Bluebirds Trust January Board Meeting Update
Bluebirds’ Trust January Update
A positive, wide-ranging meeting on the 9th of January- where there was a lot discussed by the Trust board, particularly with reference to questions supporters might have in advance of this Friday 27th January ‘Meet the Board’ night.
Firstly, Barrow AFC asked for, and we have now paid the January contribution of £20k. That means we have put 50k in this season. Andrew Monks filled us in with the Trust financial picture on 9th January:
Amounts correct as of 9th January 2023 · £42,444.52 in trust account (Now minus the 20k)
We are on target to manage our contribution needing to raise roughly 25k to be back where we started in September 2022
Total takings since June last year were £101,808.14, expenditure in that time was £86,000. The 1901 and raffle are by far biggest contributors to profits · Shop is also turning over a healthy profit. There is also some money in from the Bluebirds Lottery, which makes us about 2K a year.
Board Representative Discussion
This began with information in regards to the seating, with feedback from the supporters’ survey showing the lack of information was a considerable source of frustration. The club are finishing T&Cs with various suppliers and very close with this, announcement made, this month, hopefully before Q&A night. The planning application currently being written, ready for starting.
Members of the board made the point that even this news would be positive and would do much to quell worries.
Shop sales at their highest level ever, stock is on order (including different items), retro shirts sold out in 21 hours, more on the way. These arrived early and should have come in January, regardless sold very well. Rich Ingham suggested this be communicated to fans, as there were completely undeserved moans that they were released too close to Christmas! All felt the shop successes could be better detailed to fans, not least as it is a good news story and a real tribute to our improvements.
Showing World Cup games lost money after overheads. Club intends to persevere to try and build a following to watch other games.
Performance Centre
Frazer explained that this should not have ever been referred to as an academy in it’s present form- they had made this point on many occasions in meetings. Iain Wood has met all the coaches in the hope they will continue to the end of the season. No timescale available on academy but still ideally club plans to have one. One issue with establishing academy is getting facilities up to Barrow. The Trust board had a number for suggestions re venues.
Player News
We are working on various targets (ins and outs) but need to keep books balanced. The two main targets Newby and Feely are secured (now also Jake Young on loan). Club is in a good position on the pitch. All discussed how far we had come, on and off the park, given we are 8th in League 2 and 3k plus average crowds.
Supporter Views
These came up both in the survey review (which we have fed back already to supporters) and from board members. These raised; in a discussion with Frazer who promised to relay them to the board at the meeting prior to the ‘Meet the Board Night’. Steve expressed the hope that the club board would take on board these concerns without feeling views were unwarranted, given our good overall position.
We discussed the survey results where only 22% had agreed with the club’s decision to insist on under 15s accompanied. Frazer said he doubted this would change as it was like every other club in the EFL but would share the survey. There are strong opinions expressed. Some younger fans feeling that alleged ‘racist comments’ in the Main Stand appeared to show double standards on how issues were approached and that attitudes of some older fans were more of an issue.
There was also discussion around the fact that the Holker Street End was still restricted and was one of the most segregated in the country.
Fraser mentioned that a firm called ‘Remedi’ had been engaged to work with young people on positive behaviour. All thought the club should communicate this better as it was positive news the club should communicate.
Later, Chris Lloyd brought up that the ‘Main Stand incident’ had led to the alleged perpetrator having no case to answer.
The fan involved has written a letter. FS said the club were never involved, always a police matter, CL pushing for statement from club, other members concerned this will stir things back up again. FS will speak to club about this.
Trust Travel
Chris Taylor gave an update. Small profits made on trips to Bolton and Salford, small losses made on Stevenage and Mansfield · Overall we are £57.70 down on the season.
Free under 16s costed at £8040 over 15 trips. Rich suggested this was double the figure raised from sponsorship, although SH reminds us we are still due £1000 from Cumbria Community Foundation sponsorship from council and other sources which he is chasing. £1600 raised from fundraising in the summer also. Also, the figure is notional in order to quantify funding needs, not accounting. The survey responses re the travel scheme are very positive.
The survey raised questions of if we should restrict free accompanied U16s to just families. RI thought this was the original intention of the offer and felt it was getting out of hand. Everyone agrees that it is not sustainable to have this many free travellers next season but SH reminded the board that as ISC or Trust we have never sought to make profit from the buses (although nice when we do), we should strive to break even.
Chris Taylor suggested introducing a small fee for any U16 who travels (suggests £5 for northern games, £10 for southern) and we make membership mandatory for coach travel. All in agreement that we should introduce some kind of nominal charge from next season.
Members
RI presented an update on Trust membership. We currently have 766 members, including 79 child members. This is still short of the 899 from last year but we are expecting some renewals in the coming months. There was one problem with membership over Christmas eventually resolved.
Community Trust
In the survey, there had been some confusion; in regards to the new Community Trust; this is an entirely different organisation to our trust with different goals and aims – RI once again suggests club should clarify this difference clearly to minimise confusion. FS asserted this is be more easily done when it is set up and has someone running it.
Community Trust is progressing slowly, there are many hoops to jump to meet the PFA funding which was retained by the outgoing organisation.
Maintenance
CT reported the food hut in the HSE up and running. In the upstairs lobby, we have had to repaint the walls with ‘anti-mould/condensation paint’ this is a common problem in there, unsure how to deal with this. FS suggested extractor fans in areas like the galley might help. Other requests from the survey passed on to the club, including the request for a safety rail behind the directors’ box.
Fundraising
After discussion, we settled on three events before the end of the season. After some post meeting work, this will start with a Games Night in The Ambrose on February 24th from 7pm. There will also, be a Poker Night and a Race Night, hopefully at the Cross Bar.