteers.
MS It doesn’t really matter to me about the website, it acts as a reminder to me.
MS stated that a summary would be good and minutes should be taken but backed up with a transcript.
MR stated that where he works they utilize a system called Fathom.
SJ stated there would be no point in buying something though, there may be free stuff we could use.
TW stated that it is sometimes difficult within the meeting as we don’t often keep to the agenda that has been set and often go away from that as discussion gets deeper. It is also not easy to pick up another conversation once someone has told you not for the minutes as it generally flows into each other. MS stated that was a fair comment, a lot of updates he gives in the 1921 are not for the minutes, so we may need to look at improvements going forward.TW then stated that he was going to bring this up in AOB, however, he stated that he was going to step away from the role of secretary but would stay on until a suitable replacement was found. MS stated that for him the timing of the minutes was wrong and they should come out sooner but recognized we are all volunteers. TW stated that he travels back and forwards and only gets 1 day per week to look at other things DM then asked to interject and stated that TW had spoken to him confidentially on Sunday to tell him of the decision to step away.
RP then stated that he would be sad to lose TW and that he had done some good works, so thanks for what you have done TW thanked RP for the kind words.
CW then made a statement with regards to the minutes, as being the person who raised the question in the first instance.
I suppose when I raised it, it’s along the same lines as it, because we weren’t getting them until just like just before the meeting, like I don’t have time to read through. And I think sometimes we assume that when a message is put in the chat and if anybody presses and it says that we’ve read it, that assumes that we’ve read it, whereas it doesn’t, I don’t read all the messages in the chat because I’m busy. Sometimes I’ve got time to go back through, but I don’t. So, there’s a lot that’s kind of missed through the chat. And I think for me, because they were, I suppose my point last time was if they’re going to be a verbatim and transcribed, it stifles the conversation. We can’t pick and choose what’s in them. And if it’s a summary, which I think is a better use of the space and reflects the discussion rather than sort of capturing every single word that says. If it’s a capture of the discussion, I think that’s more of a value.
TW stated that he can never capture everything that gets said is physically impossible but tries to capture the important parts of the discussion, because I am not involved, I am trying to listen to the conversations.
CW agreed that the meetings do jump around a lot and verbatim would be difficult. Trialing a transcript would be a good idea. But I think I appreciate what you said there, Tony, you’ve got one day a week, this isn’t a high on your priority.
But I think if we could get the minutes out within a week of the meeting, then it gives us the opportunity to look through them and say, right, yeah, I’m on it, because we still don’t use the action tracker particularly well. I’d like them to come out within a week so that we can then have three weeks or whatever to kind of crack on with things because I do the same as other people. I get it and I go, oh my God, I was meant to do that. So those were my points.
SJ first off, Tony, obviously some of the points did come from me on the 21st of May. The idea is, I suppose, at work now, you’re trying to rely more on taking the human error out of things, but to make things easier for you, because we all have lives. So, if we can transcribe this and then someone then summarises that. I know we’re all reluctant to use AI, but some of them can still proofread that. I don’t think verbatim is the way to go because people will not read it. I think you can lose people. Members want quick bites. I think the meeting on the 21st of May was such a good meeting with the debate that we had about how we should talk to our members about what was going on at the club at time wasn’t completely reflected and people might have thought, we didn’t talk about it, we glossed over it and we didn’t, we talked in depth about it. So, it’s that happy medium. So, I think it should be a summary of it. Who does that now and time frame depends on what we agree on.
If we keep transcripts in, if we keep transcripts in and it works, it can be done quicker probably because it’s itself, the meeting finishes 2 minutes later, it’s there for you. Someone just needs to read it and then summarise it down and then share it out. But yeah, the hour or two before a meeting probably isn’t easy.
If we can make anything as easy as possible, this is I think I’m all for it.
MS I agree, summary. I think the minutes that Tony’s been producing…
are what we need. I just thought there was a style change for the last week, last month, sorry. So, the summary is absolutely fine. I don’t think we should transcribe it and then read it and take notes from that. I really think we should look at an AI note taker. So, I use Otter AI. The club use that and it got me into using it, so I use that at work.
MS so my reason for using It at work is it can join your meetings; it can just join your chat. So, if I’m just having a sort of a sit-down chat with someone and I want to produce a record of it, it does it for me, it emails it instantly. It gives you the ability to sort of include and exclude stuff.
