Date: 15th November 2023 at 18:30
Venue: Brentford Football Club and Via Zoom Conference Call
- Welcome
- AH opened the meeting by welcoming participants and explaining the meeting was being recorded for minute taking purposes only and assured those attending that this recording would not be shared outside of the Executive Committee.
- Nearly 500 members registered to attend the AGM online, and 22 participants joined the meeting in person including the following members of the BIAS Executive Committee.
- Peter Edward (PE) – Committee Member
- Adam Hobbs (AH) – Chairperson
- David Minckley (DM) – Finance Officer
- Ronald Mansveld (RM) – Committee Member
- Sarah Todd (ST) – Secretary
- Richard Kirchner (RK) – Committee Member
- As a result quorum for the meeting as defined by the BIAS Constitution was established.
- Approve minutes of 2022 AGM
- Minutes from the last AGM confirmed as accurate
Actions arising from the 2022 AGM formally closed
| Action No | Action: |
| 10/22:001 | BIAS Executive Committee to look at ways to hold the next AGM at a physical location with the option of virtual attendance via Zoom for those members unable to attend in person. |
| 10/22:002 | BIAS Executive Committee to develop a process for fair and transparent elections for Executive Committee members ahead of the next AGM |
Good evening all and thank you for attending the 2023 BIAS AGM. After running the event purely online for 3 years, this year we thought we would try something different. So here I am sitting in Thomas Frank’s chair, feeling like I’m going to be giving the pre or post-match press conference.
In my speech last year, I said we would look at options for Hybrid meetings, so I am very grateful to Brentford Football Club for allowing us to use this space, which allows people in the room to be here, as well as those watching on Zoom.
We also wanted to look at ways of improving the election process and ensuring that as many of our members as possible get to participate in the elections. We have seen nearly 500 members participate in the online vote ahead of time, which is absolutely incredible and re-iterates our commitment to being a democratic organisation.
BIAS continues to grow as you will hear from David shortly when he gives his report, but in summary last year we have set an initial target of increasing or membership by 600, which would’ve taken us to a target of just over 2,500. However, our wonderful executive committee convinced me that we should be aiming higher and went for a total membership of 3,000 which incredibly, we not only reached but exceeded it!
This year we have seen some major changes off the field in terms of fan engagement. With the government white-paper on reforming club football governance finally being announced (and more recently this being in the King’s Speech to become legislation), the Premier League were quick to announce a series of measures to show that they do not need a regulator overseeing them. This led to announcement of the Fan Engagement Standard (otherwise known as FES), which sets to ensure there is a minimum standard for fan engagement.
One of the key elements of the standard is the Fan Advisory Board, of which I am delighted to have been appointed co-chair of, alongside Stuart Hatcher of Bees United. We now have a fully signed off and completed Terms of Reference for the Fan Advisory board, so many thanks to the tireless work of Richard Nabarro, Paul Stedman and Sarah Todd in working on this to get it signed off.
The FAB has met 3 times so far alongside working groups including:
Several ticketing groups covering ticketing operations, ticketing policy and TAPs
Fan behaviour
Food and drink (F&B)
Brentford Disability Supporters Association
Hall of Fame
Women and Girls
Sustainability
Fan Atmosphere
- Chairperson’s Report (AH) (Continued)
As you can see the many groups sees us work tirelessly continue for us off the pitch across all topics that matter Brentford supporters.
We were delighted that the club listened to our pleas to keep freeze ticket prices and will keep pushing for keeping prices down for fans. We will also fight to ensure that the ‘Every Seats Counts Policy’ does not discriminate against people who were aware of the process or who received Yellow Cards through no fault of their own. The purpose of this exercise is to ensure there are seats for Brentford fans, not the other way round.
I’d like to offer my thanks to those who have decided not to stand for re-election this year, first to Phil Marchant who known to many as Supes. Phil has been the stalwart of BIAS since its inception and has been on every committee since those dark days when BIAS was founded. I would like to record my thanks to Supes for all his help over the years and providing that continuity and he will always be welcome back onto the committee should he choose to do so.
