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.