Has it been a month since my last update? How time flies! It’s been a busy month of Society meetings and preparation for the AGM on 16th November. Although the Society’s accounts are with the auditors Walker Dunnett & Co., a Chairman’s report is also required and there have been a number of loose ends to be sorted out. These include things such as establishing the details of shares purchased by the Society during the last year, share certificates, letters authorizing the bank to release information to the auditors, and what seemed to be 101 other tasks! One of these was to get the AGM information out to our members. A nice Dark Blue, Red and White (plus the black type) advert was devised for the local press, and I admit to spending an hour in the rain, pre-Queen of the South match, putting up posters around the ground. Some jobs are still on-going though, and will continue to be so right up to the day of the AGM.
After the experiences of the recent SGM at the Gardyne Theatre, the Society needs to have fresh procedures in place to get everyone into the Penman Lounge for the AGM on the 16th - and you can help to achieve this! If you’re planning to come along, please arrive early. The door will open at 10.00am and we’ll try hard to get everyone in quickly and without fuss. Refreshments will be available prior to the start of the meeting. It will also help if you check that your details are up to date on the members’ register. If you’re not sure, why not send an email to contact@dee4life.com and we’ll check your details and get back to you with your membership number. Little things like that can all help in the long run.
There will be 4 places available on the Society board come the AGM. Due to one of the outdated rules of the Society (Rule 64) a third of the board members have had to resign before the AGM. This means two Society board members have had to step down. The same rule stipulates that one of the two has to be the longest serving board member, and in this case that’s Dave Forbes. Dave stood for re-election at last year’s AGM, whereas the other 6 elected members were voted on as recently as the same day in August 2013. Dave will, however, stand for re-election. The second member to resign wasn’t easy, but - after much debate - Mike Jeffries volunteered to step down and stand for re-election.
The club Board of Directors informed the Society of the skill set required for the second Society Director; this was an architect. With this in mind, Bob Hynd was invited to meet with the Society board. Although Bob is known to other Society board members, it was the first time I had met him and it didn’t take long for Bob to show that he would be a real asset not only to the Society but also to the club. Bob was immediately co-opted onto the Society board and will stand for election at the AGM. By co-opting Bob it meant that he could be immediately proposed as the second Society Director on the club board.
Another important piece of business requiring attention this past month has been the recruitment of a completely new finance team. My thanks go to John Knight and Barbara Tough as they step back from the Society finances. Both have been invaluable to the Society and invaluable to me personally as they’ve steered me through these first couple of months and prepared us for the Audit and AGM.
I’m in no doubt that the finance part of the Society is far too much work for one person and so we hope to recruit several volunteers to help, and also to co-opt a new Financial Director onto the Society board. I believe we’re nearly there with having a team of four volunteers working away in the background but we’re still on the outlook for a FD to be the liaison between the team and the Society board. This doesn’t necessarily need to be an accountant; it could be someone with a banking background. If you feel you could help in this way or know someone who might be able to fill this role, please get in contact with me at the address below.
Finally, we’re committed to bringing live streaming of our games to our exiled fans and to enhance the DFCTV package with live radio commentary as well as highlights. Work has been going on in the background with the media team and Ross Day putting in many hours to bring this to our membership. We’ll have further news on this in the near future.
Meanwhile, you can be assured that the Society board is working hard for our members to let you once again have “Trust in our Trust”.
Peter Campbell
Chairman, Dundee FC Supporters’ Society Ltd.
peter.campbell@dee4life.com