Supporters Trust AGM

[+DoofersDad]

The Supporters Trust held their AGM on 13th December with members attending both in person and via Zoom.  Chair Jennifer Aitchison reported a very significant and welcome increase in membership with nearly twice as many members than a year ago. I (Peter Mutton) had informed colleagues a while ago that in order to focus on other aspects of my life, I needed to step down from the Board, unfortunately, nobody else has come forward to serve on the Board and there are now only 4 members serving on the Board.  In addition to Jennifer, the Board members are Laura Grant, Alison McInnes and John West.

Jennifer updated members with the latest work of the Board.  The Trust continues to try to work with the the club but with limited success.  Earlier in the year we had offered to work with the club in raising money for a roof for the West Stand.  Requests for a meeting to discuss options went unanswered.  More recently the Club has contacted the Trust with non-negotiable plans for a roof over part of the stand and asked us to be part of a fundraising group.   Despite having had no opportunity to input into the plans, the Trust again demonstrated its goodwill by agreeing to help.  However, after an initial meeting, it appears to have stalled again with meetings being cancelled at short notice.

We are also trying to liaise with the Club on a fairly detailed survey we have been working on about the match day experience.  We are awaiting feedback from the Club regarding this. The reach of the survey and therefore the quality of the data will be significantly greater if this is a joint effort with the Club and therefore, the Trust Board very much hopes the Club will engage constructively on this. With or without the Club, the Trust will be launching this important survey in the New Year.

At a meeting in September, the CEO told Jen and I that the Club were close to appointing 2 new members to the Board and that the AGM would take place soon after that.  It has taken a while, but there are now 2 new Club Directors and therefore we can reasonably expect that the Club will hold an AGM soon.  Given concerns about the Club's finances in the light of a number of factors, it is important that the Club Directors update shareholders and supporters at a long overdue AGM.  The Supporters Trust will continue to push for this.

Given the concerns about the Club's finances, it is more important than ever that the supporters of the Club have a strong voice.  The Trust has grown in strength in the past year and it now has a far better infrastructure behind it to support a growing membership.  Whilst the membership has almost doubled in the past year, it is important that it continues to grow strongly in order that it can be seen to be properly representative of the wider fan base.  But a growing membership and a sound infrastructure counts for nothing if there aren't people to do the work.  The Supporters Trust Board can have a maximum of 10 elected members and now there are only 4.  They need your help.  Jen, Laura, Alison and John have been a pleasure to work with and all are passionate about the future of the football club and the need to get the voice of the supporters better embedded in the working of the club.  But they all have a range of work, family and other commitments which restricts the time they can spend on work for the Trust.

The Trust urgently needs people to help both on the Board and behind the scenes.  You can find out more about the Trust on the website, or, if you are interested in helping out one way or another, you can contact the Trust at info@ictsupporterstrust.org. 

All best wishes to everyone for a happy and successful New Year.  And here's to some genuine togetherness between club and supporters and to success on the pitch.