The Future of the Trust

Sir Francis Drake wrote:

On the face of it? None.

Where votes are decided by the percentage of shares owned he who holds the majority has no need to consult. The Swansea Trust should have thought about that before they relinquished control.

That's not where we are though.

We are in a position where the club still expects/demands/relies upon the goodwill and support of its supporters in various ways. There's the input they benefit from via the Green Taverners for one. AFT painting the wall out front is another. On top of those there's various activities that might be grouped as "bucket rattling".

Which is fine just as long as the volunteers continue to volunteer and meet the need when required/expected/asked to but why should they if they feel that they are being taken for granted/ignored/exploited/abused?

To that end dialogue between club and supporters is essential to maintain the goodwill and cooperation of each towards the other.

At Swansea I suspect that the vast sums of money swilling around the club mean that the US owners have little need for the sort of assistance supporters have given our club in recent years but the situation at Argyle is very different and once the penny drops that those behind the purchase of the ground from PCC are raking in a small fortune themselves as a result (because they will be because ultimately the value of the club, and thus their stake in it, will rise) then people just might start to think that maybe they should be the ones paying to maintain their own property or paying to provide a supporters' bar or paying for video cameras or fixing the Lyndy tellies or whatever.

If I was i/c Argyle I'd be looking to involve the AFT as closely as possible and would want it completely integrated into the fabric of the club because amongst the fanbase there must be expertise in any number of potentially useful areas stretching from cleaning to gardening to painting and decorating to engineering to design to legal to accountancy to IT and God alone knows what else. If they need something doing, then whatever it is, there is probably somebody supportive of the club who could assist in some way in getting it done but why should anybody put themselves forward if nothing came back in return?

Last thing Argyle want involved is the AFT.  Hence Brent's attitude towards them and the PASB

Brent has the GT's for the 'charity' role (like you point out) and can find his painters and decorators amongst them. He certainly doesn't want the AFT melding with them and talking "friendly criticism".

Hell's Bells...  The AFT might actually want the 87.5K owed the GT's.

Can't say I disagree. It won't/can't happen because Brent doesn't want it to. Not in the slightest bit interested.

The GTs do what they do and provide the template though to show that it could work should the desire be there for it to.

There's all sorts of expertise out there in all sorts of fields that could be utilised to the betterment of the club of that there is little doubt.

As for the £87K (where did that figure come from? It seems a bit small to me...) that really is between the club and the GTs. Just as long as it is all above board legally etc, and we have to assume that it is, then it isn't anything to with AFT. It's not as if the GTs are ever going to call it in and given that Argyle turns over £6m p.a. now it is hardly a significant amount anyway. We are, however, back to "community" again because wasn't the promise made aeons ago that whatever was raised by the GTs would be spent on "community projects" rather than directly paid back?

It'd all help to implement the promise that Brent made so long ago of putting the club at the heart of the local community and the local community at the heart of the club but Brent obviously has different definitions for those things than I do.

Brent knows the nature of the type of fan he can use.The trust will fall back into line.The never again signatories will largely crawl back into their caves and all will be well until another club takes Adams/Carey away.
But the bucket rattling culture will survive.
The 'style' on offer will however never produce a bigger fanbase.
Glad I don't have to suffer the continued abuse.

I believe HMRC ruled that the money had to be either repaid or 'spent' on community projects?

I wonder whether a school and dentists count?

Hugh Watt wrote:

I wonder whether a school and dentists count?

That Celia has been on freechat this morning with new thread on the way forward. I have posted after multiple editing before one went up finally !
I'll let others read her post I found it utterly insulting. Not all of Plymouth born peoples IQ stops at 100

Future of the trust,  it would appear not to have one.

harvetheslayer wrote:

Hugh Watt wrote:

I wonder whether a school and dentists count?

That Celia has been on freechat this morning with new thread on the way forward. I have posted after multiple editing before one went up finally !
I'll let others read her post I found it utterly insulting. Not all of Plymouth born peoples IQ stops at 100

Not on facebook, any chance of copying here ?

I'm preparing the next issue of the AFT fanzine 'the Grass is Greener'. Not suprisingly, maybe, this is going to focus on the way forward now that James Brent has announced he will purchase Home Park from the Council. I want to include a range of views. Please write something - however long or short - and send it to me at fanzine@argylefanstrust.com or pm me via Facebook. Ideally by this time next week. Thanks. Celia

Elias wrote:

harvetheslayer wrote:

Hugh Watt wrote:

I wonder whether a school and dentists count?

That Celia has been on freechat this morning with new thread on the way forward. I have posted after multiple editing before one went up finally !
I'll let others read her post I found it utterly insulting. Not all of Plymouth born peoples IQ stops at 100

Not on facebook, any chance of copying here ?

What do you think?

Is it true that the AGM is on November 19th and there are ALOT of vacancies on the AFT board?

I wonder who is going to fill that particular vacuum?

Frank Bullitt wrote:

Is it true that the AGM is on November 19th and there are ALOT of vacancies on the AFT board?

At the open forum meeting that was indeed the date that was mentioned for the AGM. It's usually in November I think. Celia also did mention that there were 3 spaces to fill.

Have the 3 already resigned or are they standing down next month? The lack of any communication from the AFT regarding anything is getting very worrying.

Frank Bullitt wrote:

Have the 3 already resigned or are they standing down next month? The lack of any communication from the AFT regarding anything is getting very worrying.

And they expect "honesty, openness and transparency" from the club.

If 3 board members are standing down (or already have), are the AFT hoping to co-opt some replacements at the AGM? Or will an election be announced? That is of course if the AGM actually goes ahead - what with the difficulties of booking a venue, publicising the meeting and not cancelling it 48 hours before.

Bob's latest statement has appeared on the AFT website. They cannot use the excuse that they have had problems accessing the website anymore.

If the AGM is on the 19th of next month, shouldn't the election nominations be in? Statements published? Ballot papers issued?

Seems to be cutting it a bit fine - there should be a period for collecting nominations then a period for members to question the candidates and vote. Just over a month to the AGM, I'm surprised it's all so quiet.

One job AFT. You had one job.

I can't see how you are going to come back from this.

Elias wrote:

harvetheslayer wrote:

Hugh Watt wrote:

I wonder whether a school and dentists count?

That Celia has been on freechat this morning with new thread on the way forward. I have posted after multiple editing before one went up finally !
I'll let others read her post I found it utterly insulting. Not all of Plymouth born peoples IQ stops at 100

Not on facebook, any chance of copying here ?

Apologies Elias have only just read that post having given up reading anything regarding AFT. Not sure I can trawl back but it was basically asking for comments "on the way forward now that Brent HAS purchased the Ground"
I retorted along the lines of "WHY didnt you ask for comments and the possible way forward 6 Months BEFORE Brent made his move to purchase"

Not surprisingly I got zero response from the lady in question.

BBC1 wrote:

I'm preparing the next issue of the AFT fanzine 'the Grass is Greener'. Not suprisingly, maybe, this is going to focus on the way forward now that James Brent has announced he will purchase Home Park from the Council. I want to include a range of views. Please write something - however long or short - and send it to me at fanzine@argylefanstrust.com or pm me via Facebook. Ideally by this time next week. Thanks. Celia

This was the copy and paste I did Harve