The Dons Trust Board (DTB) held its regular board meeting on 11 December as a conference call due to poor weather conditions and transport issues preventing the board from meeting in person. Ahead of publication of the redacted minutes, this article summarises the main points discussed.
The meeting was attended by DTB members Matthew Breach, Mark Davis, Tim Hillyer, Colin Dipple, Jane Lonsdale, Nigel Higgs, Sean McLaughlin, David Growns; DTB member elect Cormac van der Hoeven and DT Secretariat members Tom Brown and Hannah Kitcher.
Apologies were received from Roger Evans, Charles Williams and Erik Samuelson.
The call was chaired by Mark Davis who attended the last FCB meeting and ran through the FCB report in the absence of Erik. The report discussed ticketing arrangements for the FA Cup third round tie against Tottenham Hotspur. AFCW have been allocated 7,700 tickets (£5 for children and £10 for adults), with no allocation of Club Wembley tickets. The FCB had decided to pass on their views on ticket prices to Tottenham, although the final decision would be Tottenham’s. The announced cost of tickets for children is in line with FCB views, but the cost of adult tickets is lower than the FCB had suggested. The FCB are exploring options for fans who wish to donate extra to the club; this was welcomed by the DTB who noted that several DT members had provided feedback (via Webjam, email and verbally) that they thought the tickets were relatively cheap and would be happy to donate a further one-off sum to the club if it were an option.
A Volunteer Liaison Officer VLO has now been appointed into a voluntary position at the club.
Mark provided an update on the stadium. The DTB formally voted in favour to authorise the signing of the S106 and development agreement. These agreements are to be signed on Wednesday with representatives from the DTB attending.
David Growns then ran through a paper he had prepared on Dons Trust data and the Data Protection Act. David had conducted a survey of where membership data is going and what used for to ensure it is secure. The paper discusses how the DT should be looking after the membership data, both now and in line with the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) becoming law in May. Some of the longer-term solutions rely on DT membership information moving on the CRM which is currently scheduled for February. David will return to the January DTB meeting to discuss GDPR as it was agreed by the board that as such an important topic it was not possible to do it justice in a conference call.
The board then discussed the upcoming DT AGM scheduled for Thursday 21 December. In a slight change from the usual approach caused by the late delivery of the PLC accounts, the DTB will ask DT members to authorise the DTB to review the AFCW PLC accounts and, if appropriate in the light of that review, to cast the Trust’s votes in favour of approving the PLC accounts at its Annual General Meeting.
The DTB reviewed the election paper provided by the Election Steering Group and will be taking its considerations on board. The DTB thanked the ESG for their help and work on this years’ election.
Under AOB the DTB thanked David Growns for his seven years of service (five as vice-Chair) on the Dons Trust Board, with David stepping down after originally being voted onto the DTB in early 2010. It was noted that he had put huge amounts of effort into improving communications within the Club and DT, including being a major driving force behind the new CRM.