2025 Annual General Meeting (AGM) Minutes

Date: 12th November 2025 at 18:30

Venue: Brentford Football Club Press Conference Room and Zoom

  1. Welcome

Dave Minckley (DM) was joined by Sarah Todd (ST) and Adam Hobbs (AH) at the Press Conference Room. Chair Angelo Basu (AB) joined the meeting via Zoom conference facility. Other committee members either joined on-line or were in the audience.

DM opened the meeting and welcomed those in the room and online. He thanked everyone for taking time to come along or join us online. 

As a fully democratic Association the AGM is key meeting as part of our constitution and ensures our members to have a say in how BIAS operates. 

As well as an update from the BIAS Chair and Finance Officer, there were a number of motions for members to vote on as well as the election of new committee members. DM advised that online voting would close after the financial update.   

At the end of the meeting there will be an opportunity for attendees to pose questions to the committee members present at the meeting.

DM referred the meeting to the 2025 AGM pack circulated to all members ahead the meeting and available on the BIAS website for full details of the meeting.

2. Chair’s Report (Angelo Basu)

Full details of the chair’s annual report are included in the 2025 AGM pack.

AB added his thanks to those attending and spoke to highlight some of the important issues in the report. 

He admitted that there has been a lot of change during the last year both off and on field.   

There have been changes to the TAPs system. This followed a long period of consultation with club BIAS and Bees United (BU). Unfortunately, we could not share these discussions with members until a way forward was agreed with the Club. Broadly speaking there has been a growing understanding and acceptance of the new system which was designed to provide improved access for away games to those who regularly attend the most matches in the last 5 years. Most of the concerns raised by BIAS and our members have been dealt with by the Club.

Digital ticketing has been introduced this season and we had detailed discussions with the club on this. 

Digital ticketing will be mandatory for Premier League clubs starting next season. 

We did have concerns about club wanting to go ahead this year. We therefore we pushed the club hard to reassure us that the system was fully tested. The club wished to move to digital ticketing early to avoid any problems that may be encountered with the main ticket providers when all clubs needed to make the move next season. The Club has now moved from Secutix where it had previously had a number of problems and moved to Ticketmaster. 

Although entrance to the stadium has gone quite smoothly, there have been a number of issues with forwarding digital tickets which we continue to highlight. 

We ensured an exception processes was set up for those who did not have smart phone and supporters over 75 years of age. The latter we expected to be an automatic process but the club decided to grant exception status upon request. Our focus throughout the implementation has been to ensure this was implemented properly and fairly. 

The club set up drop-in sessions and with the support of turnstile staff to help supporters prepare for this change. 

We are also aware there have been issues with box office answering calls and queries and this is still a work in progress. We have given the club a lot of feedback on this and they are aware of the problems being experienced. 

We were very please the club continued its commitment to affordable football for the 25/26 season and froze ticket prices. We are active FSA members and have taken part in FSA campaigns to date in particular the ‘Stop Exploiting Loyalty’ campaign. 

Committee members have attended over 60 meetings with the club this year. 

AB thanked committee members continued efforts to attend working groups and put forward both their own ideas and those they have heard from members. 

Initiatives we have worked with club on this year include: ‘I came by train’ offering 20% train discounts for away games (sadly the club was not able to restart this this season): bike to Brentford; the community garden outside Gtech; and Every Seat Counts (ESC)

ESC has increased the utilisation of seats, with an additional 800 tickets being used per match. We have also asked the club to remove the yellow card terminology which we find too punitive and we feel doesn’t truly reflect the purpose of this initiative. 

We have also carried out fan surveys where we asked for your opinions on a variety of topics e.g. price increases. We were criticised by some members for doing this and we want to re-iterate that we don’t want price increases but we need to know what our members think about these issues rather than assume that we know what our members think on this and other issues. 

AB thanked outgoing committee members Mark Chapman, Taylor Dawson, Christian Harper and Michael Johnston for their contributions this year. 

Membership is growing but slower than we would like. Membership is over 3,300 and our aim is to get to 5,000. The more members we have the better we can influence the club. 

