Chelsea Supporters Group – Annual General Meeting Minutes
Annual General Meeting
Chelsea Supporters Group
19 November 2022 @ 15:00 hrs
Welcome and apologies
Peter Trenter, CSG Chair, opened by welcoming everyone to today’s CSG AGM online with Microsoft Teams and set out the house rules:
- Please keep your ‘mute’ button on during the meeting;
- please save all your questions until we get to AOB at the end of the meeting;
- please use the ‘hands up’ icon and I will ask you then to proceed and unmute yourself;
- The ‘hands up’ button can also be used during the meeting for any votes (proposers and seconders)
There were no apologies for absence.
Chair Report 2021/22 season
As well as regular meetings with Bruce Buck and Marina Granovskaia, Chelsea Supporters Group met with prospective purchasers of the Club, including Stephen Pagliuca and Michael Broughton, as well as current non executive directors of Chelsea FC, Barbara Charone and Daniel Finkelstein. We also have had both face to face and teams meetings with them since the takeover.
We have had ongoing meetings with various in the club regarding:
- Ticketing issues, including system, availability, West View
- Stadium improvements and eventual rebuild
- Away coach travel remaining at £10 per person and subsidised rail travel for games outside London
- Late notice of match day / kick off time changes.
- Supporters football tournament at Cobham planned to go ahead in July 2023 with a changed format (details to be announced in due course).
Fans Forum (FF) Report
Michelle Shaw has taken over as the primary CSG FF representative, which remains in the new format. MS was away for the first meeting and Michelle Brand attended in her place. There were lots of new members on the forum this season and minutes will be published in due course, when released by the club.
The second meeting each season remains the “traditional” ticketing meeting,
Website Report
PT stated that the new monthly newsletter had alone resulted in 350 sign ups, on top of the 6,100 current social media followers. Since the new website was introduced in March 2022, we have had just over 200,000 Website hits and are averaging close to 1000 hits per day with more at competition times. CSG committee to look at additional material for the website, including World Cup match reports on Chelsea players. It was agreed that all committee members would supply updated photos for the website.
Disabled Representative Report
Gill Reeves confirmed that Chelsea continue to work closely with the Chelsea Disabled Supporters’ Association and other Supporters Groups to ensure our disabled and non-disabled communities are given the same opportunities. The disabled ticketing policy continues to provide for disabled fans.
The East Stand sensory room which provides for those who find the whole stadium atmosphere difficult to cope with and means that children with autism and severe learning difficulties and their families can enjoy a game at Chelsea, continues to be an excellent addition.
This season, many disabled supporters have been unable to get match tickets via their memberships or via the ticket exchange. The new format for the ticket exchange has caused much anguish and confusion, to the extent that many disabled fans were just not bothering now.
MS will be raising this issue at the next forum. Gill confirmed that she would reach out to Chelsea regarding the issues.
Chelsea continue to support LGBT work through the matchday programme, the Chelsea website and on social media
Membership Secretary Report
LN reported that we now send membership cards out by email so have stopped incurring postage costs. The CSG committee would be looking at ways to increase membership once again. Previously the best way to raise our profile was through our advertisement in CFCUK but the editor of the Fanzine was heavily involved in the Trust, so we were no longer allowed to advertise there so we needed to look at other methods. As that is no longer the case. PT will reach out. It was also suggested that we have a new leafleting campaign.
Treasurers Report
MB produced the accounts. Thanks to our website sponsorship and CSG Member’s donation, we were breaking even and remain in the black. We do however need to think of some fundraising efforts. However our outgoings are extremely low as we no longer incur postage charges.
Media Report
MS reported that she had done many Radio 5 Live interviews this year, on a variety of subjects. She had also given interviews to the Times and to Sports Gazette.
Standing down/re-election of Committee
The Committee stood down and re stood on block: proposed by Mark Russell, seconded by Graham Reeves. Passed unanimously.
Mark Russell was proposed as Overseas Representative by Gill Reeves and this was seconded by Martin Shaw. Passed unanimously.
AOB
Ticket exchange – CSG has received numerous complaints and this has been added to the agenda for the next Forum meeting.
Bag policy for evening games – again, this has been added to the Forum agenda. We are a London club and many people work in London. They need the ability to store bags safely even if that is a paid facility.
There being no further business, the meeting then closed at 16:40 hrs
‘Chelsea Supporters Group’ can also be found on Twitter and Facebook