E-Mail from the Trust

Quoted from Wrawby_Mariner

Given how long it would have taken would have taken us past the transfer window and Hearn would have been sold

If this is true then how can anyone possibly vote to give the shares to fenty?  The trust have just been bullied and Fenty has shown his true colours again.

Quoted from Wrawby_Mariner

Given how long it would have taken would have taken us past the transfer window and Hearn would have been sold

Do you mean without any financial guarantees from JF the trust would have voted to sell Hearn to raise the short term finance the club arguably needed ?

Quoted from BlackBoots

The letter is balanced and well written. My view is that the club/JF have held a gun to the head of the Trust. They, and us members, really don't have a choice as far as I can see.

The first part I agree with - a threat was effectively issued re selling Hearn and another threat has been issued re the shares.

However, the Trust and its members do have an option, which is to try and negotiate a better deal with JF - for instance insisting on a place on the board in return for the shares. I would like to know what negotiations have gone on before this poll was issued - knocking back this deal doesn't mean another one can't be done. What is he offering in return at the minute? To cover all losses to May 2013. That's only 15 months and a period which will see us receive money for Ryan Bennett, probably money in the Summer for Liam Hearn, money from possibly one, maybe even two Wembley visits. Is he offering that much at the minute?

JF is a Grimsby Town fan. He's from the Town as are his family and his businesses are based here. Under his leadership the football club has become a non league entity and has been run in a manner which sees it lose £900k a year. I would very much hope and expect that this would mean that he recognises some responsibility to help put this right and that it would be a last resort to walk away.

Quoted from headingly_mariner

The point is that if what is said is true then Fenty has been able to hold the trust to ransom to get free shares. Fenty has caused or financial woes and is the worst chairman in our history and now he wants the fans to give him 200k worth of shares, it is unbelievable. I don't hate Fenty i just think he has been a poison for the club. The club is in his stranglehold already because of the loans and people who have been willing to take the club on have been put off doing this because of these loans.

It's easy to blame Fenty for that, but all clubs in the country have debt. The problem is if we do not get the crowds to sustain a top budget in this league, admittedly Fenty sets that budget but it's his money at the end of the day. There's only so much you can do if you appoint a manager who inexplicably buys so much excrement and pisses your budget up the wall. The only thing I massively disagree with is the appointment of Woods, most of what else happened to this club happened with optimism from the fans. It's far to easy to blame Fenty in hindsight but at the time most of the fan base would've appointed Newell, many would've appointed and in turn sacked Buckley and many would've tried thrown money at the club in desperation to get it out of the dire straits.

The supporters trust have no choice in my opinion, I think Fenty has been strong in his words because he want's the trust to understand that it's for the best of the club. The trusts board are good people i'm sure but generally they don't have Fenty's experiance, if he's saying that it's vital that this happens then the chances are it is. The trust couldn't sustainably run this club, giving part of the money to somebody who in turn will double it and be able to keep your star man is for the best of the club imo.

Any business man could come here and say they want to buy the club and Fenty would happily let them IF they were right for the club. I have 100% trust that Fenty would never let the club go to some dodgy businessman and nor would he let the money he is owed (which is tiny to what he's actually put in and the repayment terms are reasonable and I believe certain situations could mean we'd never owe him anything) stand in the way of the club going forward. If I was in the GTFC Gentlemans club this evening i'd be sending a ballot paper off with a big fat YES written on it.

Quoted from 1600

Do you mean without any financial guarantees from JF the trust would have voted to sell Hearn to raise the short term finance the club arguably needed ?

Nope I think what he means is, the Trust was told that unless they gave over the voting rights the club was going to sell Hearn... If true it stinks... JF for saying that (if he did) and the trust for actually going along with it, particularly without consulting with their members who they are meant to represent...

Already I find it alarming that so early on the trust board have made such a decision without consulting their members, did they even bother to tell their members once they had done it? 80's did you know about this, you're a member aren't you? The only time this should ever happen is if the clubs existance is in jeopardy, other than this, they should never make such a decision...

Quoted from Quagmire

Is it possible to create some kind of Q&A thread for Trust members and Trust board members to discuss things?  Might be a good idea to have one central location for Q&A's on this ballot - people can PM you their questions and you can add them to a thread with the answer?

Thank you for this Quagmire.

If any questions can be e-mailed to enquiries@marinerstrust.co.uk we will collate them, answer them and post them on the website for all to see.

The Trust board note the comments regarding the full ballot details not being made public.
We felt that we owed it to our members to at least give them the opportunity (depending on the postal system!) to have first knowledge of what was going on.
We hope to have the full 'script' of the ballot letter on the website by tomorrow for general consumption.

Thanks

Quoted from Mariners Trust

Thank you for this Quagmire.

If any questions can be e-mailed to enquiries@marinerstrust.co.uk we will collate them, answer them and post them on the website for all to see.

The Trust board note the comments regarding the full ballot details not being made public.
We felt that we owed it to our members to at least give them the opportunity (depending on the postal system!) to have first knowledge of what was going on.
We hope to have the full 'script' of the ballot letter on the website by tomorrow for general consumption.

Thanks

Why is that? don't you claim to act on behalf of all fans?

Hasnt the decision to hand over the shares (or else hearn goes) been done? What are trust members voting on? Confused!

Quoted from pontoonlew

It's easy to blame Fenty for that, but all clubs in the country have debt. The problem is if we do not get the crowds to sustain a top budget in this league, admittedly Fenty sets that budget but it's his money at the end of the day. There's only so much you can do if you appoint a manager who inexplicably buys so much excrement and pisses your budget up the wall. The only thing I massively disagree with is the appointment of Woods, most of what else happened to this club happened with optimism from the fans. It's far to easy to blame Fenty in hindsight but at the time most of the fan base would've appointed Newell, many would've appointed and in turn sacked Buckley and many would've tried thrown money at the club in desperation to get it out of the dire straits.

The supporters trust have no choice in my opinion, I think Fenty has been strong in his words because he want's the trust to understand that it's for the best of the club. The trusts board are good people i'm sure but generally they don't have Fenty's experiance, if he's saying that it's vital that this happens then the chances are it is. The trust couldn't sustainably run this club, giving part of the money to somebody who in turn will double it and be able to keep your star man is for the best of the club imo.

Any business man could come here and say they want to buy the club and Fenty would happily let them IF they were right for the club. I have 100% trust that Fenty would never let the club go to some dodgy businessman and nor would he let the money he is owed (which is tiny to what he's actually put in and the repayment terms are reasonable and I believe certain situations could mean we'd never owe him anything) stand in the way of the club going forward. If I was in the GTFC Gentlemans club this evening i'd be sending a ballot paper off with a big fat YES written on it.

He makes all the decisions, he should pay for them. If appointing Woodsy was the only decision you have disagreed with you have not been watching closely or long enough.

Quoted from 1054

Hasnt the decision to hand over the shares (or else hearn goes) been done? What are trust members voting on? Confused!

The voting rights to 200,000 shares have been handed over without consultation of members. The first I knew of this as a member of the Trust was today. The postal vote is whether to now hand over those 200,000 shares.