Tottenham Hotspur Supporters' Trust Board Meeting Minutes July 2013

Tottenham Hotspur Supporters’ Trust Board Meeting
Thursday 11th July 2013

6.30pm – 10.00pm
The George, Liverpool Street EC2

MINUTES

---

THST Board:
Darren Howlett (Joint Chairman)
Darren Alexander (Joint Chairman)
Katrina Law (Secretary)
Ellie Kershaw

Formal apologies:
Howard Sherman (Treasurer) 


1 Board review: How the THST Board is running, problems  encountered and moving forward.
A discussion followed regarding the  responsibility of each board member and how they would work together more
effectively in future. Communication was flagged as needing improvement and the teething problems to be expected with a new Board were recognised.

 2 Board members update: Review of individual areas and  summary of key points / learnings from Q2 2013 and main focus for Q3.

Ellie Kershaw, Board member for community, discussed the ongoing projects in her area, as follows: 

 
• Stacey Mowle Appeal Online Auction: Donations of auction  items were coming in and the quality was extremely high, including contributions  from THFC. There will be a raffle with prizes valued at c £20-30, also, for  those who want to contribute but aren’t in a position to bid on the main auction  items. Deadline for auction items agreed as w/c 22 July with the auction in
  mid-August. Specific details to follow over the next 2 weeks.
• Community: Met with the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation and working on a system of matching volunteers with areas of volunteering.
• Credit Unions: Spoken with Tom Hall of Supporters Direct  and exploring the options of working with a Credit Union to offer low cost  schemes for purchasing season tickets. Also discussed a Christmas savings  initiative and moving a proportion of THST’s monies into a Credit Union’s  savings account. Fully FSA backed so completely safe and would benefit the  community. To be explored further.

Katrina Law, Secretary and Ticketing / Safety representative,  discussed the work completed in Q2 and ongoing projects for Q3, as  follows:

• Meetings with THFC re: fan safety at European Away Games and StubHub secondary ticketing market
• Meeting with AST, SOS The FSF and attendance at Supporters’ Direct meetings  and Summit 2013 regarding national campaign issues
• Meetings with social media specialists, web agencies, database build  agencies regarding marketing communications
• Key work was listed as:
  • Overseeing the build, development,
  content and launch of www.THSTOfficial.com, acting as Board lead on the project, working closely with Alan Landeryou and Rashmi Madan
  • Arranging  the licensing for the THST logo with THFC
  • Organising and promoting Working Group meeting in April and engaging with all of our volunteers on a regular
  basis – as a focus group and contributors
• StubHub: extensive research
  including Q&A with Everton’s The Blue Union ahead of meeting with club.
  Synchronising the release of our Q&A with Spurs' FAQs. Running the survey  and meeting with StubHub in July
  • Running the @THSTOfficial Twitter account.
  Now on c7,000 followers. Using partnering techniques to boost our reach further
  • Working with our Facebook and LinkedIn leads to communicate stories across all platforms
  • Ticketing: sharing application windows, deadlines, LPs, pricing via Social Media
  • Assisting with the communication of National Campaigns – lead by DA
  • Acting as media info contact for national and local press (Camden New Journal, Tottenham and Wood Green News, Ham and High, Evening Standard, Daily Mail etc.)
• Projects for Q3 2013 were mentioned, as follows:
  • Working with THFC to address the issue of application windows opening without ticket pricing  or allocation information. Suggested lobbying the Premier League to enforce a  deadline for all clubs to submit prices and allocations for all away tickets by
  early July each year. To be pursued
• Meeting with THFC to discuss and  improve the Loyalty Point system, crowd sourced questions via social media and
  will air all during the meeting on 15 July
  • Closing, analysing and presenting the StubHub survey to StubHub on 15 July. Recommending ways the deal
  could be more palatable for fans
  • Working with THFC to deck both Park Lane and Paxton Road balconies in flags next season: the start of the 'atmosphere'
  project
  • Re-skinning the website – working with our branding expert to design the look of the website. It’s functional at present but not finished in terms of look
  • Streamlining the upload process in terms of website content
  • Publishing and providing content for the site – ongoing
  • Media
  relations and PR – ongoing

Darren Alexander, Joint Chairman, discussed the campaigns THST is currently backing and, in some cases, leading:

 
• Football Without Fans Is Nothing: One of four reps for fans  selected to meet with Richard Scudamore at Premier League HQ during 19th June  protest. THST is now one of the leaders of this campaign, alongside SOS, Black  Scarf and MUST.
• Safe Standing: Developed a relationship with Jon Darch of  the Safe Standing Roadshow and has an undertaking to hold a demonstration of  rail seating at WHL on a match day next season. DA will continue to urge THFC to back the call for trials of Safe Standing, backing the FSF campaign fully
• Twenty’s Plenty: Distributed leaflets at Wigan last season  and will continue to campaign for cheaper away tickets over the next season also, backing the FSF campaign
• Also highlighted the strengthening of the relationships with Supporters’ Direct, the FSF, SOS, AST, MUST, Black Scarf: relationships he leads on behalf  of THST
• Attended meetings with the FSF, Supporters Direct, SOS, AST, The Premier  League, THFC and conducted numerous interviews for local and national press on  topics including Safe Standing, the new stadium, ticket pricing and conditions and the Trust itself.
• All of the above campaigns are ongoing for Q3. Also concentrating on THFC specific campaigns such as the Drum, the Y word and THFC’s pricing structure etc.

Darren Howlett, Joint Chairman, discussed the areas he was working on as follows:

• Scheduling the Board to Board meeting with Daniel Levy and the THFC Board  for September
• Representing the Trust to box holders at White Hart Lane and corporate sponsors
• Working with EK on various Community projects moving forward

3 Increasing the THST Board:
Agreed to ask for  ‘expressions of interest’ with a view to increase the THST Board from 5 to 7  members. EK to explore skill sets needed to plug gaps and to draft the  communications for the expressions of interest notification. Agreed one board  member should be under 25 and KL requested that one be a Bronze/ Lilywhite member as opposed to a season ticket holder for perspective.

4 Campaigns update:
National campaigns were covered  briefly – Football Without Fans Is Nothing, Safe Standing, Twenty's Plenty. No
major movement since Q1 meeting on the latter two and awaiting next steps on  #FWFIN.
Surveys: Against Modern Football and StubHub will close on 12 July.
Potential campaigns around the Y word, atmosphere including the Drum, membership survey will be followed up

5 THST Social – Quiz night 17th July:
Some tickets still available for the event. Will review events as fundraisers in the future.

6 Supporters’ Direct/ FSF Supporters Summit 2013 debrief:

DA and KL attended the two-day conference at St George’s Park at the end of June. Workshops included the role of Supporter Liaison Officers, Safe Standing, Assets of Community Value, Fan Engagement, Away Fans Matter, alongside the Summer meeting of the Premier League Group.

It was felt the Summit had been extremely useful in terms of networking,  relationship building, profile raising for THST as well as educational and informative.

7 Assets of community value (ACV):
ACVs were discussed and it was agreed to explore the options open to THST in more detail over  Q3.

8 Preparation for Board 2 Board meeting with THFC in September: 
Broadly outlined the topics forming the agenda for this meeting but will refine closer to the time as the situation is fluid on numerous issues.

9 AOB
KL ran through content for Loyalty Point meeting  and StubHub meeting on Monday 15th July.
KL ran through the Social Media policy moving forward.


The Tottenham Hotspur Supporters’ Trust Board meeting concluded at 10.00pm