Author: Jeff Banks

Board Statement – Wednesday 3rd February

Posted by Jeff Banks on

Chester FC wishes to update our supporters regarding the National League resolutions received on Monday evening.

 

The Board has begun a detailed review of the resolutions and the potential implications of the possible outcomes for our club.

We recognise the urgency of the situation and intend to respond as quickly as possible, but not before full consideration has been given. We have written to the National League asking for clarification on several points to assist us in reaching the best decision for our club.

We do not believe it reasonable to expect clubs to continue playing matches and incurring additional costs until the outcome is known. Given the importance of the resolutions, we feel the suspension of fixtures in the North and South divisions should be extended for a further week to allow clubs to focus fully on the matter at hand.

 

We will continue to keep our members and supporters updated.

CFU Meeting put back to Thursday 11th February

Posted by Jeff Banks on
This week’s informal City Fans United meeting initially scheduled for Thursday night will be put back by one week given the board of directors are currently working through the resolutions distributed to its member clubs by the National League.
We will be raising a number of points with the National League before we look to vote on the resolutions to consider the outcome of the 2020/21 season and would like to have full and accurate information available to inform those attending the CFU meeting which will now take place on Thursday 11th February at 7.30pm.
Thank you for your continued patience and understanding and look forward to seeing you all at the Zoom meeting next Thursday night.

City Fans United Informal Meeting – February 4th 7.30pm

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It’s been a while since we last held a meeting, but we’re pleased to be able to announce that the next members meeting, which will be an informal meeting, will take place via Zoom on Thursday 4th February, starting at 7.30pm.

The meeting will offer those who are members and those that aren’t (yet) to tune into find out the latest from within Chester FC.

As the open meeting will take place via Zoom, we will send out the link for the meeting closer to the date, and will be announced both on the CFU website and Chester FC social media channels.

We’ll have updates from the portfolios held by the directors, and hope to confirm other guests in due course.

We look forward to you joining us on the night.

CFU Board Appointments & Portfolios

Posted by Jeff Banks on

The board of City Fans United is pleased to update our members on the portfolio assignments following the recent AGM and elections.

 

Andrew Morris has been elected as Chair and will continue in the role with the board electing Jim Green as Vice Chair. Chris Robson will provide valuable support to board members having been appointed to continue as CFU Secretary.

 

Nick Phillipson, who previously served as a Non-Executive Director, has been co-opted to the board, and Chris Robertson has been co-opted until spring 2021 to facilitate a handover having decided to step down from his position as an External Director and Treasurer.

 

With the exception of Andrew Morris as Chair, each board member has been assigned at least one portfolio, with support from board members, staff, volunteers and working groups as appropriate.

 

Commercial – Paul Bodman

Community – Jim Green

Facilities – Nick Phillipson

Fan Engagement & Membership – Jeff Banks

Finance – Chris Robertson

Football – Jim Green

Fundraising – Adam Langan

Governance – Nick Phillipson

Marketing & Digital – Alex Owen

Retail – Kieron Shiel

Systems – Alex Owen & Kieron Shiel

Volunteering & People – Kieron Shiel

Youth – Mike Vickers

 

Andrew Morris, Chair of CFU, said: “Without doubt the coming 12 months are going to be up there with the most challenging in the Clubs’ history as we move out of the current lockdown and deal with the long-term impact of Covid on the Club and our local community. That said I am pleased that we are now in a position as a Board, post AGM, to respond to these challenges in the most robust way possible and continue to work in a transparent manner for the benefit of the CFU Members”

 

Portfolio holders will now identify key objectives and priorities for their respective areas of responsibility, which will be communicated to members at the next CFU members meeting in January.

 

The board wishes to take this opportunity to thank David Williams, Mike Day and Mark Jones for their valuable contributions to CFU and outstanding service over a number of years having stepped down at the AGM.

 

CFU Annual General Meeting – Thursday 12th November 2020

Posted by Jeff Banks on

The Annual General Meeting (AGM) of City Fans United and Chester Football Club will be held on Thursday 12th November 2020, at 7.30pm.

 

The meeting will be held by Zoom due to the Government’s Covid-19 restrictions. If you are an existing member, please email jeff.banks@chesterfc.com with your membership number (online current members will be permitted to watch the meeting via the link provided), by at the latest 5pm Wednesday 11th November 2020.

 

The link to the meeting will be sent over to those members emailing their request to join next week by at the latest Thursday afternoon. On the night upon joining the meeting you will be placed into a ‘meeting room’ before being admitted into the AGM. Please ensure you have your name showing as guests will not be admitted. Please visit this link for guidance on how to do this.

 

Members have been emailed the documents relating to the AGM so please check your inbox for this information. If you cannot see the email in your inbox, please check your spam or junk folders in case it has dropped into those. Members not on email will have been sent out paper copies to the address we have on record for you.

 

We will send out further updates with regards to next week’s meeting in the next few days in order for members not familiar with Zoom to have an understanding of how to use the application.