Another stalwart from the BIAS of old was Paul Stedman, he chose to return to the committee this year and played a fundamental role in ensuring that the FAB was established on our terms and that the discussions we had with the club and Bees United were well structured and ensured that BIAS’ level of engagement was not weakened in anyway.
Mark Chapman has led our Social Media strategy for the last two years and has transformed the way we engaged on Social media and also provided valuable input to how we operate as an organisation and was always reminding us of our mandate to put fans first. Mark is still going to work with us to help us get our new website live in the next couple of months.
Taylor Dawson was new to the committee last year and offered a great fresh insight and views. Unfortunately, personal circumstances have meant that she has been unable to commit the time to BIAS and has decided not to remain on the board, special thanks to Taylor for your wisdom and reasoned views to date.
Likewise with Chris How, who also had to step down earlier in the year, thanks for your help.
This year we are in the fantastic position where we have another 12 nominations for the Committee this year, including 4 new candidates. As you will have seen from all the candidate statements, we have a great and diverse group of people who have been nominated, and if they are all successfully voted on then we will yet again have a great committee.
The most important motion that we have is the changes to our constitution, fundamentally our constitution has not changed significantly in any way since our inauguration. Special thanks to Richard Nabarro who has spent the last year reviewing it line-by-line and providing a new excellent proposal that is much more apparent to how BIAS is today as an organisation.
I am strongly encouraged by the strength of the committee in the last year and am fully confident that the new nominees will further help us achieve our objectives. Thank you all.
- Finance and Membership Report (DM)
- Financial breakdown contained in Appendix D of the AGM Meeting pack.
Finance Update
The BIAS Financial Year runs from 31st May 2022 through to 31st May 2023.
I am pleased to report a profit of £1040.70 compared to the previous financial year.
Our total balances for the end of the BIAS financial year (31st May 2023) amounted to £32058.58 CR
The BIAS accounts for this period have now been audited and approved by Jim Walsh our independent auditor.
Our administration costs have increased from the previous financial year – this has been caused by a number of factors namely:
A decision to move our membership database to a more secure platform that enables members to update their own details, this is called Love Admin and we have now provided details to all members. I would encourage you to log in and check that your details are correct
Additional postage costs incurred to try and contact members where we have lost contact
Expenditure for business cards / Join BIAS T-shirts for committee members (£101.99 & £144.00) to help drive up our membership numbers. You will have seen committee members with clip boards ahead of home matches trying to sign up new members
Bank charges have also been incurred for the first time this financial year.
Our organised boat trip for the away game v West Ham on the 30th December 2022 unfortunately made a small loss of £145.67. On a more positive note, our organised boat trip to Fulham at the start of this season generated a profit of £303.04 and will be included in this years financial accounts.
Last summer as part of our drive to ensure that football belongs to everyone, we were pleased to make a donation of £800 to the Brentford Penguins Football Club to enable a 2-day summer camp to be run. Each summer camp involved a series of fun and games at Gunnersbury Park with a separate trip to the Park Lane stables in Teddington.
As for income, although membership to BIAS is now free, there are still over 150 members continuing to make donations by standing order or PayPal. Our income via Standing Order has only reduced by only £12.00 a month this financial year. This is a result of 10 members stopping their donations.
I would like to place on record once again the committee’s thanks to those members who continue to make donations which places our finances on a very healthy footing. Their generosity is not taken for granted and is very much appreciated.
- Finance and Membership Report (DM) (Continued)
Membership
We continue to see our membership grow; At the last AGM meeting I reported that as at September 2022 we had a total Membership of 1968
As at the end of September 2023 we now have a total Membership of 3113, an increase of 1145 new members, which is a fantastic achievement
We will continue to drive for more members so that we are truly representative of the Brentford fan base, and to provide us with a stronger voice when discussing issues with the Club.
Our position as co-chair of the Fan Advisory Board, and established relationships with the Club, provides us with access to raise issues and concerns raised by supporters, To do this effectively we need to represent as many Brentford fans as possible.
