| FAO Col: 2019/20 Automatic Trust membership for Season Ticket holders 18:36 - Jan 4 with 1576 views | RAFCBLUE |
Next season, would it be possible for Trust membership to come automatically with Season Ticket purchase and included in the price?
The furore this week has me thinking about the longevity of core support of the club and is it really worth it.
Currently there are 460 Trust members - 143 of which are Exiles vs approximately 2,000 season ticket holders, many of them young people.
Cross reference that with about 200 users on here; many of who will be either Trust members, Season Ticket holders or both.
It's not a huge pool to guarantee longevity of interest in the club.
With that logic, would it be possible to give to season ticket purchases, full membership to the Trust included in the cost of their ticket?
The logic of tying more fans into the Trust is obvious and for both club and Trust would give a long term opportunity to build relationships in the community.
Financially, to comply with the co-operative spirit the club would need to pay the £10 across to the Trust, which I am sure in reciprocation the Trust could propose to donate back to the club for a relevant project.
If you consider the long term future of the club and interest in it; the ability to build ST holders in is a key success factor.
The Trust gets access to a bigger population of fans and the fans get benefits of being a ST holder and the Trust offerings, including the relationships with partners.
There may be a reason it can't be done but for a club that relies on a small number of committed people, has 100 employees for it to be viable long term there has to be some synergy somewhere. |  |
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| FAO Col: 2019/20 Automatic Trust membership for Season Ticket holders on 19:25 - Jan 4 with 1513 views | Dalenet |
Absolutely not. The Trust is the only route we have to be heard - however deaf the club may be. I wouldn't want to see the Trust membership decline next season once the season ticket prices are announced |  | | |
| FAO Col: 2019/20 Automatic Trust membership for Season Ticket holders on 20:03 - Jan 4 with 1457 views | kiwidale |
There is a lot of merit in your post if the club values the trust they should invest in it, lets say $5 for both current and non current members with season tickets. As an aside how many directors are members of the trust?... there's me being cynical and shit stirring again. | |
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| FAO Col: 2019/20 Automatic Trust membership for Season Ticket holders on 20:21 - Jan 4 with 1430 views | roccydaleian |
| FAO Col: 2019/20 Automatic Trust membership for Season Ticket holders on 20:03 - Jan 4 by kiwidale |
There is a lot of merit in your post if the club values the trust they should invest in it, lets say $5 for both current and non current members with season tickets. As an aside how many directors are members of the trust?... there's me being cynical and shit stirring again. |
As far as I’m aware and Col may correct me on this. All the directors bar one are members of the Trust , including the new chairman. |  | | |
| FAO Col: 2019/20 Automatic Trust membership for Season Ticket holders on 20:56 - Jan 4 with 1383 views | kiwidale |
| FAO Col: 2019/20 Automatic Trust membership for Season Ticket holders on 20:21 - Jan 4 by roccydaleian |
As far as I’m aware and Col may correct me on this. All the directors bar one are members of the Trust , including the new chairman. |
Cheers Roccy only confirms I know feckall. | |
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| FAO Col: 2019/20 Automatic Trust membership for Season Ticket holders on 23:27 - Jan 4 with 1264 views | ColDale |
Not entirely sure that would work within the Trust constitution as it's giving membership whether someone wants it or not. Membership should be a choice to people, not something we make compulsory through back door means. Similar ideas have been discussed before but think at the end of the day we want people to sign up because they want to rather than it being an automatic thing. |  | | |
| FAO Col: 2019/20 Automatic Trust membership for Season Ticket holders on 10:46 - Jan 5 with 1122 views | RAFCBLUE |
| FAO Col: 2019/20 Automatic Trust membership for Season Ticket holders on 23:27 - Jan 4 by ColDale |
Not entirely sure that would work within the Trust constitution as it's giving membership whether someone wants it or not. Membership should be a choice to people, not something we make compulsory through back door means. Similar ideas have been discussed before but think at the end of the day we want people to sign up because they want to rather than it being an automatic thing. |
Thanks for responding, Col.
What if people who buy season tickets are offered the opportunity to "opt-in" by the club at no cost to them, the club paying the £10?
That £10 is immediately put back into the club as share capital held by the trust.
Unfortunately, 460 member isn't wholly representative of the whole support here and week's shenanigans show what can happen.
Exeter City's Trust is one I've worked with in my life and that springs to mind and has a membership of over 3,000. They use money to buy shares in the club and hold a interested percentage but no power.
In 2014 at Exeter a major change occurred in the relationship between the Football Club and their Trust in that agreement was reached to change the make-up of the football club board from two Supporters' Trust nominees on a board of eight to four, resulting in parity of numbers between the club board and Trust.
There is always a question of whether the football club, under the ownership of the supporters is able to secure a model which will generate sufficient income to sustain and progress the club further up the football pyramid.
However, as we know, the great benefit of the Trust model is that it is a democratic organisation and, ultimately, it is the supporters of the club that will shape and decide its destiny. That is something that can never happen with the ownership model at the vast majority of professional football clubs in the U.K
RAFC is at a bit of a crossroads.
An engagement like Exeter's success may help add the things that people feel have been lacking this week, openess, transparancy and an ability to listen and be heard.
Making that costless to a season ticket holder (who by their interest in purchasing a Season Ticket) are interested might be a nice first step.
In a world where the biggest shareholders always form the board at Rochdale, if the Trust could put that money straight back into the club as share capital everyone wins - the existing Board, the club as a whole, the Trust and the town.
It would take some doing, but Exeter proved it can be done well although they were on the bones of their ar*e for them to have to consider that.
After Andrew Kilpatrick, there will be another Chairman, and more directors and hopefully always a club. | |
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| FAO Col: 2019/20 Automatic Trust membership for Season Ticket holders on 13:53 - Jan 5 with 1007 views | foreverhopefulDale |
| FAO Col: 2019/20 Automatic Trust membership for Season Ticket holders on 23:27 - Jan 4 by ColDale |
Not entirely sure that would work within the Trust constitution as it's giving membership whether someone wants it or not. Membership should be a choice to people, not something we make compulsory through back door means. Similar ideas have been discussed before but think at the end of the day we want people to sign up because they want to rather than it being an automatic thing. |
Sorry I marked your post down, clumsy fingers, meant to mark up. I agree , Trust membership should be fully voluntary. The Trust , like its predecessor, is not the supporters’ body, fully supported by everyone, even if it does many good things.
I think the Club should be encouraging Trust membership, in all its correspondence with fans or potential fans, or at the very least making known about the Trust, but not paying for membership, or indeed joining people up, for the reasons said by Col. The Club and Trust should investigate potential changes to the relationship between the two bodies, which might benefit both supporters and Club, but the Trust should always be independent, and be in a position to publicly and privately take issue with the Club when required on behalf of the supporters. To that end, it’s an interesting debate as to whether the Trust should be represented on the board of the Club, and whether or not board members of the Club should be on the Trust. |  |
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