OXVOX MEMBERS’ MEETING ON SATURDAY 16 AUGUST 2008 

Present:  26 adult members, 1 junior member and 1 non-member.

E-zine:  All members present confirmed they had received the first issue and were able to open the articles. All were happy with the style and method of issue, and accepted that some membership information held on the database needed to be corrected. 

Survey:  Trevor Lambert referred to the handout which summarised the results. The principal answers were as follows: 

      a) The acquisition of the stadium and conference centre is the way forward for OUFC… but at a  lower price than £13m - 82.5% 
      b) There is concern about mounting Club losses and clarification required of future financial  strategy - 94.4% 
      c) Club to adopt a more cautious level of spending - 55.2% 
      d) The Youth Development system is important to the Club’s future - 94.3% 
      e) The end of the wage cap is not in itself a green light to increase the playing budget - 72.8% 
      f) Current perception of the state of the Club - 41.8% OK and 39.7 % weak 
      g) Confidence in Club improving its commercial activity - 36.6% confident, 31.4% neutral and  32% not confident
      h) Confidence Club will improve its playing performance - 71.5% were positive 
      i) Confidence in Club improving its financial performance - 52.6% were negative and 35.9% were neutral 
      j) Confidence in Club improving its performance at Board level - 47.2% were neutral and 38.4% were negative
      k) Likelihood of the team winning promotion in 2008/09 - 47.4% said likely whilst 28.4% were neutral
      l) The committee proposed that the Trust should sponsor a player in 2008/09 - 80.1% agreed 
      (James Clarke was the highest scoring player among those listed for sponsorship and the committee elected to sponsor his away shirt prior to the meeting) 
      m) Support for the Trust setting up a Corporate Partner Scheme - 87.4% were in favour 
      n) Funds generated from m) to be split between Youth Development and a Trust deposit account for future share purchase - 65.1% agreed whilst 16.3% specified Youth Development only
      o) 58% of responders were aware of discounts to Trust members from certain local businesses but could not recall the details whilst 17% had no idea discounts existed. A total of 91.6% had not used any of the discounts in the past 6 months.

       Comments made to elaborate some of the answers centred around the rising debt burden and the lack of a reserve team.  

At this point, Barry Phillips joined the meeting and spoke for a few minutes. He wished to  thank the Trust for its player sponsorship and remarked on his job of trying to raise money both for the Club and for Youth Development/FITC, the latter having separate bank accounts and trustees to manage its money. 

He also elaborated on Nick Merry’s role as Chairman where he said that he would wish to remain in the background unless or if there was any significant news to announce about the Club. The  alternative was for him to address groups of people but be unable to say anything of any note other than be appreciative of people’s support or sponsorship. 

This produced various comments from the meeting and all of them queried the Chairman’s role as he reportedly saw it. At a time when the Club’s finances were being stretched it was felt complacent for the Club‘s Board to take supporters and sponsors for granted. The channels of communication needed to be kept open with all of those who supported the Club. Barry Phillips was thanked for attending and for his part in involving the Trust for the benefit of the Club, and also asked to take back the meeting’s concern about the Board’s apparent reluctance to communicate. 

Barry Phillips left the meeting at this point and there followed further examples of members who had not been re-invited to sponsor players for 2008/09, nor satisfactory completion of last season’s sponsorship deals. The issues would be taken up individually with Barry Phillips, who had appeared to have made progress since taking up his post on 1 July, and the meeting agreed to carry on with its own agenda.

Corporate Partners: Simon Bradbury reported that 47 invitations had been issued and 5 companies had committed themselves to Gold or Silver packages developed by the Trust resulting in £825 income (sec note: income when we receive it.) In addition, the Trust had obtained a lifelong member from the exercise. 

The meeting agreed it had been an encouraging start. Those businesses which had not responded will be re-approached and further new local business partners sought. 

Attention turned to other schemes such as a match day lottery and a goal pledge scheme.  Furthermore, the meeting recommended that contact be made with Stockport County Fans’ Trust  for their advice on money-making initiatives, particularly as their Trust ran the football club and remained solvent whilst renting their ground and winning promotion last season. 

Next Members’ Meetings:  20 September and 1 November (when Denis Smith is scheduled to attend having recently completed his autobiography.)  

Chris Davis
Secretary
16 August 2008