Democracy..... ?

Wasn't trying to replace the club - just trying to find a fair framework where fans could have their say in giving it a little cash to help it along.

Maybe it's gonna die a death but still think it might be worth putting some effort in to save some emergency funds in the meantime e.g. for the youth team.

If sh1t does happen (just taking precautions) I'd rather dip into an overflowing piggy bank than take a big hit on my bank account.

if we had democratic team selection over the last 3 years we would have a formation of 1-1-2 & be even lower

You mean the players were sh1t ?
Don't see how you can blame the fans for that ?....

just saying the left back(in the changing room) position would be the most popular selection

Quoted from aldi_01

Good idea inntheory but as already stated, only really good enough if you want the club/organisation etc to stay relatively small...are there any clubs in the top two tiers running on this type of 'fan run' type thing? I don't think so and regardless of what wimbledon fans will say, if a rich 'honest' business man with lots of cash wanted to invest they would...not a flipping hippy twit like the last one but a bloke willing to invest they'd sell out tonthem in order to prolong the life of the club and drive into higher divisions...my opinion only of course.

May be we should worry about this if we have to start from scratch again with AFC Grimsby or something, summat i hope we never have to do to be honest...

I don't think this idea has anything to do with an attempt to buy the club, and truth be told neither should it because frankly the types of funds needed for that are way beyond scope. This should be something entirely separate from GTFC (the organisation) but for the benefit of GTFC. I would even go so far to say that in my opinion the fund should not be used for the purchase of shares in the club - my reason for this is that I wouldn't want the money poured into the black hole in finance thereby allowing the directors to put a little less in.

I think as a fund when areas for investment are identified by the fund holders then it should be match funded by the current board - just like any organsiation would when bidding into a fund. What I mean by this is if we were able to raise say 60K then before that was invested in say for example the youth set up,  the board would have to agree to provide x amount of money into the youth set up also (thereby ensuring its continuation). Or it may even be possible to negotiate some kind of minimum investment by the board in the youth set up which would then allow them to access the fund for additional developmental things which the club has not been able to afford before - I'm thinking specialist equipment, specialist coaching etc. If the minimum funding was not reached the fund would roll over or the group could decide to invest it some other way.  

I'm thinking £5 a month is something most people could afford - if 1000 people were to take part that would be 60K a year. Would that be a number that is feasible to reach I mean how many members of this website are there in total? The telegraph could run a campaign to attract people to take part also.  

Quoted from Swansea_Mariner

I don't think this idea has anything to do with an attempt to buy the club, and truth be told neither should it because frankly the types of funds needed for that are way beyond scope. This should be something entirely separate from GTFC (the organisation) but for the benefit of GTFC. I would even go so far to say that in my opinion the fund should not be used for the purchase of shares in the club - my reason for this is that I wouldn't want the money poured into the black hole in finance thereby allowing the directors to put a little less in.

WHS  (of course I still urge you to buy shares in the club too !)

Swansea Mariner I can see your other points too and some good ideas but I don't really understand this idea of the board "guaranteeing investment" to the fans.

They're unlikely to guarantee anything are they ?
Just to get their hands on a few quid they need/can't afford that they also need to match ?
Especially in case of emergency ?
Sorry not convinced as yet....

I think we should just be happy that we have a football club.
I doubt we'll achieve league status again so let's enjoy what we've got or just do something more entertaining on a weekend.

Quoted from Swansea_Mariner

I'm thinking £5 a month is something most people could afford - if 1000 people were to take part that would be 60K a year. Would that be a number that is feasible to reach I mean how many members of this website are there in total? The telegraph could run a campaign to attract people to take part also.  

To be honest I'd rather give £5 a month to a charity that helps the vulnerable than use it to effectively subsidise a privately-owned limited company.

Quoted from kingofthekippers

To be honest I'd rather give £5 a month to a charity that helps the vulnerable than use it to effectively subsidise a privately-owned limited company.

That's it, it's changed from your loose change to a £5/10 p/m direct debit!
Much as I love the club I would feel that my priorities were seriously fecked up if I did that.

The guarantees would just be used to ensure that they couldn't take the money and then decide to flush the youth system down the pan midway through the season.

As for subsidising a private investment, don't you effectively do that every time you buy a ticket or a kit etc, when you spend that money you have no say in how its used, this would be something different - hence the thread title - effectively you'd have a voice in how something at the club was delivered.