TUST

[zoomed]

Hi... sadly the membership has dwindled considerably from the hey days of it launch in 2006/7 ... I am still contacting existing/remaining members to verify contact details etc... so I can't give you an exact number but we have 'inherited' less than 100 members :-(

My conditions for taking on TUST is to rebuild the membership and to refocus TUST around one goal... to secure a financial stake in the club.

What we are not doing is raising funds from supporters to finance club projects... but we will consider request for funding in return for shares at a reasonable price.

The only exception at the moment is the Future Gulls... but that is pretty much self-funded through membership fees.

Exeter Trust are in a different position to TUST as they already own a majority shareholding in their club... something we should aspire to.

In all honesty until we rebuild membership TUST have no money to fund anything other than the cost of the relaunch... my sincere wish is that the situation will change over the next 12 months... at the end of the day TUST belongs to the supporters... and without them there will be no TUST.

[happytorq]

Interesting. I only saw this today as I've been busy with work and then I went on holiday to England. Anyway, would like more info, particularly on how many people you hope to get, how many you have, etc. Also would like some idea about how to join given that I live in the US...the join us stuff required a direct debit with sort code etc etc.

I also don't particularly like to be automatically signed up for renewal, and I suspect others won't; particularly as they'll have the same questions as me.

[zoomed]

Hi happytorq... if you are the Connecticut TU fan then I have already replied to you via the site... but please note there is a 'Cash Annual Subscription' section that allows you to send a payment via post if outside the UK banking zone.

As previously stated we currently have less than 100... but its early days yet!

At its height the Trust had over 700 members... and I can't see any reason why we can't get back to those sorts of numbers given time and a bit of hard work.

I take your point about the auto-renewal... but I had to make a decision about using the most effective (and cheapest) way of managing anything over 100 members. I have built a database and tried to automate as much as possible (governed by technology and cost)... but it was obvious that anything other than the Direct Debit on auto renewal would require considerable manual processing on an almost daily basis.

Its important that we keep our eye on the prize and by becoming a member you make a long term commitment to achieving the goal of shares ownership.

To start with it may feel a bit one-sided as you are paying a membership subscription with no apparent return... but now that we are almost out of Xmas I will be able to dedicate time to obtaining benefits for TUST members that will hopefully be meaningful...

The most important thing to remember is that TUST belongs to you... but if for any reason a member no longer wishes to be part of TUST all it takes is one email to cancel that membership.

Cheers...

[happytorq]

Hi - thanks for getting back to me, both on here and via email (for yes, tis me!)

to your point about auto-renewing, I do see what you're saying, although once you are up and running with a good level of membership there might be a case to move to a model that requires membership dues by a certain date (beginning of the season maybe, or a january 1st; the latter being better to capture the "blimey, my dad is a torquay fan but i've no idea what to get him for christmas" market ), which would then make processing non-automatic renewals a lot easier.

I would like to be involved, but naturally since I'm 3000ish miles away getting to the meetings might be difficult

[PlainmoorRoar]

This article relates to what is being discussed in this thread?

http://www.torquayunited.com/news/artic ... 72493.aspx

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THIS OFFER ONLY APPLIES TO TUST MEMBERS - http://WWW.TORQUAYSUPPORTERS.CO.UK

Members of Torquay United Supporters Trust are now entitled to a 10% discount on all food/meal purchases in No.10 Restaraunt plus a 10% discount on the full price of all live events hosted in The Launa Windows Stadium (this excludes football matches and is not in addition to any special offers)

If you wish to take advantage of the discount in person you must present your TUST Membership Card at the time of ordering.

If you wish to use your discount when booking an event by phone please provide your TUST Membership number, name and post code at the time of booking.

A big thank you to Sharon Cox at the Club for organising this.

Any problems/questions please email me at [email protected]

Michael...

small steps...

http://WWW.TORQUAYSUPPORTERS.CO.UK

[PlainmoorRoar]

Glad to see the club is behind the born again TUST,

good work Michael

have you seen a rise in members since leafleting at a recent home game?

[zoomed]

Apologies for the delay in posting... this was sent out last night...

Dear Member...
It gives me great pleasure to welcome Alan Robinson who has been Co-Opted on to the Trust Board. Alan served as Chief Executive for South Hams Council and has an excellent track record in communications at all levels and across all media and is a much needed addition to TUST.

Kind Regards...

Michael...

[zoomed]

Email sent out tonight...

How to become a community owned club...
Dear Member...
Further to my call for help we assembled a team of very capable people who worked hard, with the help of Supporters Direct, to produce a document that outlines the process for the supporters of Torquay United and the wider community to take full advantage of the opportunity before us.

We had originally agreed to a video conference meeting with Kelvin Thomas, who is in America this week, and this meeting was due to take place tomorrow 25th. After working all weekend it has been agreed that a video conference is not the best platform to present our proposal and a decision has been made to cancel the video conference and arrange a face-to-face meeting with Kelvin Thomas instead.

Kelvin has agreed and a meeting has been arranged for Thursday 2nd April at 1pm.

Under the original timetable I had planned to issue the proposal w/c 30th March, this will now be delayed until after the meeting on the 2nd.

Having identified the scale of what is possible, it has become apparent that to limit any decisions/votes just to TUST members would be unfair so we are in the process of organising an open public meeting that will be held at 6:30pm on the 8th April.

As soon a venue is booked we will start to advertise the event in the media.

