The Trust - seperate thread

[Martin]

If you want the trust to be run differently the way to influence it is by being a member and then either standing for election to the board or voting for people to be elected to the board who share your beliefs and viewpoint.

 

By standing on the sidelines and saying they are doing a crap job whilst you may be right you are doing little to influence the decision making process.

 

BTW, I voted against the donation to Dover!

[Staines-upon-Thames Rebel]

With comments like yours epicrebel, you expect me to come back to the trust!

 

The reality is that the trust has only around £15,000 in the kitty - you could not even afford the rent for a season.

 

As Chris quoted above the club costs £200,000 a year to run, so even assuming the trust picked up the club half way through a season it would only be able to keep it going for about 6 games - see below:-

 

Average of 50 first team games a season at a cost of £200,000 per year that works out at £4,000 per game of costs.

 

Income from one home game - 300 people at £7 a head brings in £2100 (its not this much when you allow for kids etc. but I am being optimistic), with the trust making up the short fall of £1900 - leaves £13,100 in the trusts kitty

 

Next game away so no income - trust contributes £4000 - leaves £9,100

 

Game 3 - Home game - leaves £7,200

 

Game 4 - Away - £3,200

 

Game 5 - Home - £1,300

 

Game 6 - Away - the money runs out before the first half is completed!!!!

 

Even if the trust were to half the running costs to say £100,000 a year how long would £15,000 last - 16 games!

 

It must also be remembered that it has taken the trust 2 and a half years to raise the current kitty!

 

The club needs a chairman with deep pockets!

[GarySTFC]

If that situation were to happen, I think there would be some severe alterations to some of the outlay and perhaps an inclination to get in better resources. You make no mention of the raffle/programme sales/club shop sales/advertising or any other income stream? Considering advertising is being 'restricted' by the club officials at the moment, if they were no longer involved, the Trust would have to actively seek it out and could do so without any restriction. What's to say they wouldn't get a fair bit of income from that?

 

Would the rent remain the same? Very, very unlikely. Would more people join the Trust if they controlled the club? I'd certainly like to think so.

 

Would supporters be more inclined to give over money to help the club with the Trust running it and knowing full well what the money was being used for? Again, I'd certainly hope so.

 

Thing is, with people not joining the Trust or contributing, is it any wonder there's not enough money in the kitty? They can only do so much after all.

[Staines-upon-Thames Rebel]

Seeing the numbers as I have laid them out makes you think about why the club is not doing more about sponsorship and advertising.

 

Also Gary I was genourus with the gate income to try and ballance out some of the clubs other activities - draw, club shop etc which would be picked up by the trust.

[epicrebel]

if the trust did take over the club there are other incomes they can go for ie, the lottery, gov grants, football grants, ect. but the trust can't get them without the clubs name. there are quite a few people out there willing to put money in but for one preson

 

just trying to point out that you can't do a thing on your own, the only way is the trust tried and tested at other clubs.

[Ian]

Quote:

Anonymous said:
When we were protesting outside Slough Town Hall we had no help or support from any other club. By the way Dover is a far more afluant club than ours.

Not true. There was a Wycombe fan and Dagenham fan that came down at least once. We also had the Borderside residents and, although they were protesting for their own purposes, they were still joining in with our action.

[brighton_rebel]

I'm involved with a members club in Brighton (no, not that sort of private members club) and sometimes the way some people run it drives me up the wall and i feel like leaving. Yet as member, it is my club, so i get involved in things/organise events that i think are important, and leave stuff/people that piss me off alone.

That happens in life all the time, and to resign over something like the Dover donation seems petty to me Roger. Maybe it was the right decision, maybe it was wrong, but leaving the trust doesn't really hurt anyone apart from the club in the long run.

I like Ian's approach - he hasn't got time to be on the board, so organises things that he can sort out like the sponsored walk and smaller fundraisers like 'guess-the-babies' weight.

Being on the the board/management committee of anything tho' is always a thankless task, especially if you are doing it for free and then getting grief for it. Criticism is all well and good and it's worth having this debate, but at least with the Trust the club will survive in some form if the [****!!****] hits the fan.

[Matt]

It's clear to me - join the Trust and support it, because it can legally take control of Slough Town Football Club if need be. Now obviously, in this case, players won't be paid anything, at least initially; the cheapest possible groundshare in the area would be sought; but the club would survive. The Trust would then be able to try to promote the club and attract sponsorship from the many companies in the town - something that is sadly, sadly lacking from the club at the moment (I understand there's red tape to overcome there, make of that what you will)... So in reality, running costs could be pretty small - and who's to say a sponsor wouldn't fund the club to some extent at the same time?

