Supporters Meeting Thursday 8th May 1900

[marquess of weston]

Bath City FC will be holding a meeting on Thursday 8th May starting at 1900 in the TR Hayes Lounge. The meeting is to discuss the 125th anniversary season. All who have an interest in and care about the club should attend. Adie Britton and members of the board will be in attendance

[Ashley]

The title of this thread made me wonder if we'd gone back in time 114 years!

[BenE]

yes we start with a chorus of God Save the Queen and end with handshakes all round.

[SteveBradley]

Any word yet on how it went this evening ?

[BenE]

no national anthem and no handshakes. I don't think they were trying to recreate the atmosphere of Victorian etiquette at all.

[SteveBradley]

no national anthem and no handshakes. I don't think they were trying to recreate the atmosphere of Victorian etiquette at all.

Disappointing news.

Crowds were much bigger back in them days, so it's obviously what the public wants.

[2weirdtown]

Pretty good meeting I thought. Not sure how 'official' some of what was said is so I'll leave it to others. One thing for sure though, we ain't got much money. The season will be starting one week early and the fact Paul Williams said this is one week extra wages says to me the season has been extended.
A real eye opener about the amount of work Paul Williams gets through (he's not the only one). He must spend half his life in meetings. Also Adie and the coaching/management staff put in a huge amount of work from the youth setup to first team.

[comrade powell]

a few other snippets of info...

the uni may be providing us with a goal keeping coach
keats is probably off to the usa on a study course
brian york is the loudest rustler of a crisp packet the world has known!

yes, some interesting Q + A. thought stevie hit the nail on the head with his comment that the 125th celebrations need to embrace the whole community. and despite the reminder from one director that the main aim was to bring in as much money as possible, i feel the key will be to have events which are fresh ideas rather than trotting out the old ones which are a turn off for many. nostalgia (or being 'too sentimental') is not to be frowned at and centres on what many of us love about the club. i think things like inviting former players and management should play a big part.

[BenE]

The main point I took from the meeting was that the board is setting a budget that they believe is £70000 too low (to ensure fiscal prudence) and as a consequence they are looking for ways of generating money to make up the shortfall.

As Adie says this represents about £2000 a week reduction in playing budget.

I translate that as 200 people extra on the gate.

My opinion is that if we had the right squad that played the right way and demonstrated an intention to really push for promotion you would get those 200 back. They represent just 2/5ths of the people who were coming only two years ago. But that would only mean we wouldn't have to find another £70K next season and every following season.

The other thing announced is that John Reynolds has rejoined the board.

[Jon_BOA]

and despite the reminder from one director that the main aim was to bring in as much money as possible, i feel the key will be to have events which are fresh ideas rather than trotting out the old ones which are a turn off for many. nostalgia (or being 'too sentimental') is not to be frowned at and centres on what many of us love about the club. i think things like inviting former players and management should play a big part.

Agree entirely, while I understood the point of what was being said, I thought it was a bit of a mood dampener, as someone else had said earlier on, it can't all be about making money (as important a facet as that obviously will be) as that would turn a fair few people off, and possibly alienate a few of us who do already contribute in the many varied ways that they do.

Once again though, the meeting highlighted to me how lucky we are to have some many people who volunteer their time and expertise to help the club, I applaud them all.

[2weirdtown]

The mood was a lot better than perhaps a year ago. Seems to be a return of the spirit of togetherness.
One question occurs to me since last night - will the Society be able to buy shares again? I seem to remember there being some sort of embargo by the club in that they were 'not available'. Something to do with the Directors loans situation.

[pete mac]

It will be a desperate shame if we can't find the money to build on the squad we have.

I am happy to help in some fundraising from here......and hopefully the Society, Supporter's Club and Foundation can buy into the shirt sponsor draw etc. I passed a couple of ideas to Shane which I am happy to pursue.

Twill be good to get the old spirit back as Zweirdtown said.

[Eddie Hitler]

So what are the plans for celebrating the anniversary? Or was that not decided?

