Leeds United Supporters Trust AGM
13th January 2010

Minutes.

Meeting opened at 1935hrs.

Introductions and welcome was made by the acting Chairman

Malcolm Christie provided a presentation of the accounts.
The accounts were accepted as true and correct and recommended for approval by board on the 9th December 2009. Members voted unanimously to accept the accounts.
Clarification was provided surrounding the £500 from United Co-op in
that the amount is a donation owed to the trust in the form of cash and was not linked to tickets for the play off final.
An independent financial auditor has been found which means the trust will reduce its costs by not having to pay the current auditor in the future.
The chairman thanked Malcolm for his overview and presentation of the accounts.

The group were asked for nominations to the board. The following names were put forward and agreed.

Gary Cooper
Gary Hewitt
Malcolm Christie
Ross Davidson
John Moran
Lee Hicken
Aiden Booth
Simon Ridley
Steve Cooke
Rick Duniec

The group were also asked to vote and agree the posts of Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer. The following people volunteered and the members voted unanimously in agreement to take their respective roles

Gary Cooper - Chairman
John Moran - Secretary
Malcolm Christie - Treasurer

Recruitment and Membership

The group received a presentation from Steve Cooke the membership secretary with a target to achieve a trust membership base of 500 by the end of the calendar year.

Ideas and initiative were discussed including....

use of personal networks from existing members.
use of supporter’s clubs/RMC’s to inform their membership and provide an option to join the trust as part of their membership package.
engaging Leeds fans on match days with maybe a table in Billy’s bar and the Pavilion.
use of internet forums.
engaging the disabled Leeds fan community.
engaging the local council.

The group then debated the difference between actual recruitment activity and the need for a support network for the trust to use to support existing members and use as leverage to recruit new members.

It was recommended that the membership price of £5 should remain. However, another membership option was discussed which, for £7.50, the member received in addition a key fob, physical certificate and a car sticker. The main point here was adding another menu based option for fans to obtain more value for increasing their membership contribution.

Rob Sinclair offered the trust an option of free printing of the hard copy certificates

We discussed the need for actual PDF's to be sent automatically to new members and existing members for them to print out themselves if required

Mark Jordan discussed the possibility of getting a table in the Pavilion and Billy's bar on match days to drive recruitment which he might be able to arrange.

The group agreed the simple, yet compelling strap line of 'Independent voice for Leeds fans' and 'One Voice, Your Voice'

The Chairman thanked Steve Cooke for the presentation

Media and Marketing

Lee Hicken, who will head up the media and marketing group, discussed his ideas around the website, logo and a communications strategy A graphic designer has been provided with a storyboard of Leeds United including historic and cultural ideas and themes. The designer will then come up with ideas for the logo. The ideas will be posted on the Leeds trust forum where members will be asked to both debate and vote on their favourite. The designer will then produce the final design, taking into account the intellectual property rights by LUFC.

A proactive email will be sent to all members before the logo ideas are posted to ensure we get full membership participation.

The group then discussed the ongoing costs to host any new website. The group agreed the $4 a month cost to host the site and this came at a good time as the contract to host the existing site is up for renewal

The group discussed how the website could be improved and agreed the following principles

The site will be constantly updated with direct and in direct news
relevant to Leeds United.
The site will be easily changed by a small amount of people who can self
serve the needs of the site rather than using 3rd parties.
The site will have the opportunity to create income using sponsors, and
will provide direct links to companies who provide a service to the
trust, i.e. Co-op group.
The site will reciprocate links directly with the LUFC website.

Lee also discussed the possibility of forging links to the Barcelona supporters trust and will follow this up with the help of volunteering members.

Lee was thanked by the Chairman, not only for the presentation update, but for his hard work and effort to get the trust to the place where we are now.

Hall of fame initiative

Mark Jordan presented his idea around providing the club with a visual impact within the ground and concourses at Elland Road. The proposal is to have photographs of past players and managers, professionally framed with a short pen picture of the player or manager, sponsored by a fan or business and placed at various places around the ground.

Andrew Varley has been approached and supports the idea and will/could supply the photographs.

The group agreed that the initiative should be taken forward and await the action plan to be submitted by Mark on the detail to make this happen.

The Chairman thanked Mark for his idea and presentation

Any other business

The Chairman has approached a senior member of the club and wants to discuss ideas around how we can interact, work and represent each other. Once this has been agreed the outputs of such meetings will be fed back to members of the trust for agreement.

The Chairman discussed the 'Leeds Legacy fund' which is a substantial amount of money that is earmarked for promoting an initiative in the Leeds community. The group agreed that we will go back to Linda Gomersill who helps administer the fund to understand the principles around how the money is released, what projects can be considered and how the trust can support the Leeds Legacy fund. The outputs of this meeting will then be fed back to the members, with the principles and framework, to discuss and agree potential projects.

An idea was voiced that the trust should have a President who should be a high profile and easily recognisable former player or manager that the fans can relate too. The group agreed this idea and principle and it was agreed to take forward as a future agenda item to work up a proposal.

The Chairman discussed how extremely helpful the club had been and how open they were in working with the trust in future and wanted to thank them for their support.

A board meeting will be arranged to take place in around in around 6 week’s time.

Meeting closed at 2126hrs.