Faversham Town FC Ltd AGM held on Thursday 13 th July 2017 at the Clubhouse Shepherd Neame Stadium. In Attendance Mr R Leader Chairman Mr E Glover Chief Executive Mr S Hal Development Director Mrs W Walker Company Secretary Mr R Turner Director Of Football Mr J Newson Commercial Director Members Mr R Walters, Mr D Stone, Mrs S Stone, Mr J Waters, Mr K Lawrence, Mr S King, Mr D King. Mr N Heasman, Mr R Tillman, Mrs A Tillman, Mr D Hollingsbee, Mr J Flanagan, Mr R Bennett, Mr L Bailey, Mr J Rogers, Mr L Burden, Mr A Martin, Mr R Goodger, Mr P Clarke, Mrs E Clarke, Mr M Downs. Mr K Chilvers, Mrs J Medley. Apologies Mr C Walker Mr B Mulhern Chairman s Opening remarks Ray Leader opened the meeting at 7.35pm. Ray Leader started by talking about ambition, he went back to 2002 with the club gaining promotion to the Kent league then when we joined the Ryman League. He also stated that we owe it to our Manager to push on. He told the members that they could help us by supporting us every week. We are also working well with the youth policy. We have now got a Reserve team. We also have a very good management team. We are very ambitious and want to move on. Tonight the board are supporting the three new people who wish to join the Board, the first being Paul Bennett who has been our main sponsor for many years, next is Richard Parry, who has helped with the building of the new changing rooms along with Dave Stone who has overseen the work carried out. Ray stated that we will achieve with the support of everyone pulling together. Minutes of the Last AGM. It was asked for the minutes to be accepted. Roger Bennett asked that we amend to include the names of the Directors who were elected on the evening. This was agreed. Minutes were proposed by Alf Martin and seconded by David Hollingsbee.
Review of the season 16/17 by Chief Executive As you will know last year was a landmark year in the history of our football club with the start and completion of Phase 1 of our ambitious development programme and Steve will be reporting on that and our future plans a little later. Alongside that, of course, the football continued with our 1 st team again competing well in both League and Cup competitions. Once again the lads made a very good start to the season with 5 League and 4 cup wins in the first two months including an excellent FA Cup replay win away at Hitchin which put us into the 3 rd Qualifying round. Unfortunately we were unable to maintain this form during the next three months we were knocked out of the FA Cup and FA Trophy but only managed to secure 5 league wins out of the 15 games we played. The new year did however bring a change in fortunes with the lads securing 4 league wins from the 5 matches played in January. This form, as you know, continued through until the end of the season but we were unfortunately not quire able to secure enough points to make the play-offs. You will want to know that once again our home attendances were very good and despite losing 2 attractive local derbies with Folkestone and Whitstable we had a season average of 194 and a highest gate of 442 for the cup game against Egham. So a big thanks to Ray and Clive, the lads and everyone involved with the 1 st team for giving us another memorable season, and once again we thank all our supporters, and in particular the loyal band who follow the team to all the away matches. I should also mention in case you haven t picked up on it that Ryman are no longer the sponsors of the League and the new sponsors are Bostik. So we are now members of the Bostik Isthmian League, and it is an offence to mention the name Ryman ever again. The Under 21s meanwhile had another good season finishing 4 th in the League and once again reaching the final of the Kent Intermediate cup. As you know Chris Greenfield and Paul Gates have taken over responsibility for our Development side which will now be U23 team and we would like to thank Guy and Karl for all their hard work and commitment for us over the last few years. You will also want to know that our Development side will now be playing on a Saturday with a 2pm Kick off and I hope you will continue to support them. Our Youth set up also had good seasons with the U12 s winning their East Kent League and both the U18 sides and the U13 s all finishing as runners up in the Kent Youth League. In congratulating them and all the youth teams I would like to say how pleased we are that during the year we have made our links with the youth section even stronger and we look forward to an even closer working relationship with Keith Chilvers and everyone from the youth set-up over the coming years to help all our young players fulfil their ambitions and potential. Turning to of the pitch, and two budget related announcements. Firstly we have decided that we now need to increase gate prices for 1 st team matches for Concessions which will increase by 1 to 6. We have also taken the decision to cancel our contract with Sky Sports which we are finding too expensive but we will be retaining BT Sports in the clubhouse.
