The Rangers supporters Trust

[54andcounting 0]

Agree 54 but it's a little like asking all the political parties to become one which I think is a stretch.

 

Surely not Allan...when the country goes to war the parties come together. No?

[GovanAllan 0]

Surely not Allan...when the country goes to war the parties come together. No?

 

Good point 54 never thought of it like that if we could get a Winston Churchill figure to rally around that would be a start.

[54andcounting 0]

Good point 54 never thought of it like that if we could get a Winston Churchill figure to rally around that would be a start.

 

.....or a Bill Struth, now there's a thought.

[Zappa 0]

The free membership is something we have thought about, I think the Manchester United Trust has free e-membership. However our Trust is one of the cheapest to join in Scotland (Hibs is £50 per year). Until recently, we also gave out a share in the Club which cost us £5+. We have to think about all the hundreds of people who have paid £100 to become life members and the ones who have paid in £10 per year from Year 1. It's certainly worth thinking about.

 

One solution which your existing members would probably be perfectly happy with is to offer free membership now purely for the purpose of building a large enough number of people to create a viable german type model because without large numbers of fans on board nobody will take your proposals seriously.

 

New members joining for free could just get a welcome letter (or even email if you want zero costs) which doubles as a temporary membership certificate.

 

The whole idea is to get large numbers of people on board to strengthen the position of the RST in respect of it's representation of the support and strengthen it's position at any club ownership discussions or bargaining tables.

 

You explain all of this to new members and make sure they understand that if the RST has a viable plan accepted and some form of fan ownership or part-ownership is achieved, then a yearly trust membership will cost £5 per year (the previous cost minus the cost of the single RFC share). The paid membership will start immediately from the day the new fan ownership model actually kicks in .

 

Any monthly or yearly membership into the actual club ownership system will be an additional cost to any RST member who wishes to participate in the club ownership.

 

Lastly... and I hesitate to say this because I have no personal gripe with the man, but it needs to be said. You might need to remove Mark Dingwall from the RST board completely in order to bring all sections of fans together to get on board with this new project. I repeat, I don't have a problem with Mark personally, but in my humble opinion there's large numbers of Rangers fans who DO have a problem with him and that should be regarded by the RST as a serious issue that needs addressed ASAP.

[BrahimHemdani 1]

There will not be a better time in the RSTs history for them to offer free membership to a basic concept that's simply supposed to bring fans together and take part in the running of the football club. These people need to have a long hard think about what's important. We can talk about RST running costs etc etc, but the bottom line is that NOW is the time for the RST to step forward if it's ever going to have any meaning and if they don't change their current strategy they'll miss the bus.

 

This was discussed at length when I was the Secretary in 2010 and we were formulating the plan buy the Club underwritten by a person who was unknown to us at the time (represented only by solicitors) but who who we later found out was McColl.

 

There are pros and cons as has been said: free membership is likely to swell the membership enormously in the short term but is it meaningful? There is also the issue mentioned by PLG of fairness to those who have already paid annual or life membrship. If free membership was introduced then would anyone pay the next year and then how would an already stretched organisation cover its costs. Paid membership implies some form of commitment and there could be concessions for students and pensioners. I personally proposed a £5 fee for those categories but it was defeated at the time because RST being composed of volunteers, did not have the administrative capacity to cope.

[plgsarmy 111]

One solution which your existing members would probably be perfectly happy with is to offer free membership now purely for the purpose of building a large enough number of people to create a viable german type model because without large numbers of fans on board nobody will take your proposals seriously.

 

New members joining for free could just get a welcome letter (or even email if you want zero costs) which doubles as a temporary membership certificate.

 

The whole idea is to get large numbers of people on board to strengthen the position of the RST in respect of it's representation of the support and strengthen it's position at any club ownership discussions or bargaining tables.

 

You explain all of this to new members and make sure they understand that if the RST has a viable plan accepted and some form of fan ownership or part-ownership is achieved, then a yearly trust membership will cost £5 per year (the previous cost minus the cost of the single RFC share). The paid membership will start immediately from the day the new fan ownership model actually kicks in .

