The board met for the first time at the end of October, and we have summarized the main decisions below.
The board appointed Rod Peters and Phil Young as Secretary and Chair of the Society, respectively. There were no other nominations for these positions.
The board appointed Jon Newby to the board of Bury Football Club (2019) Ltd which trades as Bury Football Club. Dave Triggs and Phil Young stepped down.
The board appointed John Woodhead, Ian Pearson, Marcel de Matas and Darren Bernstein to the board of The Bury Football Club Company Ltd, which owns the Gigg Lane stadium. They will represent the Society’s interests on that board. John Woodhead will chair this board. Mike Goodier has stepped down. Bury FC Benefactors Ltd have appointed Matt Barker, Ian Harrop and David Manchester as their board representatives.
The board agreed to the creation of three committees:
- A Finance and Audit Committee, responsible for providing an additional layer of oversight over the club and societies financial decisions and functions.
- A Heritage Committee, responsible for initiatives which recognise, promote and preserve the history of the football club.
- A Diversity and Inclusion Committee, to recognise that this plays a vital role in a growing, community club and more can and should be done. The board acknowledged the lack of diversity across its own membership.
Terms of Reference for each committee will be drafted ahead of open invitations to join the committees being issued. The board will appoint a Secretary and Chair for each committee.
It was agreed that a new legal agreement would be put in place which would result in the football club assuming responsibility for meeting all of the future operating costs of the stadium and take all future stadium revenue. The intent is to simplify the current arrangement, reduce costs, and will satisfy the requirements of funders such as Bury Council and The Football Foundation who wish to see long term security for the club at Gigg Lane before they invest in it, along with detailed operating and development plans. It should also allay any concerns from supporters about our commitment to the Gigg Lane stadium and its future financial viability.
The specific details of this agreement are now under discussion.
We will start work on a slight reworking of our budgets as we anticipate employing people through Bury Football Club (2019) Ltd to deliver services in the stadium and complete the operating and development plans. Most of these are not unexpected costs, they are just being re-allocated to a different company.
A new financial reporting tool is under review to assist with consolidated reporting for members. We are profitable and we are reviewing how we move money between different organisations, some of which operate under different tax rules which has prevented us with problems.
Overall, we are ahead of expectations in terms of profitability, but it should be remembered that our cash position has been boosted by season ticket sales which will be spent throughout the season. We are generating more revenue, primarily from greater ticket sales, but as we are starting to understand more about the stadium there are also additional costs to bear. Some of these are exceptional costs, some ongoing, and we will share these with members as soon as possible.
We are now required to have The Bury Football Club Company Ltd financially audited, as it is a subsidiary under the Community Benefit Society Act 2014, and have changed the accounting reference date to allow us time for this to take place.
We are now working on the launch of a new membership system and will make further announcements on this in due course. The price will remain as £5pm or £60 per annum.
The formal minute for the election SGM can also be found here.
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