Leyton Orient Fans' Trust Official Website

LOFT's Annual General Meeting took place on Thursday 27th November, hosted by the O's Supporters Club. Once the formal business of the AGM was completed - see below - the floor was turned over to guest speakers Matt Porter (Orient Chief Executive) and Stephen Purches (team captain), to answer questions from the over 40 O's fans present.

Among the highlights of the evening were:

• Leyton Orient will not be moving to an Olympic stadium with a permanent running track; they don't need to go out to supporter consultation on that as they know what the response would be;
• There is no sell-on money to come for Fulham's sale of Gabby Zakuani to Peterborough, as sell-on fees are due on profit made on the fee, and it's safe to say Peterborough haven't paid more than £1m;
• Also on the subject of sell-on money, the club has received a third of the Nicky Shorey sell-on fee with the rest to come in two six-monthly installments. Barry Hearn has pledged half of the fee received to the playing budget, and the wages paid to Dean Morgan and Sam Parkin have already come out of the first payment.
• Apart from a lollipop (!) found, nothing was thrown on the pitch by the Millwall fans this year, a marked improvement on last year;
• Purches believes his captaincy is more about setting an example, being an organiser and explaining what's needed rather than bawling out, and that he's learning all the time. Having said that, the players know when he's unhappy!;
• He also acknowledges that it took him time to get settled and to recover from injury at the start of last season, but he's a lot more settled now that his wife has moved up from Bournemouth and they've had a baby;
• The club are just starting with Adopt-a-Player schemes in 22 schools to try and attract future support. The scheme will start in the Waltham Forest area as part of the attempts to encourage more local support, and will hopefully expand geographically from there.

A write-up of all the questions and answers will be sent to LOFT members in the next newsletter.

LOFT would like to thank both Matt and Stephen for taking time out to come along, and the Supporters Club for their usual hospitality.

AGM business

1. Welcome.
2. Chair's Report (this will be available to download shortly).
3. Treasurer's Report, noting little change in LOFT's finances. Income from membership fees continues to cover running costs and allows for sponsorship of Theo's Gang, which has been extended for a further season. Thanks noted to Frank Dongworth for carrying out the Independent Examination of the accounts.
4. The Resolution to not require a full audit and continue with an Independent Examination for the year ending May 2009 was carried in full.
5. Both Doug Harper and Peter Osborne were re-elected to the committee. There were no other nominations for election to the committee.
6. Other Society business - commitee member Mike Randall invited supporters to send LOFT their observations of good practice and stand design in other grounds they go to, so that a bank of good ideas and wants can be built up ahead of any future ground move or redevelopment of the East Stand. Also, member Joe Durston noted a successful season for the LOFT football team, and its participation in the match played in memory of Dale Jacobs.

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