NEW 12TH MAN WEBSITE IS NOW LIVE!

THIS SITE IS NOW FROZEN

THE NEW 12TH MAN WEBSITE IS NOW LIVE AT

 

www.ox12thman.org.uk 

 

PLEASE CHANGE ANY BOOKMARKS AND LINKS

SEE THE NEW SITE FOR DETAILS OF HOW TO CONTACT PEOPLE INVOLVED WITH THE 12TH MAN

 

No, Robbie won't be selling the badges himself tomorrow, he'll be otherwise engaged, but come and buy yours tomorrow.

Tuesday's two-goal hero Robbie Hall is pictured here with (l to r) Ray Whittaker, Don Gale and Danny Johnston from the 12th Man group.  

New design 12th Man badges will be on sale around the ground on Saturday before the Port Vale match at £2 each with proceeds to the fund. 

Be sure to get yours and help us build the fund.

Badges on sale this week

At this week's matches against Plymouth and Port Vale, look out for our badge sellers and get your 2011-12 season 12th man badge.

The following was released to local media last week:

The 12th Man fund, which is run by United fans, recently agreed to provide financial support to Oxford United for Robbie Hall’s second month on loan. 12^th Man badges, in a new design for this season, will be available at £2 each for the two home matches in the coming week. Look out for them around the ground and at the Priory pub.

Don Gale, who has organised the badges, said “We hope fans will like the new badge, which features this season’s kit design. The more we sell, the more Robbie Halls the fund will be able to help bring to the club.”

12th Man terms and conditions

The terms and conditions of the 12th Man Fund (2011 version) are set out below (click on the read more link to view)

Meeting notes, 11 October 2011

MINUTES OF 12^TH MAN WORKING GROUP MEETING

Blog continues for now

Work on the new 12th man website proceeds.

For the time being this blog page will continue to provide news on 12th Man issues.

Rob Hall loan extended with 12th Man's support

The 12th Man fund has today agreed to support the seventh player since it was set up, with costs associated with Rob Hall's second month of loan being met from the balance in the fund. The fund's contribution is expected to be between £3,000 and £4,000. Thanks are due to fans for continuing to support the fund. The official club announcement of the loan, released this morning, reads as follows:

____________________________________________________

Robert Hall has extended his loan period with the U's for a further month.

The West Ham striker was due to return to London at the end of the week following the match with Bristol Rovers, but after discussions with all parties his loan period has now been extended until Wednesday 9th November.

The loan deal has been supported by the 12th Man fund which was set up by United supporters in 2008 to help raise additional funds to bring players to the club.

So far the 12th Man has raised £38,000 and helped with the signings of six players including Jake Wright and stretching back to Jamie Cook.

The 17-year-old from Aylesbury in Bucks joined the club in September and has made five appearances, scoring three times - against Dagenham and Redbridge, Hereford and Aldershot.

Hall has represented England at Under-18 level and was part of the team that won the UEFA Under-17 European Championship.

Manager Chris Wilder said: "Rob has made an immediate impact at the club and he has real talent which he has shown in every match he has played for us. He's chipped in with some vital goals and we're obviously very happy he wants to extend his loan for a further month."

Trevor Lambert, a spokesman for the 12th Man, said: "We are delighted that the supporters, the 12^th Man at Oxford United, have once again been able to strengthen the squad by financially supporting the extension of Rob Hall's loan.

"Rob's first month here has been impressive and we wish him well for the second month, starting with Saturday's exciting prospect of the match against Bristol Rovers."

This blog

A new 12th Man website is in preparation which will have all the details of 12th Man activities, and will take the place of this blog over the coming weeks.

Badges

New 12th Man badges with the 2011-12 kit design are in production and may make their debut next Saturday, 10 September.

12th Man Beer

12th Man Beer is on sale once again this weekend at the Masons Arms beer festival in Headington. All profits from the sale of the beer go to the 12th Man Fund courtesy of landlord Chris Meeson.

Meeting notes, 23 August

MINUTES OF 12^TH MAN WORKING GROUP MEETING

Held Tuesday 23/08/2011 at Hawkwell House Hotel

Present; John Gould (Chair), Maurice Earp, Don Gale, Rose Green, Trevor Lambert, Kim Lamont, Michael North, Paul Ridgley, Steven Sykes, Liam Wakeford, Paul Wakeford, Ray Whittaker.

Guest; Kelvin Thomas.

Apologies for absence were received from Danny Johnston.