 

AGM Deferral Notice

Posted by Jeff Banks on

It had been anticipated that we would be writing to you this week with all the documentation for our Annual General Meeting (AGM) as required under our constitution. A key element of the AGM is to review the historic financial performance of the club and provide an outline of our finances over the coming year . We are not required to have a formal audit, but our Accountants, Hargreaves and Wood, provide members with an independent assessment of our statutory accounts for 2019/20 and comment on the club’s financial prospects for 2020/21.

 

As you all will be aware Football finds itself in very uncertain times at present with significant threat to the 2020/21 season given the ongoing impact of COVID-19. This has been further compounded following the recent decision by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport to retain our elite classification, preventing the admittance of spectators, and this has created significant uncertainty over the financial modelling for the coming year.

 

At present the Club is awaiting details of the financial support we understand that central government is prepared to provide to enable us to play our matches behind closed doors. Once we have these details we will be able to judge whether this is sufficient to cover the resulting funding shortfall (i.e. gate receipts, season tickets, hospitality, sponsorship, etc.). The Board and our Accountants feel that these things need to be finalised before we can effectively brief members about the financial position and our plans for the season ahead.

 

As a Board we believe that the financial sustainability of the Football Club Is a fundamental cornerstone of the AGM process and as such it would be inappropriate to hold the meeting until such a time the club and our accountants have the necessary details and can provide an informed narrative. As such the decision has been made to postpone the AGM meeting until Thursday 12th November at 19:30, which will be facilitated via the Zoom platform to comply with social distancing measures. The documentation for the AGM, including the financial report will be sent out at least two weeks in advance of the AGM.”

 

City Fans United – Informal Zoom Meeting TO BE RESCHEDULED

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UPDATE – The informal online zoom meeting that was initially rescheduled for Thursday 17th September will be rescheduled due a number of changing factors around the forthcoming season. The board wish to ensure that they have correct information to answer your questions in what is an ever changing environment right now as far as the upcoming season is concerned. Please accept our apologies for the late change of plan. The zoom link will be posted here in due course, and a separate communication to CFU members on email will follow over the next couple of days once we have a new date for the meeting.

 

It’s been a while since we sent an update to members, so we thought it about right to publish an update on the CFU website, with regards to events taking place recently and due to take place in the near future.

 

As far as City Fans United’s next meeting is concerned, we will be having an online zoom meeting on DATE TBC (7.30pm start), where the meeting will be an informal one, so please sign up to Zoom if not already done so and we’ll send through the link for that in our next update, to enable you to take part in the meeting.

 

We hope that you can join us online on the night given the fact that we’re unable to have any fans attending inside the Blues Bar that evening – we’d also like to invite any questions you have for that meeting. Please email jeff.banks@chesterfc.com with any questions you may have for the meeting, so that we can pass on to the relevant person.

 

We look forward to seeing you via the Zoom meeting online, and will update on the date once this has been set by the board. Thank you for your continued support of Chester FC.

 

 

CFU Board Summary – July 2020

Posted by Jeff Banks on

Summary of Board meeting held on Monday 20th July 2020 at 7.30pm by virtual conference.

 

Present:- Andy Morris, David Williams, Kieron Shiel, Paul Bodman, Adam Langan, Chris Robertson, Jeff Banks, Mike Day and Mark Jones. In attendance:- Nick Phillipson, Chris Robson and Jim Green

 

Chairman stated that the playoffs for the Club were now finished and we had made a profit (money coming in from central pay, 50% streaming income and money through crowd funder). It was proposed that the money went to the “Boost the Budget” scheme which was agreed by the Board.

 

Nick Phillipson stated that he and Paul Bodman had been looking at the catering facilities for the Club and had decided that it should be put out to tender once the contract with Dougherty & Allen came to an end. Dougherty & Allen had been told that the catering would be going out to tender and that they would need to apply.

 

The Club is in the process of gathering in any tenders and will report back to the Board.

 

The Board was still in dialogue with Stuart Murphy regarding his association with the Club.

 

Mark Jones informed the Board where the Club stood regarding COVID and getting the Club up and running for the new season. We would have to put in a great deal of work to make it possible for members to attend matches with social distance guidelines in place.

 

Online ticketing was the way to go, so the Club would know before the match who would be attending and could make the grounds safe for supporters.

 

Paul Bodman mentioned that the Club had received many compliments from parents regarding the “Young Drivers’ Course” which was being held on the car park. The scheme had been so successful that the gentleman running it asked whether he could use our car park as his permanent base. Provided it did not clash with any home game fixtures and we were compliant with COVID guidelines, there was no reason not to allow the company to use our car park, as we were getting a substantial income from it.

 

Kieron Shiel stated that he had been in communication with volunteers during the closure of the Club and was looking into re-opening the office. This could only be done when all safeguards had been put in place for them to return safely.

 

Jim Green stated that the King George Development was still ongoing and contractors had been appointed. Has put in a request for a donation. Mike Vickers has now replaced David Evans as Chairman of the Trust.

 

Jeff Banks asked the Board to send their thanks to the players for how well they had played in the play offs.