The Trust.

[flammableBen]

It's a big possibility that I've managed to drunkenly miss stuff over the last 9 months, but I'm curious to what the Trust's aims are at the moment? Have the meetings gone back to members only now the stability of the clubs sorted? Just realised that it's been a long time since the last trust meeting I went too.

It wasn't long ago that the trust meetings were advertised all over the internet forums, either I've missed something or you've given up on the momentum you had and just gone back to the old skool meetings of the board members and yeovil in a pub somewhere.

I know that interest is going to wane when the clubs stability was sorted, but surely keeping up interest up is an important factor? The pod casts seem like an ace idea, but a regular meeting for fans seems like a good one. The goal of getting more fan ownership of the club must still exist? Did I miss a big meeting that not enough people turned up for so you gave up?

Sorry if this sounds like a bit of a grilling Paul, it's as much curiosity on how much I've managed to miss and what's going on in general.

[yeo]

Theres a meeting come up,some people are resigning from the board I believe.Ive deleted the e mail and im not actually a memeber at the moment.

[sonic youth]

The TrustSTFC AGM will be held on Monday 17th November starting at 7.30pm in the Legends Lounge (formerly the Winners bar) at the County Ground.

All current paid-up members are entitled to vote - members may renew their membership on the night if necessary.

Please note that several members of the Trust board will be standing down, meaning we need new volunteers to step forward to ensure we have a full board.

Please consider if you would like to stand for the Trust board yourself - members wishing to do so should notify us by email to members@truststfc.co.uk or by post to the PO Box address by 5.30pm on 31st October 2008. This is to ensure we can send out the necessary notifications etc should there be sufficient candidates to warrant an election.

http://www.truststfc.co.uk/news_item.php?id=1253

[pauld]

In terms of the aims of the Trust, they remain the same as they always have been:

to promote greater fan involvement in the running of the club, ultimately in the shape of a supporter director;
to promote greater fan ownership of the club via an increased shareholding - we're going to be interested to hear more about the proposed rights issue on Saturday in this regard
to promote the interests of the club and it's supporters generally within the community of Swindon and vice-versa

As for the "why so quiet" stuff, I think there's two parts to this. One is that we have been quite a bit less "in your face" since the takeover, the other is that a lot of what we have been doing has been communicated via emails to members so if you haven't been reading those, I guess you wouldn't have been aware of that.

In terms of a quick potted history since the takeover, we had initial meetings with the new owners and reported back on those to members (via emails and the Trust website so  if you weren't reading emails from the Trust then I guess you may not have seen those). We then very deliberately had a "quiet period" once the takeover bedded in - we felt, I think rightly, that many people had heard quite enough from the Trust during the preceding two years and that a quiet period while we worked out how to align with the new regime would be more welcome than not. During the spring we talked to the club about the s/t plans and had a couple of meetings with them, along with the SC, to discuss how we could help in promoting what we felt overall was an excellent deal. We were then pretty active over the summer in helping with that promotion. Again, if you missed that, sorry, but I'd argue that wasn't due to lack of effort on our part.

But it has been quiet this season, granted. We've been largely communicating with members via email/stuff on the website - if you look at how we were communicating with people prior to the takeover, there was a lot of press activity, leafletting at games etc the kind of "in your face" stuff which I don't think there's really been the need for of late.

But I would accept ideally we should have at least one members meeting since the start of the season. That hasn't happened because we'd intended holding the AGM earlier and that then would have also been the first members' meeting of the season. One of the things that has become very clear lately is that some of the stalwarts, myself included, haven't had as much time as we'd have liked to devote to the Trust. Which is why four of us are standing down at the AGM. For myself, the reasons are twofold:

1) In a reversal of the usual politician's formula, I'd like to spend some more time with my career! Oh, and, erm, my family. Seriously, I've got quite a demanding job which I enjoy but it's a bit on-top (I'm responding to this while waiting for some code to compile) and a young family. You can't do it all.
2) I think the Trust needs re-energising and a fresh direction. Having the same old faces around all the time doesn't help that and may actively discourage some. I've been involved with the Trust since the first public meeting, it's more than time to move aside.

On that latter note, I'm pretty optimistic that the balance between those going/staying and the room that creates for new people with fresh ideas to come through is pretty good - there's four of us standing down, with three "old guard" guys staying on, along with two newer recruits to the Trust board. Hopefully that provides an element of continuity without too much "set in your ways" crustiness and keeps some of the experience both old and new we've collectively accumulated over the years.