The meeting itself will consist of a presentation by Supporters Direct, followed by a Q&A session which will be followed by a show of hands. If the majority are in favour of the proposal we will move to the next detailed stage of the process.

As well as a media campaign we will be distributing leaflets at the next home game on the 4th and ask for volunteers to help.

I stand by my previous statement that we are faced with a potential once in a lifetime opportunity... not just for the club but for the wider sporting community of Torbay and surrounding districts and I would like to take this opportunity to ask you to spread the word and get as many people with an interest in sporting excellence in the bay along to the meeting.

Kind Regards...

Michael...



[email protected]

[zoomed]

VOTING... How to become a community owned club

Dear Member...

Following on from last nights communication I am happy to confirm the following details;

The proposal document we have produced with Supporters Direct will be presented to Kelvin Thomas on the 2nd April, after which it will be made public.

It will be available on the TUST website and will also be sent out by email with a proxy voting form for those people who are unable to attend the meeting on the 8th.

In the event of a positive mandate, a more detailed proposal will be published and an online survey will be run independently of TUST by Supporters Direct, giving people further opportunity to vote once they have had a chance to scrutinise the details.


Kind Regards...

Michael...

[zoomed]

How to become a community owned club... An Apology


Dear Member...

I am afraid that I have inadvertently misinterpreted the process recommended by Supporters Direct leading up to the public meeting on the 8th April. I was falsely labouring under the illusion of the planned vote to TUST members simply being extended out to all supporters and the wider community... I was wrong!

Due to the scale of the opportunity and the level of detail we need to establish to enable a properly informed vote we must first hold a public meeting where our proposal will be formally presented and a show of hands requested.

It is important to note that at this stage we are not committing to anything... we are simply presenting the case for community ownership and testing the audience to see if there is an appetite to proceed to a greater level of detail.

Only once we have a fully costed and detailed proposal which will include the financial and business case will we be inviting you to vote.

Unfortunately this means that my plan to distribute the proposal document before the public meeting has to be put on hold.

I have discussed this in great detail with Supporters Direct as I want to put as much information I can before you as soon as possible. To that end I have been exploring the option of filming the presentation which if possible will be streamed live, but at the very least will be available for online viewing. This way I hope everyone interested in the future of our club will get to experience the meeting even though they are unable to attend in person.

As always you can email me for further information or to make your views known.

Please accept my sincere apologies for any confusion.

Kind Regards...

Michael...



[email protected]

[Gullscorer]

I put this link on the TUST thread (pity about the poor sound quality - try adjusting your computer's audio to compensate) to remind everyone who cares about the future of Torquay United to join TUST if you have not already done so:

[Webber]

There was plenty of talk at Wednesday's TUST meeting about membership numbers. It's clear many people are sceptical about TUST's chances of making a bid for the club on the back of no more than a couple of hundred members.

TUST would love more members. This would give it additional clout and add to the feeling that supporter ownership is possible.

More members = more potential helpers at a crucial stage.

Also, with TUST committing funds to a financial review of the club, extra "subs" would be most welcome.

Membership growth takes time. It may also need a sense of crisis or alarm. In 2006/07 we had Chris Roberts. Now we've a lingering sense of having seen enough of this season. The final game can't come quickly enough.

But it's a knife edge. Interest in the team is at an all-time low; interest in the club (and its future) might need to be at an all-time high.

Supporters Direct are relatively open-minded about membership numbers because they realise this can often be a "slow burner". Listening to, and speaking with, their representative on Wednesday several messages came across:

1. Membership numbers were low when trusts such as Wrexham launched successful ownership bids.

2. People will join when they see action and progress. They'll flock in far greater numbers when ownership is in sight or has been achieved.

3. Supporters subscriptions and donations are vitally important to any trust. But it's the issuing of community shares which usually raises the serious cash. That's the vital step.

So, although TUST wants and needs new members, its' work still goes ahead. Now might be the time; the opportunity is there.

[Kit_robin]

Yes that is completely correct.

We've seen just this attitude on this board from people like brucie - "I'll join, and so will three people I know,when something happens". I presume that actually owning Torquay United would be enough of a reason for most. I would expect there to be a significant jump in me,her ship if TUST get close to ownership, and then a gradual increase. There is no reason why we couldn't achieve 3,000 members if/when in ownership.

As Webber says, much more important financially speaking is the share issue. This is completely different to members subs and is a lot to do with the make up of those interested as well as just numbers. Organisations can buy community shares too, and obviously the richer among us may contribute more than others - maybe even someone like Thea may buy a share for a one off tidy sum!

[tomogull]

I have a couple of questions for Zoomed (or whoever). I was a member of the original TUST and for two or three seasons (maybe even more) I didn't receive any communication whatsoever. My banker's order kept going ..... only because I was too bliddy lazy to cancel it. My questions are -
1. What has happened to the funds of the former TUST which must have accumulated because of fans like me who kept paying?
2. If I 'sign up' to the new TUST, presumably properly kept accounting procedures will be in place - will members receive details of annual accounts? I don't ever recall receiving any financial information from the original TUST.

In other words, I want to join but it's a case of 'once bitten, once shy'

Oh, and another question - on the subject of the Wrexham Supporters Trust, was the Trust responsible for the sacking of the Wrexham manager after he got them to Wembley for the F.A. Vase final ? i.e. who is responsible for hiring and firing at Supporters run clubs?