And for me, I think Tony’s been a really good secretary. I think the difference from going from Alistair, not speaking of Alistair, but moving when Tony joined, I think it sharpened us up, it got us better. And again, echoing what Ross has said, I think we will miss you, Tony, and we will be weak without you, but I think it’s a great opportunity to change how we do the role.
TW to help with the Job Description which will be shared with the group
Club Matters by MS
Appointment of CEO narrowed down, the independent regulators are doing their job and Tom is trying to get something out this month.
Holdings Board
No update
Friendlies
50% of fixtures will be streamed on CUTV other teams are not happy and may not agree to it, loss of income is a concern from other clubs
MS Pressure from Jon Colman, he is asking questions regarding the sheepmount. MS has asked for clarity on the usage of the sheepmount for the first team.
RP I can see the obstacles for the sheepmount, the council are looking for funds. Long term there was a promise of a new training ground and there needs to be another plan if it isn’t the sheepmount. Fans are losing patience
MS So on your last point, there is a training ground. It is the sheepmount. There are three pitches there. They have done what they want to do. I think the club investment in the sheepmount has been around 200, 250,000 pounds. The club is happy with the current set up, focus on the league and will then be revisited.
Subgroup updates
Relevance & Improvement
No update
Membership
DM 130 memberships in the last day.The take up has been excellent so far. There’s not that many that run out early July, but those that do, nearly all have renewed. Prior to that, in the membership subgroup, we just tidied up a bit of the wording in the emails before they went out.
That’s all sorted. So yeah, we’ll have a bigger sort of feedback on that one from next month when obviously July’s been, but quite happy so far.
MS Obviously behind the scenes, Martin’s working on a new membership system. We need to sort of put together a plan for lapsed members. I know last year we had a little bit of a drive to try and get in touch, get some feedback from them. I think we should maybe have something like an exit interview, the opportunity to get exit feedback.
RP if you’ve left on purpose, why? And we assume everyone who doesn’t reply has left because they forgot.
COMMS
RP I put it in the chat before. We’ve kind of let it slip a little bit at the members meeting and I was just kind of gauging people’s opinions. I think a good one to have, whether it be in person or on teams or even a Twitter space, would be, I can’t remember which game it is that’s open to fans, the first home game that’s open to fans, but they’ve seen the new way of playing. I think we said it would be Salford
DM/KB Salford
SJ from the last meeting we did talk about a newsletter, summarising some of the stuff that was going to go on through the summer, like your e-mail to summarise everything today. Are we going to put that into a newsletter this week or are we just leaving it as an e-mail?
DM I put an e-mail out today, which I was meant to do two or three days, well, at the start of the month, so not a newsletter, just sort of an update just to highlight some of the stuff that’s going on.
Governance
N/A
Away travel
MR There’s not an awful lot to say other than we’ve got pricing for next season. When the fixtures come out on Friday, we’ll have a sort of chat and yeah, we’re kind of looking at what we think the pricing should be. And then obviously, depending on the first few, we’ll try and get a price sorted for them and get them on sale.
in the next couple of weeks. I’m trying to hold DM back. DM wants to have them on by 5 past 12. But yeah, I think we just need to sort of take a closer look at some of the pricing and stuff. So, we are sort of pushing ahead with that. Got pricing. There were a couple of anomalies on that; we’ve gone back, like an extra 20 miles, a couple 100 quid added on. An extra sort of 150 adds 3 pound or something. But we just need to firm up the prices, but ready to go, hoping to have a separate bank account. And as we’ve sort of seen with the honorary squad member thing, we’ve now got a system on the website where we can funnel.
SJ Do we need to acknowledge in the minutes the conversation we had on WhatsApp about the travel conversation that came from the meeting that Claire attended?
CW So what was discussed at CUSG was it might get clarity around who the club would be signposting to for travel. And I mean, it was somebody, it was Simon, so there was no real appetite to work together from CUSG.
MS Last time I spoke to the club about this, was regards Wembley and they were going to solely support the trust travel. The intention going into the season is anybody that is running buses that is a member of CUSG, they will signpost people too is what the ticket office was saying last time I spoke to them.
Do you want me to clarify that position from the club?
DM I think the club should be pushing us, as the club asked us to do this. I think it’d be important to, because I’m not sure if the club are aware that CUSAT is essentially changing this season, where we thought, it was going to last season. It’s more a private bus now run by Craig, who’s one of the drivers, which in my eyes makes it no different to Neil’s bus.
RP If we have been full then we should say that CUSAT are running a bus, I would suggest that we should be first option.
