Thetownend.com

firstly congratulations on such a successful period, and i really hope that the takeover goes ahead as these bunch of muppets have had their time, they proved their worth= nothing.

just a few suggestions....

on the trust website i think it would be a good idea to have a current membership figure, like you do with cash raised so far. for me, this would show just how strong the trust is, and possibly have some targets in place for membership and some sort of 'quantification' of power at each membership level.

secondly, it doesnt seem like the cash raised figure has moved for a while? it would be nice to see how much has been raised to see if things are really working.

finally, im still sitting on the fence on this issue. im still not convinced as to the uselfulness of the trust. if any takeover bid goes through it will be based on financial clout only, and realistically the only avenue that will ever come from is mr power. if the board consider the bid, the trust wont be a factor in the decision

am i right in saying trust membership is somewhere at the 700 mark? if this is true, it only represents about 10-12% of the 'hardcore' of our support. im my opinion, this doesnt make a very bold statement.

im sorry to appear negative on this one, but more needs to be done to convince me on the strength of the trust.

I for one have come to realise that the Trust wants to work as part of the club, not necessarily take it over because obviously the Trust alone do not have the financial clout, unless one of us wins the Lotto or something.



I'm still not overly confident if the Trust will achieve anything, but it's a pound to join for a year and if you decide at some stage that you really don't want to be part of it you've only lost a pound (and the Trust have only gained one). I think the more significant matter at the moment is the number of people on board, not the money raised from sign ups.

And 10-12% of our 'hardcore' support is clearly not 760  :grin:

Fair comments in all honesty and a few good ideas.

Si Pi  has a valid point, the Trust is a representative body for the fans, and therefor needs to be.

Whilst you say that 760 on a % ratio is not representative, if you consider that 3/4 months ago we stood at a membership base of 250, then I think that we are becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.

Whilst I take your comments on board and respect them, can I suggest that you maybe give up a little of your time and come along to the Trust meeting on Monday night and meet the board and the members, and listen to what we are trying to acheive and then make a judgement.

It would be really good to see you

soapy tit wank fair point about the 'hardcore' support.  :soapy tit wank: , i ment average attendance!

ive got another idea has the trust considered contacting former players etc to add some celebrity status to the trust? eg people like macari, hoddle, ardiles, rogers, taylor, calderwood etc etc just having them as members IMO would significantly raise the profile of the trust.

let me make it very clear im not discrediting the efforts of the trust, i just think their role in any potential takeover will be minimal.

That's a good shout.

Watch this space  :wink:

Ooooh Fred you big tease  :wink:

sorry, i live far from swindon so coming along isnt really possible. i challenge you to bolster the website, give me more information, let me know what difference the trust can make, etc etc. remember that the website is for me and like many others the only source of information on the trust, and at the moment its not really upto much. i hope this critcism is constructive rather than damming!

Constructive critisism as this can only be a good thing.

We will very shortly be re introducing the regular newsletter that will initially go out to members, but I see no issue with it also being posted on the website (of course this will be dependant on the ok from the members)

I note that you do not live in the borough. If you go on to our website and look at the minutes from the last meeting you will note that we intend to start holding meetings outside of the borough, were pockets of fans/members live, perhaps you could come along to one being held near to your area.

We are also holding a meeting before the Wrexham game on 13th Jan for similar reasons

[/b]

I'll be at that one Fred!!

:beers:

How long's this meeting on monday going to last? I can't hang around for long as I have an exam the next day. The temptation of drinking will be too hard to resist if I stay in a pub for too long.

:soapy tit wank:

Usually get done by 9/9.30 SiPi

Then    :beers:  :beers:

Meh, think I might have to give it a miss, the temptation to drink will be all too great

I wasn't going to go drinking on monday and now I am. Go trust meetings!!!!

Are you coming El Presidente ?

I may be.

I always imagine trust meetings to be held secretly in smokey back rooms where nobody uses their real names.

I reckon I might be dissapointed.

it was at the sun inn recently...the only dodgey thing was that kid with no neck being voted onto the board

STFcere...

These are both valid and important points you make and I certainly support them.

As you know I have worked closely with the Trust Board (as well as many other unaffiliated or independent fans) over the past few months to progress the Fans Consortium project.

I can say that any reservations I had about the Trust have long since disappeared (and like you I was a tad sceptical) as the project has developed.

Whilst communication and membership benefits can always be improved (it sounds like you could certainly help here) what cannot be improved (in my opinion) is the basic honesty of these fans and their genuine desire to see STFC succeed.  The people who give of their time and effort are true fans who care about the club, travel to most games home and away and generally support the team despite everything.

In addition they are people whose motivation is entirely philanthropic in that they expect nothing in return, other than the right to have a say in how their club is run.  I also know that they accept that with representation comes responsibility and accountability, and I am convinced that the Trust Board is both democratic and open in its dealing with fans and the club.

The reason that Bill Power and Phil Emmel are backing the Consortium is precisely because they believe absolutely in the concept of a 'fan based' club i.e. one where the club can only be successful if the fans are involved, connected and part of the project.

I can only tell you what I have found, and the fact that whenever we have been tested as a group the simple application of truth and openness as a guiding principle has stood us in good stead.

The coming weeks will sorely test the patience and fortitude of all Swindon fans and I expect things to get worse before they get better. The more fans who get involved the better and as you have demonstrated there is plenty of room for all shades of opinion.