There are over 10K season ticket holders and c20K members so we will be working hard to increase our membership over the rest of the season and beyond
Our first target is to reach 5000 members a quickly as we can, so any help you can provide to spread the word to increase our membership numbers will be gratefully received
Just imagine if every member encouraged a colleague, friend or family member who supports the Club to join BIAS, we would soon reach this target
Remember the strength of BIAS’s influence is based on the number and activity of our members.
Summary
In summary BIAS continues to be in a healthy financial state with a growing membership and we are well placed to build on this over the next 12 months, working to improve the match day experience for all fans
- Motions – all votes out of 489 total votes cast (Votes “for” in brackets)
Full details of all motions are included in the AGM papers circulated to members on ahead of the AGM meeting on the 15th November
6.1 Re-election to the Executive Committee of the following committee members – Proposed by David Minckley and seconded by Adam Hobbs
• Adam Hobbs (464) • Richard Nabarro (433)
• David Minckley (450) • Sarah Todd (454)
• Ronald Mansveld (408) • Angelo Basu (434)
• Richard Kirchner (420) • Peter Edward (429)
- Motion Passed by BIAS Membership
- Motions (Continued)
6.2 • Election to the Executive Committee of the following members –
Proposed by David Minckley and seconded by Adam Hobbs
• Allyson Woyak (421)
• Andy Griffin (409)
• Ben Bland (403)
• Matthew White (407)
- Motion Passed by BIAS Membership
6.3 .Approve amendments to the BIAS Constitution previously advised to the
Membership by email on the 27th September –
Proposed by Richard Nabarro and seconded by Adam Hobbs
- Motion Passed by BIAS Membership (453)
6.4 Adoption of the Financial Accounts for the year ending 31st May 2023 –
Proposed by Richard Nabarro and seconded by Adam Hobbs
- Motion Passed by BIAS Membership (466)
6.5 Approve continuation of free membership to the Association –
Proposed by Adam Hobbs and seconded by David Minckley
- Motion Passed by BIAS Membership (481)
6.6 Approve retention of Jim Walsh as independent auditor for BIAS Financial Accounts –
Proposed by Adam Hobbs and seconded by David Minckley
- Motion Passed by BIAS Membership (475)
- Q & A Session
Questions have been grouped into BIAS Areas of Responsibility – to facilitate future action. Answers in grey shading.
- BIAS Area – BIAS Operations/Administration:
Question 1 on Voting methodology – and whether this is first past the post.
Adam Hobbs: Because we have 12 positions and 12 candidates, then yes, if anyone receives 51% of the for/against vote then they will be voted Elected. If we had more than 12 candidates, we would use a preference system based on who polled highest percentage of votes for.
Question 2 on Membership. You’ve done very, very well and you’re putting a lot of effort in, Bees United putting a lot of effort in, why don’t you work together and put tick boxes on the your membership forms if anyone joins BIAS to tick Bees United.
Adam Hobbs: It’s certainly one that has been discussed by the committee. I’m happy to discuss that with Bees United and see how we could help with that. The current chair of Bees United is very happy to work with us. So I think that’s positive.
Dave Minckley: I think it’s also fair to say that we’ve spoken with the club as well in terms of publicising both ourselves and Bees United as part of the Fan Advisory Board (FAB), updates via their Website pages and FAB communications. I think the club recognises the need for the FAB to be truly fan representative. We need to represent more fans when we are going to these meetings.
Question 3 on Publishing this BIAS AGM: on the club website or and or in the programme?
Adam Hobbs: We could do something in the programme and on the website.
Dave Minckley: We did put an article in the programme earlier this year promoting BIAS.
Adam Hobbs: I think this is something that Richard Merritt (BIAS Facebook group) mentioned to us.
Richard Merritt: I go onto the site 5 times a day and delete scanned messages. Unfortunately, people can slip through the net if someone joins in the next 5 minutes, they can post something. There’s nothing anyone can do to stop that, but there are quite a few of the old BIAS committee members on there that are still monitoring that group and we are deleting about six or seven posts a day. One thing I would like to ask the committee. Selling on the group, should that or should that not be allowed? I’m deleting quite a few posts and where people are selling Brentford trainers or Brentford Hawaiian shirts. Because I can’t vouch for the seller and I don’t think BIAS can endorse them. There are fans that go on their selling badges – are you happy for that to continue?