[comrade powell]

An action group is to be formed to organise the festivities. And it was rightly stressed that this would be open to all City fans to be involved in, rather than the preserve of the present supporters groups.

While the focus was on the celebrations, the directors present, plus Adie, were very willing to talk about other club issues. I feel this should have been stressed in advance as more may have then turned up. Some leading questions were asked, but to their credit, answers were given. I've been very critical of there being no 'meet the manager' evening this past season, but this was a worthy alternative as far as asking board members were concerned.

It was mentioned above about the week's extension to next season. Paul Williams gave a very amusing account of how this decision came about. I would certainly love to be a fly on the wall at the upcoming Conference AGM if Greg Dyke's brainless proposals to boost Team England are on the agenda!

[Luton Roman]

Any clues on what the new shirt will be like?

[comrade powell]

no. personally i'd like to see the retro shirt worn by many supporters for the past few years. but following the fiasco with the dunfermline strip we started this season with, the utmost care is needed! an alternative would be the design we had in the mid 60s - thin black stripes on white, they were very nice.

[Ashley]

We certainly need the retro badge

[kermit]

 

Any clues on what the new shirt will be like?

My guess would be black and white stripes    Sorry LR....I couldn't resist   

[BenE]

I've been very critical of there being no 'meet the manager' evening this past season, but this was a worthy alternative as far as asking board members were concerned.

Agreed and I wish I had known it would be so open as I would have thought more about potention questions.

I was somewhat stunned by that £70K figure. It represents £140 for every regular supporter or £6 more per person per match. ie an additional 50% each at the turnstile.

[Marc Monitor]

I wonder if anyone has approached Lovehoney for shirt sponsorship next season. Not only are they a successful very local company but the publicity would be fantastic.

[stillmanjunior]

Any mention of the stadium name?

[comrade powell]

the question was asked and i think the reply was that it's under review.

[Eddie Hitler]

Is there to be any 'official' record of the meeting and discussions held? Otherwise those supporters who were unable to attend (mainly due to the short notice in my case) have been given less information than the minority who did attend.

[comrade powell]

i very much doubt it. it wasn't a formal meeting, so no agenda or minutes. perhaps others who were there can rack their memories, but i think the main points raised and answered have already been mentioned on this thread. I can assure you that the SC will be pushing for a meeting for all supporters to attend before the start of the season...

[Roman Mike]

Is there to be any 'official' record of the meeting and discussions held? Otherwise those supporters who were unable to attend (mainly due to the short notice in my case) have been given less information than the minority who did attend.

Surely somebody took a record of the topics discussed and actions / outcomes / decisions etc.
This drives me nuts. Just because I was working that evening and couldn't make it, I have no idea - other than the anecdotal stuff on here - what happened.
I am a relatively new supporter of (4/5 years) and I have to tell you my perception is that this club is almost impenetrable at times.
I mention this a) with the aim of improving this and b) because my experience is probably not unique and I am convinced there are many more like me who we fail to involve and therefore lose.

I started off just wanting to watch and support local football with my son - as a bonding thing partly - and as an antidote to the monies and cheating of the PL. I am not a complete die-hard - 80% of home games / 3 away games this season. I didn't necessarily want to get attached to the club but now I find we plan our time around the fixtures, have a loyalty card, discuss the squads, decisions and players pros and cons, have replica shirts and club caps / hats etc. etc. We now care about the club. It feels like we have done this despite the clubs efforts. It feels almost impossible to feel a part of it - to get timely and accurate information.

There will many more in my demographic who we will have lost in the last 4/5 years - because we never followed them up. There will be other deomgraphics which we fail too. We congratulate oursleves on a 1300 gate for the community day and because we had a incident packed game and 5 goals but where have the extra 800 gone? Who were they? Why did they not come back etc. etc.

So if you got this far you will realise that this is part venting but there is a serious gap here which we need to plug to get extra revenue to improve the squad to get more success on the field - the classic virtuous circle.

Thoughts

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