Progress report on fund raising projects:

Badges – DG circulated a drawing showing the new design of badge and confirmed that delivery is anticipated on 7 September, in time for the Burton home game. He confirmed that the cost was £1350 for 3000 badges. It was suggested that a different type of fastening might be preferred by some people and DG agreed to look into arranging a smaller run of these. JG thanked DG for his efforts and offered to pass on his experience re sales and organisation.

12^th Man Beer – it was confirmed that DJ had spoken to Chris Meeson of the Masons Arms who will once again produce a special beer for his beer festival over 2-4 Sept, with all profits from sales going to the Fund. TL said the Oxford Mail needed to be contacted to publicise this. ME suggested advertising the beer on appropriate forums and also said he would speak further to Chris Meeson.

Programmes and mugs – MN reported that he had a new limited edition (of 25) mugs for sale and had already sold five. He also reported that he was currently taking between £50 - £100 each matchday from his table in the bar and accordingly was expecting to exceed last season’s takings.. There have been four big donations of programmes recently which he is in the process of sorting for resale. He was also pleased to announce that it is now a global business as he has a customer in New Zealand!

Jewellery – JG said he would investigate further regarding progress on this and also clarify what profit share the Fund would receive. He also said that he would report his findings as soon as possible.

Flag Bearer – TL said that he felt this was initially proving a hard sell this year as the take up has been very limited. He is putting notices on forums in an effort to garner interest. RG suggested a raffle as a way of generating interest but it was felt there could be logistical problems with this. RW asked if it was felt that the cost (£50) was a problem. It was agreed that it was a fair price for a very good package. DG agreed to be the flag bearer at a game in January to mark his retirement. PW suggested offering a game to the child(ren) of an Oxford Mail reporter with the aim of generating a story. KT suggested approaching Thom Airs, a news reporter who is also an OUFC fan and attends matches in an unofficial capacity. It was also suggested that other media outlets be contacted.

Cartoons – PW has created over 50 new cartoons but unfortunately due to difficulties with modern technology the meeting was not able to view them. He said this year he wishes to sell them both as A5 cards and on-line, and once costs have been covered including a consideration for his time all of the profit will go to the Fund. He reported a profit of £595 for the signed play-off picture for which JG received the cheque. A discussion then ensued about the possibility of a large cheque being presented on the pitch and who exactly it should be presented to. LW suggested a new caricature in the form of a superhero should be created to represent the Fund and it was agreed this was a good fun idea and should be investigated further.

Suggestions for further fund-raising projects:

T-shirt - SS suggested a T-shirt to mark the club’s victory in the recent A420 Clasico. He displayed a T-shirt produced by a company called YNSAM and agreed to enquire if they would be able to produce a suitable garment. ME felt that the price point needed to be £10 maximum retail.

Auction - DG suggested a 50-50 auction.

Photo - MN suggested a photo of the Oxford fans celebrating at the end of the aforementioned game.

Standing order scheme - Now that the worries about bank charges have proved unfounded, it was agreed that this should go ahead. JG suggested a monthly minimum of £2 although of course people could donate more should they wish/afford. TL said he had approached James Robinson about producing a flyer. PR suggested details of the flag scheme could be on the reverse of the flyer. This was welcomed by the meeting. KT suggested that the flyer could be inserted into a matchday programme and the meeting thanked him for this offer.

Badges in the away strip design - again DG agreed to look into this. JG pointed out that in the previous incarnation home badges outsold away by a ratio of approximately 3:1.

KT warned against creating too much merchandise at once. JG agreed and said he envisaged 3 main projects spread over the season.

Communications:

Web and email - TL offered four suggestions for a dedicated website address. A discussion about the possibilities/ likelihood of mis-spelling ensued before it was agreed to adopt ox12thman.org.uk. TL will reserve this domain name. The meeting agreed the cost of approximately £10. He said that he wanted it to be an ‘easy access’ website.

Facebook – There is a Facebook group for the 12^th Man set up by Simon Bradbury with 600 – 700 people signed up. LW volunteered to help. TL said he would contact S Bradbury to ascertain who is registered as an administrator and whether it is still appropriate for them to be so, and with a view to having LW added .

Yahoo group – TL reported this was set up and generally seemed to be working well. He asked for volunteers to co-administrate. SS volunteered.

Terms and conditions: TL had drafted updates to the terms and conditions to reflect previous discussions and summarised the changes for the meeting, which basically brought them up to date and reflected the new organisation. These changes are available to view on the Yahoo group. JG proposed that any comments from attendees regarding the changes be submitted within five days of the meeting. Other interested parties who could not attend would also be circulated. Unless there were any objections the new t&cs would be adopted.

