Notes of meeting between OxVox and OUFC on Thursday 24 May 2007

(Please note the meeting was arranged at short notice owing to impending holidays; to inform members of the discussion, we have put together this report within 24 hours of the meeting - apologies for any consequent shortcomings in formatting!)

Present:

Mick Brown, Simon Lenagan, Trevor Lambert, Neil Carter, Jenny Cuff and Chris Davis. Nick Merry and Ian Lenagan were unavailable but wished to attend future meetings.

Forum follow-up:

OxVox expressed its disappointment that the Club's presentation had not been made available to the Trust or on the web-site. The Club made a post-Forum decision not to publish, as details of much of the presentation had been passed on to many supporters. However, there has now been another re-think and an abridged version will be published by mid-June.

Youth development:

The Trust looked for re-assurance that the Club was serious about developing young players. This had not been the case over recent years as the focus had mostly been upon first team results and many safe external signings were made instead of involving younger players. The situation had now changed with the promotion of Darren Patterson and he was now in a good position to involve 17 year olds in the first team squad and was expected to forge a good working relationship with Mickey Lewis. Retention of players at and beyond age 17 will be based solely on ability and the player had to be ready for the first team squad at that point in order to justify a contract. The club felt that about 10 players who could have added value to the first team had been lost over the past 10 years. Progress reports will be sought on any aged 17 player to see if a second chance is warranted but this is expected to be unlikely as other distractions will inevitably come along.

Increasing revenue:

A list of 15 money raising initiatives (copy attached to this email) was supplied to the Club. These ideas had been brain-stormed, and the Club stated it was already looking at some of them. All of the ideas will be reviewed and further discussed. Additionally, OxVox asked for the Club's view of the Trust setting up a fund whereby money could be raised and donated to the Club in a controlled way to meet specific agreed expenditure. The Trust would also require a mandate from its members before going down this road.

The Club stated that it now had software to enable it to write to 1000 regular match attending non-season ticket holders and a further 12000 irregular match attenders. Regular e-letters to supporters will be initiated.

Future meetings:

To be arranged for mid-July and each 6-8 weeks thereafter. Another Fans' Forum would be considered for late October.

Chris Davis
Secretary
24 May 2007