Minutes for Board Meeting Held on 25/3

Tottenham Hotspur Supporters’ Trust
Board Meeting
Monday 25th March 2013
6pm

MINUTES



THST Board:

Darren Howlett (Joint Chairman)
Darren Alexander (Joint Chairman)
Ellie Kershaw
Katrina Law (Secretary)
Formal apologies:

Howard Sherman (Treasurer)
Tracey Mottram




1) DA opened up the meeting by addressing the first agenda item –

Defining areas of responsibility for THST Board Members.

These were agreed as follows:

Darren Alexander – Joint Chairman: Supporter facing. Leading our relationship with Supporters Direct, FSF, THFC fan base, THST members. Overall campaigning. Board Level THFC contact.

Darren Howlett - Joint Chairman: Executive/ Corporate facing. Leading our relationship with Business, Commercial and Executive stakeholders. Board Level THFC contact.

Howard Sherman – Treasurer.
Responsible for all budgeting and ongoing Trust accounts.

Katrina Law – Secretary. Ticketing, Safety and Marcomms. Responsible for content, member communications, campaigning, website and database build. Leading our relationship with Ticketing and Safety teams at THFC.

Ellie Kershaw – Strategy and Community. Leading our relationship with David Lammy MP, Haringey Council, The Tottenham Hotspur Foundation. Responsible for translating all THST visions into measurable strategies, with milestones and smart actions.

Tracey Mottram – Branding and Design.
Responsible for producing brand guidelines, logo, tone of voice for all outbound communications to all stakeholders.

2) Agreeing strategy and objectives for Q2 2013:

i) Amendments to and modernisation of the current Rules of Tottenham Hotspur Supporters’ Society Ltd (registered under the Industrial and Provident Societies Acts 1965 – 1978).
A sub-committee was created to oversee the Rule Changes comprising DA and EK at Board Level, with Daniel Wynne leading the Working Party.
Additional legal expertise will be sought to assist with this task at Working Party level.

ii) Design and development of a new, transactional THST website to feed into a back end CRM database to enable membership to be reopened and afford us a platform grow our membership base rapidly.
KL will lead this project with Working Party assistance from a specialist web designer. We are advertising for this (voluntary) position on the Working Party.

iii) Events to raise the profile of THST and drive up membership e.g. Quiz. Q&A Night, Football Tournament.
DA will lead this with Working Party resource. We are advertising for interested parties to join the Events sub-committee on the Working Party.

3) Debrief on the Supporters’ Direct Conference – 23 March 2013
DA and KL talked through the main points raised during the SD conference in Birmingham last weekend.
Present in the PL Group were representatives from Arsenal, Liverpool, Swansea, Man United, Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea, Aston Villa, QPR
Key points:
- Opened up with a presentation by Jim White of Swans Trust
- Q&A with Cathy Long of the Premier League covering
i) Away Fans – treatment of including pricing, allocation, location within stadiums
ii) Engagement with Clubs – SLO role. Jonathan Waite at THFC singled out for praise
iii) FFP – called for more transparency around transfer fees / players wages etc.

Summary:

It was agreed to present a Joint Trust Statement to the Premier League w/c 25 March thanking them for their recognition and backing of the Away Fans issues and encouraging the incentivising of Home Clubs to become more engaged with Away Fans. Each Trust was also invited to write to the Boards of their own Clubs on this matter.

The Against Modern Football campaign was addressed and, subsequently, we are working with Liverpool’s Union (Spirit of Shankly) at youth level to co-ordinate protests in the form of banners, flyers etc.

KL, DA and EK will also be meeting with members of the AST to discuss the mechanics of their membership model and also to consult on how best to involve fans in a stadium design, learning from issues which have arisen at the Emirates.

4) Update on ongoing projects:

- Meeting with Amanda Jacks of FSF arranged for 17th April
- Meeting with AST arranged for 1st May
- Meeting with Haringey Council tbc
- Meeting with web agencies w/c 1st April
- Update from Ledley King Testimonial Committee due w/c 1st April

5) Branding:

TM requested a brainstorm on the imagery/ look and feel for the new look Trust.
Agreed this would be fed back to TM, who would present options to the Board.
Date for rebranding deadline to be agreed with TM separately.


6) Expenses:

Agreed to meet EK’s transport costs to and from Board Meetings. Other transport costs on a case by case basis by DA and DH.

7) AOB:

DA had invited AOB on message boards/ social media. Points ranged from holding a Fans Forum with AVB to the lack of hot drinks in the W Upper during the Fulham match.
All points were raised and will be followed up accordingly.
It was agreed that our first event for fans will be a Quiz in Summer 2013.

Next Board Meeting provisionally scheduled for THURSDAY 27th JUNE 2013.


The Tottenham Hotspur Supporters’ Trust Board Meeting concluded at 8.08pm.





End

Statement regarding 2013/14 ST Price increases

Tottenham Hotspur Supporters’ Trust
Statement re: THFC Season Ticket Prices 2013/2014
13th March 2013

The Tottenham Hotspur Supporters’ Trust Board would like to express our disappointment at the Club’s decision to increase Season Ticket prices by 3.3% for the 2013/14 campaign.

We had hoped that Tottenham Hotspur would follow the lead of Chelsea and Arsenal and freeze prices, in a gesture of goodwill toward the fans, many of whom are already suffering as a result of the challenging economic climate.

Whilst prices have been frozen for Juniors and Senior Citizens, the Trust is firmly of the opinion that this freeze should have been applied across the board, not solely for concessions.

In real terms, the increase will add around £33 to the cost of an average Season Ticket. Whilst this is, undoubtedly, a small amount to the Club, it is more than the cheapest Home ticket available this year.

Given the increase in Television revenue next season, we are of the opinion that some of this benefit could, and should, have been passed on to those who make White Hart Lane the ground that it is.

Whilst this decision has now been made, and we were not given the opportunity to exert influence on it, we are keen to gauge supporters’ reactions to this announcement and will feed back to the Club to demonstrate how fans are affected by such decisions.

We look forward to working with the Club on future issues that affect supporters, and hope to be involved early enough to have a real and positive impact on any discussions before a conclusion is reached.


For further information, please contact:
Darren Alexander – Joint Chairman, THST
darren_alexander@btinternet.com
@darrenla / @THSTOfficial

Ellie Kershaw – Board Member (Strategy and Community)
neverred@live.co.uk

Katrina Law – Board Member (Ticketing and Safety)
Jkatrina71@gmail.com
@katspur71 / @THSTOfficial