Category: Content

CFU Directors’ Portfolio Update – Fundraising & Governance

Posted by Jeff Banks on

 

Today, we continue the updates from the Director portfolios, with David Williams providing the Fundraising Update and Mark Jones with the Governance Update.

 

Firstly, David Williams, Fundraising Portfolio:

 

Christmas Raffle & Party – Since the Evening with Kevin Ratcliffe in the Summer, the main focus of the Fundraising Working Group has been the Christmas Raffle and Party. We have

  • Sold tickets in pubs
  • Sold tickets at The Forum in the City Centre
  • Sold tickets at MBNA

Furthermore, we would like to thank all the fans who have sold tickets themselves. This is something we need all fans to get involved with as it is one of the income streams that the club relies on.

The draw for which took place last night at the Chester FC Christmas Party at the Upton British Legion. Details of winners will be published in due course.

 

Seals Lottery – Regular publication of the draw results has seen a gradual increase in sales of Seal Lottery tickets, first prize was an impressive £542 last month. The pay out is linked to the number of entrants and we hope to grow this further in the New Year.

 

50-50 Draw – In conjunction with the Fan Engagement Working Group, we have offered half-time fan experiences out on the pitch as consolation prizes in the 50-50 draws. All being well, this will increase ticket sales and make the main cash prize even bigger!

 

eBay – Our eBay auctions have raised circa £1,600 since they begin in February. We wish to thank all who have placed bids – we even had a winner who lives in Shanghai! We hope to offer something relating to the Akwasi Asante debut hat-trick in the near future.

 

 

Mark Jones, Governance Update

 

Health & Safety – The last few months have been very busy on the Health & Safety front with a number of planned regular safety inspections from CWAC, the FA and under the Safety of Sports Ground Act.
Considerable progress has been made on a full review of our health & safety policies, risk assessments and safety certificate renewals.

Safety Certificate – The flooding obviously gave us major headaches with the safety certificate, however we were successful in regaining our safety certificate from CWAC following that difficult period.

Safety Advisory Group – A meeting of the SAG was held on 26th November. One area of discussion was the potential for a separate safety certificate to also enable Chester FC to host events at the stadium not involving football. This could potentially open a number of doors for revenue in the future,

Working Group – The Governance working group has attracted new members and is now meeting on a monthly basis.
Each member of the Governance working group will be working alongside CFU Board members to review and manage risks within their portfolio.

 

 

Tomorrow’s update will be provided Jeff Banks, whose portfolio includes Membership & Fan Engagement.

CFU Directors’ Portfolio Update – Commercial

Posted by Jeff Banks on

2018 has been a year to both forget and remember for Chester fans and owners.

 

It started of course, with the crisis meeting in January that saw CFU members and Blues fans alike come together and raise funds to effectively keep the club going in its hour of need.

 

Changes to the board followed with a desire to put the club back on track, and along with some amazing fundraising efforts we’ve seen the club go from strength to strength especially with the change in management team that saw Bern and Jonno come in after last season finished.

 

The call has gone out for additional bodies on both the board and working groups, to help continue drive the club forward and as we approach Christmas and the tail end of the year, in the absence of a CFU members meeting in December the board of directors wanted to update you with a taste of what they’ve been working on since the last members’ meeting and what is to come in their portfolios, and today we begin with the Chairman, David Harrington-Wright.

 

David listed the following as updates in the Commercial portfolio.

 

Matchday sponsorships – We have almost completely sold out match ball and programme sponsorships which is great news, but there are a few remaining so would encourage anyone wanted to book a matchday package to contact commercial@chesterfc.com straight away to avoid missing out!

 

Ground Boards – We have also several new ground boards in place which was always the aim, to bring new companies and sponsors into the club.

 

Groundsman’s Facilities – We have also contra deals put in place that have brought a top of the range mower for Mike Barrow, which enables vastly improved cutting of the grass and less time required on that side of things.

A contra deal has also been arranged with a company that provide drainage services for the pitch, this being a five year deal saving the club about £3k, but also gives us additional services free of charge too, which naturally is a major positive!

 

Club Shop – We have a new supplier of additional clothing and promotional items for the club shop and online, the first products were two bespoke jackets for the managers, which they can be seen wearing when not on the touchline.

 

End of Season Event – We are currently having meetings and discussion around of an end of season party, with details to follow on this very soon. We do of course have to take into consideration available dates with the planning of the event too.

 

Next Season – Even though we’re still only midway through this season, we are now planning for next season, talking to all existing sponsors, and of course new sponsors expressing interest in supporting the club.

 

Working group – We are a small working group, so always looking for more people to be part of helping the commercial side, and would encourage anyone interested to contact us via emailing commercial@chesterfc.com and a member of the Group will respond.

 

Tomorrow we’ll have an update from the Fundraising portfolio holder, David Williams, and also the Governance portfolio holder, Mark Jones.

