FAO 80sglory
Thanks for taking the time to post with your views and ideas about what GTST could do in order to make itself a more attractive proposition to GTFC supporters (ref, your original post September 23, 2011, 6:12pm).
I appreciate that there have been a number of responses to your queries to date, however I felt I should at least have the good manners to respond to your questions and comments myself. I apologise for it being a couple of days after my original post, however like the good housewife I am, I have had domestic matters to attend to
.
I’ve tried to pick the key questions out of your original post and address them one by one
1. “..sounds fair enough, but how does it actually translate into benefitting the club if I were to join ?”
When the Trust was first set up in 2002, we had to specify some objectives to be detailed within the Society rules. I have outlined these below – the first six (from memory) were suggested by Supporters Direct within the ‘model’ rules that were provided. These were all hotly debated at the time, and I believe that we all agreed that they outlined well what we were hoping GTST would achieve. The final objective was added by ourselves.
“The Society’s objects are, either itself or through a subsidiary company or society trading for the
benefit of the community and acting under its control:
i. to strengthen the bonds between the Club and the community which it serves and to
represent the interests of the community in the running of the Club;
ii. to benefit present and future members of the community served by the Club by
promoting encouraging and furthering the game of football as a recreational facility,
sporting activity and focus for community involvement;
iii. to further the development of the game of football nationally and internationally and
the upholding of its rules;
iv. to encourage the Club to take proper account of the interests of its supporters and of
the community it serves in its decisions;
v. to encourage and promote the principle of supporter representation on the board of
any company owning or controlling the Club and ultimately to be the vehicle for
democratic elections to the board;
vi. to promote, develop and respect the rights of members of the community served by
the Club and people dealing with the Society as set out in the Charter of Fundamental
Rights of the European Union, having regard in particular to the need to provide
information to members and conduct the affairs of the Society in accessible and
appropriate ways;
vii. to invest in the future of the Club both by assisting the Club in any way in connection
with youth coaching schemes and by encouraging younger supporters”.
Initially, GTST very much focussed on acquiring shares in GTFC. Membership subscriptions and monies raised from other events (race nights, quiz nights etc) went towards share acquisition. After a couple of years we decided to poll the members on what they wanted GTST to be doing with the funds raised – the response was investment in the youth setup. Some articles that outline this can be found below – we have also continued to sponsor youth team players each season.
http://www.gtst.net/site/content/view/223/2/http://www.gtst.net/site/content/view/269/2/These objectives were, I feel, right for 2002, but may not be so right for 2011. There is room in the constitution to make amend to these, however as with all democratic organisations changes have to be proposed, voted upon and agreed.
2. “What does the £15/year membership actually pay for? The running cost of GTST, GTFC shares, GTST voting rights ? “
Each member of GTST has one share in GTST (and therefore a single vote in any matters that are put to a vote). Nominally, £1 of the annual membership fee pays for that one share. There are administrative costs associated with running GTST (for example, we are required by law to submit audited accounts each year, and thus have to pay for auditing/examination), although we have always tried to keep these to a minimum. Some investment has been made in the past in merchandise which has been sold at a profit. Any resulting profits are put towards the objectives outlined above. As previously mentioned, this has been focussed primarily on the youth setup in the last few years.
3. “What advantage is there to buying shares via GTST and not the club ?”
It entirely depends on what your motives are. The main advantage is that shares are held by the Supporters Trust, and not by any single individual. GTST are entitled to attend the AGM and use the voting rights associated with any shares acquired in any matters that are put to vote. The ideal is that the GTST member base would determine the way in which GTST votes in such matters (thus ensuring that the organisation is entirely democratic), however this has proved to be challenging in the past (although I am sure there are technical solutions that can resolve this). In addition, GTST members can assign their proxy votes attached to any shares they may hold personally to GTST, thus increasing the number of votes that GTST has. I appreciate that where we have two major shareholders in John Fenty and Mike Parker then this this is still a drop in the ocean, but I hope the principle is clear.
4. “What issues do you vote on ?”.
Assuming this question relates to football club issues, then please see above.
5. “HOW DOES ALL YOUR WORK ULTIMATELY BENEFIT THE SUPPORTERS OR THE CLUB ?”
I hope I have gone some way to answering this question. Ultimately though, the benefits materialise thus:
• Supporting the club financially
• Having a say – albeit a small one – in matters that impact upon supporters. As outlined in my original post, GTST were often consulted on matters that affected fans in the past.
6. "I can be a member and have a say in an organisation that I don't know what it does or how it benefits the club or it's supporters ?"
I’ll draw your attention to the following sentence from my original post “At this moment in time, GTST could be described as dormant, at best”.
When GTST was more active, we communicated regularly via the website, via member newsletters / email and via a column in the matchday programme about what we were up to. At the present moment, there is not a lot to report, but if (and this is a big if) there were enough people willing to get involved, that could be easily rectified.
I absolutely take your point about communication; however this isn’t something I can do by myself. Again, I will reference my original post “From experience, I envisage that it would take 15/20 willing volunteers with a good mix of skills to get things moving”. Because GTST is an Industrial and Provident Society, and governed by the FSA, there is a lot of administrative work that has to be done to meet certain obligations, and these things can be pretty time consuming. It’s best to spread the load as much as possible, else the burden is naturally placed on the shoulders of too few who just get fed up with being dumped upon.
For the final time, I will refer you back to my original post “I don’t think it’s my place to dictate what happens next, but maybe going back to square one wouldn’t be such a bad idea?”. So yes, I absolutely agree that going back to basics would be a good idea and possibly a good starting point for the next chapter of GTST.
Finally, it’s clear that you have given this some considerable thought and have many valid points to make. Assuming that a meeting is arranged in the next couple of weeks, I hope you could find the time to come along and get involved, and help to turn those thoughts and ideas into action.
Emma Blackbourn
GTST Chair
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