19 Jun 2008 - Annual General Meeting
Wednesday 18th June saw the club's Annual General Meeting take place in Portadown Town Hall. Sadly, this year saw a disappointing turnout of parents make their way to the meeting something the club wants to see turn around.
The meeting got under way with the minutes of last year's A.G.M. being read out to all gathered and then discussing matters arising from that meeting and how the management committee dealt with any issues. Also the outgoing office bearers all wanted to convey their thanks to all business' who provided the club with sponsorship over the past season. The Treasurer's Report was presented and it was shown that the club has excelled on the financial front this season but it was also remarked that there was a margin for extra improvement. One place that the report showed was vastly improved was that even though the club spent a fairly hefty sum on purchasing new equipment, 75% of that amount was covered by sponsorship.
Time then for the election of a new committee and to conduct the election the club had invited former Crusaders captain and Linfield player, Sid Burrows. After the outgoing committee had stepped down en block Sid Burrows got down to the business of a new committee. As it turned out is was a case of as you were with the only change being a couple of new positions on the committee. The main positions were filled with Ricky Steenson re-elected as Chairman unopposed, Michael Lynch as Vice Chairman (unopossed), Nigel Davison as Secretary (unopposed) and Richard Cowan as Treasurer (unopossed). The re-election of Diane Gould as Parents Representative, Keith Hall as Website Administrator and Nigel Armstrong as Academy Director were also unopposed. The team managers elections were U16 - Nigel Davison, U14 - Keith Hall & David Crawford, U13 Lisburn League - Paul Rae, U13 Mid Ulster League - Myles Smyth, U12 - Philip Graham, U11 - Geoff Smyth, U10 - Clive Robb, U9 - Andrew Black & Michael Gray, U8 - Michael Lynch. With Michael Lynch making the step from last season's U15 team to the new U8 team he stated that Chris Smyth would be assisting him next season and proposed that Chris be recognised in an official capacity and this was passed unanamously.
There were a couple of new positions available in the Child Protection area. The position of Child Protection Officer was filled by both Ricky Steenson and Nigel Davison and the position of Academy Child Protection Officer was filled by Faith Farrell. Faith was also given the roll of Academy First Aid Officer.
After the election Ricky Steenson, Nigel Davison & Richard Cowan all thanked everyone for re-electing them to their positions. They immediately got down to the business of continuing preparations for next season. After a long discussion it was agreed that this coming season would see an increase in registration fees for next season but the weekly dues would remain as they were. For all 11-a-side teams the registration fee will rise to £30.00 for the year and for the Mini Soccer teams & the Academy the fee will be £20.00. This is to cover the ever increasing costs of running the club. Another difference will be that the fee will not include an end of season dinner but that each teams manager can use the money set aside for the dinner to put towards something for the children in their team such as tracksuits, training kit or other club clothing or extra training equipment. To replace the dinner at the end of the season the committee is currently in the early stages of planning something extra special for everyone involved with the club that will also include the prize giving.
Another change agreed last night was that the Academy will now be renamed the Portadown FC Youth CIS Mini Soccer School after recently being asssessed and passing the requirements set down by the IFA Grassroots Development programme. And instead of calling the groups by the birth years they will be called Year 1, Year 2 & Year 3 with Year 1 being children born in 2003, Year 2 will be 2002 and Year 3 being 2001. Also it was decided that this season's U9 team will still come under the control of the Mini Soccer School.