Committee present
Mike, Nathan, Derren, Pete

Committee absent.
Mark, Kev

Mike welcomed a turnout of approx 24 members to the meeting.

Tonight's raffle prize was a signed John Aldridge CD which was won by a guest.

Reminder that the minutes from the previous meetings & this meeting are published on our web site, as are some photo's of the John Aldridge function.

Ticket masters report –
During the close season Nathan will speak with the manager who looks after the branches and also the ticket office to find out why the lack of tickets and also is their an option to revert back to previous seasons process.

A suggestion that was made directly after the meeting was should members write and complain to LFC about lack of tickets for branches. This would be an individual complaint and not on behalf of the branch

Also we will contact other branches again to see what they view of the situation is.

Payment of ticket refunds will be made at the AGM.

John Aldridge function feedback

The allocated seating was a nightmare to organise, but apart from a couple of minor issues it worked out OK and will probably be repeated next year.

I think 210 would be our absolute maximum in that room - that way we have a bit of room at the back for additional tables and chairs if the seating plan goes pear-shaped.

If we do it next time, Ill try & spell Hereford properly.

Food - Next time, we could either cut down on the amount, or not bother with our top-up food.

Photography - photographer needs to be a bit more forthcoming, take lots of table photos, photos of auction winners etc.
Suggest we use an amateur photographer with no interest in LFC.

Door - needs to be locked until opening time. We had a few people infiltrate the bar, which made Benjie and Boz's jobs more difficult than they should have been. Door person ideally needs to be someone with no interest in the event, who we pay to mind the door all evening.
Bar will close at 8 prompt & reopen after speaker finishes.

Music - worked well but we need an LFC CD to end the evening.

Reflecting on what worked and what didn't, one thing is clear & that is we need to prepare more in advance and not leave stuff to last minute hence we will be asking for volunteers to form a sub committee. This will be done before Christmas giving us plenty of time to organise things.
Example is the letters to shops asking for donations. This needs to be done months in advance, not weeks so to give us more time to follow up and also try other options should the response be as poor as it was this time.

Also need to involve LFC more. We are an official branch so a request for signed items isnt outrageous.

I think the fact that John left earlier than expected caused the auction/raffle to fizzle out a bit.
Whoever we get as guest next time will need to confirm that they are prepared to stay until the agenda is finished.
Also send them an agenda well in advance so they can have an input.

John did suggest a couple of things last night which with advance notification we could have done.
Also need to know a good time beforehand, what the guest will bring with them as auction prizes, or at the very least, send him some retro shirts so he can get them signed.

We will look to have less raffle prizes but of a higher value individually.

Suggested date of Friday May 29th 2009. Nathan to contact John Aldridge reference a speaker, with Bruce Grobaalaer as an option.

Suggestion to increase ticket cost to £20 but include the cost of the raffle in with the ticket.

Mike thanked the various helpers for their hard work on the night.

The donation handed over to St Michaels Hospice was £2500 which was made up of the proceeds from the auction and the raffle.

Photographs of Nathan & Mike handed over the cheque to the hospice were sent to the journal & Hereford times as was a photo of John handing over the signed Hereford United shirt to Shells who paid £165 in the auction.

Both papers used the photo of John & Shells as it was of local interest and both papers put in a good write up.

The branch profit was in excess of £700, the majority of which was profit from ticket sales after paying John Aldridge and for the food.

Player of the season voting was carried out and was unanimously won by Fernando Torres. The vote will continue over at the AGM to see if 2 nd placed Javier Mascherano can catch on the voting.

Next months AGM (June 9th)
There will be some current members standing down & either not re-standing or re-standing for different positions so its important for everyone to turn up and cast their vote.

A suggestion was made to change the format to 4 people with the roles of Chairman, Secretary, Ticket secretary & Treasurer available.

Also a suggestion that we form a sub committee when needed for stuff like next guest speaker function.

AOB

A reminder that all members need to have fan cards if they want tickets.

Also a reminder that members need to fill out an application form to rejoin the branch in August even if they are current members.

Date of next meeting – AGM is on June 9 th

There being no other business, the meeting was closed.