Supporters Trust Progress

[SupermarketShrimp]

Hi all,

Following on from the last home game, I’ve spoken to Supporters Direct to help the fanbase at large establish a proper Supporters Trust. It’s been mentioned by a few posters but I thought I’d dedicate a thread to it so we can use this to help in its establishment.

It is my hope that it is what FCOM would like to become. The group of fans at the heart of it are the people I’d imagine being the main figureheads for it, but if they don’t wish for that to happen and for FCOM To remain in essence a social group run to fundraise for the club, that is fine, and I as all of us would agree is the well run and does sterling work.

One of the main reasons of establishing a trust is the following :-
In June 2015 the Football League announced changes to encourage supporter ownership. Progress was made by reducing the number of insolvency events at its member clubs and Supporters Trusts will be given a fairer chance to bid for their club.

Changes voted through at the League’s Conference and AGM includes:

a requirement for the administrator to meet with a Supporters Trust within 21 days of their appointment and provide it with an opportunity to bid for the club

changes to the Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) EFL rules which will prevent the Administration process being controlled by the club’s previous owner who in some instances will be the only party able to achieve a CVA (something that has proven to be an insurmountable barrier to supporter ownership in years gone by)

So essentially, should the unthinkable happen, us the fans will have a real voice rather than being sat on the sidelines. This in my eyes is essential.

There are also a lot of benefits in the event of it all turning up sunny side, an established trust must have engagement with the club under EFL rules and all kinds of other stuff, but at the moment, that’s for a later day – I’m looking to help establish a group to support the club if it goes belly up, which lets face it, is a real and present danger at the moment.

The benefits of a trust

There are lots of benefits to a Supporters Trust. The legal vehicle gives you both an element of protection and a lot of powers you wouldn’t get with an unincorporated supporters society.
A Trust can own shares or property, it can ultimately own the club if it wishes, and at the very least, own a shareholding if that is the wish of its members.
A Supporters Club or Association is often more of a social collective which might be equally concerned about the situation at the club but due to its unregulated status is legally unable to operate in the same way as a Trust.
A Trust allows you to access schemes like Community Shares, register your ground as an Asset of Community Value, in some cases elect a Trust representative to the Football Club board and provides supporters with a credible vehicle run not-for-profit with a democratic structure allowing a structured dialogue with the Football Club and a genuine vehicle for change.

The work done by Supporters Trusts does vary depending on their club’s circumstances and the Trusts relationship with the Club. From a scrutineering role all the way through to ownership and all shades in between. Supporters Direct are always here to help advise our Trusts on any issues at all that crop up and offer any guidance we can to progress the objects of the society.

Case studies: http://www.supporters-direct.org/homepa ... se-studies

What happens next?

I’m going to be in the bar after the game to speak to the FCOM reps again and take it from there. There are procedures to follow that I’ll not post here because frankly this post is long enough as it is!
If you are about and want to get involved and help (as a man that lives 70 miles away and attends around 40% of games, I’m more than aware there are better candidates to drive this through, at the moment I’m acting in a manner to get it off the ground!) please make yourself known to me – I’m the big lad with a mental 3 year old running round under my feet who may or may not be around at the game on Saturday!

Bring us all Sunshine!

Rich.

[Posh]

Thanks for all your efforts on this Rich, especially given how far you travel to games.

So, in effect, setting up a Supporters Trust:

Costs nothing and loads of support to establish it
Legally obliges the club to consult the Trust on major decisions
Legally forces an administrator to talk to fans about giving them first refusal on a purchase of the club
Gives the framework to help the club by say operating services that benefit the club

I'm very happy to help establish the Trust and hope others will do the same.

See you on Saturday.

[P/T Indie]

So it's not a matter of we need x amount of people to sign up at x pound.

Thats good cos I think the majority of fans won't engage and just put their head in the sand and wait and see by which time it will be to late if things do go pear shapped.

Does anyone know what other clubs trusts do are they just a backup incase things go wrong or are they active in other things as well.

[Ego Tripping]

You can certainly count me in. I cant be there after the game today but happy to do whats required

[P/T Indie]

Are there any legal costs which we would need to.pay for and maybe fundraise for.

[Posh]

Are there any legal costs which we would need to.pay for and maybe fundraise for.

None.

Here's the exact words of Nicola Hudson, Casework Officer at Supporters Direct.

The usual procedure to become a trust involves forming a “steering group” to help oversee the process. Usually this steering group would form your interim board until your first AGM and elections where they would all stand down (and could re-stand for election if they chose)

The steering group would arrange an “open meeting” for supporters to attend. At this meeting you would have a number of speakers talking about the benefits of forming a supporters trust including a rep from SD (probably myself!) a rep from another local Trust to give you details of their experiences and benefits of having a Trust and the steering group rep to talk about why you feel a trust is right for you. Sometimes steering groups recruit people with specialist skills which they require after the open meeting once the vote has been passed, often they are inundated with offers of assistance especially if there is unrest or crisis at the club.

After the presentations there is usually a Q&A session giving the supporters present the opportunity to ask any questions they have about the benefits, legal process, legal identity and procedure of forming a trust etc.

At the end of the meeting the supporters present vote on whether they wish to go ahead and start the process of setting up a supporters trust.

If the vote is passed I will work with the steering group to get you registered with the FCA. I will present you with the latest version of the model rules (your constitution) which are the registered model with the FCA and of which we are the sponsoring body (meaning nobody can register these rules without our permission) I will then work together with you to populate the template rules with detail relevant to you (ie registered office address, number of people on the board, lengths of terms etc.) and I will complete all of the FCA paperwork for you (I’ve done so many of these now I think I could do it in my sleep!!)

As far as cost goes, we are funded through the Fans Fund for our work in football and will cover all of your registration costs so there will be no charge providing there are no rule changes made to the Model. There is a scale of fees set by the FCA depending on how many changes to the model you wish to make although I always advise to register with no changes and make any amendments later as amendments once registered are free of charge!

Upon registration you will receive your first year’s SD membership free, membership to SD after that is £100 a year.

[Dave (Barra)]

Does anyone know what other clubs trusts do are they just a backup incase things go wrong or are they active in other things as well.

Ours was set up as a 'just in case' when Paul Casson took over. In the meantime the Trust run coaches to away games, a shop within the ground and help out on the community side. For instance there's currently a collection for the local foodbank for Christmas and in the summer they raised money to buy tickets for people who wouldn't normally have the spare cash to go or to reward folk who do good work in the community.

Good luck with it all.

[CityShrimp]

Well I can't see a reason not to do it.