[brighton_rebel]

Just saw this on the Leatherhead forum

 

"Tried the thread about the Supporters Trust, but lost the will to live half way through. Their fans seem miles detached from the club.... a warning of what to avoid if we ever got promoted."

[GarySTFC]

From a club run by the supporters as well.... Fair play to them. Mind you, I think that entire post was very tongue in cheek.

[Ian]

Our supporters miles detached from the club?.....I'd say he/she's got it spot on.

[Burnham Lad]

Quote:

Ian said:
Our supporters miles detached from the club?.....I'd say he/she's got it spot on.

I think actually the opposite is true!!

I did say something harsh about the new board, but edited it - they wouldn't give a toss anyway.....

[HorshamRebel]

I agree with Andrew.

 

You can't get a whole picture from one or two people's opinions, it is usually the people that are unhappy that like to say so.

 

Unforetunately, public opinion is taken by what IS said.

[Ian]

I think more people than just one or two are a bit miffed at the ongoing lack of information.

[Martin]

Let's face it the problem really is that the Trust is too closely associated with the Club.

[Ian]

My comments, Martin, were aimed at the club, not the Trust.

[Martin]

Ian, I thought as much.

 

However, my conclusion from this thread overall is that people are struggling with the distinction between the club and the trust and that the two are too closely linked.

 

The trust is receiving criticism for what are essentially club matters and on issues on which trust members have been told to butt out. The club is not working with the trust and therefore it is time for the trust to stop working for the club.

 

The trust is for supporters of the club and we all want what is best for the club but the consensus is that best interests are not being met by the club at the moment for whatever reasons.

 

Therefore the trust should disentangle itself from the club. The trusts intentions and objectives will be then very clear. We are a legal entity that can control a football club but we have no power of influence over the club as it stands and are unable to attract any revenue streams to the club.

 

We can then continue our own fund raising and build the pot until we either have a) a better relationship with the club and more power or we have to take the club over and can start running things our way.

 

This would mean that the trust would have to stop doing all things club related - we will no longer deal with match and player sponsorship, we will stop doing the raffle ticket sales etc etc.

[Burnham Lad]

I agree with Martin - the Trust is now identified totally with the Club in the minds of most non Trust members and a few Trust members too, I suspect!

 

If the Trust runs so many Club Company activities as it does, who can tell what the Club itself should be doing? Who has seen the new Chairman at matches recently, let alone the old one?

 

But if the new Club Board won't talk to the fans or the Trust, what might make it change its mind? It has been asked nicely often enough and they (The Board) cannot say that they don't know what is discussed in the Forum - the odd remark made to those of us who sit in the stand about the Forum leave me in no doubt that they know what fans think, but are not concerned to do anything about it. Why not? Because they take the fans for granted.

 

We turn up, pay our money, cheer on the team and handle all the messy bits like match, ball and kit sponsorships. Fans sell programmes, the Club's draw tickets and mind the gates. Even more importantly, Fans run the Club Shop. Fans publicise matches. Fans run the Club website. Fans have helped relations with Windsor by some of the voluntary work around the ground. Fans found the club's training facilities. Fans have demonstrated on behalf of the club with the Council. Fans sponsor players kit. Fan's children are the Mascots.

 

How much more do Fans have to do to earn the right for the club to keep them informed of what is going on? What if the club suddenly had to provide and pay for all that manpower? Perhaps then they might like to talk to us a bit more rather than just dismissing the fanbase as ignorant cheer fodder.

 

The Club needs every friend it can get at the moment - treating the fans with the contempt we regularly see is not going to win people to the cause of getting Slough's football team back into Slough. Our attendances are very slowly dropping off, so support is being lost. This is the time for the Club to be left in no doubt that they actually need the fans, despite the fact that most of the money comes from elsewhere. Fans keep the costs as low as they are.

 

Perhaps they hope we will be weakened into supporting the formation of Windslough Rovers?

[epicrebel]

sometimes i think you talk crap andrew, but this time you make some very good points.

 

So emma stop the club shop, gary stop videoing, david & lionel stop the programme sales, colin & kevin stop the turnstiles, mike and the rest stop the raffle, alan stop taking player sponsorship, and CHRIS JUST STOP.

[Roger Rebel]

Good one Martin thats just how i feel, as the American Revolutionaries once said no Taxation without Representation.