Notes of OxVox meeting on Monday 11 August 2008 

Present:   Trevor Lambert, Neil Carter, Graham Hilsdon, Bob Scholes, Jenny Cuff, Simon Bradbury, Matthew Derbyshire, Graham Cripps and Chris Davis. Barry Phillips was welcomed as a guest to the meeting. 

Apologies for absence: Tim Rosser. 

Matters arising:  

a) Members’ meetings have been arranged for 16 August, 20 September and 1 November at 1.15pm in The Landmark Suite.  The final date has been set aside for the Denis Smith event. 

b) Chris Williams will be approached about the Trust writing a frequent programme article about its activities.

c) The Trust has been trying to secure a meeting with Nick Merry and Ian Lenagan to understand the short and medium term plans for the Club as it moves into its third season of the BSP. An interim response has been received from the Chairman.

d) The new E-zine had been sent to members. The Trust’s CRM system appeared to be effective in that it can tell which member had opened the e-mail and which articles had been read.  There remained a big editing job to amend certain details such as type and term of membership due to some information being imported incorrectly. 

Discussion moved to the Club’s own CRM system and Barry explained that one of his tasks is to use the output to identify non-renewers of season tickets and to try and maximise ticket sales of all kinds through a better understanding of customers’ needs.  

Trust Survey analysis: The results were circulated and the details appended. The information will be aired at the forthcoming members’ meeting. As the members voted in favour of sponsoring a player, the decision was taken to sponsor James Clarke prior to the meeting whilst his name was still available at a cost of £275 +VAT. 

OUFC/Trust partnership:  Various outlets had been visited with more to come and most were pleased to display fixture cards and wall-planners. Barry would also organise a sponsored A4 size 3-fold leaflet.  

The committee explained that this venture had failed in 2003 and 2005 and emphasised the need for the Club to write to the outlets early thanking them for their co-operation and informing them of the offers that were available from the Club. The committee repeated a comment made at an earlier meeting that the Club occasionally took its sponsors and supporters for granted and that it needed to keep all lines of communication open with those who handed over money or offered free advertising space. 

At this point, Barry mentioned that after several months with no Sales and Marketing Manager at the Club it was clear he had a mountain to climb to retain and reassure all past and present sponsors and supporters. He felt he was making headway and had had partly successful negotiations with Firoka. Nevertheless, it had since “snowed on top of the mountain!” 

Commercial Partners:  A total of 47 invitations had been sent out and we have received 7 replies so far. Of those, 5 companies had committed themselves to advertising with the Trust . This will bring in £875 and invoices had been despatched. (1 of the 7 replies resulted in the Trust picking up a lifetime member.)  

Barry indicated that the list of Trust sponsors could be included in the match day programme particularly as the Club (and, indeed, OxVox) could benefit in the longer term.

Members’ meeting: An invitation will be posted on TiU inviting non-members to come along this Saturday with a view to joining the Trust. The agenda will be to discuss the recent Trust survey results, expand upon our new Commercial Partners scheme and the E-zine issue. 

Membership 500: There was minimal information to report. Nevertheless, there were 3 urgent tasks as follows: 

a) Contact all standing order members to inform them of the value of the 3-year £15 deal instead of £10 for 1 year.

b) Re-approach others whose membership expires on 30 September 2008.

c) Aim to pick up new members both at Saturday’s members’ meeting and at the Woking fixture where the idea of a “tailgate picnic” as advocated on forums seemed to be gathering momentum.

Other fundraising: These included a goal pledge scheme, a prediction league and a donations scheme but were not discussed due to a shortage of time. 

Date of next meeting: Monday 8 September 2008. 

Any other business: An attempt will be made to capture the interest of the Polish community living in Oxford. Posters were being drawn up and will be taken to Polish owned shops/restaurants. 

Chris Davis 
Secretary
12 August 2008