2. APOLOGIES were received from Ray Whittaker and Paul Lowe.
3. OPENING REMARKS were from Trevor Lambert.
He said that the changes at the Club in mid-week, although welcome, had affected
the attendance and most supporters felt on and off the field events had moved
in the right direction. OxVox had always backed change in the way the Club was
being run and was not anti- or pro- owner, be it Kassam or Merry. Nevertheless,
the Board's task was now to find out as much as possible about the deal and
its impact upon the Club. The big question related to the long-term ownership
of the stadium and conference centre and, in the meantime, the freedom afforded
to the Club within the stadium on match days, ie advertising revenue, bar revenue.
Contact with Merry to date indicated that he was well-disposed to involving
supporters in the running of the Club.
Another supporters' organisation was in the frame to buy the Club and it ran
a feasibility study, involving OxVox, to try and find a way to formulate a bid.
This was clearly overtaken by the Merry bid. OxVox was not aware of the third
consortium referred to by Kassam on 7 February 2006.
In the follow-on discussion, Tim Rosser , aided by Martin Brodetsky, remarked
that we should not forget that Kassam remained the Club's landlord and our objective
must be to oust him completely in order for it to prosper. As to how long this
would take, reference was made to Merry's statement of an 18 month timescale.
Also, Trevor referred to 5 planning applications submitted by Firoka in the
past few weeks. All covered the sensitive area of land boundaries between the
stadium and leisure centre and ownership thereof. OxVox had recently written
to the City Council with several questions of its own in this respect.
The meeting agreed that OxVox needed to be a more assertive, forward-looking
organisation and this sat well with the Board's recent thoughts of a renaming
of the Trust along with a new logo. For the present, however, the existing name
will remain and a membership selling campaign will be undertaken in the Oxford
Mail stand to try and recruit some younger members. A regular article in the
matchday programme will be sought, a player is being sponsored and events such
as 5-a-side football will be considered.
4. PROTEST UPDATE The meeting agreed to refer to the home ground as "The
United Stadium" until such time as ownership changed and/or a sponsorship
deal came into force. The Club and media will be approached for their assistance
with this.
The march from the site of the old Manor Ground to The United Stadium, titled
The Journey 1999 to 2006 and provisionally scheduled for 8 April was postponed.
It was felt that support would be minimal in the light of recent events but
could easily be restored to the agenda from next Autumn if necessary. It had
been a useful exercise in that good contacts had been made with the police,
County Council and an insurance broker concerning public liability cover and
these could be resurrected.
5. SHOPPING LIST The meeting referred to a number of items which supporters would like to see and for the Board to negotiate with Merry. The following was mooted (but clearly cannot be a comprehensive list nor may some be possible under the present split ownership:)
Yellow seats arranged to spell out OUFC
Fixture advertising board for passers-by
Supporter's representation on OUFC Board
North Stand open to home supporters
Fixture advertising within the City
More buses to and from stadium
An OxVox travel club to replace the existing L R Club
A cash turnstile
New ticket arrangements ranging from a mini season to cheaper juniors
6. RESOLUTIONS The following resolutions were passed unanimously:
a) This meeting welcomes Nick Merry and
Jim Smith, and wishes them good luck in their short, medium and long-term objectives.
We wish to thank Firoz Kassam for his diligence in finding a suitable buyer
for the Club.
b) This meeting calls upon the former owner to relinquish his holdings in the
stadium and conference centre as a matter of urgency, bearing in mind his promise
of 7 February 2006 to not sell one without the other.
c) This meeting calls upon the new owner
of OUFC to co-opt Trust representatives to the OUFC Board and to enable all
supporters to participate in the healthy running of the Club.
The meeting closed at 9.30pm.
Chris Davis
26 March 2006