September 2020 update

Well, short of us getting the point we deserved on Saturday, that was a pretty good start to September 2020. Had we actually been able to go a see us play that game, that would have been a completely different kettle of fish. We would have been the 12th man that would have made the difference and maybe Rodders wouldn’t have panicked so much in the final throws of that game and given them that pen.

I say we, but you know what I mean, the crowd. Admittedly, we probably would have only got 3,000 tickets. The AST holders would have been ecstatic and had Leeds United stuck with the loyalty tracker, there would have been no end of people whingeing on social media that they are sick of the fact that there will be no way to get an away ticket now we are in the PL until one of the saddos, who trudged to every game when we were in Division 3, pegs it. If it hadn’t of gone on the loyalty tracker and just gone for the free for all, there would have been a meltdown in the ticket office, the whole of T’internet would have gone down, despite Leeds getting another 1,000 servers on the ticketing page, no Leeds fan would have got a ticket but there would be 2,000 tickets up for sale for the bargain price of upwards of a grand each on ticketmaster. It would be funny, if only it wasn’t true……

Monthly Branch Meeting – Technically the AGM

Woo hoo! A socially distanced AGM was held at the Londesborough Club on Sunday 6th September. Thanks to all who attended including Calvin from the Stray Ferret and Craig from the Harrogate Arms.

Given there was no LUSC AGM and there have been no exec meetings since the havoc unleashed by Bat Flu, this was probably one of the shorter AGMs in recent times.

Chairman Charley:The Chairman did his usual read through of the minutes from the last AGM and these were agreed as a true record of events, proposed by Taff and seconded by Dave Poole.

Memberships:The Membership Secretary was MIA as usual but there have been sitings. Numbers were up last season to approx 179, however there are plenty of juniors and 65+ concessions to affect the accounts figures, despite increased memberships.

Secretary: The Secretary thanked everyone for attending the branch meetings in the last season and all the attendees at the LUSC exec, when we were allowed. At least we managed to use the Hospitality tickets that are part of the sponsorship package for the Reading game, and a jolly good time was had by Mally and Smuff in the free beverage area. The invite to the Legends event was attended by Phil “You Are My Sunshine” Reeves and Ruairi Stirling, who enjoyed a good do rubbing shoulders with the Great and the Good of Leeds United.

MPO: The MPO reported that the Centenary merchandise had sold well to start with, but we still have stuff to sell. Hopefully once we get back to normality, we can push these items to raise more funds. The SAB meetings throughout the season at ER have continued via Zoom because of the bat flu. The website is continuing to be useful at attracting us more new members and continues to be read. No Googleanalytics figures available, but despite the costs at £11.99 per month and then the annual fees, it remains a worthwhile investment at present. Ryan Edmondson has been sponsored again for the coming season on the same Standard Silver Sponsorship. Sponsorship package includes 4 hospitality tickets, a VIP Legends event, 2 tickets to Player of Season Awards at ER, a signed shirt and certificate of sponsorship for £1920. Form has been processed and BACS will be made as soon as invoice is raised. Raffles will be held through the season for these events and any other stuff that we can acquire to raffle off. The email list is being updated to ensure that every branch member has a chance to go for these.

Treasurer: The Treasurers report was set at 14 months as opposed to the usual 12 due to the extended Bat flu season. Overall we were in deficit, but cash in the bank has helped. We avoided accruing the usual large losses at Brentford and QPR away, by not running buses, because of the low allocation (Brentford) and the fact we got no tickets for QPR. £108 was raised from the raffle for hospitality and there has been additional fundraising to the tune of £700 by Andy during the lockdown to help out. The Cardiff bus bill will be paid now that the cheque has been signed and there were sundry items such as the bank charges and the tip to the bar staff before the Hull game. The extra ticket costs incurred by Leeds only refunding for the ticket price and not the transaction charge, will be attempted to be recovered by selling the unused tickets for £1 each to the people who had booked on. The accounts were proposed by Ray and seconded by Chrissie.

Travel: Away travel was overall fine apart from the fact we lost 4 good planned trips at the end of the season to some of the best pub stops of the season. Bloody bat flu. No other issues. See minutes for precis of away trips.

Officers: Re-election of officers, all willing to stand, proposed by Chrissie and seconded by Dave, show of hands agreed. The election of Andy Yates as the Social and Fundraising Secretary was proposed by Ricky Greenwood and seconded by Dave Poole. A vote was taken and Andy was duly elected by a majority show of hands.

A.O.B: The resolution that Ripon branch were permitted to participate in all events on par with Harrogate branch members was passed by a show of hands. Craig from the Harrogate Arms has offered to reserve seating for branch members for the televised games. We will provide Craig with a list of names in good time before each game. Andy is also coordinating with the Empress on matchdays for a branch members. Leeds are now doing home programmes, so if any branch members have anything for the LUSC programme page, please get in touch with the MPO.

A.O.B

Makaela stated that she felt it was unfair to all those Gold members who may not get to a game this season and forked out £50. This will be taken to the next exec meeting and raised at SAB. There is now a ticket exchange system at ER, which makes sense once we are allowed back to the grounds. Dave said that refunds have still not been received – this will be raised at next exec and SAB. Middy asked if there was an option, once we are allowed to travel again, if the branch would consider going by train and booking group seats. The Secretary said people had been going by train anyway when we were short of tickets previous seasons, we will see if it comes to that.

AGM closed at 9pm.