Atlanta Spurs
2021/2022 Annual General Meeting
Saturday, August 14, 2021
Manny’s Grant Park
Agenda
Matt Gragg, Chairman
- Opening Remarks
- Goals
- Proposed Leadership Committee
- Approval of Leadership Committee
John Belfini, Vice-Chair
- Year in Review
- Finance Report
- Social Media Report
David Andy Cole, Community Outreach Officer
- Community Outreach Proposals for 2021/2022
Beth Davis, Secretary
- New Website Reveal
- Design and Merchandising
Matt Gragg, Chairman
- Supporters’ Tickets
- Questions/Ideas/Suggestions
- Closing Remarks
Matt Gragg, Chairman
- Welcome to the 2021/2022 Annual General Meeting of Atlanta Spurs – Atlanta’s Official Supporter’s Club of Tottenham Hotspur, the Greatest Team on Earth
- We appreciate everyone being here today. Having an Annual General Meeting and keeping our members up to date on what is happening with ATL Spurs is one of the requirements of being a supporter’s club.
- ATL Spurs was founded in 2012 by a small group of fans who met while traveling to see Spurs’ exhibition games in the United States. Upon their return to Atlanta, they started meeting up at RiRa to watch games. As the group grew, we transitioned to meeting at Meehan’s, which was our home for several years. Three years ago, we found ourselves in need of a new home and after researching over 20 bars and having a half dozen trial runs, we found Manny’s Grant Park. We couldn’t ask for a better home pub, a better partner than Manny, and a better staff than they have here. We are grateful to them and all that they do for us!
- The goals of our supporters’ club is to provide an inclusive community for local Spurs fans to meet online and in person, attract new fans to Tottenham Hotspur, provide assistance with securing match tickets, make a difference in our city through community outreach, position the club as a viable pre-season option for Spurs in the future, and above all else support the team and have fun!
- After injecting some new blood into our leadership team over the past couple of seasons, our proposed leadership committee for 2021/2022 is:
Matt Gragg – Chairman
John Belfini – Vice Chair
Larry Green – Treasurer (absent today for health reason)
Beth Davis – Secretary
Aviva Summers – Social Media Guru (currently living in Boston)
Jordan Yoss – Merch Czar (currently coaching his son’s team)
David Andy Cole – Community Outreach
Al Albritton – At-Large
- All those who approve this committee, say Aye!
John Belfini, Vice-Chair
- Year in Review: The 2020/2021 season took place during an international pandemic. We sacked Jose Mourino near the end of the season and under interim manager Ryan Mason finished 7th in the Premier League. We made it to round 16 in Europa League, the fifth round in the FA Cup, and the finals in the EFL Cup. We’ve started the 2021/2022 season off right by hiring new manager Nuno Santo and defeating Arsenal in the pre-season MIND Games. This year we’ll be competing in both the Premier League and the Europa Conference League.
- Here is our Finance Report, on behalf of Larry Green:
We don’t charge a membership fee at ATL Spurs because we want to be fully inclusive and wouldn’t want a membership fee to preclude someone from joining our ranks. Instead, we use the proceeds from our merch sales to pay club dues, expenses, and raise money for activities (i.e. if Spurs ever come to ATL, we’re going to need some cash). Currently, ATL Spurs sits in the black at just under $3K. Our reserves allowed us to be able to donate to the Feeding Texas fund during their crisis this past winter, and to the Leyton Orient Shirt fund, which was officially supported by Tottenham Hotspur, and to the Manny’s Grant Park Employee Relief fund at the beginning of Quarantine. We are down a few hundred dollars from last year, which is unusual, but that is to be expected given the pandemic’s impact on our ability to generate and sell merch.
- Here is our Social Media Impact Report, on behalf of Aviva Summers:
Twitter: 2,731 followers, 159 new this year, 620Ktweet impressions, 7,614 profile visits, and 473 mentions.
Instagram: 573 Followers
Facebook: 852 members, which is almost double what we had last year.
Original Graphics: the farewell graphics made by Aviva for Toby and Coco reached well over 200K people with 72 and 62 shares, respectively
David Andy Cole, Community Outreach
- We fell off the community outreach wagon for the 2020/2021 season due to the pandemic. However, we plan to make up for it this year!
- Proposed activities include: Soccer in the Streets, Free99Fridge, Habitat for Humanity, Atlanta Community Food Bank, etc.
- Information about how you can participate will be posted on our website and our social media channels as they arise. We encourage everyone to participate as much as possible. Let’s see if we can get ATL Spurs back on the Tottenham Hotspur website!
- Introduce the Soccer in the Streets event, give details, ask for players/fundraisers, mention we’ll be doing a raffle in September.
Beth Davis, Secretary
- This year, I’m delighted to announce the debut of the new ATL Spurs Website! This new sleek look will be a great place for newcomers and those not on Facebook to learn about ATL Spurs, find out about watch parties, and get to know us as a group. Look for exciting new content in the coming months. We can’t thank Robert Lee and his team at Lesix Agency for their amazing pro bono work on behalf of ATL Spurs.
Beth Gives Merch Report for Jordan:
- We still have a good many “Atlanta Spurs and a Smile” t-shirts left in our inventory. You can get them from me at the pub or from our online store (link on website and on FB page).
- More merch will be coming this year – possible ideas are scarves, new shirts, a re-run of our ATL Spurs hoodies, etc. If you have merch ideas, reach out and let Jordan or any board member know.
- ATL Spurs is looking for a member who is computer savvy and would be willing to make an electronic poster or graphic for our matches. Or even a plug-and-play template that Aviva could use for the season. If anyone is interested, let us know! On that note, if any of our member have skills, talents, or connections that they’d be willing to lend to ATL Spurs, let us know. We’re always looking for good new partnerships!
Matt Gragg, Chairman
- And to end with a bit of good news, Tottenham is back to offering an avenue to match tickets to supporter’s clubs. We’ll put a pinned post with request deadlines/procedures on our FB page.
- Now that you’ve heard our yearly report, do you have any question?
- Thank you for being here today and for being an member of ATL Spurs! Find a board member during the match for your free ATL Spurs sticker, courtesy of At-Large board member Al Albritton!