MR The problem with the club signposting people towards CUSAT or whatever they’re called, there’s only going to be an absolute handful of seats because it’s essentially 30 to 40 of their regulars plus whatever’s spared on their bus.
CW I’ll jump in, so I’ve struggled with the, having our badge and sponsoring the fixture card. But I think it’s been really good that the QR code is going to be on for booking away travel and I think it’s a really good use of the sponsorship money for that.
DM Can MS ask the club to have an official poster put up?
Hospitality / Competition spins
SJ so following on from last meeting about the boxes, I’ve been speaking to Jasmine. As Matt suggested, it isn’t Jasmine and Kerry’s call. What happened in the boxes it’s actually, John Watts. So, she put me into touch with someone called Daniel from Watts. I’ve been going back and forward with him. So, to clarify,
We’re looking at 2 dates for next season when the fixtures come out on Friday. We’re going to have the first refusal of the two matches we’ll get. So, Dan and I will be at this fixture release party, they’re calling it, on Friday morning. So, we will pick the two dates at that point. It’s 1800 pounds, which the invoice has been sent and has been sent on to the Treasurer to be paid. The drinks are 300 pounds.
DM the invoice hasn’t been paid yet.
CW I just worry that we are over complicating it, can we just say that the beer and wine will be supplied?
RP plus non-alcohol?
MS I will be in the box next door on matchdays, so, if anything changes, I can sort.
SJ I’m assuming they’ll tell us if there’s any issues after the game so we can put them for the next game. It’s obviously an unusual thing that Daniel thought we were doing, which was five lots of twos, but I think that’s the fairest way to get 10 people in that box for something that we’re doing. So, we said we’d try it. It’s something new for us and for them. They’ve got Matt next door, they’ll have my contact details, and they know where to find them probably any of us to be fair on match day. We will need at some point to do a draw for the start of the season, whether that’s the 8th of August or the 15th of August. So, are we just going to continue with the format that we were doing before, the same people in the hospitality group and I asked them who’s free?
IT Subgroup
MR just very quickly, Matt’s alluded to it already. I’ve been having to play with the website, looking at possibly moving the membership system from Mojo into the website, which will give us lots of benefits. We’ve discussed this for several years, but it will allow us to have some member-only areas, automatic member pricing in the shop, that kind of thing and lots of other benefits. I’ve been doing a lot of playing around. I’m really quite proud of it, to be honest with you. It’s like a little baby, but it’s got to the point now where I really need to stop adding silly little features that I think of at 2:00 in the morning and show somebody because otherwise I am introducing features that I’ll use once and spend 2 hours. Coding to get it done. It’s probably way past that already. There are all sorts of buttons and dashboards and ridiculous stuff. But I’m going to arrange with MS and DM to have a quick go through it so they can either laugh at me or tell me it’s worthwhile proceeding with. And then their initial feedback, I’ll make some changes and I’ll look to put it out to the membership group for a sort of more in-depth look at it. I’m really quite pleased with it, the way it works. It gives us the ability to create all sorts of mailing lists from all of the data that we’ve got. We could potentially send an e-mail to all our members, exclude people who were born in 1987, but include people who might have bought away travel, but excluding anybody that’s bought a PEV mug, that kind of thing.
Membership
TW 1033
Financial/Cash in the bank
TW Bank £14163 (Ringfenced £448 DEFIBS £2100 audit fees) Away travel £1385 hon squad member £739 .
Members meeting
RP We need to discuss a date to have a members meeting, preferably before the first game pending fixture list. Possibly just after, if that works better, if we’ve got a nice opening day, maybe Gateshead, for example. I really enjoyed Twitter spaces, and I think that’s good outreach, but also, should it just be for members and should it just be for seeing whether an in-person one’s worth doing?
CW We’ve not had a member one for ages. RP we have had a Teams one.
CW We did say last year as well we were going to do something for younger members and see if we could get Georgie Kelly along. We also said we would try and get our family members to come to one of us. So, there’s three things we’ve been discussing that, kind of haven’t been rolled out, I suppose, or asked about, I’m not sure.
SJ on the back of what CW has said, we’ve talked quite a few times about family members, different options and stuff like this. So, we, if we move the AGM, that’s I suppose a family option meeting before that, that could be face to face. I suppose that determines then what you do in August if you’re doing that in September. So, it kind of, it swings around about three, but I would be for an in person one, I think by now, because we haven’t had one for about a year.
MS I don’t know why we want the family members to come to the meeting. I think it’s so that we get more members there. And I would rather we move to a position where our members want to speak to us. So, I’m not against having one of them there. I think it’s good. It is in the shareholders’ agreement that they need to do it once a year. They’ve never said no. It’s always just been a case of tying it into when it works.
