For those that want to read, as not everyone on here are members..
Welcome to our June
TrustSTFC Newsletter
Hi Paul
I hope you’re having an enjoyable Jubilee bank holiday weekend, and with the extra couple of days off it's a chance to send you our first newsletter in a while.
We look back on the season just gone with great pride; our team did well to get within a penalty kick of Wembley and off the field it's been a complete transformation, as we now have an owner that respects the supporters, and a chief executive who is a Town fan himself, someone who understands the importance of the local community.
New faces on the Trust board
On the Trust side we've seen a lot of change. Once the dust had settled on the court cases last year, several board members dropped away including long serving Trust board member Cliff Ponting. Cliff always did a great job for us and we recognised him as a “Trust Hero” at our AGM.
Prior to that AGM Stuart Woollard our new secretary created a new and improved recruitment process which saw lots of new faces emerge onto the board, all from our existing membership.
We've always been an honest, open and transparent organisation and anyone who wants to get involved and commit their own time to helping our football club thrive is welcome to do so, it was therefore great to see an excellent response and some really impressive board applications.
We had a very slick Trust operation in the year just gone, where everybody understood their role, and we’ve now strengthened our ranks significantly with some great expertise coming onto the board.
Just like with football teams though it's not easy when there are so many personnel changes in such a short space of time, but we are making good progress and I’m confident we will do some great stuff this year.
Obviously, lots of new people have come in with ideas, and our initial board meetings have been about ensuring everyone has a role to play and something to own. We might make a few mistakes as we are still finding our feet a little, but I’ve been really impressed with the energy, enthusiasm and professionalism that all of the new faces have brought to us.
You will hear from them all soon.
The Year Ahead
We have a packed agenda for the year ahead which includes the County Ground purchase, and a new and improved website that will include fresh ideas and details about owning a share of the County Ground. At this moment there are still legalities that need to be finalised and these things take time however, as soon as the purchase has been completed we will be issuing details on how the share scheme will work.
We’ve got the Don Rogers statue to come and we will share more on that when we can, and we are also working with Swindon Town, the OSC and historians on our long-standing ambition to have a Club Museum. There are lots of ideas around improving our engagement with supporters, ways to generate additional income that will support other work including new environment and sustainability initiatives, and ideas to help get a more diverse and inclusive matchday experience, reaffirming our full commitment to developing the next generation of Town fans. We’re also going to continue to support Swindon Town women and look to work with charitable organisations around the Town and wider area.
On top of all that, we have other board members who are going to step up and start to communicate more regularly with you. Our aim is to involve our members all the way throughout this coming year, as without your support we wouldn’t be able to achieve anything.
Let's Work Together
Back in 2017 at our AGM, we made a plea to the club, the council, the supporters and the local media to work together and help this football club get back to where it belongs. “Let’s Work Together” was our rallying cry and in the last year we’ve seen that come to life, it’s been fantastic.
The club have been open with supporters throughout the year, answering questions on anything. I know from feedback outside in wider football circles that the Advisory Board minutes are something unique, the level of open communication is unbelievable to some. I don’t think we can ask for any more there.
The local media, like Swindon Advertiser and BBC Wiltshire have been excellent, reporting on things accurately and keeping STFC at the front of minds. Special mention to Jonny Leighfield at the Adver who I know works really hard to keep everyone informed, and also to Andrew Hawes at the BBC, who’s commentary and handling of post-match interviews has always been spot-on.
On the Council front, we’ve obviously worked well with them in the last year, with the County Ground sale being approved and they have been very supportive overall throughout the lengthy discussions over the years.
The Sir Tom Broadbent Lounge
New media has also emerged and the recent addition of “The Sir Tom Broadbent Lounge” on Twitter has given lots of supporters a voice, through their regular ‘phone-in’ style interviews.
Mark Hanrahan is one of the co-hosts, and a much-valued Gold-level Member of the Trust. His positivity shines through and so to see this new fan venture get off to such a great start was not a surprise.
If you haven’t tuned in yet, it’s well worth a listen and the recent interview with ex-CEO Nick Watkins was superb. (click here to listen to it) and you can access the old shows on Twitter (via @Safehandsstfc1) or catch-up through the other media platforms like YouTube, Audible, Spotify etc.
The Official Supporters Club
Our relationship with the Supporters Club is probably the best it’s ever been and in years gone by (before my time) that was not always the case. We’ve collaborated and shared costs on a number of matchday related items that have really helped the club and the team, and it’s a great example of how we can make a difference when we stay positive and work towards common goals. You can sign up and support their work via the OSC website.
Crowds were up dramatically, and in those last few games of the season it felt like the penny dropped for supporters – if we give plenty of vocal support on a match day, the team respond. Town fans form the final piece of the ‘Let’s Work Together’ winning formula.
We have to keep working on that matchday experience, as it will make all the difference. It didn’t get us promoted this time, but we were close, and if we keep this momentum up off the field, we will soon see results on the field.
Finally, I wanted to say thanks on behalf of the entire Trust board to our new Joint Vice-Chairs of the Trust, James Spencer and Alex Pollock, who continue to be our main faces when it comes to fan engagement via the Official Supporters Club ‘On the Sofa’ events.
It’s not easy to be on camera facing random questions with hundreds or even 1000+ watching and listening to your every word, but these two do a great job.
Behind the scenes, we do ask the questions that supporters want asked, challenge the football club when they need to be challenged, and we try to relay feedback to the fans. The club has been inherited with many ongoing issues, and so it’s often difficult to pass on messages due to possible legal implications. It’s a delicate balancing act on what can be said and what can’t be said in the public domain, but these two get it just right.
Alex and James will also continue to represent us at the Advisory board, and so if you have anything you’d like raised, please let us know via email
info@truststfc.com or via Twitter/Facebook (where Direct Messages work just fine).
Thanks for reading but as mentioned earlier, this is just a starting point - we are looking to increase communications to our membership, so you can expect further emails to arrive soon, with more Trust related updates.
Cheers,
Steve
Steve Mytton
Chairman, TrustSTFC