Adam Hobbs: I think so. But other than the badges, I don’t think we need to have it as a marketplace.
Richard Merritt: And if all the BIAS committee wants to join the Facebook group and put themselves down as Admin with me to go through it, it’s quite easy. You get a notification if anything’s reported. You see anything yourself? You have just got to click on delete.
Question 24 on Submit Issue button on BIAS Website: Could there be a submit-issue button? So if people would like to just submit an issue.
Adam Hobbs: Thanks for that suggestion.
7. Q & A Session (Continued)
- BIAS Area – Fan Engagement:
Question 5 on BIAS Social Media Strategy: Will you be continuing with a similar social media strategy, some of last seasons tweets were quite controversial?
Adam Hobbs: We have a new executive committee and we will discuss our communication strategy at the next meeting and who will be taking over running the X/Twitter account.
Question 15 on ceasing gambling sponsors: where are we at with trying to make sure the next main shirt sponsor is not a gambling company.
Adam Hobbs: We have received assurances from John Varley that is the case. The extension to the Hollywood Bets sponsorship finishes a year short of the gambling ban so that Brentford will then be in a better position to secure a non-gambling sponsor ahead of other Clubs in the Premier League who also have gambling sponsorships running to up to the gambling ban. There may however be gambling sponsorship on sleeves etc. Other aspects of advertising for gambling – Pitch Perimeter signs: There’ll be no more than two at any one time at any one match going round. There used to be four of them. We have the Pension B shirts for the B team, the Academy and the women’s team as well.
- BIAS Area – Football Supporters Association (FSA):
Question 11 on Timing of Evening Games:
Ronald Mansveld: I’m afraid that this something that we can do very little about because the timing of the games is done in prescribed slots by the Premier League and broadcasters.
Dave Minckley: The only thing that we have been doing as affiliate members of the Football Supporters Association is to make representations to the Premier League on the impact of late changes/ unsocial kick-off times (with limited transport). This doesn’t just affect Brentford, it affects all teams in the Premier League and, for example, the announcement that there’s going to be a game on Christmas Eve with Chelsea and Wolves. Every supporters group in the Premier League protested to the Premier League through the FSA. This is where we’ll have the most impact and we are very much involved in those discussions alongside other Premier League clubs.
Question 21 on Compensation for fans (due to travel/accommodation changes): pre-pandemic, Tracey Crouch was trying to get a bill through parliament to ensure the Premier League gave compensation to fans who had their travel and accommodation fees changed. Is there any movement on this?
Adam Hobbs: I’ve not seen that mentioned. It certainly wasn’t in her fan-led review or in the government White paper, but we could raise that potentially with the FSA.
7. Q&A Session (Continued)
- BIAS Area – Matchday Experience:
Question 6 on Singing at Away Games: Are there any plans to try and get the club to set up a singing section for away games to improve the atmosphere, especially at the Big six games please. Liverpool for us was shocking.
Adam Hobbs: As I mentioned briefly in my in my speech, the club are looking at an Away Fans working group to see how they can make away day travel better. It is something that we’re aware of. I guess it’s a balancing act between whether you allow Season Ticket holders and Members to buy multiple tickets and in this case the sale went to Members (and up to six for all purchasers). Or whether you take a reduced (but more vocal) allocation.
Question 9 on Matchday Experience – Lockers & No-Smoking: Two issues on match day experience. Firstly, is BIAS able to communicate with the club on providing a few lockers for large bags, both for fans travelling and having to stay overnight? Secondly, can BIAS raise the issue of stewards not enforcing the non-smoking policy in the ground?
Adam Hobbs: I think we can take both of those options forward.
Sarah Todd: The non-smoking policy because has already been discussed with the club quite extensively by the Disabled Sports Association, mainly because a lot of the smoking goes on in the disabled toilets and the club are aware and trying to enforce this. We can reiterate to the Club this still not happening. It would be helpful to let BIAS know (via the BIAS website) where smoking is happening in the ground so we can be specific with the Club.