The current travel schedule is going to be governed by the…
Fixtures, they’re going to be over in August. I don’t know if it’s all of them. I don’t know what date they’ll land. I don’t know when they’ll fly back, but we’ll probably know more on Friday or Saturday.
RP The attendance was poor. It was about making the AGM more of an event so that it’s not just something like I think people viewed it as a chore. Like, oh, I’m not going to that, I can’t be bothered. Whereas if it’s like, all right, come to the AGM, listen to us talk for a little bit, learn a little bit more, and then as a reward, you’ll get 20 minutes to the player, an ex-player will tell some stories, the family will come and tell some stories. That was the point behind it.
Rather than just drumming up numbers for the sake of numbers.
MS I think we need to revisit that then in a subgroup, because we get so much flack about being so close to the family, I think the worst thing we could do is take the family to an AGM.
RP I think the family now is probably a bad idea.
But I think doing something, it’s going to be hard to do for the next meeting, but we should drive interest for the AGM
SJ Who do we speak to for players now?
MS There is a media request that we need to put in.
I don’t know if the form has changed since Tom Little started, so let me come back to that tomorrow.
SJ And does RT sort out a room?
MS That’s also up for debate and change at the moment. All bookings are probably going to move through the club commercial department but let me also answer that next week if I can, because it’s hot topic at the moment.
DM should we roll this over to the chat function whilst we await answers
CUSG Update
CW I’ve sent the most recent minutes over in the group, Tony. There was a discussion, so we went through the constitution, and nothing was changed, but it was noted that
that groups don’t speak to their members and invite members along. And also, we don’t go out to fans in general who aren’t affiliated with any group. So, we can have each group have two
people attend representing the group. So, I was just thinking if we just put out if anybody wants to come along to a CUSG meeting this season, let us know and then we’ll be in touch about it and then I can involve them that way people attend representing the group.
MR You might want to invite MT
CW Good idea I will invite MT
CW to take the expressions of interest question back to the CUSG group for Chair, secretary & treasurer roles.
Any email coming to the trust regarding CUSG should go through CW. The latest CUSG meeting minutes from the 29th June https://www.carlisleunited.co.uk/news/minutes-june-cusg-meeting-0
Fanzone update
DM I spoke with Peter from Watts, I went down and met him at BP.
We discussed the sort of thing we’d be looking to have, possible placements, etc.
I’ve been getting some quotes, et cetera. What would be possible to have.
But before we go to that, I think we need to address the feedback that MS got from leadership group, because obviously there was a few points made at leadership group. Has anyone got any comments to make on that feedback?
CW I said that I thought it was quite a good suggestion, why wouldn’t we go to members and ask? And I suppose one of my other queries was how much was the thing you were looking at, £3000?
DM Well, I found, I found a lot cheaper now.
I have.
RP You’re looking at about half that, weren’t you?
DM well, it depends on delivery, basically. A basic 8 foot square container in the same blue as is used in the fan zone. A basic 8ft square container £1400 plus VAT £2526 with delivery.
CW The club has a deficit this year, would that potential spend not be better spent within the club?
RP I think it is important that we have a presence in the fanzone. There is a huge long term gain and the away travel needs a base, it’s a hug benefit.
SJ Agree with RP that it is required in the fanzone, we have minutes from 2 years ago with this item in them!
MS there is a way around the VAT, get a company to buy it and then reclaim the VAT, I think we are looking at £3500 spend here! MS would abstain from the vote as he thinks it would not be best for business. We need to look at alternatives and what the purpose is as an example we could be in the sunset suite or have tables in the fanzone.
MR totally understand where MS is coming from, but we need a base we need to be front and centre and example was when we went to Scunthorpe and they had a base which was very good, they were handing fliers out etc I don’t think it is a bad use of money. I’ve seen people come over to us in our fanzone and talk to us and ask us questions. I’ve seen people come over and ask about memberships. I’ve seen people come and use the QR code. I’ve seen lots of people come and ask about the away travel and stuff. So, you know, I understand the benefits of having that base because I’ve been in the fan zone and talked to members and what have you. I’ve seen firsthand actually the positivity. It is somewhere the members on the buses can come to and start the away travel journey it’s a base.
CW I have totally missed what has happened to the current gazebo.
DM the club have used the gazebo for the England games in the fanzone and we cannot find it.
