NEWS

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

The Nottingham Forest Supporters Club Annual General Meeting will be held on Saturday 28 September (before the home match with Rotherham United) at the Nottinghamshire County Cricket Ground, in The Derek Randale Suite, entrance via Hound Road West Bridgford. All are Welcome to attend.

Bar opens at 11:30 and the meeting starts at 12:00 prompt. After the formal meeting there will be a ‘Questions & Answers’ session with Chief Executive Officer Mark Arthur and Tim Farr. The AGM will finish at 2:00 prompt.

Further to the information on Page 7 of Issue 12 of the Branch Newsletter please delete the position of Vice Chairman from the list and refer to the following:

From the General Secretary Rita Kirk.

You may have noticed from page six of this seasons Supporters Club Handbook that we hope to be able to expand the Management Committee at this year’s AGM. We also hope to be able to create another officer position – Vice Chairman. With the growth in membership and scope of activities of the Supporters Club in recent years we have, at times, struggled to cope with the workload and it has become apparent that we needed to increase the number of people sitting on the Management Committee. Currently the Constitution stipulates an upper limit of six members for the Management Committee and to give ourselves a bit of headroom, we would like to increase this to eight.

We hope that expanding the Management Committee will have a number of advantages. It will encourage more people, from more branches, involved in the development of the Supporters Club. We would also hope that having a greater number of people involved now would help provide continuity for the future of the Supporters Clubby having people working closely with the existing officers of the club. Hopefully, it will also develop new activities and benefits for members or explore other areas in the development and operation of the Supporters Club.

The proposal to create a new role of Vice-Chairman has been motivated by fundamentally similar factors to those listed above. We would hope that having someone working closely with the Chairman would provide the possibility of continuity in the future development of the Supporters Club. Additionally, the demands on the time of the Chairman, which are often unpredictable and in response to events surrounding the football club, mean that it appears sensible to us to have a ‘substitute’ available.

The proposals will be subject to vote at the AGM.

If these proposals are accepted at the AGM then there will also be a need to amend a small number of sections of the Constitution; these are dealt with individually below.

The first change related to the proposals would be in paragraph 4. The list of the officers of the club would be amended to include a Vice-Chairman and the maximum number of members of the management committee increased to eight (from six). This currently reads:

4. Officers

The Officers of the Club shall be: (a) an Honorary President (b) a Chairman (c) a Secretary (d) a Treasurer (e) a Membership Secretary (f) a Social Secretary, and any other person(s) appointed by the Members in Annual General Meeting up to a maximum of six. One person may hold more than one Office if circumstances dictate.

8

We would like to amend this to: (changes in bold italics)

4. Officers

The Officers of the Club shall be: (a) an Honorary President (b) a Chairman (c) a Vice-Chairman (d) a Secretary (e) a Treasurer (f) a Membership Secretary (g) a Social Secretary, and any other person(s) appointed by the Members in Annual General Meeting up to a maximum of eight (excluding the listed officers). One person may hold more than one Office if circumstances dictate.

Para 8 previously started with the sentence:

The Chairman (or in their absence a nominated officer) shall preside at all meetings.

This would be amended to: (changes in bold italics)

The Chairman (or in their absence the Vice-Chairman) shall preside at all meetings.

Two other changes to the Constitution, which have suggested themselves, will also be submitted to the AGM. In paragraph 3, we would like to change the first sentence to include the wholly new clause in bold italics;

Members of both sexes are eligible to join the Supporters Club, for a type of membership so desired by the applicant(s), from year to year upon payment of a subscription which shall be determined annually by the Management Committee.

The other change would be in section 23, which currently reads:

23. New Branches

Any new branches formed must have a minimum of ten members. The Management Committee will have powers to look at all existing branches that have or do fall below this number.

We would like to amend this to: (changes in bold italics)

23. New Branches

Any new branches formed must ideally have a minimum of ten members. The Management Committee will have powers to look at all existing branches that have or do fall below this number.

It doesn’t appear as if there is a particularly elegant way of coping with the difficulty of voting on the constitutional changes and then voting to elect a Vice-Chairman and to fill the new positions on the Management Committee. Therefore, after some head scratching………subject to the constitutional amendments receiving your backing at the AGM we will then subsequently and soon afterwards, give notice of an EGM at which a vote will be taken to elect people to fill the new positions created. Elections will be held as normal at the AGM for the posts already in existence – both Officers and Management Committee positions.

Please get in touch with Rita on 0115 984 1227 should you need further clarification or information.

MEMBERSHIP

At the AGM the first prize draw of the season will take place. You are reminded that your 2002/2003 subscriptions must be paid and received by the Kelly Hart, the Membership Secretary, to be eligible to enter the prize draw.

WIMBLEDON & MILLWALL

The problems of the two clubs, which seem to appear in our newspapers daily affect our football club, does anyone have any thoughts? If so please send them to the Branch Secretary who shall forward them to the Supporters Club.

BRITANNIA ROWING CLUB

9

The Britannia Rowing Club will be open to all Branch Members for pre-match drinks. Membership Cards must be shown on entry!