 

Any monthly or yearly membership into the actual club ownership system will be an additional cost to any RST member who wishes to participate in the club ownership.

 

Lastly... and I hesitate to say this because I have no personal gripe with the man, but it needs to be said. You might need to remove Mark Dingwall from the RST board completely in order to bring all sections of fans together to get on board with this new project. I repeat, I don't have a problem with Mark personally, but in my humble opinion there's large numbers of Rangers fans who DO have a problem with him and that should be regarded by the RST as a serious issue that needs addressed ASAP.

 

 

Thanks for that Zappa. We have a Board meeting tomorrow night and this may be up for discussion. The main problem that I can foresee is that it may be against our rules and would therefore need to be agreed at an EGM (not sure about that).

As for your comments about Mark, I've always said that he is big enough and ugly enough to stick up for himself. All this started with some of his pals from Follow, Follow thinking they could post what they wanted and not being able to accept being banned. Even tonight on another website snide remarks were being made rather than focussing on the problems facing the Club. Mark has been on variuos media outlets over the last few days and, in my opinion, has represented the fans very well.

[BrahimHemdani 1]

Any monthly or yearly membership into the actual club ownership system will be an additional cost to any RST member who wishes to participate in the club ownership.

 

This facility already exists through Gersave which allowed the purchase of 83,318 shares (0.08%) for 50,000 in December 2007. The balance in that account in July 2010 was over £75,000 so I am guessing that it would be well over £100,000 by now.

 

We had mapped out "The Road to Ibrox" with an initial target of just under £2M to acquire the 5% necessary to call an EGM and the £38M then thought necessary to acquire complete control of the Company.

[Zappa 0]

As for your comments about Mark, I've always said that he is big enough and ugly enough to stick up for himself. All this started with some of his pals from Follow, Follow thinking they could post what they wanted and not being able to accept being banned. Even tonight on another website snide remarks were being made rather than focussing on the problems facing the Club. Mark has been on variuos media outlets over the last few days and, in my opinion, has represented the fans very well.

 

I like the way Mark speaks myself when he's talking about club matters to the media. He speaks very well indeed and I honestly don't have a problem with him personally, but the way I see it is that the RST have a problem because he runs FF and a large number of fans see that as a conflict of interest. You talk about how it all started, but how it started isn't the point. The point is how it has spread and the amount of fans who won't trust the RST while Mark is a key player on the board.

 

Anyway, since he's not here to defend himself I'll leave it that because I maybe shouldn't have mentioned it in the first place, but sadly I do think it's quite important if the Trust want to make a serious attempt at bringing the fanbase together to try and achieve the fundamental goals of a supporters trust.

[BrahimHemdani 1]

Thanks for that Zappa. We have a Board meeting tomorrow night and this may be up for discussion. The main problem that I can foresee is that it may be against our rules and would therefore need to be agreed at an EGM (not sure about that).

 

Happy to help you with that, Christine.

 

The Society's Rules state inter alia:

 

11. Members are to pay an annual subscription of such reasonable sum as the Society Board shall decide, the first payment to be made at the time of application for membership. The sum of £1 from the first payment shall be applied to purchase a share in the Society.

 

It clear from that that the minimum first memberhsip fee would be £1 and I think is arguable that even in succeeding years the expression "reasonable sum" implies an amount greater than zero.

 

So IMHO the Board can set a membership fee down to £1 but removing the requirement to pay an annual subscription altogether would require an AGM. It MIGHT also be a breach of SD Rules, I am not sure but I can find out for you tomorrow.

[54andcounting 0]

I like the way Mark speaks myself when he's talking about club matters to the media. He speaks very well indeed and I honestly don't have a problem with him personally, but the way I see it is that the RST have a problem because he runs FF and a large number of fans see that as a conflict of interest. You talk about how it all started, but how it started isn't the point. The point is how it has spread and the amount of fans who won't trust the RST while Mark is a key player on the board.

 

Anyway, since he's not here to defend himself I'll leave it that because I maybe shouldn't have mentioned it in the first place, but sadly I do think it's quite important if the Trust want to make a serious attempt at bringing the fanbase together to try and achieve the fundamental goals of a supporters trust.

 

....AND so say all of us.