Hello everyone as we enjoy a very brief respite in matches till, FA Cup fever strikes, against Wolves again, this coming Friday! See you there well wrapped up and banishing the January blues with abundant Hey Jude and let’s hope for some Free From Desire too!!
2023 for Bees United has seen us do a great number of activities we have not done before or maybe not done for a very long time!
Stewart Purvis
It all started at the end of 2022, when Stewart shared his news with the BU Board that the time had come.
So it was indeed bye bye from him. This was a fond farewell mixed with some sadness as Stewart had brought to his dual roles, of BU Board Chair and membership of the BFC Board, a diverse experience from the world of Broadcasting and writing, to work with a regulator and historic membership of 22 Board positions in various companies.
Stuart Hatcher
Tough act to follow? Yes and no.
Stuart (it helped to be called Stuart back then!) has huge and authoritative experience of dealing with both Brentford FC and with a certain Matthew Benham.
This goes back to the days of “Gekko” (strictly Gekko 2) and the advice Stuart provided to BU which led, in those days, to the very well recorded sale to Matthew, on the 28 June 2012, for £1.
Some would say a good return albeit with a considerable outlay.
Heritage
Stuart shared with our Board the proposal that a fresh restatement of BU purpose – what it is we’re here for – was the right way to set about sharing new priorities for our Board but most of all for you, our Members.
After our two previous AGM’s many of you had responded to our surveys asking for more information about what BU does – and when it does it – and how we do it – and who does it. All this detail is on a different page of our website here. With this new way of looking at us, one thing we want to be clear about is that we want BU to be the place to go to enjoy the heritage of our Club, and we will do that in many different ways, examples of which were hugely successful this year.
Simply, we want fans to enjoy knowing where we have come from as a Club. That includes all the detail, repeated for some, of the near disasters that have threatened our existence and the triumphs and of course the fun. We want to cherish the history and heritage of a club formed in and which is part of, our local community since 1889. Brentford FC really has been around since 1889 so at our January Board meeting, we resolved that a great expression, a great celebration, of the Club’s heritage would be to mount a plaque to commemorate the Club’s foundation in 1889 (and there’s more below).
BFC Appreciation Day
In celebration of the wonderful 2022/2023 season we had a chance to join the BFC Appreciation Day.
This meant a return for BU to the Steam Museum where of course we staged the amazing Farewell to Griffin Park exhibition.
Thanks to Karen Reader and John HIrdle for all their inspiration, creativity and sheer slog.
From Griffin Park to GTech
BU had the loudest seat in the house at the Brentford Canal Festival, curated by the Brentford Voice team, as our “Make a smoothie” cycling activity was sited right next to the band.
The idea was kids and indeed much older kids would sit on a bike and ride the distance from Griffin Park to GTech and then drink (eat?) their smoothie. With a few variations on the rules and repeat rides for a few true smoothie lovers, it did rather work!
Huge fun till Buzz invaded and all the kiddies became media superstars, me included as you can see at the top of this page! It was a real please sure to partner ECOWorld at a superb community event.
So, part of the refreshed Bees United is to be around and about in TW8 more and more – it’s where we live – where we play and you who are there, are our community as well of course as the huge and growing community of worldwide fans that we all are.
HGT – Ali and Sharon
But we are keen to join other groups to offer help or to align with ideals that we all believe are right for football, for sport today.
In July we agreed to partner #HerGameToo.
This movement is delivering brilliant and significant results nationally and locally now.
Penguins – Summer Camp
And we were keeping things on a very local basis as the Summer went on.
We were overjoyed to be one of the sponsors for the extraordinary Penguins Summer Camp. This is the inspiration of former Bee Allan and Allan’s wife, Vikki Cockram.
This group, Allan and Vikki, have had the most amazing year of success creating happiness and a loving community to children with Down syndrome.
May you both march on with even greater success and love.
BFC Heritage BU and BFC together
Meanwhile, and going back to January, we had been working all year, on that idea of mounting a plaque, near to the pub “One Over the Ait”, to commemorate the foundation of Brentford FC back in1889. Believe it or not, this had not been done before nor was any project started, let alone finished, that deserved to be the definitive recognition of where it all began – the true heritage, the real beginning of the journey, of Brentford FC.
Of course this is mounted as close as possible to the site of the inn known as the The Oxford and Cambridge Hotel and yes, there is indeed a GTech lounge named after this very place.
As the months went on, eventually, the ides of a plaque changed from a dream to a reality, permission was obtained from St George, the freeholder where the plaque is mounted. The council granted advertising consent and not quite in secret, the plaque we commissioned was mounted in October. The question was how to make the biggest bang for our buck?
The unveiling
A simple unveillng by the Mayor of Hounslow.
Cliff Crown and Stuart Hatcher added their own speeches at this historic moment.
This BU commemoration is a real anchor and a lasting celebration of the heritage of the history of our club, Brentford FC.
The exhibition
But actually the day’s events really all kicked off in style a bit earlier that morning, back at GTech.
BU created and directed a celebration event, with BFC, including an exhibition of memorabilia with speeches and presentations all sharing Club heritage. Numbers had to be limited so we plan for more next year!
There’s a few more photos to follow now!
Mr Brentford taking questions
Heritage shirts presentation – Brendan Nevin
Cliff started our event
Stuart welcomed everyone
Jonathan (A Pub On Each Corner) Burchill on the foundation itself
So there we are. Quite a busy 2023 for Bees United but there is one thing we must mention, which is that as a group, as a body, as individuals, we represent, you, the fans, our members and all fans.
We represent you
We do this in meetings and consultations with Club officials and on committees, as part of what is now called the FAB – the Fan Advisory Board.
And uniquely in the Premier League, from our position on the Board of Brentford FC we influence the Club directly.
How many meetings this year? That is a scary one to count and there are working groups too but we think between 15 and 20 meetings this year with countless emails on top. Why not join us and be part of the type of fan’s engagement that our club does so well.
Would you like to be part of this in 2024, it is fun and it is very interesting but you might want to pull your hair out from time to time though!
Tell me if you want to know more!
hello@beesunited.org.uk
Have a great, actually, have an amazing, 2024