The Supporters Trust launched Stronger Together today at the Fans Meeting at the Caley Club. Full details are on our website (see the link below), but this is the announcement released today:

 

Fan investment is the way forward for a stronger and community focused ICT

An initiative that aims to increase the shareholding of Inverness Caledonian Thistle fans has been launched by the ICT Supporters Trust. 

 

The group aims to achieve the greatest possible supporter and community influence in the running and ownership of Inverness Caledonian Thistle FC.

 

The Trust has called on fans to invest in the Stronger Together Fund, which aims to increase their shareholding of the football club and assist in creating a sustainable football club with supporters at its heart. 

 

A longer-term goal of ensuring that a democratically elected fans’ representative sits on Inverness Caledonian Thistle FC’s Board of Directors is also key to the plans. 

 

The Trust aims to make sure that the voice of ICT supporters is heard and that fans are communicated to with honesty and transparency. 

 

The Supporters Trust already hold 108 Ordinary Shares which carry an enhanced voting right totalling a minimum of 10 per cent. The Trust also holds a further 13,658 Ordinary Shares which carry normal voting rights.

 

Investment in the football club by the Stronger Together Fund will be made at the discretion of the Trust Board, with the prime objective being to increase their shareholding in the football club. 

 

The Trust aim to bridge the perceived gap between the club and its supporters, using any income generated by the Stronger Together Fund to purchase shares in the club, with a view to gaining a seat on the Board. They believe that supporter’s issues can then be raised at board level, ensuring fans are properly represented and have a say in the running of their club. 

 

Jennifer Aitchison, Chairperson, ICT Supporter’s Trust said: “This is a crucial time for the football club, both on and off the pitch. We must come together in order to ensure the future of the club for generations to come. 

 

“One of the most common and regular pieces of feedback we receive is that fans have become disengaged with the club and no longer feel a local affinity. We have already highlighted some instances where the club could be engaging better with fans, through affordable hospitality, season ticket deals, stewarding at games, and where we feel they could be driving better income streams from match, match-ball and man of the match sponsorships as well as player sponsorships. 

 

“The club has rightfully been chasing the pounds lately to ensure the long-term future of the club but we also feel that ICT is missing out on contributions that derive largely from engaged supporters who feel they have a real stake in the club. The Stronger Together Fund provides an opportunity for Caley Thistle fans, both locally and around the world, to directly influence the running of the football club.” 

 

The initiative gives supporters the opportunity to donate as much or as little as they can afford, either as a one-off payment or by regular monthly contributions. Payments will be made to the Supporters Trust, not to the club. 

 

The Supporters Trust launched Stronger Together with a brochure which explains the initiative in detail, and includes details of how to make a donation to Stronger Together. The brochure is available here:

https://www.ictsupporterstrust.org/stronger-together

The launch was very well received by the many fans present at the meeting.

The Club Chairman and SLO had been briefed on the initiative during the week, and were supportive of it too.

We hope that many fans, whether located locally or afar, will see the merit in supporting this initiative.

If anyone has any questions, either post them in this thread, e-mail us at [email protected] or by completing the form on our "contact us" page:

https://www.ictsupporterstrust.org/contact

Activity like this has worked successfully for clubs like Falkirk, Morton and Hearts, and we hope to make this scheme similarly successfully over time.

An update on the other issues at today's Fans Meeting will be posted in the next couple of days.

 

 

 

On 4/9/2024 at 9:38 PM, Charles Bannerman said:

Yeh… whatever rocks your boat. If you want to make a big song and dance over the fact that I might better have included the words “clubs like”…. on you go.

Edited April 11, 20241 yr by dougal

In principal the idea is ok I suppose but sadly ICT don’t have the fanbase for such an initiative to be viable.

Ok the Trust or whatever they call themselves now are trying their best but the reality is that blazers have never once engaged with the fans and I include every board here not just the present.

Stronger Together also sounds like a Unionist term unfortunately but i guess possibly cleverly it may well pander to the Orc regime upstairs. 

Good luck to the Trust nevertheless.

Dougal

 

 

I took Stronger Together to be a clever play on ICTST: the ST stands for both Supporters Trust and Stronger Together. 

It feels like we are trying to get a say in the music to be played on the Titanic.  I want to be wrong, but the finances are an existential issue for the club and it's future, and regardless of the make up of the board things are not good. There is little point on being on the board of a sinking ship and I think the influence of a fans representative is overstated.  The ship needs to be sailing in the right direction before any of this is relevant, though I do applaud the Supporter Trust for their energy and commitment.  

