I look forward to meeting as many members as possible at our AGM which will take place at in the Life Centre on 24th November after the Fleetwood game starting at around 5:15 pm. I do however need to inform you that the elections to the Argyle Fans’ Trust will have to be postponed by a couple of weeks. Supporters Direct have advised us that we need to deal with a couple of procedural points and are helping us sort those out. My apologies for the delay this has caused and a new election timetable will be posted next week.
The Treasurer and I held a very positive meeting last month with the new Chief Executive Officer, Michael Dunford. We discussed a wide range of issues, including the Trust’s role as a Constructive Friend, the needs of vulnerable adults attending matches and the funding Derek receives for transfers and wages. It was interesting to have it confirmed that last season we were fifth from bottom of League One on player expenditure. MD confirmed that the Board had increased the playing budget by a significant amount. Whilst he was not in possession of details of budgets from other clubs for the current season, he personally felt our increased figure would now place us closer to the half way mark.
The Chair and Treasurer welcomed Michael’s idea for an Assembly of organisations working together to support our club and this initiative was unanimously supported at our Board meeting last week.
Officers of the AFT will be meeting with Michael again on 22nd November and would be happy to put any questions raised by our membership who are unable to attend the surgeries.
As Chair, I was delighted to be interviewed by both Spotlight and ITV this week prior to the Gillingham match and give the AFT’s backing to Derek and the players. This we did at the Fans’ Forum a year ago when things were not going well and we were bottom of the league. I even predicted a 3 – 1 win live on air one hour before kick off on Tuesday!
Finally good luck to the Argyle Ladies Team who we are again helping to sponsor this season. There is a picture on our website of a cheque being presented. Beauty and the Beast sprang to my mind when I looked at it!
