August’s Board Meeting Summary

The Dons Trust Board (DTB) held its regular monthly meeting at the Cherry Red Records Stadium on Thursday, August 10. Ahead of publication of the redacted minutes, this article summaries the main points that were discussed.

This meeting started with apologies for absence from Nigel Higgs and Erik Samuelson.  Matt Breach  (the DTB Chair) opened the meeting noting that the draft minutes from July’s Board meetings had only been circulated earlier this week, so that DTB members had not had adequate time to consider them. Comments are to be made to Matt Breach as soon as possible and he undertook to circulate draft minutes earlier in the future.

In Erik Samuelson’s absence Matt Breach ran through the FCB and New Stadium Status Reports, as at 4 August, that were submitted to the board in advance of the DTB meeting.  This reported that Merton, Galliard and AFCW are continuing to make progress on the final parts of the Development Agreement.

David Growns provided an update on the integration of the new CRM system. There have been 2000 registrations to date, which is considered a good response rate. David will be hosting a CRM clinic in the Dons Trust Kiosk at the Doncaster game for anyone who has any questions or is having any problems signing up.

It was noted that Erik will be missing the September DTB meeting.  Mick Buckley will be invited to represent the FCB, and additionally the newly appointed Foundation Director will be invited to attend to meet the DTB.

The board discussed options for filling the vacancy on the board created by Matt Spriegel’s resignation from the youth engagement portfolio.  The board agreed that a further co-option was the correct solution and that one of the previous shortlisted candidates should be approached.  Matt Breach asked the board if there are any other areas of the board they should consider for co-option and they discussed LGBTQ representation, fundraising, marketing and communications.  The board agreed that there should be workstreams for these areas and at present no further co-option beyond replacing Matt is planned.

The board discussed the results of the membership, election and ethical surveys. There were good response rates to the membership and ethical surveys but a poorer response rate for the election survey. It was agreed that a summary of the results from the surveys would be shared at the upcoming SGM and Colin Dipple will prepare a programme article on the results of the Membership Survey for publication after the SGM.  Tom Brown will circulate the election survey data to the DTB and Election Steering Group (ESG) for comment; it was noted that only changes to the process that do not require any amendments to the constitution could be implemented for the 2017 election.

Under any other business the board discussed the organisation of the secretariat.  It was also agreed that safeguarding be on the agenda for the October board meeting.  Jane Lonsdale called for a volunteer from the board to organise the Junior Dons 2017 Christmas Party as well as for AFCW player attendance at outside community events to be formally recognised and encouraged.  Tim Hillyer noted that he has been co-opted back onto the Supporters Direct Board.  He will also introduce Martin O’Hara, Deputy Chair of the FSF and secretary of the Supporters’ Cooperative, to DTB members at the Doncaster game.

Present from the Dons Trust Board were: Matthew Breach, Mark Davis, Colin Dipple, Roger Evans, David Growns, Tim Hillyer, Jane Lonsdale and Sean McLaughlin. Apologies were received from Nigel Higgs.