http://www.cpstrust.org.uk/uploads/Minutes_of_Trust_Meeting_21_August_2010.pdf

The Supporters Forum – Thursday 12^th August 2010

On Thursday 12th August 2010 CPFC met with representatives of various interest groups in a meeting which it is hoped will be the first of many. The Trust was represented by Lesley Palmer and a wide range of issues were discussed. What came out of the meeting is that the club wants to listen to fans and to engage with them in a way that hasn't happened before.

One of the first things that the club wants to do is to set up focus groups which will contain about 8/10 fans to cover various areas that are seen as being important to fans off the pitch. The groups will meet about once every 2 months and while Thursday evening is the most likely time for them that may be changed depending on specific availability of those who volunteer. Once they have been up and running for a while they may not meet so often depending on the issues that need discussing. The focus groups will be set up on the following topics:-

1)      Merchandising. This will deal with all aspects of the club's merchandising other than food and drink. Representatives from the Company that run the shop and from the club will be there.

2)      Catering. Again representatives from the Company that the catering is franchised out to will be there and they really do want to know what you think about things and how things can be improved (if only so they can sell more stuff). A start has been made in the Red & Blue Bar already with the introduction of real ale on a trial basis but there are a lot more things that can be looked both there and in other parts of the ground.

3)      Ticketing. All aspects from price of tickets to specific offers and how they are sold will be covered.

4)      Communication and Internet. This will deal with how the club interacts with fans and get their news out to them

5)      Disability. It was clear that the club have good communications with their wheelchair supporters but that they have little idea of how many non-wheelchair bound disabled fans they have. If you go to the matches (or even if you do not but would like to but cannot manage due to disability) this is the place where you can put your view forward and get them listened to. Some clubs have a Disabled fans association and while Palace doesn't at present it is possible that if there was enough interest this forum might grow into one.

6)      Community. This forum will be slightly different in that fans are not needed to talk about their experiences but there is a need for Palace to get out into the community and engage with it and this will be bringing that aspect of the club forward. There will be representatives of the club’s own Community Trust, the Supporters Trust, and other parties such as the local council involved. This is going to be a forum for those that actually want to get involved and engaged in pushing Palace's community involvement forward. If you are interested and prepared to spend probably rather more time on this then the Club would like to hear from you. The club would like fans from each of the major palace boroughs i.e. Sutton / Croydon / Bromley.

If you would like to volunteer to be on a focus group then please contact us through the Trust website or at the email address cpstrust@hotmail.com . Don't feel you have nothing to offer as the club does not want 'experts' but just ‘average’ fans who will be able to talk about their experiences and the experiences of people they know. You do not need to commit to every meeting but you should be prepared to attend most of them.

When contacting us can you please let us know

a. Your name

b Your address

c. Your age

d. How long you have been a Palace fan

e. Where you sit

f. If you have a partner and if you have children

g. Which forum you are interested in.

It is important to get a wide cross section of fans who have different experiences and want different things which is why we need to know the above. Anything further you want to add about yourself which you think might be relevant would be useful too. We will pass the information onto the club and obviously if there are too many people who volunteer not everyone will be successful 

This is a fantastic opportunity for you to be directly involved with the club and action change. The new consortium is very open to new ideas and this is shown by the setting up of these forum groups. We can all make a difference if we want to!

http://www.cpstrust.org.uk/uploads/Supporters_Forum_12_August_2010.doc

http://www.cpstrust.org.uk/uploads/CPST_Rules.pdf

This was the first opportunity for the Trust to speak formally with CPFC2010, and an opportunity to exchange ideas about the future direction of the Club.

A number of issues were discussed during the meeting, including:

• Closer relations between the Club, Trust and other supporters groups
• A new Club membership scheme
• Improving and renovating Selhurst Park
• Ways in which the Trust and Club can work together

A part of the discussions centred around the Trust’s recent AGM, attended by about 100 Trust members, where a healthy discussion took place about how to work with the Club. These ideas included work to raise funds for the academy, to re-build the main stand, and help with other aspects of the Club such as training facilities.

Further discussions will now take place in to focus our efforts on some tangible contributions that the Trust can make to assist in the re-building of our club.

The Trust welcomes the opportunity to work with CPFC2010 and other fans groups in the coming season and beyond.

The Trust wanted to ensure that season ticket holders, who are small creditors in comparison to big investors in the failed company in administration, were kept abreast of what was going on, so we decided to mail every season ticket holder outlining the procedure to exit administration. We are delighted at your response to our mailing. Whilst in the end the Yes vote to approve the CVA was overwhelming, it could so easily have been a different story - in these matters it is so difficult to predict the outcome,so we wanted to ensure that we, the fans, did everything we could to make a Yes vote happen. And that we all did, and every season ticket holder who filled out the creditor forms can be proud of that.

What happens next is that the administrators lodge the outcome of the CVA meeting at the High Court - this was done on the 25th June. There will then be a statutory 28 day period for any creditor to appeal the outcome of the meeting. The Football League will undertake their fit and proper persons test to assess the suitability of CPFC 2010 Ltd to run a professional football club. The Football League can then transfer the FL share from CPFC 2000 Ltd to the new owners CPFC 2010. The transfer of the share will formally trigger the official purchase of the club from the administrators. We understand from representatives of CPFC 2010 that whilst there is still a player registration embargo on the club, CPFC 2010 and the coaching staff, led by George Burley, are able to offer players contracts at the club. On completion of the sale of the club they can then register the players when the embargo is lifted.

The Trust will continue to maintain a dialogue with the administrator and CPFC 2010 and will provide updates here, on facebook, twitter and the message boards, as we move towards the end of this chapter in our club's history. We have already developed a good understanding with CPFC 2010, indeed one of the consortium, Stephen Browett, is a Trust member. We look forward to a strong working relationship with the new owners and an exciting future for our club.