Wear Down South - AGM 2011

As ever, the Chairman’s report is fairly brief, the main activities of the branch throughout the year being dealt with in the reports prepared by the other committee members.

I would like to thank the other committee members for their work throughout the year. They work hard to ensure the smooth running of the branch, be it membership, travel, the newsletter, accounts, website and so on. All of these activities take up a considerable amount of time which the committee members freely give up.

It is though, important that other branch members recognise that if the branch is to flourish it needs input from as many members as possible, participating in a many of the branch activities as possible. It also needs new members. I would urge any of you who have been thinking of getting involved to do so; be it by writing an article for the newsletter or the website, taking part in the sporting activities, travelling to games or attending branch functions. Equally as importantly, if you think there is anything else that the branch could do to make itself more attractive to its current membership, and attract more members, then please say.

Having finally handed over the Treasurer’s reins to Aidan - to whom I owe apologies for not getting the records to him sooner - I now present my brief Secretary’s Report.

During the year we had 4 Committee meetings which were attended by on average over 7 of the Committee members.

There was one potential disciplinary matter but after an exchange of correspondence this was satisfactorily resolved without any further action.

There are vacancies on the Committee should anyone feel they would like to contribute more to the Branch.

We have had another good year using Grand Central, who continue to provide the branch with a really good service. After careful negotiations we manage to hold the price of the tickets to the same price as the previous season. There was only one incident last year that I had to deal with and Grand Central phoned me to apologise for the issue which I feels shows the good working relationship that we have with them. A relationship that myself and the branch is very keen to continue to maintain.

Match ticket allocations last season were overall pretty much what I had asked for, but as always there is always one match that causes me a great headache as we are not allocated the full quota that I ask for. It is worth remembering that the earlier that I request the tickets, the more chance we have of receiving them.

We continued using the BACS payment method and there was an increase of people paying this way. This works very well except when members are not sending me a paper confirmation of the booking, so that I am aware that you have paid. The booking system works really well as long as the rules are adhered to. If you are phoning and leaving a message on the travel line and then sending me your cheque or BACs paper copy you can be sure that you will be booked on the trip. As I am sure that both system will not fail.

It is difficult after so many years in this role to bring a freshness to the obligatory Membership Report for the AGM. Membership is neither flourishing nor plummeting so no strategic examination is necessary. It ended at 478 for the 2010-11 season. After personal recommendation from existing members, our website continues to be the most regular source for new recruits, followed by fellow travellers on the train to games who haven’t realised the financial benefit in travelling as a member.

We currently send “Wear Down South” to 312 households including our President and Vice-Presidents, to Radio Newcastle, the Sunderland Echo and to the “A Love Supreme” fanzine. Of the 478 members, there are currently 242 at home and 8 overseas who receive our group email messages, a service we regard as crucial to distribute important information as quickly as possible. The number of households for whom we have no other means of contact than by Royal Mail has happily reduced to 47 but as many of these are other family members, or friends of email recipients, there is little evidence that they miss out on any vital Branch information.

Once again many members, far too numerous to acknowledge individually, added donations to their membership fees and this is much appreciated, as are the messages of thanks for the work of the Committee. I am aware that the Members’ Handbook, sent to all new recruits, is now 12 years old and in need of updating (rather than by me manually on the copies I do send out!) and I shall be proposing to the Committee that a new version be prepared and issued, paid for by these donations for the general benefit of all members.

After an initial surge (encouraged by me) membership renewals for the new season dribble in day-by-day but are still only about 60% of last season’s total. A final reminder will be sent before anyone is deleted from the mailing list or email message list but I’d be delighted to have as few as possible of those warnings to issue.

Summary by Month

Month	Daily Avg				Monthly Totals
Month	Hits	Files	Pages	Visits	Sites	kB F	kB In	kB Out	Visits	Pages	Files	Hits

Sep 2011	284	219	72	52	529	269315	0	0	1263	1732	5278	6819
Aug 2011	498	369	124	60	856	669092	0	0	1866	3855	11458	15441
Jul 2011	495	392	104	52	852	632585	0	0	1632	3248	12159	15373
Jun 2011	360	233	98	44	662	409610	0	0	1336	2948	6990	10818
May 2011	310	232	83	46	551	574627	0	0	1431	2590	7214	9612
Apr 2011	298	199	79	44	584	277428	0	0	1329	2399	5988	8942
Mar 2011	287	221	82	42	566	435188	0	0	1328	2553	6867	8924
Feb 2011	307	223	86	49	512	424976	0	0	1391	2412	6268	8613
Jan 2011	388	288	90	53	676	520522	0	0	1663	2816	8929	12039
Dec 2010	320	238	88	50	640	467285	0	0	1570	2754	7408	9939
Nov 2010	344	258	73	44	650	637377	0	0	1335	2192	7766	10335
Oct 2010	584	432	97	53	418	516760	0	0	797	1461	6483	8772

Totals						5834765	0	0	16941	30960	92808	125627

Travel is still far and away the most popular page, followed by Membership, and the new “Your Committee” page is also attracting a number of visits.

Members may be interested to know that only 40% of visitors to the site are from the UK. We attract visitors from 21 other countries, with the USA (27%) far and away the most popular. Next come China and Norway with 2% each.

The following additions were made in 2011 following requests from users: Your Committee – who does what; About You – Branch member news; and Sports – how to get involved.

The web site is only as up to date as the information I receive so feel free to send contributions.