Author: Mike Day

Informal CFU Meeting Update: Change of Venue and Meet Marcus Bignot

The next informal CFU members meeting, scheduled for Thursday 23rd November, will be a bit different than usual.

We are switching venue from the Blues Bar at the Swansway Chester Stadium to:
The Anchor Pub in Saltney.

Members of the CFU board will welcome manager Marcus Bignot and CEO Mark Maguire with fans able to ask questions of everyone.

The change in venue to The Anchor in Saltney is part of a wider move by the board of directors to start encouraging more people to attend CFU meetings and to help raise the profile of City Fans United across Chester, Cheshire and North Wales.

Jonny Hughes, Chair of City Fans United, said: “In football if you want success then you have to perform home and away, and that’s exactly what we have identified we need to do.

“We have seen attendances at CFU meetings go down slowly over time, so it’s about time we did something different.

“By taking more of a fan forum type approach to informal CFU meetings and switching venues to social clubs, halls and pubs in the places and areas our fans live in, we’re hoping to encourage more members to attend.

“But, not only that. We need to start engaging with our fans and the wider public more, so the plan is to open up future fan forums to non-members also to help raise our profile and drive our membership forward.

The meeting will start at the usual time of 7:30pm.
The address for The Anchor is 5 High Street, Saltney, Chester, CH4 8SE.

We hope to see you there!

AGM 2017

CITY FANS UNITED – ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2017

The Annual General Meeting (AGM) of City Fans United and Chester Football Club will be held on Thursday 5th October, 2017 at 7.30pm in the Blues Bar at the Swansway Chester Stadium, Bumpers Lane, Chester CH1 4LT.

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CFU Members Meeting Thursday 14th September

The next City Fans United owners meeting is next Thursday, September 14th in the Blues Bar at the Swansway Chester Stadium with a 7.30pm start.

This is a formal members meeting.
Meeting Agenda available through this link

The streaming service will available for any owners who can’t make it down to the stadium on the night. You must have renewed before the day of the meeting to eligible to watch the streaming service so don’t hesitate if you haven’t signed up already! Please email neil.bellis@chesterfc.com by September 13th if you want to watch the stream but haven’t previously signed up.

CFU Board Summary – 24 August 2017

The board met on 24th August, 2017 and were joined by Ron Smith who is a co-opted director on the operations board, his perception from an external perspective was that the operations board was working well and played a vital part in the day to day running of the club. (more…)

Seals Lottery June Draw

The latest Seals Lottery draw has taken place with the random number selector ‘button’ being pressed by Club Director Anne Salmon witnessed by Youth Academy Head Coach Calum McIntyre, Office Volunteer Val Pate and Director Brian Burns. (more…)

CFU Board Summary – 29 June 2017

This is a summary of the board meeting held on 29th June 2017

Matters arising:

• FLi contract – noted that the new website is due to launch on 30th June, JH thanked all involved for their work in taking this forward and the importance of actually owning was agreed.

• Facilities for disabled supporters – still on-going; a written quote from Gibbs was higher than expected. DHW had suggested another company from which a quote is being obtained. As previously discussed there will be additional cost for creating more disabled parking spaces and improving the pathway access.

• Proposal to have a 3G pitch – LK reported no progress, but that he hoped to get further information from Bala and Newtown in respect of their business model. Also noted that there was less support from the football side. MD said that the Community Trust had met with the Council who were supportive of developing a 3G pitch at Kings playing field. MM is investigating the availability of grant funding.

• Health and safety – BB reported continuing progress with the H&S action list and a range of risk assessments had been produced which are due to be signed off next week.

• CRM database – MD said that following the launch of the new website the move to the new arrangement would now be progressed. There had also been discussions regarding importing of season ticket data, and with LK regarding the introduction of go-cardless which would enable direct debits to be undertaken. MD said that in view of season ticket activity it was likely to be mid August before the new arrangements were progressed.

Output from the Board Away Day:

• Portfolios – allocation agreed and that there were gaps in key areas namely community and volunteers. NB agreed to take on the link to the Exiles and Senior Blues and JH with support from DHW would take on the Junior Blues. DO’T to take on volunteers with support from MN.

• Appraisals – arrangements proposed agreed.

• Communications between directors – noted that MM had been investigating cloud based office 365 and SS was looking at Slack. Board reports normally to be circulated with the agenda to allow proper consideration.

• Engagement with CFU members and wider supporter base – agreed to ask members at the next CFU meeting what they want in terms of frequency and content. Agreed that there was a need to promote general fan engagement and CFU membership out in local communities.

• Operations board – agreed that no changes need to be made to the current reporting.

• Standards and behaviour for volunteers/employees – actions from away day noted, this is a work in progress.

• Current strategy document – agreed that the strategy needs to be owned and refreshed.

• Volunteers on match days– the board accepted by a majority decision the proposal that all volunteers should pay for their match day admission. Further work needs to be undertaken regarding an event for volunteers.

• Governance and risk – AM and AS to take forward.

Finance:

LK referred to the paper he had circulated at the start of the meeting. He highlighted the importance of the healthy balance sheet with strong liquidity. In respect of the budget for 2017-2018 this had been unconditionally approved by the national league and will continue to be refined with version 2 being available at the start of the playing season. Also noted that JMcC is due to attend the CFU meeting on 27th July.

Operations Board:

Minutes from the meetings held on 5th and 19th June were received. Noted that MN would be taking on the role of Welfare Officer following attendance at a training course in August; also that there is still an intention to relocate the office into the shop.

CFU:

Agreed that a further email reminder regarding membership renewal should be undertaken, also a reminder on the club website which would link back to the CFU website. Any paper communications needed to be linked to AGM mail shot. Also agreed that any potential future board members should be invited to meet directors prior to the next CFU meeting.

Youth Section:

Noted that CMcI had been offered a permanent contract. The youth section would be having their annual pre season trip to Scotland and there was no further information regarding the trip to Poland. Coach recruitment had been successful and CPD sessions had taken place and a series of meetings with parents.

AGM:

MN referred to the board paper which set out that there would be 7 director posts available for election at the AGM, to bring the board up to the level of 10 which had previously been agreed as the optimum.

The next CFU Board meeting will be held on 25th July, 2017 at 6.30pm with JMcC attending.

Seals Lottery May Draw

The latest Seals Lottery draw has taken place with the random number selector ‘button’ being pressed by club Media Officer Albert Davies, witnessed by Youth Academy Head Coach Calum McIntyre, CFU Board Secretary Marion Needham and Director Brian Burns. (more…)