A big thank you to everyone who made it to Wednesday’s AGM, it was great to see the passion and enthusiasm amongst the members for the future of our club.
Here’s the key points from the AGM:
The meeting was essentially split into two halves, the first which involved covering the Trust’s procedural responsibilities:
• The Trust’s financial position was covered and was confirmed to be in good health following a visual inspection
• It was confirmed Jack Hundley had stepped down from the Board
• Board elections: Luke Cox was voted on to join the Trust board
• There was an update on the planning appeal process for the Perdiswell application. We are currently waiting for the Inspectorate to appoint a planning inspector to the case
• Chairman Dave Wood highlighted that the Trust still believe Perdiswell to be the best possible route to bringing City home – and once there is an update, the members will be first to know
Following the finish of the Trust’s business that needed to be covered, the meeting then changed focus to an open discussion about the current situation with the football club, from which the intent of the open letter was clarified:
• The Supporters’ Trust, through Supporters Direct Club Development (SD CD) – a not-profit organisation that provides advice and services to supporters’ trusts and community owned clubs – have engaged the services of Nick Igoe, a former Financial Director at West Ham United, who would compile an independent financial report on the club – at no cost to the club
• The report would include recommendations on what the most appropriate action would be for the club to address its current financial situation
• For this to happen, Nick Igoe would require financial information from the club regarding its operations
• The Club, the Trust and Supporters Direct would sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) which would mean that any information passed over would remain strictly confidential
• The findings of Nick Igoe’s report that can be disclosed would be made public
• An NDA was sent to the football club to be signed
• The club returned an altered NDA with different terms to the one provided by Nick Igoe and Supporters Direct, did not include the Supporters’ Trust in it and had removed the list of information requested by Nick
• Nick Igoe has since been back in touch with the club stating that, as his services are provided through Supporters Direct on behalf of the Trust, the Trust will need to be involved in the NDA
As soon as we have an update on any of the above, we’ll be back in touch.