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Supporters' Trust Meeting *4th August 7.00pm* - What are YOU going to do?
Comments
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Not as if the OS has too much else, no fault of their's, to mention at the moment.0
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Random Ramblings:
1) Like the idea of having a key aim of buying the pitch via the trust to get at least some of The Valley into the hands of the fans and thus safeguard it.
Given the miserable old git nature of many of us we could market it as a "sod for a seat" and sell 25,000 pieces at £200 a time. A potential £5m to be raised and at £200 hopefully most people can afford to participate if they wish. Those with funds can buy more than one but the key thing is that the pitch is owned by the Supporters Trust.
2) the trust should be affordable to join and we need as many fans as possible therefore I suggest an Annual Subscription pitched at somewhere between £10-£25.
3) Another key aim should be to acquire shares in the name of the trust in the club. Maybe some shareholders would be willing to transfer their shares into the trust name as a start? Not sure legally how easy to do but just an idea.
4) In Labour's litigious society important to ascertain what protection there is from personal liability for Trustees or those assisting them.
If these are bad ideas well it was only that stupid t***er Len on Charlton life if they are any good then somebody can claim the credit for them.0 -
Started thinking a little about this last night.
Think it is brilliant that it has had what looks like a great response so far. However, lots of people saying 'yeah, i'll get involved' is brilliant, but ultimately could lead to little more than keenness with little direction.
I think it is very important that those who are considering putting themselves forward to get involved should give time to consider 4 main aspects:
1. What should the key objectives of the Trust be
2. What should be the starting focus
3. What areas should the Trust aim not to get involved in
4. What aspect of involvement, services or strengths you believe you can offer.
That to me should be the basis of what people should be considering ahead of the meeting0 -
All sound reasonable to me.
Going to chat with the Rep from Supporters' Direct to put together some form of agenda but this is a first meeting so that people can find out more and start the process.0 -
Good idea that, and if we don't like what's going on we can all just sod off with our bit of sod, as it were....[cite]Posted By: LenGlover[/cite]Random Ramblings:
1) Like the idea of having a key aim of buying the pitch via the trust to get at least some of The Valley into the hands of the fans and thus safeguard it.
Given the miserable old git nature of many of us we could market it as a "sod for a seat" and sell 25,000 pieces at £200 a time. A potential £5m to be raised and at £200 hopefully most people can afford to participate if they wish. Those with funds can buy more than one but the key thing is that the pitch is owned by the Supporters Trust.0 -
Good Questions AFKA,
As I said this is an initial meeting, you can all ask questions of the Supporters' Direct rep and discuss the way forward.0 -
Is the trust just about being a pressure group or is it about money as there are lots of comments about work related support but none about a willingness to invest or how much money would be needed.0
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Mclovin, I agree. that was the point I was trying to make about getting clear from the outset what the objectiives of the trust should be0
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Come to the meeting and find out.
I'm not going to be involved beyond getting the ball rolling. It will be up to the trust members to set out what the aims are.
It could be a pressure group, a money raiser, both or more. It's up to you lot.0 -
So there's no form of agenda advance? - what do other trusts do?
If its the former, we have one and therefore I don't want to attend as it undermines the forum.
If its the later I want to know if its anywhere near my price range before I attend.
I can't believe the organizers have nothing to start the ball rolling with.0 -
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This is an initial meeting to discuss the setting up of the Trust. The Rep from Supporters' Direct has been invited so he can answer just these types of questions and give examples of how other Trusts have done things previously.
As said above there will be an agenda for the meeting.
The agenda for the Trust and its aims needed to be decided by the Trust members if and when its decided if the Trust is something that should be taken forward. You all haven't got to that stage yet. If people have strong views or just ideas that is great as it gives you all something to build on at and following the meeting but it wouldn't be right, IMHO, to pre-judge that here and now.
