Apologies for the lack of a Newsletter in August but we were somewhat pre-occupied with the AGM and subsequent elections.

AGM

Our third AGM was held on August 13th at the Copthorne Hotel. We had a good turn out at the meeting both in person and also with those listening in to proceedings on Chelsea FanCast’s mixlr channel. If you wish to listen to the AGM in full you can do so here.

At the meeting Tim Rolls, Chair, delivered the financial statement and the annual report (which can be viewed here) before moving on to the Motions for the coming year.

This was Tim’s last official meeting before standing down as Chair. The Board, on behalf of the membership would like to thank Tim for his tireless and committed work as our first Trust Chairman. It is fair to say that he has left us in a very healthy position and we have a strong foundation to build on and take the Trust forward in the future.

After the AGM most attendees stayed to compete for the second Chelsea Supporters Trust Quiz. Dan Levene was the quizmaster and the Chelsea Pensioners led by Tim Rolls pipped last years winners, Chelsea FanCast to the winners post. A more detailed review of the Quiz can be found here.

Elections

The election of the new Board and voting on the Motions presented in the AGM have now been completed.

In an affirmative vote all 9 candidates were elected to the Board and they are:

Cliff Auger; David Chidgey; Debs Coady; Charles Jackson; David Johnstone; Celia Mindelsohn; Chris Rayburn; Dan Silver and Richard Weekes. We extend a warm welcome and congratulations to new Board members Chris Rayburn and Dan Silver and thank Neal Beard, Jules Beattie and Iain Rodgers, who did not seek re-election, for their efforts on the Board over the last few years.

All the Motions were passed and we now have a mandate to work on them over the next year. Full details of the motions can be found here but in summary they include issues such as  CST Affiliations; Stamford Bridge Redevelopment; Future of Chelsea Pitch Owners ; Temporary Stadium; Atmosphere Concerns and Safe Standing; Ticket Pricing and Availability; Kick-Off Times; Membership of Safety Advisory Group; Ticket Touting; Stakeholder Engagement; Football in the Community; Club Heritage; CST Annual Membership Renewal Date; Supporters Club Ticket Allocations.

In the first meeting of the new Board held on 1st September, we elected a new Chairman – David Chidgey and a new Treasuer – Charles Jackson. Paul Jeffrey continues as Secretary. Over the coming weeks we will be setting up a number of working groups to ensure that we deliver on the motions passed in the recent elections and also to allow more accountability and responsibility. We’ll have details of the progress with this in the next newsletter.

Membership Survey

We are still collating the results of the membership survey released at the end of last season and hope to have this available to the membership in October. We will also have the opportunity to present this to the Chelsea FC board. This is one of our most important meetings of the year as it means we can directly present our members views on a wide range of supporter issues to those who run the Club.

Affiliate Meetings

Tim Rolls represented the Trust at a recent Premier League meeting with Richard Scudamore in attendance. Although nothing substantive came out of the meeting, it is a good opportunity to get the membership’s views across to the people running the game. Tim also presented a detailed analysis of the issues around Kick-off times – a topic of great frustration to our members.

Brompton Cemetery 

Another successful morning helping to tidy Chelsea related graves in Brompton Cemetery was held on the weekend of the international break. We’ll be planning another morning, most probably during the next international break, so do come along – its great fun as well as for a worthy cause.

The next SGM

The next Special General Meeting will be held at the Atlas Pub 16 Seagrave Road London SW6 1RX AT 6.30 pm on Sunday 23rd October – after the Man Utd game.

As always we will be broadcasting the meeting live from www.mixlr.com/chelsea-fancast and a podcast of the meeting will be available to download shortly after.

Top of the agenda will of course will be the results of this years Members Survey carried out over the summer and we also have a very special guest lined up…

Chelsea Legend Kerry Dixon will be in attendance and after the meeting will be signing copies of his new biography “Up Front” and doing a short Q & A.

Numbers will be limited and its a members only event so make sure you’ve paid your membership fee!