AB is co-chair (with Stuart Hatcher of Bees United) of the Fan Advisory Board (FAB) which is the formal consultation group that BIAS and BU sit on. It is advisory only and doesn’t make any decisions on the running of the club. There are good open discussions and debates on issues affecting fans. 

We have also recently added representatives from other Brentford fan groups Her Game Too and LGBeeT’s to increase fan representation on the board. Jon Varney, the CEO, attends most meetings along with other senior members of Brentford FC staff. 

AB gave his thanks to BIAS committee members Dave Minckley, Matthew White and Ally Woyak who sit on the FAB and represent BIAS alongside him. The next FAB meeting is in two weeks where amongst other things, pricing strategy, will be discussed. 

AB and SH also go to a Premier League FAB chairs meeting which enables both to get a feel about how things are done elsewhere. We like where possible to be collaborative in our dealings with the club but this doesn’t mean we do not robustly challenge the club when necessary. We continue to work hard to retain our independence. 

AB said it was the committee’s intention to move the AGM next year to July or August in order to align more with the football season and allow new committee members to work for a full season and not come in part way through.  

3. Annual Report of BIAS Financial Statement for the year ending 31st May 2025 (Dave Minckley) 

Full details of the Financial Statement are included in the 2025 AGM pack circulated to all members ahead of the meeting.

DM provided the meeting with an overview of the financial annual report.

Since the decision was taken back in 2018 to introduce free membership to BIAS, the committee remains extremely grateful to members who continue to make donations. DM stated these are never taken for granted by the committee and thanked all members who continue to make these financial contributions. 

DM advised that for the reporting year ending 31st May 2025 there is an operating profit of £1277.04 even though revenue streams had once again reduced compared to previous years. DM added that the committee continues to explore other avenues to increase income streams e.g. boat trips to London away games kick off times, weather and tides permitting.

The total balances for the financial year ending 31st May 2025 amounted to £35,252.09. 

The Club is currently well run with an exceptional owner but BIAS are aware that things can change quite quickly as we have seen with other Clubs across the football pyramid and the committee needs to be ready to meet any challenges if required. Therefore, the committee continues to take a cautious view on spending ensuring any expenditure benefits members or BIAS as an Association. DM added that members of the committee do not draw any expenses and all costs relate to committee meetings, website maintenance and online elections.

DM concluded his report by stating that any ideas or suggestions from members will always be welcomed by committee for consideration.

4. Approve changes to BIAS Constitution. 

A total of 399 votes were cast

  • Clause 3.1 of the Constitution details the various workstreams that represent the activities of the Association. The opportunity is taken to provide greater clarity on workstreams /areas of focus for the Association. 

Motion carried with 378 votes in favour.

  • Approval to amend clauses 3.2 and 6.14 for the Executive Committee to produce a mission statement/manifesto within 8 weeks rather than current 4-week timeframe.

Motion carried with 349 votes in favour.

  • Clause 6.8 states 51% of the Executive Committee membership including at least one of the Officers of the Association shall form a quorum. Approval is sought to amend section 6.8 to state that an Executive Committee meeting quorum should be not less than five committee members with one Officer of the Association present 

Motion carried with 371 votes in favour

  • Approval to add a new clause 6.15 to ensure all members of the Executive Committee adhere to the agreed Code of Conduct produced January 2025. 

Motion carried with 388 votes in favour.

5. Motions

A total of 399 votes were cast

  • Approval of Minutes from AGM meeting held 13th November 2024 

Motion approved with 357 in favour

  • Approval to adopt Committee Annual Report for the year ending 31st May 2025 

Motion approved with 374 in favour

  • Approval to continue free membership for further 12 months 

Motion approved with 391 in favour

  • Approval of Financial Accounts for year ending 31st May 2025 

Motion approved with 375 in favour

  • Approval to retain Jim Walsh as Independent Auditor of BIAS Accounts 

Motion approved with 379 in favour

  1. Nominations and Elections to the BIAS Executive Committee – Presented by Sarah Todd (General Secretary)

A total of 399 votes were cast

  • Paul Berman – elected with 342 votes
  • Andrea Oldfield – elected with 354 votes
  • Dan Suh – elected with 346 votes
  • Tim Taylor – elected with 343 votes

6. Q & A Session 

  1. Ben Owen: what is best example of another club where you thought that would be nice if Brentford FC could do that for us?