CW we suggested a rota for the gazebo, do we need to look at that again, do we need to agree where we are going to be before we spend the money?
SJ Back in April we talked about how we put money into the club, we talked about dugouts.
RP I don’t think we need to have a rota, occasionally people come to us and complain which is a positive for us, presence is vitally important to us.
MS We have agreed a base, as part of the takeover we were told that we would have a base and would be paid for by the club. What would a shipping container do? We need to have a reason why people would come to us; the club don’t see the benefit.
SJ do we need a business proposal?
RP should be a space we use for socials like videos and engagement with fans act as a shop and store merchandise.
DM I can do a business plan and adjust the old plan
AGM planning
DMAGM initial planning. I had a good chat with DN the other day.
to discuss time frames.
Our year end is the 31st of July. Standard accounting practice.
in DN’s words, decrees that for the first two weeks after, you wouldn’t even touch an audit for the year.
Just that, it lets you go then. I’m sure those who run businesses will understand that. So, it would be mid-to-late August when they first got to work on it. Obviously, we’re not a big spender, we’re not a priority case. We wouldn’t be at the top of their list. Yes, we’re paying, we would get it done.
With that in mind, I was going to float the possibility of…
Making a start working on a date of having the AGM on Sunday the 1st of November. Reasons being, it’s a month earlier than the usual December and it doesn’t clash with Christmas.
Given that DN would need time to deal with the auditors, it would be mid-August before he started. It would probably be mid-to-late September. That would then allow us the relevant time to fit in using the AGM timeline that Nick Kerr provided us last week so that, the sort of the eight-week notice would be early September and the various stages would fit in. I’m just looking for initial thoughts on that suggestion of a date. I hope you understand the reasonings behind it. Having spoke to DN, etc., and gained an understanding of how long the process will take.
MS If it is a Sunday, I don’t think it works, nobody wants to speak to us at 10 in the morning on a Sunday.
MR that is a school holiday. MS that may help as the club may look at putting some sort of open day together
SJ/CW A weekend is possibly not what we want, if we make it an event then we will get people there.
RP as an idea could we get a player to act as a table captain to do a quiz or something, even if we could get some of the local lads. We also need to give members more information on what being a board member entails as there are 3 spaces at the end of the year. Can we have a chat with them and see what they think? Because I don’t want to come to November and find that my space is just gone because no one can, because no one wants to stand. Or if I can’t remember, its me Claire and Robbo, is it you as well? So, like if the three of us decided to go, I’m not confident now we’d get three people to stand and then the whole thing falls apart.
CW we should put something out about how many spaces are available, something along the lines of how many spaces were up for grabs. But Carol also said that she was thinking about standing again and probably if she’d had some information, a bit more information than she had might have done.
SJ is this something for the next meeting?
RP yes, I think so. We need to push this.
Fun Day
SJ so funding has been confirmed, obviously for Saturday the 18th of July. We now have 3 1/2 volunteers, so that’s DM, CW, MR and SJ. So, we’re going to go ahead. We’ve ordered the dart board, is that what we’re calling it? Inflatable dart board, just a bit of logistics really. So, the whiteboard Jasmine’s confirmed, dartboard DM has got. The event is 10 till 3. So set up to get the car in to inflate the dartboard must be done between 9 and 9.30, we have to be set up for 09.45 ready to, so we have to find a gazebo. So, if we can confirm the gazebo’s around.
RP I don’t think the kids’ tournament starts till 12, so I’ll be able to help you set up and then I’ll have to be off before anyone turns up.
SJ MS, DM and CW, you want to be there all day? Have a look.
SJ we discussed in the chat a prize for a winner for the highest score for an adult and a higher score for a child. Are we okay with that?
DM/RP we said a signed shirt DM We can give them the choice. If they just want a shirt, I can walk around to the club shop and I’ve got our card. I can buy one. If I want it signed, it could be a little wait.
MS having a shop voucher is probably the best option
CW give 2 vouchers and then we can sort that on the day.
AOB
DM Barrow have approached us for a cricket team, I think it is too short notice and probably not happen
DM We need the forms back for the bank
CW can they be resent to me please
RP Very quickly, and it’s just me floating an idea. I don’t want a discussion on it at all. That cricket game gave me an idea of a couple of times a season, because we could do what we did with the members, book a pitch somewhere and get a travelling trust to bring a team, a bit like the old fan matches on a morning.
We could have a team of members that play an 8 to 11 the side game on a pitch somewhere before a game.
Meeting closed at 21.10
Next meeting – Aug 5th 26 19:00
