Question for Jon Wood/Mariners Trust

Quoted from Lincoln Mariner 56

Obviously you do not live in a village and fail to understand the important role parish councils have in the governance of their parish. I look forward to seeing you put yourself forward for the Trust Board in due course

Not at all. I grew up under a parish council and in my job I work with different levels of Government across the country and abroad. Parish councils by and large, have very few powers and are more ceremonial.

Quoted from davmariner

Congratulations, you win the award for the most pretentious and condescending post I’ve ever read in 10 years of posting on here.

I think you do the Trust a massive disservice by comparing it to parish councils.

By design, parish councils have very little power and therefore naturally means very little engagement. It’s to cater for small villages and only makes up a small percentage of local authorities in the UK. More powerful levels of local/devolved Government have higher levels of engagement.

We’ve seen, on the other hand, how influential and powerful the trust can be with Operation Promotion. Not just financially but in terms of the feeling around the football club. It has significant power and influence if it chooses to exert it. Even in the Trust’s inception it had significant power in terms of shares, but arguably chose not to exert its power. So a comparison with a parish council is not only ignorant (as by design parish councils have very little power) but I suspect it’s the ‘I know best’ mentality that holds the trust back and stops people from joining.

I suspect if members were to be given a real say in the future of the trust by for example, having a say on who the MT representative is on the GTFC board, opinion might not be so divided on its relevance/future. The defensive/bunker mentality and lack of transparency will I think (sadly) will mean that the trust will die a death in the same way that GTST did.

I was going to leave this but I have to take issue with some of the points you have made:-
Firstly on the only occasion in my membership of and involvement in the Mariners Trust to date where we have needed to exercise full democracy by involving members in a vote THE MEMBERS decided that the shares should be given to J.F. Now that might not sit comfortably with you (and others) but that is what happened. The "turnout" was of a size that local authority politics can only dream of. Recently I've heard on here that it wasn't possible for a small number of people to frighten fellow fans into not attending Checkatrade matches. That is a stand point I agree with, but in the name of consistency how can people say that they were threatened by one man threatening to sell our best player if he didn't get his own way? The answer is that it's not credible....just as the view that a few people on here/ twitter etc. didnt frighten people away from B.P.  In both cases people made informed choices.
Secondly you've stated several times tonight that your thoughts are not anti-Trust but you appear to be accusing us of having "A bunker mentality" and "a lack of transparency". I don't recognise the latter for the reasons that I've already given but to recap..."Have your say" meeting held before a match to enable as many exiles to attend as possible, surgeries held in the bars before home games, production of minutes of Trust Board meetings, production of surveys to test the water on members/fans opinions, pictures of all Board members in the bars and on the website and at least four ways for people to get in touch with us. We aren't perfect by any means but my experience is that we do more than OK in comparison to other organisations I'm involved with. I thought I'd dealt previously with the former and cannot add anything to it.  

Quoted from friskneymariner

It does appear there are some extremely defensive responses on here perhaps been associating with board too much.

I prefer to call it "correcting misunderstandings".

People join bodies like the Trust for many different reasons. Only a small number have the time, aptitude or inclination to take any formal role let alone shoulder the responsibility of being our rep on the Board.
I am content for Mr Wood to act on our behalf, given that he has access to privileged information and has to operate within normal codes of confidentiality even though I have never met the man.

BUT
How do I, as an exile, get to discuss GTFC issues with the Trust board outside the Fishy?
The Bars are rather public, Surveys are useful but time consuming for the likes of barralad and Facebook is anathema to my generation.
If we were a Parish Council, I could bother the local councillor as he cut his grass or washed his car.
Meanwhile, I can email the Trust and see what occurs.

Read this thread with some interest and I speculated yesterday that the Trust would be dragged into the conflict sooner or later.I would ask all fans to remain patient whilst seeking answers at this time but I totally understand the frustration as I feel the same.

Jon Wood/Trust Rep must be allowed and trusted to make decisions at board level in the best interests of the membership which in turn should back the Football Club.In the event he voted to back retaining RS given he would be aware the strength of feeling from the terraces/trust membership others must have had a strong case and he felt compelled to support this.

You would have to say which ever way he would have voted a % would have been unhappy because at the time RS still had a dwindling % thinking he would come good.That has shrunk further the past couple of weeks to the point it`s hard to find outside of the boardroom any support for him at all?

Regarding the Trust and meetings in this present climate I don`t think they have enough and I would argue at this moment in time they should be calling one ASAP such is the strength of feeling.The purpose of the meeting should be to put together a list of questions/actions from the Trust to the football club seeking clear answers and it should be spelled out in no uncertain terms that failure to answer said questions may result in a parting of the ways.

My own personal view is at the earliest opportunity the Trust Rep should demand the return to the Trust of the Parker shares table a vote of no confidence in John Fenty and if as is likely this gets no support he should resign his position in protest.A prepared statement should then be issued cataloguing the 16 years of abject failure and focusing on the tale of woe since we regained league status.Bear in mind the Trust Rep can`t follow through my wishes without consulting with the membership and getting a clear mandate.Now if we had a meeting this could surely be proposed and seconded by a show of hands?

Lastly I am of the opinion if you don`t get behind the Trust at this time you either won`t have a football club left to support OR it will simply carry on rotting away under the current regime.We have sailed past the point of no return under JF in my opinion I can`t see a way back and I can`t see why we should let things rot further?

Having served on a Parish Council for 10 years I can faithfully inform you they have zilch influence zilch power and are the most tedious meetings ever attended by the most parochial self interested people you can meet.

Well it seems like the Trust have had a relatively easy ride in this thread which despite our disagreements has been conducted without resorting to abuse.
Sadly it has come to my notice today that on Saturday that a female member of the Trust board was subject to some pretty vile verbal abuse that has affected her to the point that she is considering her position.
Apathy is one thing. Verbal abuse of that magnitude is another. Perhaps people will end up getting the Trust some of them deserve.

Well, well, well.  J.F. must be laughing his member off at this thread, ‘oh look, they’re even turning on there own now’.  I really do despair at times.

So the GTST representative at a GTFC board meeting either endorsed or didn’t endorse the Board statement.  The same person either did or didn’t endorse Slades appointment.  What’s the relevance, the position is toothless and not one of influence, please don’t demonise the individual or the establishment he is acting on behalf of.  It wouldn’t matter what he said or did, only one person makes the decisions on the running of the club.

Quoted from friskneymariner

Having served on a Parish Council for 10 years I can faithfully inform you they have zilch influence zilch power and are the most tedious meetings ever attended by the most parochial self interested people you can meet.

Yes, I’ve watched the Vicar of Dibley too.

Quoted from davmariner

Not at all. I grew up under a parish council and in my job I work with different levels of Government across the country and abroad. Parish councils by and large, have very few powers and are more ceremonial.

what a condescending and patronising response, and ill informed to boot.
A decent size parish council will have a budget of around £100,000 p.a.+ which is the type of sums the trust dealt with the one off Operation promotion.
My parish council is responsible for the street lighting + the maintenance of the verges, hedges and footpaths  around the parish. It is building the village hall and also is drawing up the Village Plan, a vital form of first defence against rapacious developers. It is also responsible for reporting road defects and ensuring that the work is done, as well as being the first port of call for planning decisions.
Hardly ' very few powers' and certainly not 'largely ceremonial'