6 hours ago, MacOne said:

It feels like we are trying to get a say in the music to be played on the Titanic.  I want to be wrong, but the finances are an existential issue for the club and it's future, and regardless of the make up of the board things are not good. There is little point on being on the board of a sinking ship and I think the influence of a fans representative is overstated.  The ship needs to be sailing in the right direction before any of this is relevant, though I do applaud the Supporter Trust for their energy and commitment.  

I see what the Supporters Trust is doing more as trying to help get the ship sailing in the right direction.   Surely it is the responsibility of the Trust to do what it can to help the Club avoid disaster?  If the Club went into receivership and the Trust had sat back and done nothing, those who are now questioning the Trust would be the first to question why the Trust had not done anything.  Let's be clear here.  This is about supporters supporting the Club.  It is not about supporting the people who are currently running the Club.

6 hours ago, DoofersDad said:

Let's be clear here.  This is about supporters supporting the Club.  It is not about supporting the people who are currently running the Club.

The problem is, that's exactly what supporters are being asked to do.

We are where we are due to years of financial mismanagement and we're being asked to back that by giving those responsible even more money.

This is not a binary situation where the Supporters Trust do what they are doing or do nothing.  There are other options for action.

This might not be a popular opinion with some but i feel it needs to be said I don’t think anyone in a sane mind would set up a monthly direct debit to a  football club that has been a financial catastrophe for years. 
This is the same club that still owns  numerous local businesses money after the concert fiasco if I’m not mistaken. Will this extra income go to paying off the debt?

Maybe the trust need to expand further where this extra money should go or be directed towards? 

Do the Trust honestly believe having a Trust member on the board will seriously make a difference? Same member will be outvoted at every given opportunity by the existing so called guardians of the club!!!
 

As STFU states above there must be other options for action and this is what the Trust should be looking at.

 

Dougal
 

 

 

 

 

59 minutes ago, dougal said:

This might not be a popular opinion with some but i feel it needs to be said I don’t think anyone in a sane mind would set up a monthly direct debit to a  football club that has been a financial catastrophe for years. 
This is the same club that still owns  numerous local businesses money after the concert fiasco if I’m not mistaken. Will this extra income go to paying off the debt?

Maybe the trust need to expand further where this extra money should go or be directed towards? 

There is no DD to the club. My understanding is that the ST would build up funds that it can then give to the club at it’s discretion, which could be linked to conditions on the use of the funds or on better fan representation.

The club doesn’t owe anyone anything for the concerts as far as I know.

As for the Trust getting a board member, it’s all about being represented having a say in the boardroom. To say it’s pointless is like saying it’s pointless having opposition MPs/MSPs because they can’t change anything on their own, but it is still a good thing to be able to have a say and apply pressure.

On 4/9/2024 at 10:13 AM, ICT Supporters Trust said:

The Supporters Trust will look to purchase shares when it feels the time is right, and only if it is satisfied by commitments given by the club.

The above comment may have been missed.

That certainly does not indicate to me that the Trust has any intention of passing any funds raised to the club for “more of the same”.

5 hours ago, STFU said:

The problem is, that's exactly what supporters are being asked to do.

We are where we are due to years of financial mismanagement and we're being asked to back that by giving those responsible even more money.

This is not a binary situation where the Supporters Trust do what they are doing or do nothing.  There are other options for action.

Perhaps the years of financial mismanagement could have been lessened or perhaps avoided completely with a stronger fan representation at board level, positively effecting decision and direction.

Sacking the board and CEO will only result in another 'appointed' set of folk who still answer only to themselves. 

I'm waiting for some juvenile call for fans boycott next...

We have been looking at making alternative payment options available, which may be easier for many than setting up a Standing Order.

Payments can now be made through Stripe, following this link:

https://buy.stripe.com/5kA00Fe5U5Sq4YoaEE

The link allows recurring payments to be made on a monthly basis. The default setting is £10, but you can change this to any sum by clicking on "Qty 1", which appears below "ICT Sharesave". Changing the quantity to 2 makes the recurring payment £20 etc, changing the quantity to 5 makes the recurring payment £50 etc.

Thank you to everyone who has got in touch with positive feedback on Stronger Together and especially to those who have contributed so far.

Edited April 13, 20241 yr by ICT Supporters Trust

On 4/12/2024 at 11:34 AM, Satan said:

Perhaps the years of financial mismanagement could have been lessened or perhaps avoided completely with a stronger fan representation at board level, positively effecting decision and direction.