The SD website has a number of FAQs one of which is about the suggested cost of membership among many other things. It might be worth going on there and having a look.0 -
[cite]Posted By: McLovin[/cite]So there's no form of agenda advance? - what do other trusts do?
If its the former, we have one and therefore I don't want to attend as it undermines the forum.
If its the later I want to know if its anywhere near my price range before I attend.
I can't believe the organizers have nothing to start the ball rolling with.
as Henry says print and read the FAQ's on the SD website, link in first post, it answers a lot of the questions you are raising. It must be remembered too that this initial meeting is to find out what it entails, what we can achieve etc. Who knows, maybe no-one will want to take it forwards afterwards (unlikely) or if we do then we have to decide what to do next and who wants to do it.0 -
Heres a few things I think the Trust should potentially be thinking about.
1. Constitutional Role
To work towards ensuring the continued existance of the club - i.e. some guardian angel role - maybe purchasing a block of shares, or fighting fund to block any proposed move way from the Valley or sale of the ground to developers, or council/government duplicity allowing a change of use which might lead to the sale of the ground.
2. Fund Raising Role for Footballing Issues
- Pitch Owning
- Sponsorship of Players
etc
3. Wider Footballing Community Role
Meet with other supporters trusts and supporter bodies with a view to making common cause with them on issues which the trust feels are relevant to supporting Charlton Athletic. Such things as standing areas, policing and other stadium welfare/safety issues.
I'm sure I could come up with a few more.0 -
That's exactly the sort of thing people need to be thinking about Bing.
Does anyone have a registration with the Official Site "Your Views" section ? I posted on there earlier but for some reason I can't login properly to respond to the reply a lady called Alison Scrivener wrote (she said "But what is this trust intending to do?")
The response I've written is...
"A supporters trust is a legal entity which is formed in order to give supporters a greater say in what goes on at their club. It is different from the Fans Forum (for example) as it can own shares - which many, although not all, supporters trusts use as their means of having a say in the running of their club. It is a democratic organisation and all members will vote on the decisions which are made. Most clubs, big (Arsenal, Manchester United etc) and small have one.
As for the aims and goals of the Charlton Supporters Trust, well, that's entirely down to the members. Due to the democratic nature of the trust the agenda will be set by the members, no one person can unduly influence the trust. The Trust will be what WE make it. The more people who take part to help make our club the force it once was, both on and off the field the more robust the trust will be. There's a lot of energy both positive and negative on this message board and others, and in the stands and the pubs around the Valley - it's about taking that energy and trying to do something positive with it. Lets get our Charlton back !
If you are curious at all please come down to the meeting, join the facebook group (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=115639721457) and read up on the way a trust functions http://www.supporters-direct.org/page.asp?p=2074 then decide how you want your trust to look and act."
Hopefully that's clear enough but feel free to edit if you think I'm talking aload of non-sense !0 -
Excellent suggestion Henry, this seems to be a sign of how bad things are getting with the 'takeover' though. But we are in danger of becoming 'Pythonesque' with the Trust v Fans Forum. To a lot of people this could be Charlton Popular Front v Popular Front For Charlton.
Aims and objectives need to be clearly and effectively broadcast from the off - including most importantly, getting a real volume of fans support for a true fans organisation and independant voice that the Board would have to listen to (rather than telling the FF occasionally what they want published), then perhaps we can persuade the Board / FF 'celebs' to ditch Waggotts useless sop to prevent any more confusion.
Broadening the 'committee' to include a team to concentrate on communications will be essential. Also, once the Trust is established we should go for attendance at Board meetings and regular meetings/communication with the football side of the club. The Trust would then be a voice to be recognised and setting the standard for other clubs.
Glad to see this is taking shape and I will try and encourage others to be there on the night.0 -
Thanks to those of you that mentioned this to me.
Good to read the positive feedback this time round. I still believe that forming a trust is the only way for Charlton fans to gain a voice, and potentially influence, in the way what used to be OUR club is run.
