Leigh Genesis Supporters Association.

Meeting Two

Wednesday 1st October 2008

The Railway, Leigh

Apologies: Nick Molyneux , Robert Hayes, David Bartle

• 1. Committee

The committee exists as a means to organise matchday volunteers as required by the club and ensure the general running of the Association. It will be comprised of both younger and more mature members in order to provide as broad a range of viewpoints as possible. To ensure that LGSA and LGFC will be working towards the same goals, the Association is to be officially affiliated with the club. The Association will be run on a non-profit basis, with the main financial aim to be merely to cover costs, with any excess funds being reinvested in the Association. A committee of ten members was proposed, however a number of six was agreed, ensuring a fair spread of workload and allowing committee members to miss meetings if necessary.

Committee members appointed:

• 1 Tony Marshall (chairman)
• 2 Matt Lawton (secretary)
• 3 Paul Dann
• 4 Howard Wright
• 5 David Bailey
• 6 Doug Wilson

• 2. Volunteers

Leigh Genesis General Manager Mary Croasdale explained how much of the club's match operation is run on a volunteer basis and wants to get LGSA involved and allow us to see a different side of the club, giving a run-down of duties that it is felt may be covered by members of LGSA.

 These were:

• Executive Steward
• Host/Hostess
• Statistician
• Programme Sellers
• Competition and Raffle ticket Sellers
• Photographer
• Shop Staff
• Match day Press Officer
• LGSA Programme/ Website Editor.
• Ball Boys (priority to the junior team)

In conjunction with it's member clubs, the UniBond Premier League are to run a stewards training course over a total of eighteen hours that will be organised at the convenience of the participants. The course is open to those aged nineteen or over and is equivalent to an NVQ Level 2, although higher levels can be pursued, with any interested participants to contact Mary Croasdale at LGFC.

• 1 Danny Morris
• 2 Andrew Hughes
• 3 Tony Marshall
• 4 Howard Wright

All showed interest in the above course.

• 3. Membership

When discussing membership fees at the Association's first meeting, it was requested that members try to suggest any benefits that could be provided upon becoming a member of LGSA. These were as follows;

• 1 Towards away travel - It was said that this would be unfair as some may pay more than others.
• 2 Car stickers - a new batch are in the process of being printed that are improved in terms of size and visibility when compared to the original issue
• 3 LGFC/LGSA pin badges
• 4 LGFC/LGSA ‘trolley coins'
• 5 Possibility of a copy of the limited edition poster.
• 6 Sponsor an LGFC first team player for a season or
• 7 Buy a trophy for the end of season dinner and nominate a player to receive it as LGSA Player of the Year. Mary pointed out that there are usually a few "Player of the Year" awards [club player, supporters player, most man of the matches] so this year there is only going to be one but we may be able to decide who this is. It was also proposed that we could vote on the night who we think this should be, however this was seen to be a bad idea as a player could have had a good last few games and they will then stick in your mind but haven't been consistent throughout the season. It was also pointed out that only small percentages actually attend. An alternative may be to nominate a player of each month during the season or use the player ratings available via the official website to determine this. Voting should start in February every few weeks to collate a wider spectrum of players and results. Proposed that LGSA will be given tables for the night and that one of the members could present the award.
• 8 A manager and player Q & A night available for LGSA members only.
• 9 Possibilities of occasionally a few places on the team coach as a ‘money can't buy' opportunity.

An idea to ask other associations what they get for their money was suggested.

Sign on fee has previously been £5 and £10. £10 was finally decided however junior costs will be just £5 and you will receive a double-sided card.

What will the aims of the association be?

• 1 Although last year the association raised money for the club it is not our priority, we just need money to cover our costs.
• 2 The aim this year is to pull in as many fans as we can. Tony suggested that this could be done through a walk from Atherton Colls to LSV and go through the town centre trying to attract as much interest as possible. Another idea was that each member of LGSA has to bring a fried to a match, however honesty is key and someone doesn't ‘bring' another who already attends matches. A home match could be chosen for this idea to take place.
• 3 In addition to this we will be there for the clubs disposal for example if they need volunteers they can ask us.

      4. Home and away travel

Travel to Chorley dependant upon interest a coach could possibly be organised, the cost being approx £3 per person return (subject to change) Leigh Genesis have confirmed that they will contribute £1 towards each travelling supporter, and therefore the cost would only be £2, with the idea to encourage families and younger supporters to watch home games, despite the venue switch. Juniors pay to join the LGSA then only pay £1 per match after this, on the condition that they are accompanied by a full-paying adult, although it was suggested that season ticket holders must be taken in to account when considering the possibility of such offers, with the final decision left with the club. It costs just £2 for under 18's to attend home games, and as such it was suggested to improve advertisements within Wigan & Leigh College in order to try and attract more students of this age to home fixtures. Go into pubs that are showing early matches on a Saturday's and get them in to the Genesis matches and put leaflet on cars. We need to show that we have turned our game around and revitalise the support.

      5. Boots for Africa

Mary suggested that this was something the LGSA could adopt as one of our projects whilst working alongside the club, with the aim of improving the club's profile through charity work. The UniBond League are offering cash incentives to the club's that contribute the most donations to the appeal. We can raise awareness in pubs and schools/colleges, get some players in their kit in the town centre on non-matchday and get in touch with sports shops (JJB Sports, JD Sports, Streetwise Sports etc)

            6. Whitby away fixture

It's planned that we'll order a minibus and drive up on the Saturday morning in time for the fixture at 3pm before staying overnight in Whitby and returning on the Sunday. If anyone is interested, they need to contact either Matt Lawton or Tony Marshall via the website. It may be advertised on the website to try and get a bit more interest.

            7. AOB.

1. Make sure that you have forwarded on the message about project 1,000 and try to get as many people coming to the games as possible.

2. Christmas present ideas. Half season tickets (three people were interested). "6 pack"; six games for a discount price.

3. Different possible fundraisers on a matchday. Caption competitions/football cards, with the possibility of winning a shirt instead of money and therefore raising the clubs profile.

4. New website www.lg-sa.co.uk

5. Next meeting is to take place at 7:30pm on Monday 3rd November at a venue to be arranged and publicised via official LGSA website.

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