Norwich City Supporters Trust

[Beauseant]

Evening all. As some of you will know I'm a board member of the Trust and I wonder if you can help me out.

The Trust is slowly reinventing itself from something of an irrelevance to an organisation which wants to engage with as many fans as possible. I'm sure some of you won't know much about us, so let me give a brief overview. The Trust is affiliated to the Football Supporters Federation ( http://www.fsf.org.uk/about-us/) and is not, therefore, dependent on the club for its existence in the same way that NCISA/INCSC or regional supporters groups are. We are also part of Supporters Direct (http://www.supporters-direct.org/homepage/aboutsupportersdirect). As you will see from the links this involves us in issues like safe standing and cheaper away tickets, although our main reason for existing is to purchase shares in the club to give fans a greater voice.

We have a good working relationship with the club and are steadily accumulating shares, not because its viable (or even sensible) to put a fan on the board, but simply because if, heaven forbid, the club got back to where it was in 2009 the Trust would act as a focal point for any rescue attempts, in much the same way that the Pompey Trust was central to the regeneration of Portsmouth.

What I'm interested in is how much other posters knew about the Trust, whether those who hadn't heard of us think that its the sort of thing they'd like to join (membership is £10 pa) and what people would like to see from the revamped Trust?

Our website is  here

Thanks in advance!

 

[morty]

Pinned this for you, for a while, to make sure people see it.

Will have a look at the site (after my dinner) and will most likely join.

The work of the Pompey trust really drove home how important stuff like this is.

 

[Beauseant]

Pinned this for you, for a while, to make sure people see it.

Will have a look at the site (after my dinner) and will most likely join.

The work of the Pompey trust really drove home how important stuff like this is.

Good man, thanks for that!

 

[morty]

Am I being daft here? I signed up, but it hasn't asked me for any money?

 

[Watling the Gnome]

I was a member, paid up, got the occasional email but didn't really understand what the driver was or what the objectives were so lapsed membership. If a clear charter to state scope and objectives was created, it may help. Good luck with it.

 

[GazzaTCC]

Am I being daft here? I signed up, but it hasn't asked me for any money?

You should be, looks like there may be a problem.

 

[morty]

You should be, looks like there may be a problem.

I clicked sign up online, entered all my details then got a mail with a link to click to take me back to the site and confirm my membership. Then nothing!

 

[GazzaTCC]

Let me make some enquires and come back to you. Cheers.

 

[Personal Trainer]

Hi morty. There is a problem caused by trying to incorporate our "InTouch" database with our original recruitment web-page but http://www.inthehandsofthefans.co.uk/index.php/sign-up was working last week.

 

[Personal Trainer]

Hi Reserve Team. For info this is our charter:-

[SIZE=18pt]A TRUST OWNED BY FANS FOR FANS[/SIZE]

[SIZE=16pt]OUR AIM[/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]Our aim is to increase the size of the Trust’s shareholding so that the fans become one of the largest shareholders in Norwich City Football Club outside of the Directors[/SIZE][SIZE=11pt].[/SIZE]

[SIZE=16pt]OUR MEANS[/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]Membership of Norwich City Supporters Trust and paying the annual subscription enables the Trust to purchase shares from the Club on a regular basis and to increase the fans stake-holding and their voice in the Club.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]The Trust is also willing to accept donations or bequests of shares[/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]The Trust is also willing to purchase shares from individuals subject to the availability of funds and price required.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=18pt]OUR REASONS[/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]A large shareholding is an insurance policy against unforeseen events at our Football Club.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]As football becomes a bigger and bigger business, few fans are able to retain a share in the ownership of their clubs. The result has been that the fans' voice on matters affecting their clubs' futures grows weaker.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]The record of “new owners” taking over Clubs has been worrying, sometimes leading to asset stripping, change of Club identity and relocation of football stadia. A strong fan share base can help fight such problems.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]Joining the Trust is a way to buy your own share in the ownership of Norwich City Football Club for £10, a tenth of the price of an individual NCFC share and makes owning a share of the club a realistic goal for far more fans.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]C[/SIZE][SIZE=11pt]urrently Norwich City Supporters Trust has over 700 shareholders (members).[/SIZE]

[SIZE=18pt] [/SIZE]

 

[morty]

Hi morty. There is a problem caused by trying to incorporate our "InTouch" database with our original recruitment web-page but http://www.inthehandsofthefans.co.uk/index.php/sign-up was working last week.

Ah right, so signing up, and actually donating are two separate things? I'll use that link and pay up!

 

[Personal Trainer]

Hi Morty, let me know if you are successful as, in modern parlance "this is doing my head in".

 

[Personal Trainer]

If any of you good folk out there would like to help the fans become one of the largest shareholders outside the Club Directors then go to http://www.inthehandsofthefans.co.uk/index.php/sign-up and click on either SIGN UP or MANUAL FORM and ignore the other interactive "tabs" (we have a small technical problem).