Question 10 on Smoking Areas: On that point of no smoking, we are allowed to smoke at the back of the North Stand, because it’s open air. And maybe what we should be pushing for is a half-time area behind the West side, behind the South stand, where people can step outside and have a cigarette. The barriers are already there and so I think we need to coach the club to be proactive rather than an all-out ban.
Adam Hobbs: The official policy of the club is that smoking is not allowed anywhere within the footprint at the stadium, so the fact that they allow you to do it on the back of the north stand is actually against the stadium rules. It is a non-smoking stadium including the back of it.
Ronald Mansveld: A bit more on that coming in from online specifically, that it is not enforced in the North Stand. And about smoking in toilets as stewards have been caught smoking in the disabled toilets, that is definitely something that we all pick up with the club because that cannot be done. And also does the policy include vaping? I’m pretty sure the answer to that is yes, that vaping is not allowed within the stadium.
Adam Hobbs: We do meet with the operations team as well. So we can talk directly with up without Alan Walsh and Alistair Hill.
Question 12 on Cashless and Online interactions: given the large section of the fan base are senior citizens, the club’s moving to cashless and online interactions makes this age group feel anxious.
Adam Hobbs: I think that’s a fair point. It’s something that we have raised before, but the club are adamant that it’s a cashless stadium. We will keep trying in particular on programme sales outside the ground, which are slow because they’re using these very slow PDQ’s. We will ask for at least one cash till, but I doubt whether we will be successful
7. Q&A Session (Continued)
- BIAS Area – Match day Experience: (Continued)
Question 14 on away fans being allowed access to Kew Bridge station. At the West Ham game, the police allowed away fans into Kew Bridge station from the top entrance after the game, which is meant to be banned, and they abused home fans.
Ronald Mansveld: That’s the first time I’ve heard about that.
Adam Hobbs: I did hear that there were some long queues and people missed the train. I’m guessing that’s the reason why there was some trouble after that game. We can take that up with the Operations team.
Question 17 on alternative programme sales sites: Any chance we could see some in stadium programme tills, especially when it’s raining?
Adam Hobbs: Some stands do sell the programmes at the pop-up merchandise stores where they sell shirts inside, and there’s certainly one in the West End. They sell the programmes there. I’m not sure about all the other stands, but I think we could find out.
Peter Edward: I think there is a list on the official site and I think it is in all stands.
Dave Minckley: The Club are also trialling, selling programmes at half time, by the food kiosks in one of the stands. I can’t remember which stand. We have a meeting that covers programme sales, so we can pick that up there.
Question 18 on train station access: station management post games should we open two separate lanes for fans to access the different platforms?
Adam Hobbs: I think that’s very sensible.
Ronald Mansveld: And we will definitely take that forward.
Question 19 fan statements about Stewards (Smoking, Bike Steward, and Name Badges):
Smoking- None of the stewards are employed by the club. They all wear ID. If you find a steward whose smoking, take their name and ring the agency and they won’t be back.
Bike Steward: There’s now one steward permanently on the bike stands whose job it is to enforce the new rule. No, taking the bike up and down steps and also making sure that the person’s bike is there at the end of the match.
Name badges- At Liverpool, it was noted that the stewards all had a name badge. We’re thinking about if you’re not happy with some of the stewards, you know their name.
Question 22 on what’s the reason behind The Gunnersbury Station closure?
Adam Hobbs: The Gunnersbury Station closure is entirely TFL’s decision. The police want it open and the club want it open and the club even agreed to pay for all the stewards. TfL won’t budge on it at all as they feel this is a health and safety issue as the platforms are short and narrow platform and have an island platform as well.
7. Q&A Session (Continued)
- BIAS Area – Ticketing:
Question 4 on Reduced Ticket pricing: Could we look at the club reducing match ticket prices for people on universal credits?
Adam Hobbs: I think that’s a fair point.
Ronald Mansveld: Think this is something we can carry forward in our discussion with the club.