 

Membership Target for 2018 hit!

Posted by Jeff Banks on

City Fans United are delighted to announce that the membership target of 2018 members by the end of the year 2018 has been hit and surpassed with 2 weeks to spare!

 

The Fan Engagement Working Group (FEWG) have confirmed that together with the CFU Junior Blues, we now have over 2018 members!

 

In celebration of this, one City Fans United member will be drawn at random to win a voucher to the value of £20.18 to spend in the club shop, with the draw taking place later this week.

 

The FEWG have also announced that 10 life members have been signed up to the new Life Membership package which was announced earlier this season, and we would like to thank each and every one of the new Life Members who have joined up and confirm that membership packs are being sent out this week.

 

Jeff Banks, director of Fan Engagement was delighted the target number had been hit, “Following the January fans meeting at Chester FC, the FEWG was set up and we set out to achieve a goal of 2018 members by the end of 2018, and that is exactly what has been achieved. Just under 12 months ago we had barely 1000 members so to double that number is brilliant. Naturally we want to increase that number further and would encourage anyone who hasn’t joined yet to do so. We’ll shortly be looking to make being a CFU member even more attractive and are working together with local businesses to provide our members with discounts.”

 

Banks also confirmed that the FEWG were working on a number of themed match days for the New Year following on from the Remembrance and Retro Day themes that took place in November and December respectively, “Our aim is to improve the matchday experience for supporters and we have a Christmas theme for this coming Saturday and have already got a number of planned themes for 2019 that we are also working together with the Community Trust on too, and we hope everyone will take part and enjoy those theme days.”

 

CFU Meeting – Thursday 15 November

Posted by Jeff Banks on

The next City Fans United meeting will take place in the Blues Bar, at the Swansway Chester Stadium, on Thursday 15th November.

 

The meeting that will get underway at 7.30pm, is an informal meeting and so is open to non-members as well as current members.

 

It’s an ideal opportunity to come and hear from the CFU board on latest developments, as well as hopefully hearing from joint managers Bern & Jonno.

 

You can also sign up to CFU membership on the night too, with the membership package an unbeatable £12 per year at present.

 

The intention is also to stream the meeting on our CFU You Tube channel, on the evening itself.

 

CFU Life Membership – Payments Instalments News

Posted by Jeff Banks on

CFU Life Membership form

 

The CFU Fan Engagement Working Group (FEWG) can confirm that following feedback from the members, that an additional instalment plan has been put into place for those members wishing to take up Life Membership of CFU.

 

During the last couple of weeks, members were advised of the new package that enables Life Membership to be secured by way of either a one off £1000 payment, or by a maximum of 4 payments of £250.

 

The FEWG are now delighted to announce that members can now spread their Life Membership payments over a 10 month period, with a contribution via Direct Debit of £100 per month.

 

We hope this enables more members to take up the Life Membership option – all those wishing to take advantage of this extra option are invited to email membership@cityfansunited.com and we will then send details of how to activate a Direct Debit.

 

Please note, the benefits of Life membership (with the exception of the new pin badge) will be applicable to new members once at least a 50% contribution has been made. Life membership will be revoked if the full £1000 is not received within the 10 month period.

 

Of course, the other options for securing Life Membership remain – so if you would like to make a one off payment or pay via the 4 x £250 payments then please either email membership@cityfansunited.com or contact Chester FC on 01244 371376 during normal office hours.

 

The FEWG will shortly be sending Life membership packs out to those who have purchased the new Life Membership package – and we thank them for doing so.

CFU AGM Review

Posted by Jeff Banks on

The City Fans United Annual General Meeting took place last Thursday at the Swansway Chester Stadium, inside a packed Blues Bar.

 

On the night, Calvin Hughes and Jeff Banks, both of whom stood for election to the board saw their applications ratified by the members who had voted either by proxy or on the night itself. Both will now commence a minimum three year term on the board of directors of CFU.

 

Laurence Kirby, who stood down as a director of the board on the night, presented his financial report to the audience both in the room and watching online.

 

Laurence confirmed that CFU had made a £45k loss in the financial year June 2017-May 2018 but that prospects of a brighter future were indeed in place following some fantastic fundraising by volunteers since January 2018. Laurence also indicated that he would be prepared to maintain his financial reporting to the board in the interim whilst a permanent replacement is sought in due course, which the board have wholeheartedly thanked Laurence for.

 

The Chair of CFU, David Harrington-Wright, also gave a detailed report on the year itself too, and fielded questions from the audience relating to the club’s current financial position, and also with regards to the water damage to the Stadium too, even though this was experienced after the previous financial year had ended.

 

Minutes of the meeting will be published shortly on the CFU website.

 

Thanks to everyone that attended on the night, and we look forward to keeping the membership updated with the progress made as we go through the next financial period, June 2018-May 2019.