PS If anybody fancies writing an NCFC Blog we are always willing to publish it on the website with the caveat that "it does not reflect the views of the Trust"

 

[morty]

Hi Morty, let me know if you are successful as, in modern parlance "this is doing my head in".

No problem, all sorted now, thanks!

 

[TILLY]

Robin I have expressed my views on the Trust to both you and others when the subject has been mentioned and I applaud your statement that it is trying reinvent itself from being somewhat of an irrelevance. Since it was formed in circa.2002 the Trust never once attempted to embrace other supporters groups and I have to say a wry smile came over me with your reference to the low point in 2009. At that time the Trust declined to take a seat on the top table at the now infamous St Andrews Hall meeting with one of your current officers saying they did not involve themselves in club politics. With a captive audience of over 500 people if ever a missed opportunity to increase membership was to be witnessed it was that night. At this same time another prominent officer wrote to the press on a regular basis criticising those fans expressing discontent at the situation we found ourselves in. Fundraising appeared to be virtually non existent hence the low amount of shares held and I know of numerous fans who after paying an initial £10 to join years ago were never 'chased' for the yearly fee thereafter. 700 members sounds impressive but how many have paid in 2014 ? Our friend Watling The Gnome says he let his membership lapse but in fact under the share co-operative operated by the Trust once a member always a member whether you have paid £10 for the year or £100 for the last 10 years. £7000 a year would surely mean more shares being purchased rather than the most recent acquisition of £2500 worth which included £1500 gifted by NCISA when it was wound up. You have obviously stepped up to the plate Robin in a bid to promote the Trust and I wish you well but a few cobwebs need to be dusted off the old guard before you get my tenner.

 

[Beauseant]

John, you'll get no argument from me about St Andrews Hall or the inefficiency of administration in the past. In my view too many Board members have seen the Trust as a sort of monthly social club without any understanding of or desire to help with what constitutes the "donkey work" of any supporters group. I can do nothing about past inadequacies other than to recognise them and ensure that they are not repeated going forward.

The Board is rapidly changing with an increasing infusion of members such as Mandie Thorpe, Neville Townsend and Gary Field to work alongside people like Kathy Blake and myself, as well as Mike Reynolds who is an excellent secretary who has been largely hidebound by an ancient and conservative Board in the past. There are still many areas in which we can improve and that is what we are striving to do.

 

[Canaryboy]

I don't have any ideas or ideals, but I will join up when I've got a spare ten minutes. 

It is probably important that the club maintains a supporters club like this, an insurance if anything does ever go wrong (and you never know what's around the corner, because Delia and her husband are no spring chickens). 

I'll join for that reason. It is easy to see how supporters clubs struggle when things are going relatively well though, they become irrelevant when there is no angry mob looking for leadership. 

What was the name of the supporters club once run by Roy Blower? And is this the only supporters club we have now? At one stage it was a little like Monty Python, with the People's Front of Judea, and the Judean People's Front. 

 

[Beauseant]

NCISA, which became INCSC and folded a couple of years ago because the club made its position untenable by refusing to have a dialogue.

I think the key point about the Trust though, as I said earlier in the thread, is that, as part of the FSF it is involved in issues with a wider relevance, like safe standing and getting away ticket prices capped at £20 rather than just responding to issues at NCFC. Consequently it has a raison d'etre even when all is well at the club.

 

[Personal Trainer]

As the arachnid that needs sweeping away I would like to protect my home. From the outset the Trust, as with all Supporters Trusts worked to the guidelines laid down by Supporters Direct and that was to oversee the governance of our football clubs, to ensure they were run in a sustainable manner and to challenge the clubs when they strayed. For this to occur it was important for Supporters Trusts to restrain from the politics of personality within their clubs and for this reason the work of Supporters Trusts appeared boring except to those who recognised their importance. What we have seen more recently across the whole football pyramid are Trusts working to save their Clubs, from AFC Wimbledon, through Portsmouth, the problems at Coventry and a multitude of Conference and non-league teams being run by the fans.

Regarding John's comments yes the cooperative model does of course mean there are more members than those who renew their subscriptions by failing to notify change of e-mail address or "card" changes if using PayPal. (indeed "The Co-op" doesn't know if it's members are alive or dead unless they bury them). As for fundraising, when the Trust first applied to buy shares in NCFC one share cost £25, since the Clubs stay in the Premiership they cost £100 and yes if every person who joined since 2002 paid an annual subscription then yes we would own more shares but given that the Trust had to renegotiate it's access to NCFC shares only last year who knows how the Club would have responded.

Finally, on a personal note, yes I refused to sit on the top table at the St Andrews Hall meeting preferring to make my inputs from the body of the Hall.

 

[Warren Hill]

Do trust members have to sign any independent shareholding they may have over to the trust or are they allowed to retain them as an individual?