Secretary Report - Jacqui Greethurst

We were saddened to hear of the death on Sunday of Brian Searson, who had a heart problem and fell down escalator in front of his son and friends, on his way to Wembley. A message about Brian sent to us from Devon and Cornwall Whites.

“Brian was Leeds mad. Originally from Cornwall, but he lived all over the country and continued to follow his beloved club from everywhere. He had funny tales of his time with Bolton whites but it was ultimately his time back in Cornwall taking his son Martyn to games that gave him the most pride. Brian was funny, kind and fair. Everyone in the branch liked and respected him. He always knew which pubs to go to for away games and was always pressing to get to the White Hart as early as possible for home games. We will never be able to fill the void his presence has left on our bus. Games just won’t be the same without him.” 

Jacqui will send our condolences in a card to his wife and son. A collection was made and we have sent £70.

Thanks to the committee who have done so much this year.

It has been a very busy year- and next year is not going to be much better.

2 of our juniors, Sebastian and Daniel had an excellent year - getting a players’ shirt each and representing HW as mascots. We have been active this year and among our events the ‘Leeds on the Road’ went very well. 

Matches

IF Sky keep to their statement we will know when the matches will take place up to January - if Sky keep promise. This will help with transport - hopefully - as we will be able to book in advance. As far as we know Leeds are continuing the forwarding of tickets system which has helped us considerably wit getting members to matches and sitting near each other.

Website

This is unrecognisable from previous seasons and we have worked hard to keep it interesting. Any suggestions can be given to David.

We had a few volunteers to help with it but didn’t use them this year as David and I were getting to grips with it. Next year we will be asking those volunteers to take on a bigger but not too demanding role.

We will be doing match by match pictures so will allocate a match to someone to put pics on. We still need members to ensure we get the pictures, as some are being          taken and we’re not seeing them. Please put on Whatsapp Chat group or send to me via Whatsapp.

Although I have said ‘we’ nearly all the work has been done by David. Thanks to David who has done by far the most amount of work on this.

LUSN

Have worked hard this year and had meetings with Angus and Katie as well as Jordan Owens (Head of communication) and Mark (SLO). SLO seems to be working better as people seem to be getting replies to their emails. Many of the suggestions from LUSN have been taken on board- AST refund, alphabetical order for ticket buying, loyalty for home games, more defibrillators, plus other things.! We still have a long way to go before travelling fans are valued as they should be.

Thanks to Simon for helping with photos, getting the flag seen and help with the raffle.

Membership Report - Steve B

We finished the season with 202 members, of which 29 were juniors. The website helped with recruitment of members as contacting us is easier. Completing the application form through the website has also made collating members easier. 

Please update your contact details with any changes since last season at membership@hampshirewhites.com.

If you intend to renew, please do so ASAP, ideally during the close season. Non-members will be removed from groups information etc from August 31^st 2024 and will not be considered for tickets. 

Tickets - Geoff Quade

Although this is my second AGM report it's my first one for a full season. 

It's been a hectic season overall on the ticket front. Although we've been really successful in providing tickets for home games, in fact I believe 100% successful, this hasn't been the case for away games. It's almost impossible to satisfy our demand on the road despite the best efforts of the buying team. Indeed, for several games we couldn't supply any tickets at all. We had a very good turnout at Southampton away.

As I've said this was my first full season in post and having set up and established my routine/procedure I'm pleased to say that most of the membership have bought into it and have helped to make the process relatively painless, for which I thank you all.

Together with the buying team we've established a sound working procedure and I can't reiterate enough what a fantastic job they do for you all. 

We are extremely grateful to all of you who help us to facilitate others to attend matches it's such an important part of our ethos and raison d'etre, this includes priority members and season ticket holders.

In conclusion I'd like to thank all of you for your kindness and understanding and those of you who sent me warm messages at the season's conclusion.

I'd especially like to thank my fellow committee members and in particular Jacqui, Steve Lunn/Kelvin and of course the Chancellor himself Chris Rumney for keeping an eye on my spreadsheets!



Hope you all have a great day and enjoy our special guest who I'm gutted to have missed, I might finally have got my groin strain sorted out, which I picked up in 1981 (Can someone ask him if Claret has medicinal qualities coz it seems to be helping over here)

Transport - Kelvin Fennemore

It has been a very difficult season due to rearranged matches which affects hiring of buses and numbers on the bus. We have had to use a range of companies as Abbey have not always supplied us with what we asked for. 



The systems and procedures have worked fairly well but having done a season we will be looking at modifying them for next season.

A big thankyou to the drivers this season as we would not get to matches without them. Any more volunteers please let Kelvin know.

Jeff, Leroy, Kelvin, Harry, Chris R, Paul E, Scott, Martin B, Steve B, John B, David V, Chris C, Mike A,

NEXT SEASON 

Election of 2024-2025 Officers 

• Chair: Trevor Quade 
• Vice Chair: Steve Boucher
• Sec: Jacqui Greethurst
• Treasurer: Chris Rumney

All the above were agreed unanimously.

Committee members 

• Membership: Steve Boucher
• Tickets: Geoff Quade
• Transport: Steve Lunn/Kelvin Fennemore
• Website: David Davies
• Instagram: David Davies
• Twitter/X : Dean Kneller 
• Facebook: Steve McNally, Mark Smith, Chris Coombs

Secretary: 2024-2025.

Constitution

The current constitution has been in place since 2022. The new committeee will be reviewing it in July and will present it for ratification at the first meeting of the season. 

The new committee will be meeting in July and will review the procedures for buying tickets, organising transport etc. Members will be informed of any changes before the start of the season by Whatsapp and email. 

Just a reminder to everyone that tickets and transport are organised by Geoff Quade and Steve Lunn. Contacting me just makes more work for me and doesn’t get you a ticket or transport! It also makes for errors. Each of them must be contacted - again so they are not having to do extra work and to stop errors. 

Treasurer: 2024-2025 Fees/Costs

Membership Fees: to remain at £10 for adults, free for under 18s.

Transport Charges: to be £35 for all vehicles.

Ticket Charges: we are paying for 3 memberships this season so that we can buy tickets using their numbers and use them for helping other members get to home matches. In order to cover the costs of these we will be charging an admin charge of £1 to everyone who has a ticket from another member. Once the costs for these three memberships have been recovered the additional £1 charge will be dropped. If you are using your own priority ticket you will not receive a charge.

All of the above were agreed by the members present.

A.O.B. No items presented.

Thanks

A vote of thanks was put from the Hampshire Whites members to the committee and other volunteers who help the group keep actively involved in supporting Leeds United. 

Meeting finished 2.10pm.