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Supporters Trust Email

TomTom
edited September 2020 in Football

As per the email earlier:

Dear Trust Member,

I hope that you and your family are safe and well in these strange times. Hopefully it will not be too long before we will be allowed back into Adams Park, to cheer on Gareth, Dobbo and our team in the Championship!

As you know, Wycombe Wanderers Trust is the fans’ link to WWFC, where you can get your voice heard and genuinely influence the way the Club is run.

In order to maintain that influence, it is vital that the Trust is able to raise sufficient funds to maintain our 25% ownership of Wycombe Wanderers FC, if and when new capital investment in the Club is needed.

That is why we are launching a new-style Trust membership scheme.

As well as ‘supporting the quarter’, if you renew your Trust membership, you will also get a range of benefits, including:

Admission to the “open session” of every monthly Trust board meeting – your chance to have your say in the way the Club is run.

A £10 gift voucher, which can be used in the Club shop, online or in the bars on matchdays, against a purchase of £25 or more.

Priority booking after STH for all Cup matches.

‘Bring A Friend’ to a game and earn £5 for Trust funds.

Free entry to a special ‘Trust Night’, an annual evening get together at Adams Park, with players, managers, the Club Board and Trust board in attendance.

Entry into a quarterly draw for a signed player’s shirt or training top.

Exclusive access to streamed Live Webinars with Rob and Pete Couhig, and Gareth Ainsworth, held regularly during the season.

Beyond retaining 100% ownership of Adams Park, our key role is representing the views of supporters and ensuring that fans will continue to have a say in the way the Club is run.

That is why we are urging everyone to renew their membership and, indeed, encourage friends and family to join too.

There are now three annual membership categories:

Adult £2.50/month or £30 pa

Seniors (65+) £1.75/month or £21 pa

Juniors (U18) £10 pa

If you would like to, you can pay more, monthly or annually, to help ‘support the quarter’.

To renew your membership:

Via monthly or annual direct debit, please visit the Trust’s website, click here http://wycombewandererstrust.com/home-2020join-the-trust

For existing Trust members who wish to continue to pay annually by standing order, please amend the amount to £30/£21/£10 via your banking app or by contacting your bank. You must do this before your Standing order is due for payment. Some are dated 1st October, but most are 1st November 2020.

Thank you for your continuing support and I hope it will not be too long before we are all back together again at Adams Park.

Yours sincerely,

Nigel

Nigel Kingston

So, as I understand it, for £20 quid more you get less say (as we are now a minority shareholder) but £10 off in the club shop.

Obviously a pessimistic view, but can someone elaborate on why I need to pay a further 20 quid for less of a say in the running of our (their) club?

Comments

  • Because if you don't chances are you'll have no say at some point?

  • The email doesn't explain what the extra money goes towards though.....

  • @Tom said:
    In order to maintain that influence, it is vital that the Trust is able to raise sufficient funds to maintain our 25% ownership of Wycombe Wanderers FC, if and when new capital investment in the Club is needed.

    Really???

  • My understanding of the take over was that as and when the Couhigs put in money the trust put in 25%. The club has just had a windfall of circa £7m, and for a good while yet no investment will be needed. As such I don't feel the email explains where my extra £20 goes

  • Come on. It goes towards building up the Trust coffers for when it is needed.

    Also it may have come to your attention that the club isn't gaining any income from matches and conference facilities at the moment.

    The Championship windfall is a good one but I am happy for the Trust to start building a fighting fund early.

  • I'm not trying to be difficult, I just don't understand why we should pay more for less, and feel the email doesn't adequately say why either

  • But the email doesn't say that the money will go into a fighting fund, or be put away for a rainy day. It doesn't say what happens to it. That's the point

  • But @Tom it surely quite clearly does from the quote I picked from the email.
    Any funds needed won't just come at the click of some fingers. It needs to be built up over years.

    If your paying more for less is just about not owning the whole club you could say 25% of a Championship club is worth more than 100% of a League Two side?

    Now is not the time to desert the Trust. This 25% share is important.

  • If the 25% ownership is important to the fans, we must support the Trust. Building up funds gives us ‘ some say’ in what happens to our club.

