The latest meeting of CUSG was held in the Pioneer Stand offices on Monday 9 July.
Attendance - Simon Clarkson (Chair, London Branch), John Kukuc, Alastair Woodcock (CUOSC), Kate Rowley, Keith Elliott (CUSAT), Barry Carter (Disabled Group), Nigel Clibbens, Amy Nixon, Andy Hall (CUFC)
Apologies - John Ireland (West Cumbria Travel), Jim Mitchell (CUOSC), Keith Ward (Scottish Supporter), Nigel Dickinson (CUFC)
The minutes of the last meeting were accepted.
Position of the chair - Simon Clarkson unanimously nominated to continue as chair of the group for the next 12 months.
Club updates
Season ticket sales - Latest total sold is 1,803, down from a comparative figure of 2,020 at the same stage last season. Simon floated the idea for a season ticket 'collection' event, whereby ST holders could collect their tickets from the ground before they are posted out.
Manager Q&A event on July 23 - To be streamed live by CUFC on Facebook. John Sheridan and football staff will attend. Focus on football matters. Adrian Bell to host. Doors open 6.30pm
A further fans' forum will be held later in the year, to be attended by 1921/Holdings directors. Date and time to be confirmed (target is early September).
Commercial post - Club is re-structuring internally and Jenny Anderson is to take over as commercial manager, in the short term.
Fun Day - Brought forward to 10am, to help accommodate those wanting to watch the World Cup Final. Players will attend from 11am. No training session at request of the manager. Players will sign autographs, and mingle with public.
Fan Zone - A further trial run of the Fans Zone will take place before the Bradford City home friendly.
Scoreboard - A meeting had been held today with the supplier to further discuss this. Contract negotiations still ongoing. The scoreboard would carry advertising with a set amount of time allocated to the club.
Maintenance - Some external and internal repainting and internal improvements to increase bar seating capacity had been carried out. Volunteers would be welcome to do further painting and decorating jobs on the west side of the ground. The club planned to clean seats and seated areas. 'A' Stand would not be used, except where capacity was required, with Community Scheme tickets moved to Section 8 of Pioneer.
Attendances for next season were being estimated at around last season's average.
A mobile phone mast outside the ground had been relocated.
The new playing kit was expected to be available at the end of July, according to Umbro's estimate.
A question was asked about pre-season friendlies. Nigel C said the club's current policy is to try and host a summer concert and one home friendly each year.
Flags - 'Guard of Honour' flags were being sourced, to be used by Junior Blues on match days. Some financial support via sponsorship (£450 for the season) was being sought. Twenty double-sided flags would be bought. Firms sponsoring flags would get some branding on them.
GDPR - CUFC are continuing to build numbers back up after asking fans to opt back in to receiving emails from the club. The club will send more emails once IT upgrades from the EFL are in place. CUOSC had modified their membership forms to seek permission to share data with CUFC.
Programmes - The club has a new deal with H&H Reed in place to print 16-page fold-out match preview for each game next season. These are expected to be sold at £1.50 each. Ideas welcome for a name to be used.
Sunset Suite memorabilia
Plans for this were well advanced. Simon would see a framer this week to discuss the style/colour to be used. Some samples should be in place for the Q&A event on the 23rd. The plan was to have large frames containing items pertaining to different eras and a separate focus on managers.
Finances
Unchanged at £897.29 in the bank. Some contribution will be made towards the cost of installing items of memorabilia in Sunset.
Group Updates
CUOSC - AGM was to be held on July 22. John Kukuc had contributed to an article in the News & Star requesting new board members. The idea was to target younger fans. The University may be able to assist in providing volunteers to represent younger supporters. CUOSC were looking to hold an open meeting next season to help attract new board members. CUOSC were assisting the club in profiling the fanbase via an equality and diversity survey.
CUSAT - Some CUSAT members had attended the Lionel Richie concert and were heavily critical of the hospitality catering, especially in Foxy's. The club confirmed they had received complaints about the catering at the event. The club had already met ABM to resolve these issues.
CUSAT were to sponsor the fixture cards that go out with season tickets.
Disabled Group - Barry reported that some of his members had been asked by the club about their level of disability. Barry raised concerns as to the questions being asked. Amy for CUFC said some people who were not in wheelchairs had been occupying wheelchair areas, which was impacting on those who needed wheelchair space. Barry offered to visit the ticketing staff and talk about disability rights. The club welcomed this offer.
Planned upgrades to the Paddock viewing platform had been delayed due to the need to get building control permissions from the Council. Barry would get quotes when the relevant permissions had been granted.
West Cumbria Travel - Were already planning end of season visit to Yeovil.
London Branch - reported a good holiday break to Prague, enjoyed by members. The AGM was being held this Friday with Nigel Clibbens to attend.
Any Other Business
A question was asked about further new signings. No new imminent signings were expected.
Date of next meeting - 13/08/2018