: Sun Oct 04, 2009 2:01 am  

I'd be interested in putting some time and effort into this idea.

: Sun Oct 04, 2009 6:02 pm  

I have no experience of being a member of a supporters association, but I would be certainly be interested in finding out more about what is involved and would be prepared to contribute my time.

: Sun Oct 04, 2009 10:20 pm  

my experience of such ventures as this is mainly on the Football side, and it all left a rather bitter taste.

We started as a group of fans who wanted to try and help give a fans point of view to the club, raise funds for them, arrange regular (2-4 weekly) fans forum type things, where the club send out a player to a trust event for a q&a session. City where at quite a low eb at the time, and we felt we wanted to have a positive effect on the situation.

Sound familar? What happened next?

Apathy from 99% of fans who didn't know or care what we were doing, internal squabbling between us, then finally of the band of 12, only 3 put any efforts in.

The theory behind supporters trusts is sound, but in practice not many suceed in achieveing much.

Despite all the above, Good luck to those who want to take part, I wish you all the best and hope your potential venture works out well for our club

: Mon Oct 05, 2009 11:05 am  

It seems to me there are quite a few people on here who are willing to give up a little time to a potential trust but aren't 100% sure of exactly what's involved/what the aims are etc.

If you would like, I would be more than happy to come and meet with you all to discuss things a bit further, give you some more information both about supporters trusts and about the support you would receive from Supporters Direct and that way you as a group of people can decide if you a) definitely want to be involved and b) want to proceed with the trust idea.

I'm not sure if there is a pub where you all meet up at all or anywhere similar but if you would like me to come down, just let me know and I'm more than happy to do so.

Cheers

: Mon Oct 05, 2009 11:27 am  

MDF wrote:

And, in a Wigan Bull stylee...

MDF wrote:

...people who might be interested in a Supporters Trust / ISA:

1. Block5Bull
2. Debaser
3. MDF
4. Bit_of_Bully

Plus those who would be willing to give a little help without becoming too involved:

1. Adeybull
2. Dilligaf

I'd put myself in to the latter category.

As I've said before, distance, work and family would be a pretty big barrier for me.

Are there specific roles / duties . tasks / etc that need doing? Can these be posted. This may give people a little more idea how much is involved and indeed where their individual skills can be used.

Personally I'm in the food industry on the food science and safety side of things, so don't really know if / where my "skills" would be utilised. Happy to help in any admin type stuff though

: Mon Oct 05, 2009 12:20 pm  

I'd be open to hear what is involved, maybe following that be prepared to give some time towards this.

Looks like we have an offer of someone explaining to us what's involved, do we think the club would support us with a location for that to happen?

: Mon Oct 05, 2009 12:22 pm  

Northern Lad wrote:

I'd be open to hear what is involved, maybe following that be prepared to give some time towards this.

Looks like we have an offer of someone explaining to us what's involved, do we think the club would support us with a location for that to happen?

They did when we founded BISA...

Defo Groundhog Day feeling for me.

: Mon Oct 05, 2009 12:25 pm  

silsdenbull wrote:

my experience of such ventures as this is mainly on the Football side, and it all left a rather bitter taste.

We started as a group of fans who wanted to try and help give a fans point of view to the club, raise funds for them, arrange regular (2-4 weekly) fans forum type things, where the club send out a player to a trust event for a q&a session. City where at quite a low eb at the time, and we felt we wanted to have a positive effect on the situation.

Sound familar? What happened next?

Apathy from 99% of fans who didn't know or care what we were doing, internal squabbling between us, then finally of the band of 12, only 3 put any efforts in.

The theory behind supporters trusts is sound, but in practice not many suceed in achieveing much.

Despite all the above, Good luck to those who want to take part, I wish you all the best and hope your potential venture works out well for our club

That sums up most voluntary groups, not just sports.

What I would say is "What do you want to get out of it?" Keep thinking of it on those terms & then ask yourselves is it possible to actually achieve these goals. I think you will find it unlikely.

: Mon Oct 05, 2009 12:41 pm  

I think it is worth having the meeting and finding out what is involved and what we can hope to achieve. Maybe someone from the club would be prepared to attend the meeting?

: Mon Oct 05, 2009 1:15 pm  

Mission wrote:

I think it is worth having the meeting and finding out what is involved and what we can hope to achieve. Maybe someone from the club would be prepared to attend the meeting?

I would imagine Mr Duffy would be happy to attend, although I'm with tigertot.....we need to procede with caution....