AS you know we would not survive without our loyal ad hard working team of volunteers who work tirelessly not only on match days and during the season but virtually every day of the year. We thank them all so much but I must repeat they aren t getting any younger and we desperately need additional people to help in all areas of the club. So if you can help, let us know. There have been some personnel changes you need to be aware of. As you will remember, at the last AGM Peter Clarke announced his intention to sand down as Treasurer and we are pleased to announce that Andy Harrison has kindly offered to take on the onerous role and thank and welcome him. I should mention, however, that Andy does not wish to be a Director of the club at this stage. Lynsey Burden who has worked tirelessly for this club is now our Head Groundsman with Rob Goodyer assisting him and also taking on the role of Chief Steward. WE now have a new company printing our programmes and as a result of this change John Newson has taken over the role of Programme editor. In thanking you for your continuing support we wish all our teams at every level not only successful seasons but most importantly hope that they enjoy playing and representing Faversham Town FC. Accounts- Andy Harrison Andy introduced himself and thanked Peter Clarke. He started by stating that the club had made a loss on the year of 16,000. He also informed us that Ray Leader had been out canvassing for advertisers and we now have 10 new boards which will help to decrease the loss. Increasing the price of concessions by 1 will help, Sheps have also increased their beer prices so there will be an increase in prices and we had no option but to cancel our contract with Sky Sports. Our electricity bill has increased and we will be looking at this. There were no questions from members about the accounts. Adoption of the Accounts was proposed by Alf Martin and Seconded by W Walker and accepted by all members present. Steve Hall s Report of Stadium Development. Steve stated that he and Richard Parry have worked together on the Changing rooms project. Most of the people who have visited have been impressed with them and many have commented that they are Premier league standard. We have had to install new dugouts and players gates and we still have minor work to be completed. Steve also mentioned that we had not put the cladding onto the building as yet as we are trying to build the next level. He has had talks with a 3 rd party both to build the upper storey and a new clubhouse. He also mentioned that if we get the go ahead then this could be completed in 12 months. We will give you the information when this is available. Election of Directors/Officers All existing Directors with the exception of Peter Clarke were standing for re-election; Ray Leader, Eddie Glover, Wendy Walker, Bob Mason, Stephen Hall, John Newson and Ray Turner. After a discussion it was agreed to vote on block, 14 Voted for while 2 voted against and Ray Leader, Eddie Glover, Wendy Walker, Bob Mason, Stephen Hall, John Newson and Ray Turner were
therefore re-elected. The applications from the three people who had put their name forward to become were individually voted for with the following results: Directors Paul Bennett Members voted unanimously that he should become a Director Richard Parry Members voted unanimously that he should become a Director Dave Stone Members voted unanimously that he should become a Director All three were therefore appointed as Directors subject to the Agreement of the Football Association Budget Items This is currently being reviewed but Andy confirmed that the budget for players' expenses would stay the same. There may be changes made through the year. Prospects for the Season Ray Turner started by saying on behalf of the players he would like to thank everyone for their support during the season. It is pressure to get this club to where it should be. We are ambitious, but we are competing against sides with much bigger budgets. It hurt our form when we lost Will Godmon to Leatherhead, as we had young players but lacked a few senior players. We also had injuries. Overall I was proud of the team but we had a reality check. I look at teams like Chatham and Whitstable who are no longer in our league. My ambition is always to get to the play-off places or higher. Players leaving the Club are Will Godmon he did a great job for us and he will progress, he lives in Woking and the travelling got to him. Will was a maybe for next season and I needed a goalkeeper. He had an offer from Maidstone but that was rescinded so at the moment he has no club. That is why I went and signed Simon Overland. His presence on Friday was outstanding. Josh Stanford has singed for us but will duel register as he is at Oxford university. He is training with Oxford City. I will not be bullied by any other clubs and that is why I made a big issue of the signings we have made so far. Lawford has come from Gillingham and is highly thought of as are the other signings I have made. My job is to get the team as high as possible, and I am confident that the group of players I have will do this. Any other Business Andy proposed a vote of thanks to Ray Turner for organising the Gillingham game. Meeting Closed at 8.25pm