  • I didn’t even give it a second thought and I amended my standing order accordingly. To me, the importance of protecting the quarter was quite clear in the email.

  • I think it's £20 more because it was priced stupidly low previously.

  • TomTom
    edited September 2020

    But again, it doesn't really say how this will be done. All well and good following the doctrine, but to my original point.... How and what.

    It's absolutely fine if people are willing to blindly pay 3 tines as much for less, but I would like to know what actually happens to that money. And the email doesn't explain that

  • I'm not particularly interested in any of the side-benefits, but happy to pay £30 just for the benefit of keeping the trust going.

  • But again, what happens to the £30? Will the £30 keep the trust going? Why £30 and not £40, or £25. And to the original point, where does the money go. I don't think I'm being unreasonable to ask these questions, despite anyone daring to question the club, trust or owners being shot down quickly here before. They seem reasonable questions to me

  • @drcongo said:
    I think it's £20 more because it was priced stupidly low previously.

    Why was it stupidly low?

  • Although a trust member I don’t know the numbers. Can anyone enlighten me (us) on how much more investment the Couhigs would need to make for the Trust not have enough in their coffers to find the 25%. And how much will an extra £20 add to the coffers. I imagine it’s not as simple as:

    Couhigs invest £3, trust has to invest £1 and Trust has £x in the bank so no worries about extra fundraising until Couhigs invest £3x

    Equally I imagine it’s not as simple as extra £20 per member creates a Trust pot of £20 x number of members.

    Of course the Couhigs may not invest anything in which case are we building a rainy day fund? And if we are how large should it be allowed to grow to?

  • @peterparrotface said:

    @drcongo said:
    I think it's £20 more because it was priced stupidly low previously.

    Why was it stupidly low?

    Poor choice of word, ridiculously low might have been better. I just meant that £10 per year is a very small price to pay toward ensuring the future of the club.

  • It is worth having a look at the Supporters Trust website.

    Kingston is in a difficult position having tried to jump ship and get elected onto the FC board he failed to garner enough support and has been left with having to be Chairman of the trust board so you do wonder if his heart is really in it.

    The last set of minutes relates to the 21st June meeting where they state "No rent has been received by F.A.L.L., the exact amount to be advised."

    A couple of questions for the Trust:

    1) Why are there no updated minutes since the meeting in June?

    2) How much is the exact figure owed to F.A.L.L.?

    3) Why did the Trust initially reject the Couhigs bid in favour of the Dutch players bid?

  • Oh dear.

  • Did someone leave the door open? Something bitter has walked in

  • Welcome back @NiceCarrots. I’ve missed your well(?) informed and agitation on here.

    Got to agree with the comments about the original £10 fee being ridiculously low. I queried this when I joined and ended up paying a regular amount by Standing Order so I think this makes perfect sense

  • Interesting idea that you get less in some way because the trust owns 25% of the club instead of 100. In reality you are just contributing, it's not as if you can re-sell or you got votes on everything but the trust retain the ground and important vetos, also 25% of a club in the championship with good facilities and a bit of hope is arguably worth more than 100% of a club on every credit blacklist with the begging bowl out. If the Couhigs can keep us afloat we are arguably going to be asked for less hand outs and contributions , yes the price might go up but so should the product.

  • @drcongo said:

    @peterparrotface said:

    @drcongo said:
    I think it's £20 more because it was priced stupidly low previously.

    Why was it stupidly low?

    Poor choice of word, ridiculously low might have been better. I just meant that £10 per year is a very small price to pay toward ensuring the future of the club.

    Ah right, I think it was deliberately low to be as inclusive as possible and try and drive membership, which in mind went from around 300 to 1000 over a few years.

  • I think they did it to give @NiceCarrots a purpose in lockdown.

  • A £10 gift voucher, which can be used in the Club shop, online or in the bars on matchdays, against a purchase of £25 or more.

    I've changed my mind about not being interested in any of the side-benefits - that's a dectuple vodka for £15!

  • @NiceCarrots The minutes of the July Trust Board meeting have been on our website as a news items since 8th August. https://wycombewandererstrust.com/2020/08/trust-board-meeting-30th-july
    The Board did not have a meeting in August but has met tonight and draft minutes will be published as soon as they are available.

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