Sacking the board and CEO will only result in another 'appointed' set of folk who still answer only to themselves. 

I'm waiting for some juvenile call for fans boycott next...

We agree that the club is being financially mismanaged.  I also agree that fan representation and a voice in the room/on the board would be healthy but I don't think it's the magic pill some seem to believe it is.

There are very few options available to fans to hold the decision makers accountable and by few I mean one...direct action.

At present those decision makers have done nothing to show they can be trusted and the current plan is to give them more money and trust they'll do the right thing and be true to their word.  A promise they've not even publicised.

I can't be the only one who sees that as a plan born out naivety.

3 hours ago, STFU said:

There are very few options available to fans to hold the decision makers accountable and by few I mean one...direct action.

Tell us more.

20 hours ago, STFU said:

We agree that the club is being financially mismanaged.  I also agree that fan representation and a voice in the room/on the board would be healthy but I don't think it's the magic pill some seem to believe it is.

There are very few options available to fans to hold the decision makers accountable and by few I mean one...direct action.

At present those decision makers have done nothing to show they can be trusted and the current plan is to give them more money and trust they'll do the right thing and be true to their word.  A promise they've not even publicised.

I can't be the only one who sees that as a plan born out naivety.

STFU I agree with a lot of what you say but I’m sure most of us don’t believe a voice on the board is a magic pill, more a step in the right direction that may help. Like you I have no faith in the the management, I don’t trust them one iota, but I would trust an ST board representative to try their very best, giving the fans a voice and good honest communication about what’s going on.

I like Yngwie’s very relevant comment about pointless opposition - it doesn’t stop me voting in a Tory dominated constituency, at the very least they know there are dissenting voices out there. And I’d echo his question about your thoughts on direct action.

 

It would be a great gesture of endorsement if the club contributed to fund in an ongoing modest way. It would show how much value the club places on fan involvement. 
 

Say a £0.5 per ticket, added to the current price but dished to the ST? Surely no fan going to games would begrudge £0.5 and support the idea.

So that how to contribute does not get lost in this thread, we have put the payment methods together in a new thread that you can view here:

https://caleythistleonline.com/topic/36186-stronger-together-how-to-contribute/#comment-563689

 

On 4/7/2024 at 11:31 AM, STFU said:

I'd hope the Supporters Trust have done the calculations and think it would be good to manage fan expectations by knowing what the target is.

E.g are we talking about £50,000, £500,000 or more?  If fans take up the suggestion above of signing their shares over to the Supporters Trust, is that as good as a cash contribution?

I also don't fully understand how an organisation that sits so high on the 'power chart' you lay out can't get board representation when you have people with zero, or almost zero, shareholding or voting right on there.  What are we missing?

I'm far from convinced this initiative will succeed in bringing about the change that's required and would have preferred to see it announced alongside calls for more direct action.

E.g. Fans to boycott spending with the club and attending matches until the CEO and Chairman were removed.  Encourage them to donate the money to a 'fighting fund' instead with a commitment to using said money to purchase shares when they were gone and a fans rep has been appointed to the board.

That kind of action I would fully support with a cash contribution because it has a chance of effecting change.

As is, this seems a bit of a toothless endeavour whereby fans are being asked to raise money to be given indirectly to the club or to pay for things, with no incentive for them to change how it operates.

 

As we approach one of the most significant matches in our history (and potentially more critical games if we cannot escape the play offs tonight), the club's plight (both on and off the pitch) highlights the need for a strong Supporters Trust that can ensure the voice of fans is heard by those making the decisions that shape the club's future.

Thank you and welcome to all the new members who have joined the Trust in the last few weeks. Your support is greatly appreciated.

Thank you especially to those who have made either a one off or recurring donation to Stronger Together. Details of how to contribute are here:

https://caleythistleonline.com/topic/36186-stronger-together-how-to-contribute/

We hope many of you will see the merit of the initiative and feel able to contribute as much or as little as you can.

If you are not already a member, joining the Trust is easy. Just follow this link:

https://www.ictsupporterstrust.org/join-us

Membership is only £5 (£1 for Under 16s).

Remember, the Trust is independent of the club, and has worked hard to ensure that the concerns of fans are heard and addressed. We have made good progress this season, and are grateful for everyone who has attended the successful Fans Meetings or contacted us with issues they wished us to raise.

We will continue to work on behalf of our members.