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.

COMING SOON - 12th Man Handcrafted Jewellery

Over the coming months The 12th Man will be selling handmade and handcrafted bespoke jewellery. Local company, Zoe's Crafts, have kindly offered to help support the 12th Man initiative.

Zoe's Crafts are happy to design the bespoke items and the jewellery and pricing will be as follows:

OUFC Bracelet with charm £4.50
OUFC Bracelet £2.50
Bag Charm £5. Can be made with pictures of your choice.
Necklace £5 with picture of a player
Necklace & eearings set £7. Can use picture of your choice
OUFC Cufflnks £5 - choice of three designs
Christmas cards £3.50 each. Orders will be taken from 1st November

Please contact Zoe Fathers at Zoe's Crafts (through Facebook), Sue Trafford or Pam Keen (selling matchday programmes, 50/50 tickets and 12th Man items from the stall outside the Quadrangle) or Simon on corporate@oxvox.org.uk for more details.

Zoe's Crafts will produce the items and arrangements will be made for orders to be collected on match days.

Results of the 12th Man survey

Results of the 12th Man survey

The online survey of fans about the future of the 12th Man fund, which closed at the end of last week, attracted 441 replies. Thanks to all who took part.

• 45% (199) of the fans who replied wanted the fund to continue to support the first team, as at present.
• 27% (118) would like it to support apprentice professionals coming through the youth system.
• 17% (76) thought it should be used to make improvements to the match day experience.
• 3% (15) felt the fund had served its purpose and should be closed.
• 7% (33) made other comments.

Among the 33 others, 22 either chose more than one of the other options, or said the Club should decide how money was spent, 9 said the money should be put towards building the 4^th stand or other stadium development, and 2 said the 12th Man brand should be used to promote the club in the community rather than to raise money.

A total of 33 said Yes, and 66 said Maybe, to the question about whether they were interested in being part of a working group. Contact details were supplied by 80, some of whom are on the existing mailing list, which is based on those who attended the initial meeting at which the fund was set up two years ago.

A total of 91 people said they would be willing to help pre-match. There were 27 who answered the question about fundraising expertise, some of whom described relevant skills. 84 supplied additional comments.

The next step will be to issue an invitation to everyone on the existing mailing list, and to everyone who left contact details, to a planning meeting organised by us in Oxford. If you gave your details, you should receive an email from us soon. Anyone who also wants to help but didn't complete the survey or leave their details will of course be welcome too. We are working on dates and we will be in touch with confirmation and details of how to reserve a place at the meeting in the next day or two.

Trevor Lambert
John Gould