The important thing to remember at this point is the meeting on the 4th is for people to find out more about what a trust is, what they can do and how they operate at other clubs. From there, fans can decide if it is something that they want to happen. If that's the case, an interim committee could be formed to see the trust through to a formation, with a constitution and so on.
I will try and move some work committments around to try an attend the meeting.
Glynne0 -
[cite]Posted By: Thagda202[/cite]
The important thing to remember at this point is the meeting on the 4th is for people to find out more about what a trust is, what they can do and how they operate at other clubs. From there, fans can decide if it is something that they want to happen. If that's the case, an interim committee could be formed to see the trust through to a formation, with a constitution and so on.
That is 100% right Glynne imo0 -
and if everything goes completely wrong, we can do what Wimbledon did and set a club up0
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but what it does show is how moribund the Supporters club has become0
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What Glynne said is the way I see it.
This is just the starting point and there is a lot of work to do done after the initial meeting both in deciding what direction the Trust should take and in making it happen.
Glad that you are involved, Glynne.0 -
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Right I have not got the time to read all this at the moment as some would be pointless to read maybe but could someone tell me whats happening and what for please
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Some supporters on here are trouble with their hernias so some of us are getting together to organise a truss for them...[cite]Posted By: cafc-4-life[/cite]Right I have not got the time to read all this at the moment as some would be pointless to read maybe but could someone tell me whats happening and what for please0 -
Pardon me for butting in, and I know we're a much smaller club but we set up our trust just over a year ago so us on the Trust Board still bear the scars. We've grown far more than Supporters Direct predicted we would. If you want any pointers just ask. That said SD are very helpful, as our other Trusts if you get in touch with them. We had offers of help from several.0
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Sledge, thanks for that.
Would be very interesting to hear how you went about things, what the issues were and how it's going now.0 -
I'll put some pointers together and get back later today. Is this 'whspering' the same as private messaging?0
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[cite]Posted By: Sledge FGR[/cite]I'll put some pointers together and get back later today. Is this 'whspering' the same as private messaging?
Yes0 -
Over 100 members of the Charlton Athletic Supporters Trust Facebook group, wow, this is really popular - I only set it up on Thursday night and thought we'd have about 50 by now ! http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=115639721457
Any pointers you can provide Sledge would be vert welcome.0 -
Can I just ask one question didn't we do all this with the VIP scheme back in 1991-1992,I invested then and am i asked to do the same thing again.What really pisses me off is that under the VIP Scheme we as fans were promised a supporters director on the board.Can I ask who the feck gave our board the remit to take that position away!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!0
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[cite]Posted By: northstandsteve[/cite]Can I just ask one question didn't we do all this with the VIP scheme back in 1991-1992,I invested then and am i asked to do the same thing again.What really pisses me off is that under the VIP Scheme we as fans were promised a supporters director on the board.Can I ask who the feck gave our board the remit to take that position away!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
sorry, but i've been asking that for the last 2 months, and nobody seems to know........0 -
[cite]Posted By: northstandsteve[/cite]Can I just ask one question didn't we do all this with the VIP scheme back in 1991-1992,I invested then and am i asked to do the same thing again.What really pisses me off is that under the VIP Scheme we as fans were promised a supporters director on the board.Can I ask who the feck gave our board the remit to take that position away!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes, there are some similarities with the VIP scheme (I was a member too) but some crucial differences. CAFC created the VIP scheme before the whole Supporters' Trust idea existed.
The VIP scheme ran out after 10 years. The board then continued it (they didn't have to) and opened the voting to all ST holders in 2002.
So it was the board's decision to make. Personally I wanted it to continue and argued for it to do so but the board as a whole decided not to.
The weakness of the VIP scheme and the Supporters' director role was that it was in the gift of the board. A Trust is a legal entity that can, if that's what people want, own or control shares and in some cases they own the club.
Anyway Steve the fans director role is gone. All the reasons why are another debate for another time.0
