Board Meeting Summary – December 2020

Wednesday December 9, 2020 held online via Zoom

Apologies from Kyle Sproat.

A new board member, Mark Middling was co-opted until the date of the 2021 AGM. Mark is based in Hexham and has a lot of experience in financials as well as knowledge of football governance from his university research and some legal issues.

The board discussed the club’s current financial position which is considered sound compared to many other League Two clubs. There have been no developments arising from the ongoing EWM administration. CUOSC board reps are closely monitoring the situation. Advice has been given by representatives of the FSA.

The Carlisle REUnited raffle has generated over 150 ticket sales to date. Promotion of it will continue over Christmas. The draw is due to take place on January 2. The first item of equipment bought with CRU funds, the NordBord, had been extensively publicised in the past week. It has already benefited several United players.

The board discussed the possibility of re-introducing the fan surgeries on match days, given that fans are now back at Brunton Park. However the requirements of a COVID-secure ground made this impractical, in the short term. We will seek to offer fans one-to-one Zoom sessions if they wanted to discuss issues with board reps.

Finances remain stable with 425 current members. Non-renewed members were last week unsubscribed from our mailing list.

CUOSC were pushing on with plans to promote diversity and inclusion at Brunton Park. We were liasing with the FSA and Kick it Out in this area. No dates yet earmarked for the CUOSC Cup, which was postponed from earler this year, but we remain committed to fixing a new date sometime in 2021.

The planned food bank collection would now be aimed at the New Year, when stocks of items are usually quite low. We wouldn’t be able to collect in the study centre but alternative arrangements were being made.

We were helping the club with a survey which was collecting fan feedback from the Salford City game last week which was the first game with fans since September.

Next meeting – January 13