Do please join us and contribute your obvious common sense and intelligence

If you're coming to the Brizzle Rovers game STFCere, pop into the Trust office prior to the game (we'll be open from around 1.30 depending on who opens up), and hopefully we'll answer some of your questions.

Who administers the web site Fred?

Millom

Fair enough, what is the information you feel is missing? There's a load of info on the Trust in the menu under the heading "About the Trust" and likewise there's a fair bit of info (hopefully about to be filled out a bit more) about the Fans' Consortium under the section cunningly titled "Fans' Consortium". Not having a pop, but in all seriousness what information is it you feel we're not providing?

And you included away fans in that! A more accurate figure for "bedrock" support would likely be about 4500, so about 17% of that or over 25% of season ticket holders (assuming a s/t figure of 2500-3000, which would be wildly optimistic!).

But your point still stands - looked at as 760 out of 4500, it's very much a minority, albeit a significant one. But that's actually incredibly high for actual signed-up members - any organisation will always have a far smaller number of members than supporters. To put it into another context, the two main political parties have membership of about 300,000 out of 60m people (about 0.5%), yet clearly command far higher levels of support than that. In that context, having 17% of the "constituency" in question is actually substantial. Even if we only say for every actual signed-up Trust member there's another two fans who agree with them (which would be extremely low - it's usually 1:5 ratio), it's a huge base of support. And to have gone from under 200 members a couple of months ago to nearly 800 now I think shows fans are voting with their feet as to what they think.


If you mean financially, yes you're probably right. If you mean in terms of bringing it about, I don't think I'd be blowing our own trumpet too much to say we've been crucial in getting things to the stage they have reached so far - read Mike W's post above if you doubt that. If you mean our role once the consortium has been successful, a key part of the Consortium's stated aims is to have an elected supporter director on the board and far greater fan involvement in the running of the club from top to bottom - as one of the main fans' groups, I think the Trust is likely to be heavily involved in this.  

Hopefully that answers some of your points - if there's bits that still aren't clear, come back and I (and I'm sure others) will try and answer them.

Andrew Hounsell. Does a bloody good job IMO

thanks for your replies paul, you make some good points.

3 suggestions:

1. offer more than two options for membership. £100 is way too pricey, and one years membership is pretty pointless. surely from the trusts point of view it would be better to have a solid core of members instead of a high turnover rate at the end of the year due to 1 year memberships running out and the likelihood that more than half wont renew?

why not offer 1,2,3,4,5 years memberships and the lifetime. would offer much greater flexbility, and the chance to raise more cash. i would be tempted to go for the 3 year deal at say £20?

2. update the cash received more frequently. giving more accurate figures should entice more people to join. set targets, and display them on the website.

3. display current numbers of supporters on the website too, again i think this would encourage others to join

keep up the good work, lets hope this is all worth in the end!

3 - members not supporters obviously!

oh paul, did you also get the suggestion for past players earlier in the thread? to get someone like hoddle behind it and to speak in the media would be a great coup

I support the idea of getting former players to support the idea, I 'd rather it wasnt a total dickhead like hoddle though :x

 I'm not sure you'd get much of response from former players.....who are notoriously apolitical.  After all it was just their job, whereas for us it is our passion.....how many of us would be too bothered about what went on at a former employee?

Stfcere some good suggestions there mate.
The first one about high turnover of members is a good one and is something i would imagine will be adressed by the trust when things are not so chaotic ie trying to deal with the immediate problem of getting shot of the Newbury brigade.
The basic fans rep principle in my opinion will mean that the membership numbers will grow(short term members or long term) as the whole idea is based on the said rep being democratically elected by members,(someone correct me if im wrong on this).

Pauld i agree mr hounsell does a cracking job, was just wondering who you would need to approach if you had something of value to contribute to the site.

Cheers,

Millom

but surely a former player would have a much greater affection for his former club than for one of us  and the jobs we hate?

note the recent comments made by chalky and nijholt over the job vacancy. its do-able and it should be at least attempted, whats to lose?

Phil King has made some good noises Reg. Get him on board, and others would surely follow. I think earlier in the fred, thread said to watch this space.  :D

Millom

 :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:  :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

   There may well be some ex players who have a bit of affinity for the club, in which case they're likely to get involved anyway....hence Phil King and Charlie Henry with the Trust quiz.....certainly there is nothing to lose, but the aim has to remain to recruit ordinary fans.....

 "Right" said thread
"Both of us together
One on each end and steady as we go."
Tried to shift it, couldn't even lift it
We was getting nowhere
And so we had a cuppa tea

Ah       Classic Cribbins

Either use the feedback form on the website itself http://www.truststfc.co.uk/feedback.php or you could PM me and I'll pass it on

Like that idea, we'll have to think about it cos we don't want to overcomplicate things - don't want someone wanting to join the Trust then we end up like the Nationwide mortgage ad ("Do you want a tracker, a stacker, a cracker jacker ... " etc). But the basic principle seems sound - I'll throw the idea out tomorrow, see what people think


The cash total is not actually for the Trust per se, it's for the Red Army Fund and is ring-fenced for players. It gets updated monthly (roughly) when we get the bank statements


Personally I have to say I'm in two minds about this, but again I'll cast the idea around, see what others think.


Well, yes, let's hope so ...  :D

Thanks for the suggestions, always welcome

Oh, and about the ex-players thing, sorry, forgot to answer it. It's something we're working on, but I'm not directly involved personally so not sure on progress. Like Fred/Thread said, watch this space, I guess.

I like it Paul