Open Day and AGM 2012 Report

On Thursday 26th July 2012, the SDSA had its 2nd annual Open Day and AGM in the Dell Cafe at St Mary’s, and at just after 3pm, it was officially opened by the Mayor of Southampton, Cllr Derek Burke.

Although the Dell Cafe was not bursting at the seams with people, there were enough to show that our adverting had worked, but maybe not as well as we had hoped.

Some of the committee manned the tombola stall and raffle, and sold some lovely football themed cup cakes.

At around 4pm, the first of the stadium tours began, and 2 groups left to see the parts of the stadium not seen by supporters on match days (although we did see the cells that the less well behaved might see on match days!).  We were taken into the home and away dressing rooms, which were different in the level of facilities (the home dressing room is very modern and comfortable whereas the away dressing room is a lot more basic).

As we continued around the pitch area, the stadium screens were being tested before the Ajax game 2 days later, and at one point a score of 10-0 to Saints was displayed.  If only that was likely!

After a short rest break, the stadium tour guides took the next groups around the stadium.

Part of the money raised during the day was going to be donated to the LJS Foundation (in memory of Billy Sharp’s son, Luey Jacob Sharp), and so we knew Jade, Billy’s girlfriend, might come along at sometime during the day.  Jade did come, and so did Billy which was a nice surprise.

We had also arranged for James Ward-Prowse to come for a question and answer session, and although the Q & A session didn’t happen, both Billy and James were very willing to pose for photos and to sign autographs.  Sammy Saint was also around for a lot of the day to pose in photos.

At around 7.30pm, we started our AGM, during which we presented the members’ only prize of a Bissell Powerwash Pro carpet cleaner (kindly donated by Totton ASDA) and Paul Lucas was voted onto the SDSA committee.

So although were would have liked a few more people at the Open Day, those that did come appeared to really enjoy it.