And here are the minutes of the DISA's meeting. *Which are apparantly to follow on the WSU site for 18 months/2 years



22.03.07 Minutes of the 8th DISA meeting held on Wednesday 14 March 2007

Those present: Ben Dryland (Chair), Doug Brown, Colin Hawes, Thomas Hawes, Martin Ives, Brian Spurrell, Frank May, John McFadden

Minute taker: Brian Spurrell

Discussion Points

1 Five-a-side competition

Tom and Colin presented the revised plans for a five-a-side competition at PVR during the close season. The scaled down Plan B was a simple and achievable halfway house compared to the initial ambitious plan. It revolved around booking PVR for 4-6 hours, using its facilities and bar etc, and charging an entry fee to participating teams/players to cover expenses. The fees, perhaps £10 per person, might be high compared to Goals, but the USP would be the chance for KL supporters to play on a KL pitch.

Dates were an issue, as the hall was already hired out for a function on 2 June and the pitch was booked for various end-of-season minor cups, including one on 27 May. John invited DISA to liaise with Lin McFadden about available dates for this and other events. It was agreed that the best idea would be to put out feelers to other clubs.

Action: John to check free dates and let Colin/Tom know at the Sevenoaks match

Colin/Tom to assess the level of interest before speaking with John.



2 Aims of DISA

John wanted to explore the aims of DISA, and after a short discussion expressed satisfaction with the way the organisation was progressing a step at a time. The previous Deres Independent Supporters Committee three or four years previously had been something of a failure because of the conflict of interest between those representing different teams within the club, and this was unlikely to happen in this case.



3 Bank account

Martin reported that the bank account would be opened at Nat West in Swanley in the next week or so, with himself and Ben as co-signatories: banking would be free as long as the balance remained under £20k. Ben had funds waiting to be paid into the account, including programme subs, DISA sponsorship money and proceeds from sales on the online shop and e-Bay.

Action: Martin and Ben to finalise setting up the account.



4 Club Shop

Ben outlined Simon Kidbys ideas to spice up the club shop and possibly hold a programme fair at PVR. Simon wanted to establish a programme/badges/ scarves business around the shop, marketing it online, for the benefit of the club. He did not intend to charge the club for the activity, and had already donated a large number of programmes to the shop. It was agreed it was worthwhile for John and Simon to discuss Simons ideas further.

The online shop on the DISA website had stagnated a little, but the infrastructure was in place.

Action: Ben to facilitate meeting between John and Simon at the earliest opportunity.



5 Leaflet drop

Martin had identified costs for a possible leaflet drop as some £200 for printing and distribution, to be funded by advertisers. John was very doubtful about the worth of this, as we would be pursuing advertisers to input money which would not reach the club: besides, other more cost-effective publicity measures were in place, such as Toms regular column in Gateway News.

It might still be a good idea, but it would have to wait until the funds were available.

Other ideas put to John, to which he seemed receptive, were free admission for children, cut-price drinks in the bar and £2 discounts for season ticket holders of other clubs.

Action: Ben to look into the season ticket discount idea particularly exploring a possible link with Charlton.

John to consider (and put to the board?) the ideas on season-ticket holders, drinks discount and children-free days.



6 Bar facilities / darts tournament

In the course of a discussion on the use of the bar facilities, Martin suggested a pool or darts competition between Kent League clubs supporters. Subsequent discussion identified three possible levels of involvement: entering a local pool/darts league, organising a competition against other clubs supporters (again possibly Thamesmead, Greenwich or Slade Green) and organising an intra-club competition. It was agreed that the latter would be a useful place to start, and the date for a club darts tournament was provisionally fixed for 14 April (after the home match v Hythe Town). Publicity would be placed in the programme and on the website, and leaflets would be left in the changing rooms to drum up participation.

It would be useful to have a photocopier and/or computer on site at PVR; Ben would look into the possibilities.

Action: Brian to take forward darts competition idea.

Ben to source computer and photocopier if possible.



7 DISA organisation

It was agreed that future DISA meetings should be slightly more formal: Doug was tasked with arranging all future meetings; Tom was tasked with preparing the agendas; Brian was tasked with writing the minutes. Action points were to be included in the minutes of meetings.

Action: Doug, Tom and Brian to take on their roles!



8 Player of the Month

Ben had taken this idea over from the team management and made it a club-wide project rather than the managements decision alone. Ben had donated enough medals to last until the end of 2007-08. Doug agreed to present the March Player of the Month award at the Easter Saturday match v Whitstable.



9 Sponsorship

Ben confirmed that UK-Footballtickets had agreed to sponsor DISA to the end of next season, and produced a signed (laminated!) agreement to prove it. UK-Footballtickets would have its name on all DISA material during that time.



10 Five-a-side matches

Tom reported that the Thamesmead match the following Wednesday had been postponed, and might be rearranged at Dartford Goals some time in the future. A fixture against Whitstable Town supporters had been arranged for 7 April after the first team game to take place at Bexleyheath Goals at 6pm.



11 Any other business

It was agreed that the weekly prediction league idea had little support and should be shelved.

John and Frank agreed to let DISA know of future work nights at the club.

John agreed to the ideas of inviting sponsors and advertisers to the end-of-season players presentation night on 5 May and offering complimentary tickets to those businesses which agreed to display posters.

John repeated his thanks to DISA for their efforts and his satisfaction with this development at the club, and DISA thanked him for attending the meeting.

Action: John/board to contact sponsors etc re presentation night.

Brian to liaise with Kellie about complimentary tickets.



