S.A.F.E. MEMBERS' MEETING AND EXTRAORDINARY GENERAL MEETING
held on Saturday, 22 December 2001
S.A.F.E. (Save Altrincham's Football Existence) is the Altrincham F.C. supporters' association. PLEASE NOTE THAT THESE ARE NOT THE OFFICIAL MINUTES AND SHOULD NOT NECESSARILY BE TAKEN AS REPRESENTING THE VIEWS OF S.A.F.E., ITS MEMBERS OR OF ALTRINCHAM FOOTBALL CLUB. MOREOVER, THEY ARE AN ABRIDGED ACCOUNT OF THE FULL MEETING.
S.A.F.E.
If you are reading this page and are not already a S.A.F.E. Member, why not join up? It only costs £3 and as well as hearing from S.A.F.E. and from the Club's officials at first-hand at meetings such as this, receiving periodic newsletters, and getting the chance to aid the Club in its financial plight, you will also qualify for cheap travel to away games. Sign up at the S.A.F.E. cabin on any match day or write to S.A.F.E. c/o the Club at Moss Lane, or use this membership form.
OPENING STATEMENT
About 40 fans were in attendance at the meeting in the Noel White Suite. The Meeting was chaired, at short notice, by Alan Brotherton (AB) who handed over to Rob Muir (RM) to make a short statement. RM indicated that S.A.F.E. Chairman, Peter Read, was not in attendance and that this was because he was considering his future in that role. RM went on to indicate that the first element of the meeting would be the EGM (Extraordinary General Meeting) which had been called to discuss the proposed new S.A.F.E. Constitution. He pointed out that all members had been sent the December S.A.F.E. Newsletter and that notice of the meeting had also appeared in the SAM newspaper as well as on the website. AB then underlined that the S.A.F.E. Committee was a voluntary body made up of people with many other commitments. The Committee tried to be open and regularly invited anyone who was interested to join it. Ten minutes were set aside for members to read the proposed Constitution
E.G.M. ON A REVISED CONSTITUTION
A question from the floor asked for clarification about the process of nomination for the S.A.F.E. representative on the Club Board. It was pointed out that this appointment was ultimately at the discretion of the Club Board. It was agreed that any nominee must previously have served on the S.A.F.E. Committee for at least a year. Nominees could be proposed by the Committee or by any member and a seconder, who was also a member.
QUERIES ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL PROPOSALS
The floor was handed to Alan Johnson (AJ), who had written to members of the S.A.F.E. Committee before the meeting, raising a number of points concerned with the proposed revised Constitution. Amongst the points raised by AJ were the following:-
Constitution: AJ pointed out that his comments were not intended as a criticism of any one member nor of the whole of the S.A.F.E. Committee, but were aimed at improving the draft new constitution. AJ felt that the constitution was the most important document of any organisation and he believed that the old, as well as the new, constitution should have been readily available to members so that comparisons could readily be made. AB replied that there was neither Committee time nor the funds to mail each member of S.A.F.E. with personal copies of the full text of the proposed Constitution but that, in the Newsletter, members had been offered copies if they contacted S.A.F.E.. RM indicated that he had done his best to circulate everyone but that he could not send a full constitution to everyone; his offer to resign if members felt this was unsatisfactory was not taken up.
Communication: AJ confirmed that he was happy with the way that S.A.F.E. was run but he reiterated that the revised constitution should have been circulated more fully. AB indicated that if members were unhappy with the Committee, it would resign but such a move was not supported from the floor. AB indicated that the meeting would now address the proposed changes to the Constitution.
Name: AJ's proposal that S.A.F.E. be described as the "official" supporters' association was rejected on a show of hands, as was a suggestion that the Club did not represent the town of Altrincham. AJ was unhappy with some of the aims of S.A.F.E. as stated in the draft. After some debate, the text as proposed by the Committee was approved by the meeting. There was then a narrow vote against a requirement for the Committee to write to every member individually about meetings.
Votes: It was agreed that a member could appoint another member as a voting proxy so long as written and signed notification of this was sent to the Committee by the member requiring a proxy.
Exiles: After some discussion, it was agreed that the Exiles should nominate a S.A.F.E. Committee representative.
AGM Date: The assistant Club Chaplain, Rev. Jeremy Tear, queried the dates of future AGMs.
Terminations of Membership: AJ proposed that there should be an appeal process if someone was excluded from membership. It was agreed that it should be made clear that this clause was aimed chiefly at members who might misbehave at matches and bring the club or S.A.F.E. into disrepute.
Next Step: AB indicated that the comments raised would be taken away and that there would be another meeting to finalise the revised Constitution. This would probably be, as suggested by Jacqui Forster, combined with the 2002 AGM. The EGM was declared closed.
MEMBERS' MEETING
The Members' Meeting then commenced.
AB reported that the Christmas Prize Draw would take place in the bar at 5.30pm on 26th December after the Hyde game. No tickets would be accepted without simultaneous payment.
AB also indicated that S.A.F.E. supporters' coaches would run to the away games at Bishop Auckland (29/12/01) and Hyde (1/1/02). It was underlined that the Hyde away game was an evening kick-off.
It was confirmed that Mark Eckersall had written to Burton Albion on behalf of S.A.F.E. concerning a post-match incident recently, when the supporters' coach was slightly damaged by local hooligans. It was believed that Burton were to publish a statement about this in their Boxing Day programme. Mark Harris confirmed that the Club itself had not written to Burton about this matter. Relations between the supporters of both Clubs were said to be excellent - the trouble had been caused by known local troublemakers.
The recent Race Night had raised in excess of £500, though attendance had been disappointing, partly because of a clash with the Club Dinner.
A Football Card, organised by AB at the Darlington game, had raised £80 as the winner, Isabel Riley, had donated her winnings back to S.A.F.E..
From the floor, a statement of confidence in the S.A.F.E. Committee was approved by acclamation as was another statement from the floor that the Club was now running its affairs in a sound manner.
Mark Harris (MH), Chairman of Altrincham FC, was then given the floor. He reiterated that the recent FA Cup winnings had all been earmarked but that they had helped to pay off a large tax bill. He praised the fans and the players saying "we are all in this together". Whilst there were still debts, "the gap was now closer" between income and liabilities. MH indicated that weekly outgoings had been trimmed by about £2,000 a week compared with last season. Stan Riley suggested that Club income could rise if some money were invested in new players and Mark agreed with this.
Asked about a Supporters' Trust, MH indicated that there were still no shares available for a Trust, though this would be debated at the forthcoming Club AGM. Rob Muir indicated that a Trust was not feasible as we did not have the level of commitment necessary to make one work.
Asked by AB if the Club would try to get the UniBond Cup format changed, MH said that it had tried to do so last year but the smaller clubs had outvoted our and Hucknall's proposals for a knock-out competition.
The Exiles' coordinator, Jacqui Forster, indicated that she had badges and CDs available to raise funds variously for the proposed shelter at Moss Lane for disabled Alty fans, for the Graham Heathcote testimonial and for the Exiles. Anyone wishing to purchase these may contact Jacqui by e-mail.