Members’ Newsletter – January 2021
Happy New Year! With fingers crossed, we tiptoe into 2021 hoping for something better than the last year had to offer, and, with that, we are all hoping that we will be able to return to the Wham for the first time since March last year to see our lads in action. Coley has built a great squad for this season and, although we’ve enjoyed watching them on iFollow, we all want the chance to give them the cheers they deserve.
This is the first edition of the newsletter that will not be sent out via email to subscribers; following software issues, the decision has been taken to have the newsletter solely on the website and send out a link to it. The advantage to subscribers will be that all future newsletters will remain available in an archive, without users having to save files. See below for more information about this and other website developments.
AGM
The AGM was held on 17th December, but instead of meeting at the club with an entertaining Q&A with John and Jimmy, a scattered group of people in spare bedrooms and the like met via Zoom for a virtual AGM. The technology held up and business was conducted, reports from Chair and Treasurer were received and, in the case of the Treasurer’s, accepted by the meeting.
In accordance with the rules, the entire board resigned, but were re-elected unopposed, together with one new member, Jeffrey Cleary.
The newly-elected board is shown below; a full list, together with the members’ responsibilities, is shown in full here.
The full minutes of the meeting can be read here.
Peter J Leatham Ken Jefferson Peter Warburton Josh Adcroft Megan Parker Joanne Butterworth Jason Graham Andy Buckel Jill Macintosh Mike Procter Jeffrey Cleary Vacancy
The Grand Annual Xmas Draw
Following the AGM on 17th December, the winners of the Xmas draw were picked:
FIRST PRIZE of £500 was won by Yvonne Grimshaw
SECOND PRIZE of £300 was won by Dwayne Waddington
THIRD PRIZE of £200 was won by Jim Curtis
Congratulations to all three winners.
The Trust is very grateful for the wholehearted support given to this important annual fundraising event and gives many thanks to all who bought and sold tickets and who otherwise contributed to the smooth running of the event
Club 1968
Since our last newsletter, Club1968 has made 2 lifelong Accrington Stanley supporters £1,000 richer with our monthly jackpot prizes. Will Gilmartin, publican of The Crown Pub next to the Wham Stadium, and Clayton End regular John Timmins were our December and January £1,000 winners respectively.
As well as our jackpot prizes, a further £1,000 was given out to Stanley fans across 10 other prizes, well timed over the festive period!
With Covid restrictions still unfortunately hampering our live draws, we are making plans behind the scenes to make future draws even bigger and better for when we are able to return, with Q&A’s and mystery guest drawmasters both planned for hopefully the not too distant future.
In the meantime, it’s not too late to enter February’s draw. Either fill in the contact form on our website (https://onstanleyon.com/club-1968/) or speak to a Trust Board Member. For just £10 per month, it could be you winning a slice of a £1,500 prizepot!
Don’t forget to like our page on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to keep up to date with all things Club1968!
OASST Free Monthly Members’ Draw
The full list of 2020 winners, each of whom gets a £40 voucher for the club shop, can be seen here. Congratulations to all winners and good luck to everyone in the 2021 draws.
Food bank/Maundy Relief
We were delighted to meet Lucy & her team at Maundy Relief in Accrington and see what a big help all the food bank donations are making at difficult times for the local Community. The food collections by both the Community Trust and the football club with the Supporters’ Trust are greatly appreciated and we plan to do much more in the New Year.
It’s football Jim, but not as we know it!
At the time of writing, the prospects for a return to football with spectators at the Wham seem further away than ever, but we will return and when we do, it will have to be very carefully managed… So, what can the Stanley fans expect upon their long-awaited return to the Wham stadium? Whenever that is of course!
One thing for sure is that upon the return of the clicking turnstiles initially things will be much different to what everyone has come to enjoy within the Wham stadium pre Covid.
There will be restricted attendance numbers, no away fans, no bars and food kiosks and we will all be under scrutiny from the EFL Safety Advisory Group, Public Health Authority, and our own Local Authority who will want to ensure the Covid ‘rules’ are adhered to. The Club’s Operating Licence will be regularly reviewed so it’s important we embrace and endure the changes to the ‘norm’ as long as the restrictions are in place.
Whilst the timeframe for the return is still uncertain and fully dependant on the governments restrictions, it’s important that a plan of action is in place for that magical day when we will be allowed back to watch the mighty reds – To that end we are pleased to be involved in primary discussions with the Clubaround the Safe Return of Supporters to Football Stadia and also have a seat on the EFL Safety Advisory Group who have a massive say on the content of the Club’s Operating Policy.
Stanley Hall of Fame
It’s time to induct five more Accrington Stanley players (past or present) into the Hall of Fame, follow this link to select your favourite FIVE choices to enable us to decide who should be immortalised in the Fanzone.
Annual Presentations Dinner
We do not now expect this to go ahead in May as had been planned.
Golf Day
Realistically, we must accept that this popular event is unlikely to be practical again this year
Player of Month
Since October, the Player of the Month poll has been run each month. Fan favourite Ross Sykes won the first poll, followed by massively on-form teenage goalie Toby Savin in November. In December, despite the month’s fixtures grinding to a halt as our opponents succumbed to the virus, the stand out Red for the fans was Joe Pritchard.
Look for the January poll to open as soon as this month’s fixtures are completed.
Face Masks
ASFC masks are back in stock in the Market Hall shop, or they can be bought on line from The Marketplace
Newsletter/Website improvements
As noted above, you will no longer receive a copy of the Newsletter in your inbox; instead, you will receive a link which will direct you to the latest edition which will be part of this website. All previous editions will also remain available in the Newsletter Archive of the website, meaning you no longer need to save them yourself.
There have also been some changes made to the On Stanley On website over the last few months. On arrival, the visitor is presented with a page of updates and news, the most recent being at the top. There are now also three separate sections accessible from the home page:
We hope you find these new features useful and enjoyable, if you have any comments, we would love to hear from you, pease write to editor@onstanleyon.com