The Annual General Meeting of Hereford FC took place this evening at Edgar Street.
Chairman Ken Kinnersley took the meeting. He was joined on the top table by four other directors, George Webb, Paul Quarrell, Peter Churchus and Mike Langford.
Around ten individual shareholders were present along with several HUST directors.
After apologies the chairman spoke to the meeting.
He started by saying what a tremendous honour it was to chair Hereford FC.
The aim of the board was league football but financial stability had to come first.
He praised the hard work of the three directors that have left the board recently, Mike Cole, Phil Eynon and Martin Watson and then introduced Paul Quarrell and Peter Churchus to the meeting.
After the AGM, the board were to meet with HUST to discuss a new board member given there is one vacancy.
The recently signed ten year lease was mentioned. As yet the board were undecided when to trigger the new lease as there are two years of the old lease left.
The club has received two letters of 'understanding' from Herefordshire Council. The idea of this is that should personnel change then there is a record of what's been suggested.
The first letter refers to the Blackfriars End and states that if it is redeveloped then a new stand would be included.
The second letter says that the Council recognise that the club may need a 35 year lease to obtain grants etc for further development.
Mention was made of the link road and the potential danger because of people walking to the ground. The club has asked for a meeting with the Council on this matter.
The chairman heaped praise on director George Webb for his work in generating income for the club.
Turning to the club's new acadamy, the chairman admitted that it hadn't been in the club's plans to have set it up so soon.
An impressive handbook had been produced for parents. Former player Gareth Davies is the new football adviser and Steve Saunders head coach. Martin Watson will look after the admin side.
Later this month the directors are set to go on a 'Strategy Day' away from Edgar Street. One of the aims is to set up a three to five year plan going forward.
Two non-football events of note are to take place this year. The club were not putting in any finance into either event other than obtaining a licence.
The first one is 'Hereford's Biggest Ever Concert'. The chairman said he was impressed by the list of artists booked.
This event will be staged after the end of the season but before any groundwork was set to take place on the pitch. A narrow window.
The second event is a joint production with The Courtyard. This is a play based around the Ronnie Radford goal against Newcastle in 1972. It is set to run for two weeks in October and might then go national afterwards.
Financial Director Peter Churchus then spoke about the accounts. Introducing himself he said he had been a supporter for 50 years.
In the year ending May 31 the club had made a profit of £5708 in its second full year of trading. There had been quite a lot of expenditure on the ground, upgrading the toilets was mentioned, which was expected to be less in the current year.
However he noted that team costs (£256,000) would rise as the club, hopefully, rose up the leagues.
Fixed assets had increased mainly because of the purchase of the ticket office.
He felt that the club was trading sustainably and shareholders funds remained intact.
A resolution to reappoint the auditors was approved.
That ended the formal meeting but afterwards shareholders were given the chance to ask questions.