Text of e-mail sent out today
AGM Monday 8th February 7pm at the County Ground This will be a crucial meeting of the Trust: the present chair and vice-chair are to stand down because of work and family commitments. This leaves 4 members of the existing Trust board willing to continue but they cannot keep the Trust going on their own. We need reinforcements: unless more volunteers join the board there is a real possibility the Trust will fold. So please:
• Renew your membership either via Paypal at the TrustSTFC website
http://www.truststfc.co.uk/merchandise.php or by renewing on the night
• Come along to the AGM
• Put yourself forward to join the Trust board
Why the Supporters Trust is still important Before Andrew Fitton’s consortium bought the club the Trust adopted a high profile, campaigning role in an effort to remove the previous board. This reflected supporters’ concerns about the way the club was being run.
Now that the club is being honestly, efficiently and correctly run, the Trust no longer needs to adopt a confrontational approach and this means that we receive less publicity.
But the primary purpose for having a supporters trust is as valid as ever: to be the vehicle for giving fans a say in how our football club is run.
At the AGM the retiring board will ask members to agree to the following priorities for the coming year: to buy shares in the club in the name of TrustSTFC; to raise money for the Red Army Fund; and to represent to the club the supporters’ views on plans to redevelop the County Ground.
STFC rights issue We intend to take up the club’s offer to sell us shares, which they have reserved for us from the recent rights issue. Pending members approval, we already have £10,000 set aside for this purpose and will use this to buy 10,000 shares in the Trust’s name. Eventually the aim is to have a minimum shareholding of 5%. This percentage will enable the Trust to call an AGM if STFC has not called one within the correct time frame. While the current owners are acting correctly, if they were sell in the future then a new owner – being majority shareholder – would have no need to call an AGM, so this shareholding would enable us to bring them to account if required. We’d also hope to be able to claim a seat for a supporters’ representative on the STFC board in the future. In the meantime there are regular meetings between the Trust’s officers and Nick Watki ns, Chief Executive of STFC, at which we can put forward fans’ views. These will carry more weight the more shares the Trust owns in the club, so we need your help to buy them.
We will discuss at the AGM how to raise the necessary funds to purchase the extra we require.
We are aware that some small shareholders were disenfranchised by the club’s recent share consolidation and others were aggrieved at seeing their shareholding reduced. We believe that they and other supporters who would like to own a stake in the club but who cannot afford to lay out substantial sums would be better served by helping the Trust increase its shareholding and influencing STFC decisions through the Trust.
Red Army Fund The Trust manages and raises money for the Red Army Fund (RAF), which is made available to the club to increase the playing staff in times of need. Funds from the RAF are donated to pay all or part of the transfer fees or wages of new or loan players. The importance of this was shown last season, when we spent a substantial amount of the RAF to help bring in Gordon Greer on loan at a time when the manager’s budget was low. He proved to be a crucial signing, and has of course since gone on to become club captain. Building up the RAF will be another key objective in 2010.
County Ground Re-Development 2010 should see the next phase of the board’s ambitions to develop the County Ground. The Trust has a track record in this area, having drawn up its own plans for redevelopment in 2006. We have made these available to the club and we will ensure that members’ views are strongly represented as the situation develops.
We look forward to seeing you on the 8th Feb
