Board members in attendance: Heather McKinlay, Heather Alderson, Richard Wiseman, Nigel Kleinfeld, Paul Breen, Stuart Court, Bob Munro, Sam White, Alex Whitmore
Key areas of discussion at February’s CAST Board were as follows:
Board Effectiveness
We are focussed on ensuring the CAST Board is effective in how it operates and we are committed to continuous improvement. We agreed to progress with an initiative to help individual board members with their personal development. We will also review and continue to make use of board effectiveness training available via the Football Supporters’ Association.
Club Relationship
CAST will engage with the club about recognition of the Pompey fans’ fundraising in memory of Norman Barker ahead of the rescheduled fixture. We will soon hold a meeting with the club to progress creative development and practicalities of the siting of a permanent memorial to Norm at The Valley. We will continue to liaise with/ involve the other fundraisers.
We agreed to write to the club about medical emergency protocol having received a letter from a fan on the topic, particularly ways in which the control room could be alerted as quickly as possible. We will suggest that Charlton could lead the way in football with such an initiative. We are mindful that there have been a number of recent incidents at our matches, both home and away.
CAST representatives Heather McKinlay & Sam White shared an update on the recent Advisory Board meeting. The club provided feedback to the AB on its consultation with fans and stakeholders on membership schemes. Season ticket survey response is currently being analysed ahead of consultation. Revised terms of reference were agreed by the Advisory Board and will be shared with the club. The hospitality rep has not yet been appointed. The supporter group package will be launched in July. In the interim the club are planning a "meet and greet" session with players in mid-April.
CAST board will convene a separate meeting to give thought to ideas and opportunities on CAFC Women eg fan engagement and home and away travel. We feel opportunities are being missed to grow the fan base this season and pave the way for the WSL, assuming promotion is achieved. Average crowds in the WSL are around 6K and while CAFC may achieve this, we discussed concerns that the WSL crowd would be dominated by opposition supporters or people attending to watch individual players rather than support the Addicks. We have been in contact with a CAFC fan who heads up a girls’ club in Kent and agreed to support him in getting a response from CAFCW. We need to be particularly proactive in light of aggressive competition from other local professional clubs, not least London City Lionesses. In the short term we will look to work with fans to form a group to sit together at Palace away game on 29th March and this could pave the way to the forming of an official women’s team supporters’ group.
Gavin Carter has agreed to meet with CAST in the coming weeks - date and agenda to be confirmed.
CAST Initiatives
We reviewed key updates on our Activity Log.
CAST has submitted a response to RBG’s initial consultation on the draft local plan, strongly highlighting the need to strengthen recognition of and protection for The Valley. The club fully supported the letter. The board expressed gratitude to Mark Batchelor of 4TY Planning for leading on this. We agreed to share a summary report on the CAST website.
Merchandise – We will review information on merchandise expenditure v income to inform future discussion.
We will look to schedule a Q&A within the next couple of months.
We have been successful in persuading SouthEastern to request TFL to provide extra card readers for Charlton station.
We will liaise with the FSA, Pledgeball and the club on the upcoming Greener Game - now confirmed as Norwich on 21 March.
Football Supporters Association (FSA) and External Activity
Heather Alderson reported on attending the House of Commons All Party Group and circulated the FSA’s FAQ document on the Independent Football Regulator (IFR)/ Football Governance Act.
Away ticket pricing and indeed pricing in general in the Championship continues to be a concern for fans across the FSA network. CAST is tracking away prices charged to our fans this season. We clarified some confusion regarding the IFR role re ticket pricing. The IFR cannot tell clubs what to charge for tickets but can comment on the overall impact of pricing and degree of consultation with supporters.
Heather McKinlay reported on the FSA Women’s Network. Fans have expressed concern regarding the suggestion of FA Cup seeding (which may be introduced temporarily).
Initial feedback from pilot clubs which are testing allowing drinking within sight of the pitch has been very positive. (Charlton have not been one of the pilot clubs.)
Any Other Business
We noted engineering works at Dartford which will impact travel to Portsmouth game. We will alert the club and suggest they look at extra capacity for Valley Express.