Tag: Chester FC

Board of Directors – Update

Posted by Jeff Banks on

City Fans United would like to advise of a couple of additions to the board of directors.

 

Firstly, we welcome Kieron Shiel who was co-opted on the board at Tuesday night’s meeting of board members, and will be initially looking at the Volunteers portfolio.

 

Kieron has been co-opted following our open request for those interested in joining the CFU board, and fills the one available place at present until the AGM later this year, when he will be able to apply for election to the board.

 

Kieron will assume the role of Volunteer coordination, recruitment and development. He has a wide range of skills and experience including project and programme management, large scale people management and information technology.

 

The board have also welcomed a new external director, as Chris Robertson joins and will assume the Treasurer role, also until this year’s AGM.

 

Chris brings to the board senior management experience and has most recently worked for over 10 years as a management consultant with a wide range of charities, social enterprises and the UN.

 

As is standard with such appointments, both are subject to approval from the FA and criminal record checks.

 

We would like to thank everyone that got in touch, and also to Richard Lynes for his extensive time and effort in speaking to all of those who got in touch following our request. Our working groups will also be contacting some of those people with a view to strengthening each group.

 

We are also making progress with the position of CFU Secretary, following Marion Needham’s announcement at the 2018 AGM that she would be stepping down from the Secretary role during the course of 2019. We hope to make a further announcement on this in due course.

 

The next CFU meeting will take place on Thursday 21st March, starting at 7.30pm and will take place in the Blues Bar at Chester FC. This will be an informal meeting which will be streamed live on the CFU You Tube channel.

 

Starbucks offer for CFU members!

Posted by Jeff Banks on

City Fans United and coffee shop giant Starbucks have joined forces to bring CFU members a special discount from now until the end of the season.

 

Starbucks Greyhound Park are offering a 10% discount on all beverage purchases from their store on Sealand Road, on production of CFU membership cards when ordering in-store.

 

Dave Pike, store manager at Starbucks Greyhound Park, was delighted to offer CFU members the discount, “We wanted to support our local club and share it’s community values. We look forward to welcoming Chester fans to Starbucks and wish the team all the very best for the season.”

 

Jeff banks, CFU director of Fan Engagement & Membership said, “It’s fantastic to have Starbucks on board with us. They are well known throughout the world of course, and for a company of that size to give our members a 10% discount is great to see and we are extremely grateful to Dave and the team for wanting to get involved in this way.”

 

It is hoped that this will be the catalyst to further discounts being announced for CFU members, “We would certainly like to invite more businesses to team up with us and offer our 2000+ members a discount on their products and services, and I’m sure many of our members shop both in the City and online. Now is the time to get involved!” said Banks.

 

If any businesses would like to offer members a discount, please contact Jeff Banks via email to FEWG@chesterfc.com

 

CFU Members Meeting – January

Posted by Jeff Banks on

We’d like to wish all of our members a very Happy New Year!

 

The City Fans United members meeting for January will take place in the Blues Bar at the Swansway Chester Stadium, on the evening of Thursday 17th January.

 

The meeting, which gets underway at 7.30pm on the night will give fans a great chance to hear about the latest updates from the board of directors of CFU.

 

We will confirm other guests on the night very shortly.

CFU Members Meeting – January

Posted by Jeff Banks on

The City Fans United members meeting for January will take place in the Blues Bar at the Swansway Chester Stadium, on the evening of Thursday 17th January.

 

The meeting, which gets underway at 7.30pm on the night will give fans a great chance to hear about the latest updates from the board of directors of CFU.

 

We will confirm other guests on the night very shortly.

Merry Christmas from CFU

Posted by Jeff Banks on

The board of directors would like to wish all members a very enjoyable and safe Christmas.

 

We would also like to thank everyone who has volunteered their time for both CFU and Chester FC – without you, the club could not function.

 

The board really appreciate every single minute of time donated to the club that we all strive to improve, and recognise that at times it may feel that it’s a thankless role, but please be assured that we really would not have a club if it wasn’t for those dedicating their time for the love of the club.

 

We hope that you all enjoy your festivities and that we will continue to become stronger in 2019 thanks to your efforts volunteering for the club we all love.

 

Finally, we would like to thank the management team, players and backroom staff for what they have achieved in 2018, and hope that 2019 will deliver the results that we are all striving for.

 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

The board of directors.

 

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.

 

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.