Nest Egg Meeting 24/10/05
Before the meeting started, a minutes silence was observed in memory of Ray
Taylor. The Rochdale Hornets Independent Supportersı Association has lost an
appreciative supporter and a good mate.
The members voted to donate £100 to Hornets instead of sending flowers.
Agenda
Financial Report
Share Purchase
Nest Egg Subs
Nest Egg Shirts
Lee Birdseye
AOB
Financial Report
At the last statement, the account balance stood at £3,684.80. The end of
season auction was a great success with over £800 being raised.
With Octoberıs bank run done on Monday we have £4,545.05 in the bank.
The Balloon Race proved to be a key fundraiser, making almost £1,000. The
prize money will be converted into Euros (e70) and is being sent out this
week.
Share Purchase
As revenue is much needed in the close season, the Nest Egg has had a recent
request from the club to purchase some more shares.
It was proposed that given our current bank balance, we should invest
£2,000, which would give the Nest Egg 4,000 shares (taking our total to
16,000 shares). A recent email/phone/text vote saw 23 in favour and
tonightıs meeting saw another 12 members in favour of the proposal.
The proposal was passed unanimously and the cheque is already with Ann
Manock
Nest Egg Subs
It has been suggested that the current membership fee of £5 is too little.
Swinton charge £50 for membership of their trust.
After discussion, it was decided that £10 would be a fair amount to charge
and it would double the amount raised from basic subs .
From January 2006, the annual membership for the Nest Egg will be £10 and -
as currently - any further contributions will be classed as a donation.
Nest Egg Exclusive Shirts
Andy Birch has been making enquiries with shirt manufacturer Halbro about
having some shirts made exclusively for Nest Egg Members. Shirt will be a
red body with blue arms and white side panels. The Hornet logo and Nest Egg
will be embroidered on the front.
Shirts are £35 each and can be ordered in a range of sizes.
So far, 26 orders have been taken. Rather than waiting for everyone to pay
upfront, it was put to floor that the Nest Egg could pay the proforma
invoice for the shirt manufacture and then take back the money with the
profit - when the shirts are sold. The Nest Egg will make around £3 per
shirt.
Everyone agreed on this so the shirts can be ordered in the next few days,
with a view to them arriving before Christmas.
18 people have paid the Nest Egg will be covering the outstanding Proforma
cost which is in the region of £300
Lee Birdseye
Lee Birdseye has been out for the whole of last season with a shoulder
injury which requires an operation costing over £ 1,000. The Nest Egg has
been asked to lend Lee a proportion of the cost towards the operation. The
sum discussed was £1,000.
This lead to a number of issues being intensely discussed:
What if the operation doesnıt work? Lee wouldnıt be able to play rugby
and we would have effectively lost £1,000
If the operation did work, we would want some guarantee that he would
re-sign for Hornets
If the operation did work and he did play for us, we would require some
sort of 'legal' agreement to govern repayment of the loan.
Should the Nest Egg be used to help individuals? (past donations have
helped the club as a whole rather than certain players)
It was also pointed out that when Hornets had no-one, Lee Birdseye
committed himself to the Hornets cause and, perhaps we should recognise that
however
If the Nest Egg did loan some money, then this may set a precedent for
future injured players thinking we can help them out - which we wouldn't be
able to do. Whilst we may be able to assist in a one-off situation, we also
canıt be seen to be giving one player preferential treatment
We donıt want to be seen as a pot of money which can be taken advantage
of, the Nest Egg need to look after our own interests and the longer-term,
sutainable development of the club as a whole.
After tonight's purchase of more shares and the invoice for the Nest Egg
shirts, the release of another £1,000 would see our balance fall to below
£1,000 - the agreed minimum amount to be held on account.
It was suggested that perhaps the next fundraiser could be used to raise
the loan, but there would be no guarantee of the sum raised
It was also debated that, if Bobbie wants Lee Birdseye in his side, we
should stand behind our coachıs decision and back Bobbie as much as we can.
To decide whether we would pursue the loan request any further, a vote was
held.
12 people voted in favour of going back to the club for more information (we
would want the club to underwrite the risk with a guarantee of shares so, in
the event of the operation not working, or Lee leaving, the Nest Egg would
not lose out)
8 people voted no outright to lending of money. There were 8 abstentions.
As the majority were in favour of further discussion, Jim has spoken to Ann
and briefly outlined the Nest Eggıs position and proposals for mitigating
the risk. Our Chief Exec agrees in principal with the suggestions for an
underwritten resolution and appreciates that the loan my not be as much as £1,000.
Further discussions will be held later this week.
Whilst the Nest Egg appreciates that time is of the essence regarding having
Lee Birdseye fit for the start of the campaign, the Nest Egg does act on
behalf of - and at the behest - of our members. We are acutely mindful that
we are custodians of the supportersı money and charged with investing it
responsibly for the benefit of the club as a whole.
AOB
It was suggested that we should organise a Christmas or New Year fundraising
do at Studds Bar. A meeting of the fundraising committeeı to discuss this
further will be arranged in the next few weeks.
We will also discuss more fundraising events for next season, with the
balloon race possibly becoming an annual event.
The raffle raised a healthy £67 and took Clive far too long to fold all the
tickets!
Thanks to Rachel for burning the (almost) midnight oil on typing up her
meticulous minutes
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