Date: Tuesday 8th November 2022, 6pm
In attendance: James Mooney (JM), Dominique Grant, Nikki Allan, Umair Meer, Debbie Young, Lliam Brocksom, Faatimah Divan, Ken McArthur, Jay Bhatt, Gib XXX.
Apologies: Katie Watkin, Maz Ferguson, Paul McManus.
Minutes
Welcome from JM, including thanks from the group around the swift apology from Victor Orta following the match on Saturday.
JM then covered the actions from the previous meeting, this included the following:
- An accessibility questionnaire will be sent to disabled members and STHs this week and included will be a question around joining a disabled supporter’s group that works closely with the club. The aim is to set the group up in January 2023.
- Progress has been made around Islamophobia Awareness Month, with the Academy hosting workshops W/C 21st November with a number of age groups – these will then be promoted by club channels. The club will then be working towards Ramadan.
- The governance document will be picked back up when Katie is back, and we have feedback from the PL.
- The club will promote U21 games at York seven days in advance moving forward. JM will look at providing an update around improvements to be made to the app, that includes more information on U21 matches.
- The club are waiting for feedback from the PL meeting from Angus, so we are then able to discuss supporting fans with late fixture changes, away travel etc.
Deb then provided feedback on support for the Foodbank during the World Cup:
- JM said the club would provide five match-worn shirts to be raffled/auctioned.
- Club to help promote idea around donating money you would spend on a ‘pie and pint’ and club to also provide VIP tickets for Man City game (x2) as a raffle prize.
JM explained that the Rail Seating that has been installed was something the club had to do, under instruction from the SGSA. Supporters affected were contacted as soon as the club had all of the relevant information, but we will ensure to communicate with all supporters earlier if any further rail seating is installed. Ken suggested the SAB group are given a tour of some of the facilities around the stadium, when possible.
JM said that the club would be happy to encourage and support fan groups if they wanted to start bringing flags into the stadium for matchdays, but this isn’t something the club will action at the moment.
Discussion around fan and player safety at matches, with a few examples given around recent supporter issues. JM said we would invite Laura Strong to attend the next meeting so we can discuss steward training and dealing with supporters.
It was raised if the club do the podcast every week, and JM confirmed it is hosted every week, with exceptions for the odd week, but will look at consistently promoting the podcast each week.
Further actions for the club to look at were also discussed, retail to use the blue light discount scheme if possible and look at captioning videos on club channels.
To conclude the meeting, agenda points for the meeting to be held in January were then mentioned, with the following items noted:
- Open actions from November meeting
- Governance document progress
- Discuss feedback from PL meeting. Can the PL or club help with fixture changes/cost impacts on supporters or can sponsors support.
- SAB group to be given tour of stadium facilities (inc. Rail Seating). Laura Strong to attend and support.
- Members of local press to be invited to cover the meeting.
- Steward training around dealing with supporters who are fighting/using inappropriate language and how they deal with hidden disabilities.
Date for next meeting: Tuesday 17th January 2023, 6pm.