Fund balance: JG reported that with the cheque he had received from LW & PW the balance now stood at £8478. He also added that he wanted full transparency in all financial matters connected with the fund.

Links with the Priory Public House: TL reported that links were strong in the first year of the Fund but less so last year and asked if it was worth discussing with Tim Rackley (the landlord) about staging a couple of events, for example a race night which had previously proved popular. ME said that T Rackley was keen to support the Fund and KT concurred having met with him last week. At this point the discussion returned to the 50/50 auction previously suggested by DG and it was considered that this might be an ideal event for the Priory. ME agreed to approach T Rackley. It was agreed that items for the auction need not necessarily be OUFC related and KL suggested she could help with sourcing items.

Any other business:

JG asked for volunteers to chair future meetings. DG said he would chair the next one, followed by ME and RG.

ME asked about the promotion of the new badges. JG suggested extensive use of the forums as in the past . KT suggested a picture of Jim Rosenthal wearing the new badge as a publicity picture.

KT asked what had been agreed regarding the aims of the fund and the discussion in this regard that was held at the last meeting was briefly summarised by TL.

There being no further business the meeting closed at 9.00pm.

Date of next meeting; 11 October 2011 at 7.30pm. MN agreed to book the room.

Meeting notes, 28 July 2011

Here are the notes of the meeting held on 28th July of the newly formed group:

12^TH MAN FUND

Meeting notes – 28 July 2011

Attendees: Maurice Earp, Michael North, Paul Wakeford, Liam Wakeford, Paul Ridgley, Danny Johnston, Steve Sykes, Dave Nicholls, Ray Whittaker, Don Gale, Rose Green, Trevor Lambert, John Gould.

Apologies: Kelvin Thomas, Simon Bradbury, Zak Stratton-Taylor, Daniel Freeman, Maureen Wingrove, Mark Bryden, James Robinson, Damon Farrant, Laurence Waters, Andy Wilmer, Kieron Badger, Matthew Lower, Louise McDowall, Simon Pearce, Marc Pinner, Peter Harris, Adrian Oliver.

Trevor Lambert and John Gould welcomed everyone to the meeting.

Trevor took some time to explain the origins of the 12^th Man fund, its objectives, and the current position of the Fund. He explained that some of those originally involved were, for various reasons of time and other commitments, no longer closely associated with the Fund; and that he and John were also looking to scale back their commitment (albeit not opting out completely). They felt therefore the time was right to try and introduce new faces to the organisation of the Fund and the meeting was to gauge the level of interest that might be forthcoming. The terms and conditions and a breakdown of the payments made and the sums raised were circulated.

There was then some discussion as to what the Fund should do next; should it remain true to the original objective of supporting the first team, or widen its scope to encompass anything within OUFC. The majority opinion seemed to be, as the survey had shown, that it should continue as it is now. The Club has not made any requests of the Fund for the last 12 months.

Different methods of raising revenue were discussed and it was agreed to proceed with the commissioning of a new batch of badges, using the design of the 2011-12 kit. Several designs were discussed and it was felt the badges should incorporate the lettering OUFC in some way, either on the badge itself or embossed on the back. It was agreed to look into this further and liaise with Rob Newton, the designer. Don Gale agreed to head this up with support from Maurice Earp and Dave Nicholls.

It was agreed the popular flag bearer activity would continue (the club having indicated their willingness to support this and to continue to offer stadium tours), and Rose Green, Steve Sykes and Danny Johnston agreed to take on the task of meet and greet.

Trevor would set up a yahoo email group and invite those attending to sign up. We had two contacts willing to help with website design and Trevor would also look into this.

It was also agreed that some catalogues of promotional material should be obtained, which might generate further ideas for 12^th Man merchandise.

Danny Johnston would approach Chris Meeson of the Masons Arms regarding the possibility of 12^th Man beer.

Everyone recognised the importance of keeping people who had expressed interest informed, especially folk like Sue Trafford and Tim Rackley of the Priory.

Steve Sykes offered to act as secretary.

John agreed that he would continue as treasurer for the time being as the bank account is currently linked to the OxVox accounts at Barclays. It will be difficult to open a new account until the 12th man has some sort of formal organisation.

The 12^th Man terms and conditions were circulated for consideration; revisions will be discussed and agreed at the next meeting.

The meeting closed at 9.40pm.

Next meeting; Tuesday 23^rd August.