DULWICH HAMLET FOOTBALL CLUB Champion Hill Stadium, Edgar Kail Way, East Dulwich, SE22 8BD Minutes of the Football Committee Meeting Held in the Boardroom, Champion Hill Stadium Thursday 2 nd March 2017 Meeting opened at 7.37pm Chairman: Liam Hickey Also present: Andy Greig; John Leahy (Vice-Chair); John Lawrence; Mishi Morath. 1) Apologies for absence: Received from Tom Cullen; Shaun Dooley; Martin Eede; George Parnavelas; Paul Griffin; Chris Taylor. 2) Minutes of last meeting: Having been previously distributed, these had been read and approved. Signed by Liam, as a true record. 3) Matters arising: There were no matters arising from the minutes.
4) Possible FA Trophy semi-final: Provisional plans had been put in place, following informal discussion between Chris, Mishi, Andy & Griff. It was agreed, that, should the semi-final be reached, the match would be all-ticket, with segregation in place, with a slightly higher than usual admission charge of 15 for adults; 5 for concessions & to introduce a 1 charge for Under Thirteens, who are usually free. This would be to cover the higher costs of staging a segregated match, and there would be no on-line sales. Liam has arranged for Danny, at Scarlett Bell printers, to be on standby, in the event of us getting a positive result at Macclesfield, with 450 tickets being allocated, printed in a different colour, to Tranmere Rovers. These would be printed on Wednesday morning & Paul Griffin would be willing to take the tickets up to Tranmere the same day, for only his travel costs, which will be much cheaper than couriering them up there. Further discussion took place regarding advance sales to our season ticket holders & Trust members, followed by the general sales; as well as the segregation issues. 5) Pricing for next season: Our owners, Meadow Residential, are looking into admission charges for next season both at the turnstiles & season tickets. Various pricings were discussed, and it was agreed that Liam would continue dialogue with Meadow, with a view to a decision being made by our next meeting. It was agreed that season tickets and pricing were a matter of priority for our next meeting. 6) Centrepoint charity match.
Primo opened by offering a vote of thanks to the excellent work around this game by George. A task he took on enthusiastically, and almost single handedly. The match raised 1,050; which was handed over by George to the Centrepoint representatives on the night, in the bar after the game. We took the decision on the night to co-sponsor the match on the night, to help reach a higher total, in the name of the Football Committee, though we chose not to publicise this, so as not to deflect away from the Dulwich Hamlet Supporters Trust, who were also sponsoring the game for 100. The cost of 80 for post-match players food & 110 in match officials fees were also covered by donations from 50/50 funds. On top of this 150 was added from 50/50 funds, to bring the total raised to a round 1,000. [The extra 50 coming when the shirts work by Junior Kadi & Kevin James were auctioned in the bar] 7) Planning Inspectorate update. Well done to the Supporters Trust, who have been very pro-active in encouraging fans to write to the Planning Inspectorate, up to the deadline in a few days time. With the dynamic of the Trust at the top it was fell this was a very positive change, with work well done on this matter. 8) Update on Club Shop profit share: The Trust have agreed to a 70/30 split of profits from their container, in lieu of them having a rent-free agreement & the licencing for any Club merchandise sold by them within the stadium. The money we receive will go toward funding the excellent DHTV service, which is growing in stature not just among our fans, but throughout the Ryman League and beyond.
We will look at signing an agreement with them, preferably some sort of contract, and Liam will contact their Chair. Al Crane about this, and deal with. 9) International Women s Day The kit is organised, when it is here we try have a social media release, in conjunction with the Trust Board, with quotes from Mel &/or Alex from the Trust, hopefully, as their lead women Board members. Football Beyond Borders to provide girl mascots for our team. The main purple kit will be auctioned off by the Trust, to raise money for the IWD charities. 10) Ryman League Kids Community Day: This is now scheduled for Saturday 25 th March, when we are at home to Billericay Town. The Ryman League are having a promotion on this day throughout the League, Mishi apologised to the meeting, as he didn t have the exact details to hand. But we already have offers out to local schools, through the on-going Schools Tickets initiatives, led by George. Mishi added that we couldn t do any fundraising for Comic Relief that day, as we had a pre-arranged collection for one of our fans, who is running the London Marathon, as mentioned at previous meetings. As an aside, whilst discussing Ryman, Andy asked if we had used our our spending allocation with Ryman. John replied that we had. 11) Kit Day: We are collecting kit for distribution in Africa, organised by Julian Chenery, who did successfully last season. This will be on Saturday 8 th April, when we are at home to Lowestoft Town.
12) Football Beyond Borders end of season charity match: This is at Champion Hill Stadium on Sunday 7 th May, and this is one of the highlights of our season-long partnership with them, as our official charity partner. They can have full use of the ground all day, and of the Club House. They will liaise with Liam & Mishi, and will meet & keep Chris informed as well. 13) Altona Inter City 125 updates: Not a lot to report, the sponsored walk to Wingate & Finchley is looking good, half of the money raised will be donated to Shelter, the national homelessness charity. Mishi will be in Hamburg at the end of May, and hopes to finalise the dates for the game, and will report back & publicise it as soon as the Committee & Gavin Rose have been told. 14) Programme sales report: John said sales had been good, especially at the Macclesfield game, which was the most sold for a few years. He will do a double issue for the Kingstonian/Havant & Waterlooville midweek. Liam brought up the possibility of doing an on-line version, which a few clubs do, in tandem with a printed copy, and will become increasingly popular, and attractive to younger fans, relevant to us with our younger demographic. He will chat to Tom about this, and the possibility of on-line sales, to see if it is practical. Liam still felt we need to push programmes more, and to move forward from the static selling point, which is in a very crowded narrow part of the ground.
John said that he printed 520 against Macclesfield, of which we had 470 on sale, which sold out. 15) Match day volunteers: The Committee all agreed that work of Pete Wright from the Trust board, in organising the volunteers rota was of a great help. The 50/50 sales in particular were increasing thanks to having secondary sellers organised by Pete. 16) Supporters Trust Liaison: Andy reported that the split of the profits from the Trust Shop had been agreed, as mentioned earlier. He asked if we could lobby other clubs, and the Ryman League, as well as the London FA, with regard to the Planning Inspectorate. Primo said that official bodies like the London FA & the League would not get involved, as they had to appear neutral and not be seen to possibly favour any member club under their jurisdiction over another, which is how it could be interpreted. There was nothing at all to prevent the Supporters Trust in their current campaign of encouraging fans contacting the Planning Inspectorate to widen that to individual clubs, or fans from other clubs, and he hoped they would do so. Andy brought up a proposal from the Trust, with regard to a possible future event. It was felt that this project was not quite suitable, and encouraged more liaison between the Community leads for both the Committee and the Trust Board, so we can all work even more strongly together, as we go forward.
Any Other Business: a) Individual Committee emails: Griff had suggested this, but the general feeling was it might be too cost prohibitive, with money better used elsewhere, at the current time. b) Club Secretary: The on-going issue of the splitting of secretarial roles was discussed. c) Boardroom help: Primo thanked Ron Strutt for his help at the Macclesfield Town match, on the Boardroom access area. d) Ryman League Presentation Dinner: This annual event is looming, and we need to look at who will be attending, and the costs. The date of the next meeting was set for Thursday 4 th April, at 7.45pm in the Boardroom. The meeting closed at 9.56pm.