MEMBERS MEETING 24TH JUNE 2005 - PART TWO

[GazzaBTFC]

Following part one of the Members meeting and forum, Steve Kent, Billericay Town Football Club Chairman then went on to inform those members that were present about what the fund raising will go towards.

 

Ground Improvements

 

These are a priority. "We can apply for grants from the Football Foundation but they are restrictive and long winded and the current maximum is 50% of the cost of the improvements. In that light, we have to be sure that we can fund the other 50%".

 

Steve continued, "There are smaller jobs that can be done. Jobs that will improve the ground. If any of you have a trade that can be applied to helping the club on a small scale, please let us know. if we get 100 small projects completed, it would be the same as completing one major improvement to the ground. Any help, small or large will be aprreciated by everyone who come to this club".

 

Enjoy Match Days

 

On this subject Steve touched on the need for volunteers to help out on match days. "As we increase our numbers, we have struggled at times to look after the crowd. We sometimes struggle to deal with parking and traffic, both motorised and pedestrian. We have an obligation to both the league and spectators to make the trip to this club a safe and enjoyable one".

 

Steve than went on to ask for

 

1) Match day stewards.

2) Traffic controllers.

3) ground cleaners.

4) 50/50 ticket sellers.

5) Various other fund raising.

 

Steve understood that these jobs were "mundane jobs but if we get enough people to help, these jobs can be done on a rota basis and the commitment wouldn't be for every game". But, he continued, "if we don't get volunteers, the club will be restricted by either facilities or funds as we will have to pay for stewards and / or cleaners and that will have an effect on the funds available for ground improvements and strengthening the team".

 

Projects

 

Steve asked that "if anyone can arrange a function, on either a one off or a regular basis, please come and speak to someone at the club. Anything, a treasure hunt, 5 a side football tournament, anything that would raise the profile of the club and raise funds, please come forward".

 

"But, he cotinued, " what we want is helpers, helpers with ideas. What we don't want is ideas with no help".

 

Programs

 

Steve praised the program and the efforts of Ryan who produced it for last season and went on to reveal that, "anyone who didn't see the Leyton program (play off game), let me tell you that it was a vast improvement of what we had before. It used the latest digital technology and was very professional".

 

The new format will allow us to have full colour adverts one game at a time. An example would be if a car dealer wanted to take a page for one match every month, he could do so and change his advert to show the change in his stock for the coming month.

 

This could also be used to advertise special events. An example of the cost is £40 for a half page.

 

Kit Sponsorship (Player Sponsorship)

 

This starts at £50 but if there is another interested party you can be moved to the top by increasing the bid. whoever pledges the most amount by the eve of the second game of the season will be the kit sponsor for that player for the rest of the season.

 

Any player without a kit sponsor after the second game will revert back to £50.

 

Special Jobs

 

Kit Man - Jobs intails, collecting the kit for all 1st team matches and for away games taking the kit to games. This can be a job for two people.

 

Man Friday for the U18's

 

This can be a little more demanding but a very rewarding job. This would include looking after the officials, corner flags, arraging the offials tea, player sandwiches. This job is not a "gofor" job but someone who can organise and liase with the youth team manager ment on a Thursday evening as to the requirements of the team for the coming game.

 

Hit The Net

 

A scratch card golden goal that will last all season. It works the same as a golden goal card but you keep it all season and costs £10. The winner is the one who matches the time of the first home goal scored to the minute of his or her card. The prize would be £10 but you keep the card and could win more during the season.

 

Steve asked "for people to help sell the tickets. If 50 people sold 10 cards it would raise £3,500 for the club."

 

To finsih his speech, Steve said that "he was learning the being a Football club Chairman has nothing to do with football. Running a club is about providing a venue that people will want to keep coming back to every week" and that he would "continue to push the limits, continue to ask for help, continue to ask for money and that everyones efforts will be for the benefit of our club, Billericay Town football Club".