On Monday, February 20th, 66 members attended the first general fan meeting of the year. The welcome was warm as always as Ronnie Johnson ensured he got himself round everyone welcoming them and thanking them for coming along as well as taking time to listen to people’s conversations. Ronnie opened the meeting thanking all the fans overall for coming and explained the meetings itinerary. The agenda included welcoming two new board members, discussing the supporter liaison group, providing an update on ground improvements, and allowing for a Q&A session. Also, in Ronnie’s opening speech he shared the exciting news our memberships have tripled since last season with now over 600 BUFC Members. This blog post serves to inform members who were unable to attend and keep them up to date with the latest news coming out from the club.
New board welcome
Ronnie Johnson welcomed two new board members, Phil Rabiotti and Claire Dumbreck, to the club. Claire brings with her 25 years of experience in marketing, communications, and public relations and a passion for Banbury United since watching their FA Cup match on the BBC in 2020. Her goal is to increase attendance and commercial interest, as well as better connecting the Banbury community and the junior section to the club. Additionally, Phil has been involved with the club in a commercial capacity for the past 6 months, and now joins the board with a strong desire to help grow the community club on the pitch and in Banbury and the surrounding areas. It is my opinion that these two new board members are well-positioned to help the club progress, and I am delighted that they are investing their time and energy into Banbury United.
Supporter liaison
The football club has realised the importance of having a strong supporter liaison to better facilitate communication between fans and the board. To that end, Craig Whittingham has joined Brain Baker as fan liaisons. Brian has been in the post for many years and is a well-respected and great man as he engages with all the fans regardless if your young or old and is always there to listen. Craig has a long history with the club, having done several volunteer roles such as running the turnstiles and managing the club's social media pages.
Craig and Brian’s plans are to hold regular meetings with the board to discuss issues and questions from the fans and create an action group for fans to contribute positive ideas for improvement. They are also setting up a variety of social media accounts to communicate with fans and provide them with an easy way to contact him. His ultimate goal is to create a bigger voice for the supporters and make sure that those in charge have regular feedback of what the fans want.
With Craig's long association with the club, deep understanding of the fan base, and excellent communication skills, he is perfectly suited to this role and will be an invaluable asset to the club.
Ground Improvements.
At the last Annual General Meeting in November, it was determined that the club must reach a capacity of 3,000 and install 500 seats by March 31st in order to be eligible for the playoffs. Fortunately, the groundwork for the 250-seat stand has already been laid and it is now ready to be installed. The stand will cost the club 65,000 and the club is looking into various crowdfunds and other fundraising methods to help with the cost. The club has also contacted the Football Foundation for a sport grant fund to support this, as the stand is a long-term asset that can be transferred to a new ground in the future. Although this is a significant investment, it will be a great asset to the club.
Ronnie Johnson has been working hard over the past few months to negotiate a lease agreement with Tilstones, the property developers who own the Spencer Stadium, which was looking bleak at the start of the year. However, Ronnie's hard work and charm has paid off as Tilstones have now offered the club a one-year lease starting in July. Ronnie is currently trying to push for a two-year lease to give the club more midterm security, but this is yet to be confirmed. As a result, the club will not be able to remain at the Spencer Stadium for the long-term and has now begun plans to move to a new ground opposite the Rugby club on the Oxford Road. The new ground will incorporate the John Nicholls stand, the puritan radio stand, the new 65k stand and the floodlights from the Spencer stadium, giving it a familiar feeling in a new environment. Furthermore, the council, the club and Tilstones are keen to make the new ground a thriving district with multiple pitches, a 3g pitch and a new housing community area. Although there is limited information on the new ground for the long-term, in the short term the Banbury skip, and plant hire stadium will meet the National league north stadium requirements and the club will remain at the ground for at least one more year.
Q/A
The members of the club have proposed that the club increase its social media presence to create a positive ripple effect on attendance figures. To this end, they have suggested the recruitment of a college media student to provide regular updates about games and up-to-date information about player arrivals and departures. The board have agreed that the social media presence needs to be improved; however, they are limited by the time they are able to devote due to their other commitments. This means the club are on the lookout for a dynamic, engaging and committed volunteer to add new life into the social media accounts across all platforms. If this is something that interests you, please do contact the club or Craig and Brian as they will be more than willing to support you in this.
Fans were questioning whether the outgoing of the stand would affect the playing budget. The board responded with a definitive "No," citing that they are looking into securing naming rights for the stand as well as planning fundraising events. However, they also explained that they had a top-half budget in the league, which for me is confusing given the five loans under the age of 21 and the small squad of roughly 15 players signed on. When compared to the other teams, some of which are full-time, hybrid, and part-time with much bigger budgets, it is difficult to understand how the club's budget could be considered top-half.
Lastly, following the departure of Rory Shadbolt, Colm Tucker has assumed responsibility for the community side of the club, with Lisa Dixon as the board lead on this area of the club. Lisa has done an exemplary job in obtaining a modest national league funding grant, which will be a great asset as Colm has extensive experience, in addition to holding a high-level coaching badge which can be a mixture for success.
Overall, the meeting was a success as it is great news about the new stand, and the election of the board members and supporting liaison.
I will end this blog in exactly how Ronnie ended the meeting.
❤️WE ARE UNITED.💛
Thank you for reading📖
UTP
Spencer Reds.❤️💛
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