Question 8 on Away Ticket Sales: I think we know that the Away Ticket sales have dropped off quite a material amount this season, which is not unexpected given the cost of going to these games. But that does mean that we’re short of selling our full allocation. If you look at the quantum of how much that costs it’d be worth talking with the club to see what that quantum is. I think it’s about £100,000. Is it worth returning those tickets rather than keeping them open for late sales, or not?
Adam Hobbs: We’ll have a discussion with the club on that.
Question 13 on away tickets for overseas fans: it would be great if the club could make it easier for overseas fans to attend away matches. It would help to know if a ticket is secured at least several weeks in advance as well, possibly even guarantee before away tickets sale. If possible, it takes a lot of money and planning to make it over for a game and would be great if we could try to catch both home and away matches while here, most of us will sing too.
Adam Hobbs: We do have the Overseas Membership which gives you the option I think to now provide preferences for matches you want to attend in advance.
Ronald Mansveld: This will definitely be on the list of things we can discuss at the club.
Question 20 on Discounted Tickets for Students: I could be wrong in saying this, but student membership for example could we be asking the club to implement? I don’t know if that’s already.
Adam Hobbs: There’s young person’s membership, which obviously you don’t have to be young to be a student, but that’s I think that probably would fall into that category.
(Supplementary Q): As well as recently, there’s been a lot of stuff on social media. For example, Man City offering student discounts for tickets. In not only small games, but big games as well, such as their Champions League game against RB Leipzig. It might be worth that Brentford allocating a small number of tickets. It doesn’t have to be a large amount because it will obviously impact ticket sales but it could be worth that there’s 500 or a few hundred seats that will go on discount for students because it would make football easy accessible for all really.
Adam Hobbs: It could be something that they do, because quite often they’ll get returns quite near the start the match (between 24 hours or 72 hours). The Club have said that player complimentary tickets sometimes get returned and will also go on sale. I don’t think you’d get many last minute returns for a category A match. Actually category B matches and matches at unpopular times might be worth looking at. It is worth noting that Man City do not sell out any of their matches.
7. Q&A Session (Continued)
- BIAS Area – Ticketing: (Continued)
Question 16 on ticket agencies: how do big agencies get hold of match tickets offered at prices up to £500?
Adam Hobbs: it does depend. In some cases, they don’t actually have the tickets and they are fake.. In other times people could take out multiple memberships if they willing to spend £40 a time
Trevor Inns: obviously a lot of it comes from Members, but also Season Ticket Holders, but it’s just important that we report every away fan we find in the stadium. That’s the way to eradicate it. We need to give specifics about seats at every game about where away fans were sitting and that’s the only way we can basically eradicate it over time. So it’s up to you. Just one more point as well, you might see a lot of tickets for sale on Twitter or whatever else. So those are all fakes
Ronald Mansveld: Reports need to be made directly to the club (and not via BIAS). The club has all the data and the CCTV etc. to look into each case.
Dave Minckley: And we have done that in the past, I think there was Leeds and Newcastle home games where we approached the club and said we’re aware that this site is selling the tickets and they’ve got a team that investigates that. So everybody’s then found that those fans been using their tickets to sell it onto those sites. They’ll be caught and they’ll be banned.
Question 23 on erroneous Yellow cards: yellow card still being given out when people are attending the games. Is this being looked into?
Adam Hobbs: we had an update from the club last week on this. This was a technical issue which they had with the turnstiles which has been resolved. In the first couple of games there were a lot of people receiving yellow cards in error – there should be hardly any now so we have told. So if there are any then if you let us know, and can give examples we can follow up with the club because we’ve been told that that specific issue has been fixed. If you do ever have any questions or ever want us to take up anything, then you could always e-mail us at feedback@bias.org.uk and we’ll look into any of your issues.
Feedback from Q&A:
Dave Minckley: I think that and there’s been a lot that’s come out from this Questions and Answer session. So thank you all for your questions. We will review all the questions raised and provide feedback in due course via our website and social media channels.
Ronald Mansveld: The recording will be made available on the BIAS Website.
- Meeting Closed
Meeting Closed 20:30. The chairman thanked all for attending the meeting, and special thanks were given to the club for laying on the excellent facilities in support of the AGM.