Minutes of the MKDSA Committee Meeting
Wednesday 10th May 2023 at 6.30pm.
Held at The Three Trees, Bletchley.
ATTENDEES
Franco Volpe (FV), Amanda Lansbury (AL), John Bullard (JB), Arthur Harris (AH), Kieran Lansbury-Yemm (KLY), John Samuel (JS), Louise Walsh (LW) and Gordon Wylie (GW).
Minutes taken by Louise Walsh.
CHAIRMAN TO OPEN MEETING & WELCOME
FV opened the meeting at 6.55pm.
APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
Apologies were received from Jeff Newall, Jo Newall & Steve Manning.
MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING
The minutes of the meeting held on 5th April March were reviewed and agreed.
Proposed by GW and seconded by AL.
MATTERS ARISING
None.
CHAIRMAN’S REPORT – FV
It’s been a tough season culminating in relegation to League 2 on Sunday following the goalless draw away to Burton. FV has been in communication with the club since the match.
Dialogue with club officials and the SET has been good.
Plans for next season are going forward already. The MKDSA accounts for the year will be audited, the Constitution will be reviewed for the first time in over 4 years & the membership system will be updated.
Steve Manning has stepped down from the committee after finding it hard to commit enough time to the role. The committee thanked Steve for all his hard work as the membership secretary and his match previews.
VICE CHAIR REPORT – AL
AL wished to put on record how proud she is of what the committee has achieved this season.
SECRETARY’S REPORT – LW
Although the season has ended we will need to plan in the next couple of months for the AGM and Fans Forum.
There will also be an SLO meeting during the close season.
TREASURER’S REPORT – JeffN
Starting Balance for April was £7,467.97.
Balance as at today, 10 May, £7,359.06.
There are several outgoings to be made prior to the accounts being audited prior to the AGM.
MEMBERSHIP REPORT
As mentioned at the last meeting GW has updated the membership records.
DISABILITY OFFICERS REPORT – JeffN & JoN
JeffN & JoN are attending the EFL Inclusion Conference at Walsall tomorrow having been invited by Level Playing Field to be panel members there. They have sent an update for this meeting:
There has been no update from Andy Gibb about him approaching LPF regarding the Centre of Excellence Award.
The work on levelling the floor at the entrances of Stadium MK is scheduled for completion over this summer.
JeffN & JoN missed the last SLO meeting but sent an update to Oona Carmichael covering all the things they had wanted to bring to that meeting and she has since replied saying that most will be in place for next season. This includes new signage all around the concourse for the stoma friendly toilets & changing places toilet as there is no point having them if no one knows they are there.
JoN has also asked for more info on the website for visiting/first time fans (able bodied and disabled).
JoN is still getting messages about freezing/boiling water in various toilets. AH has been unable to contact anyone to follow this up.
A concern going forward for next season must be the whole issue of away travel and how the extra cost of wheelchair spaces is funded, given it is believed this is responsible for everyone unfairly paying more without the Club admitting this. JeffN & JoN have found out that Wrexham (as in the Club) fund the extra cost of an accessible minibus to away games.
COMMUNITY & EDI OFFICER’S REPORT – GW
GW has had a meeting with Maralyn Smith, chief executive of the SET, to understand how they operate and how we can collaborate on a number of issues.
There will be a national foodbank push in the autumn throughout the EFL.
The provision of hygiene products for females has been previously discussed and was raised at the recent Supporters’ Board meeting. Maralyn is looking into how best to provide these.
The question of whether committee members should have CRB checks was discussed.
Away coach travel was discussed.
GW suggested that a survey of matchday experiences could be conducted next season. It was felt that the this would be duplicating the work of the survey recently completed by the Supporters’ Board.
LEWINGTON’S WALL SUPPORTERS’ POLL
JS explained that the Supporters’ Board has recently discussed the progress on the possible installation of doors in the vomitories in Lewington’s bar. The club have been investigating this and have concluded that putting doors in the vomitories will not stop the cold air from entering Lewington’s. The only real solution is to enclose the space but this will reduce the bar capacity to around 120 supporters whereas at the moment around 350 supporters currently use the facility on matchdays. Pete Winkelman has stated that his preference is to do something
to improve the area despite it costing money to do so. It’s been agreed that the MKDSA will conduct a survey at the start of next season to understand whether the users of Lewington’s would prefer the area to be walled off, therefore reducing capacity, or left as it is.
It was agreed that a plan of the area will be available to show to those participating in the survey.
MKDSA PROGRAMMES & SHIRTS
The MKDSA shop is doing well. There was a discussion regarding donated clothing.
ANY OTHER BUSINESS
Several members have enquired about the joining the committee and helping out. All offers of help are welcome & applications for specific roles can be made at the next AGM.
CLOSE MEETING AND SET DATE FOR NEXT MEETING
There being no other business the meeting was closed at 9.10pm. The next meeting will be held on Wednesday 28th June at 7.30pm.
Signed on this day as a true record ………………………………………………………………………………………….
Chairman ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Franco Volpe
Secretary……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Louise Walsh