I think one of the things that would certainly help re-energise the Trust would be to resume regular members' meetings, but that does require participation from folks attending the meetings. Both in terms of actually attending them (obviously) and then also in terms of actively participating, something we had plenty of during the "days of crisis". In fact that was one of the best things about those dark days was the number of folks who were prepared to step up and take a lead.

Sorry this is a bit lengthier than I intended, but you raise some good points ben and I hope you'll be one of those who will press the new Trust board to hold members' meetings, turn up to them and participate.

[flammableBen]

Cheers Paul. That's a fucking brilliant response to most my questions, be it one I'll have to read through properly again tomorrow because I've had a long day (ahem) and am about to catch some z's. I will fucking grill you on all this tomorrow. Possibly with a bit or rosemary, a touch of time and a bit of garlic.

A quick one though, you seem to bring up the point that I  should have read my email properly sort of thing a few times. I understand that the trust wanted to let it lie a bit after the media saturation of the pre-takeover crisis days, yet you've still got an internet forum full of interested people in the TEF. I guess my football views are a bit blinkered as I gather most of the stuff which is going on from here anyway, but surely it wouldn't have harmed anything giving us regular updates. It would have at least started some discussion about what the Trust is up to. Saying that you've emailed your new massive mailing list and updated your website seems like a cop out a little bit.

I might be being harsh there, I'll leave the rest until tomorrow.

[pauld]

I will fucking grill you on all this tomorrow. Possibly with a bit or rosemary, a touch of time and a bit of garlic.

*thyme

A quick one though, you seem to bring up the point that I  should have read my email properly sort of thing a few times. I understand that the trust wanted to let it lie a bit after the media saturation of the pre-takeover crisis days, yet you've still got an internet forum full of interested people in the TEF. I guess my football views are a bit blinkered as I gather most of the stuff which is going on from here anyway, but surely it wouldn't have harmed anything giving us regular updates. It would have at least started some discussion about what the Trust is up to. Saying that you've emailed your new massive mailing list and updated your website seems like a cop out a little bit.

Fair comment but again it's about the "in your face" bit. Where we've had specific "calls to action" (e.g. where we've needed volunteers for s/t stuff etc) we have posted on here but where it's just a general update, we've tended not to. Perhaps wrongly, but on the basis, of not wanting to be too "in your face" - we're very aware not everyone on here is interested in what the Trust is doing. Maybe we're wrong in that, but I'd work on the basis people come on here to do 25% football, 80% bollocks and I could easily see "Here's your regular update of what the Trust is doing" getting a bit irritating for some. Even the podcasts seemed to annoy some. So it's a balance between a light touch of trying only to post on forums when it's something that's of general interest/urgency as opposed to being totally OTT and peeing people off. Whereas if we're just trying to keep members up to date, it's a reasonable assumption that they would likely have sufficient interest to read emails sent out. I'm far from convinced we've got the balance right, but then I'm not sure there is a  right balance for everyone. Be interesting to hear what others (both Trust members and non-members) think

[axs]

ooh, do a poll.

People can always not read the thread if they like.

[NW6Red]

As one of those crap members who never went to a meeting (it's hard enough to get to a game these days, living in London with young kids and a non-football-appreciating missus), I'd just like to (a) apologise for being so crap and not coming to any meetings, and (b) thank Paul for all the work he's done over the past few years. You did a fantastic job during the takeover and I'm sorry to see you go.

How many members are there now, by the way?

[Don Rogers Shop]

Just you

[pauld]

As one of those crap members who never went to a meeting (it's hard enough to get to a game these days, living in London with young kids and a non-football-appreciating missus), I'd just like to (a) apologise for being so crap and not coming to any meetings, and (b) thank Paul for all the work he's done over the past few years. You did a fantastic job during the takeover and I'm sorry to see you go.

Stop it you'll make me blush. I was just the gobby sod who front-ended a lot of hard work by a lot of people, including, but not limited to, colleagues on the Trust board

How many members are there now, by the way?

Down to around 300, but we have a lot of renewal notices out so hopefully that should pick up if/when some of those renew. We were always going to take a hit from the "Smash glass in case of emergency" factor in the way a lot of people view the Trust, but I'd hope we could increase the long-term core membership up from that base. Hopefully we'll also get some new members once "that gobby shite" isn't chairman anymore

[Phil_S]

As one of those crap members who never went to a meeting (it's hard enough to get to a game these days, living in London with young kids and a non-football-appreciating missus), I'd just like to (a) apologise for being so crap and not coming to any meetings, and (b) thank Paul for all the work he's done over the past few years. You did a fantastic job during the takeover and I'm sorry to see you go.

I don't believe their is such a thing as a crap member. In my view the TRUST will only function with a membership, so the first step is to join. That's the most important thing which you did.


How many members are there now, by the way?