By Jeff Banks

Yes, the new football season is here and as a Chester FC fan you could have been forgiven for wanting to stay hidden behind the sofa after the last couple of years and dreading what was coming next!

Thankfully, we’ve made large strides forward now and have seen a summer of changes but also a new wave of optimism has certainly spread across the club as we begin life in the National League North.

This season also heralds a new City Fans United feature in The Chronicle too, and given my portfolio is Fan Engagement, I thought it right to have each CFU board member contribute to this column as this campaign progresses. Why? Well, I believe that we should all be speaking more to you – the fans – and that’s exactly what we’re going to do this season. There is lots going on for each board member and we want to keep you informed with the progress that we’re making across each of our portfolios.

As stated, I’m responsible for Fan Engagement, and have an excellent working group supporting my role, all of whom have been instrumental in bringing together a very successful season tickets campaign where we believed we set prices at a realistic and affordable rate - that has been proved so as we’ve conquered the 1000 season ticket target that we set ourselves for this league.

Alongside some great ideas and theme days on the matchday experience side of things, we’ve also set about launching a new interactive fans app, called ‘Up the Seals’ and I’m sure this will prove very popular amongst fans on matchdays in particular, where you can even pick your CFC man of the match whilst contacting Cleggy in the PA room.

CFU Membership has been high on our agenda too, and we have set ourselves a target of 2018 members in the year 2018, and we are only about 100 members away from hitting that, so why not visit our website www.cityfansunited.com today and get signed up and become an owner of Chester FC for just £1 per month.

Just returning back to life as a board member, I think I speak for each and every one of us in thanking you all for your continued support in 2018, it started off very bleak, but with a tremendous effort, you all showed your support and helped us steer through some very choppy waters indeed, and we’re all very thankful to have supportive families too, as life as a board member certainly can take over your life and severely interrupt family time and that’s one thing I think we’re all keen to address this season too.

The AGM is of course coming up at the end of September, and one thing we do need is more people on the board, so please do consider joining us, and helping us continue to deliver a club that the community can be proud of.

Let’s back Bern, Jonno and the boys and get off to a great start!