AB not very many in the Premier League – a lot of PL clubs are antagonistic to what their fans want. 

A good example is Stoke who provide free coaches to all away games, although we should be aware that they do have very rich owners, but it would be nice if more could be done to help fans travelling away from home. Ben Owen pointed out that the cost for the coach to Manchester City was £45. 

DM said we do have an away experience working group where the cost of traveling to away games is regularly discussed. Unfortunately, due to Trainline budget constraints they have stopped the ‘I Came by train’ offer at present although the Club continues to explore other ways to offer discounted travel. 

Coaches are already heavily subsidised by the Club for a relatively low number of supporters who use them. That said the feedback from those who travel by coach is very good and we continue to push the club to improve their communication in this area. AH added that we have also discussed is running coaches from somewhere other than Brentford as many fans live further afield.  A lot of other clubs run regional coaches. We would like to see more creativity in this area. 

  1. Dan Suh said he was excited to be back on the committee and contributing positively. 

AB responded that it is always good to have new people on board. 

  1. Paul Steadman asked if there were any concerns that BIAS membership of FAB compromises our independence?

AB said personally he didn’t think it does. 

Being in the room to hear club plans and proposals does not affect our independence. If we used our position purely to say no to everything, the club will not want us in the room and may look for a different representative body to speak to. We want to be the independent voice in the club. 

If our independence was to always be antagonistic then we may not gain influence. We are trying to be constructive and put our positions firmly with the club. 

AB said he appreciated the question and it is always good to be asked to ensure we maintain our independence from the Club. When we prepare for FAB meetings if there is a disagreement, we always look at what the independent view would be. 

All members are encouraged to contact us via email, social media or the Griffin Park Grapevine (GPG) if they have issues, they want us to raise. 

AH said as the previous FAB co-chair he felt we retained independence by being able to appoint our own members as FAB representatives. This doesn’t happen at other clubs, some of whom invite applicants from their fan base and choose the FAB members themselves. We have chosen which BIAS committee members sit on the FAB. 

DM said we need to be realistic as an organisation as to the extent of our power and influence. The club will do what they want to do and our role is to challenge them and we do consistently do that. E.g. with digital ticketing we pushed hard for extra testing and reassurance. 

  1. Paul Steadman asked about the other fan representative groups that will be at the next FAB meeting

There are 12 supporter places available on the Fan Advisory Board

8 members are from BU and BIAS with additional places now provided to Her Game Too (HGT), LGBeeTs, and the Disabled Supporters association (DSA). 

The idea of including these specific groups is that they are already officially recognised by the club and are involved in a number of working groups, or have direct meetings with the club so will be well placed to directly contribute to discussions held at FAB.

A sign of our independence is that we wanted to bring additional groups onto the FAB – this was not a club initiative but the club supported it. Choice of who was added came down to BIAS and BU working together and inviting them onto the FAB. 

PS said it was good logic to having other fan groups on FAB but there might be a risk that this will become fragmented if their interest is only marginal. AB agreed it was a risk and said initially the additional fan groups have been appointed for 12 months when this will be reviewed. 

PS also asked why there was no representative from a specific anti-racism group such as Kick it Out. AB said there is no specific BFC organisation or contact person for any anti-racism groups. There is however another slot on the FAB that could be filled if someone came forward. 

AB went on to say that our recent member survey seeking feedback on price increases was also a sign of our independence with both BU and the club questioning our reason for doing this and saying it was unfair of us to do so before price increases have been discussed.

7. Conclusion and end of AGM

DM thanked the Club for providing the Press Room to host the AGM and providing IT support (Jon Ray) and for laying on refreshments which were very much appreciated. DM also thanked AH for his technical support 

AB closed the meeting thanking everyone for their attendance and comments. He said he hoped we had been able to give an understanding of not only what we have been doing this year but also how and why.

The meeting closed at 19:37