12 Next meeting

The next DISA meeting was provisionally arranged for Wednesday 11 April.

poker night
woohoo crossbar challenge, i posted that loads!!!!
comedians in the clubhouse not a venue you have to pay
darts competitions ( for the area) yes that involves contacting pubs
a welling united fun day, leafleting shops in morning for sponsorship and having a charity match in afternoon like before where people like rod stewart played at PVR not a bloke who played 3 times for arsenals reserves.
A tournament .. invite a scottish, irish and welsh non league team for a 4 team international tournament over 2 days. (get a local hotel to part sponsor the comp and offer cheap rooms to teams competing) Beats playing herne bay away!!
a golf day, local businesses teams of 4 , players present, chance to advertise sponsorship deals.
design the away kit competition
have a welling wall... oh wait you have now *wink
use the bar weekends, caberet , music etc etc or just have it open!, get it used regularly
ONLINE!! get an online system going for all financial activities, make it easy for people to spend money
Raffle the team sponsorship, losers get an advert in the programme and a space on website, winners get the shirt sponsorship (Home or away or both)
get the training kit sponsored by a local company, get the players energy drinks sponsored.
have an online sponsor a player
have a brochure printed in the summer with all sponsorships on and drop into local businesses, shops and pubs
GET THE COUNCIL INVOLVED!!
Sell Vice Presidents positions to local businesses
Have a Welling TV section on website with Video interviews with players and staff and get it sponsored
Pool Competitions
Have a barbeque in summer and entertainment in the evening
Have a school day in summer holiday, invite schools teams for a day with the players and manager (in danson park) No charge but sell season tickets to the kids and their families. spreads the word.
get advertising on the fence at the road end.
Get together with a local phone firm and get a deal for people for a new mobile and monthly contract where welling get commission
Get a darts team, quiz team, or pool team. will bring in takings every 2 weeks for 20-30 people and also get people into the club, who may bring their kids. no lose, money over the bar.
Buy a catering trailer and run it , not franchised out.
have a go karting day at brands hatch
get wings news going again or have it as a pdf on website sell spaces to local businesses and sponsors, get it in local shops and sell it in the club shop
Get a supporters association going that works, more people ,more brains, more ideas, more support.
car boot sales in summer charge £10 a time for sellers
sponsored meals, get barrie to cook a meal, for 10 charge £50 a pop for an evening of food and chat.
get a welling united book printed, past players, records, anecdotes etc etc - a history of
bungee jumps over the center circle from a crane with all jumpers getting a picture.
fireworks evening
karaoke nights
calendars made with photos of staff, players, matches.
lottery weekly or bonus ball competiton
shillings for the wings get schools or businesses or familys to save 5 pences and give to the club get a totaliser on a wall and update to the target
coffee mornings
day at the horse races, get a coach, breakfast at pvr or rolls and coffee get a deal off the track
hold a welling XFactor you would get loads of people in that!!
sponsored bike ride
car pool
hold a beer festival
wine evening
ten pin bowling evening



i could go on and on and on and some of these might not be great odeas but some are gold mines.

But the commercial department needs to be skilled in nailing sales to local businesses.

Of course earning 6k from an auction is EXCELLENT but please dont tell me our commercial department as a whole does the business week in week out, for one we dont pay it to be successful and probaly there has been no training.

Errr!!

Ref sponsor a goal

You are - as you requested - on the list for next season

Nice to know I am 'the list' and will doubtless receive info as to what exactly that might mean! I did not request to be 'on a list' I asked for info about 'Sponsor a Goal'. (Having given up trying to get responses to Gold Bond Scheme.) Look forward to receiving any kind of correspondence sometime in the future.

Now

I will try this one but I am not sure it will get through

We have 2 yes 2games left this season

There is very little point anyone joining Sponsor a goal now is there?? We don't score any in the close season as far as I am aware!!

So that is very silly isn't it

Nor explain about the lack of information about the gold bond scheme. I am sorry this can not be justified. We have a supporter who is thinking about putting their hand in their pocket to help the club and receives rubbish responces. We don't have that many supporters and thjsi is hardly encouraging. If I was a business person with lots of money (which I ain't) why would I consider putting money into a club who's commercial wing is failing so badly.

There you go Joeymoo

details are on the website!!


I have been critical of James in the past for his actions in the past as JaMes_WiNGs_FAn

But i think he is about the only positive off the pitch, I did mention it needs a commercial section, he put one up. I mentioned we should have a club shop, he put a page up...

Mark, quite frankly thats a disgraceful reply. Its on the website......

And that is why commercialy we are a pile of SH ITE cos we just expect people to throw money at the club and dont show initiative, customer service or any skill.

Thats all i have to say.

'It's on the website!!!' Click on the 'Sponsor a Goal' link and all it says is 'under construction' (alongside out of date World Cup fixtures) I don't want to continue with any petty arguing, but all I will say is if this Mark X person represents the level of how Welling United are being run, forget about my support. Cross me off the list for Sponsor a Goal, however it bloomin well works. Your attitude stinks. You are supposed to encourage people to support the local team. I won't bother contributing financially or in person, if you represent the kind of individual running the club. Now I know.

The Crossbar Challenge, The Welling Wall, Online Club Shop, etc etc, all your ideas JGFC?  mmmmmmm, I think not.  Not everyone reads your posts.

Up for a challenge?  Organise a few events, off your own back, and donate the money raised direct to the players budget.  That way, is successfull, people would have to listen.

If anything turns people against supporting Welling, it is the constant arguments on this site.

You are obviously an intelligent man, put some of that energy into something positive and I am sure you will get more credit than just claiming everything that works was your idea!

I am anonymous, you don't know who I am just as I have no idea who you are.  I am a supporter, full stop.