The Honest Men Trust - Ayr United Community Initiative

<%'## United For Youth Link ##'%> United For Youth

<%'## Trust Online Shop Link ##'%> Trust Online Shop

<%'## Trust News Link ##'%> Trust News

<%'## Application Form Link ##'%> Join The Trust

<%'## Forum Link ##'%> Trust Forum

<%'## Trust Travel Link ##'%> Trust Travel

<%'## FAQs Link ##'%> FAQ's ?
<%'## Constitution Link ##'%> Constitution

<%'## Achievements Link ##'%> Achievements
<%'## Meeting Minutes Link ##'%> Meeting Minutes
<%'## Board Details Link ##'%> Board Details

<%'## Supporters Direct Link ##'%> Supporters Direct

<%'## History Link ##'%> Trust History

<%'## Contact Us Link ##'%> Contact Us

<%'## Download Link ##'%> Downloads

<%'## Calendar Link ##'%> Trust Calendar

<%'## Archived News Link ##'%> Archived News

THE HONEST MEN TRUST

Supporters Direct Annual Conference By Lyn McConnachie

Supporters Direct in Scotland
Annual Conference
Stirling Management Centre
University of Stirling

17 April 2005

As an interested member of The Honestmen Trust, (THMT) I volunteered to go along with 2 Honestmen Trust Board members to the annual conference of Supporters Direct in Scotland. A full days activities had been planned by the organisers, starting at 10.00am with registration and a cup of much needed coffee! The conference began in earnest with a few brief presentations made by MSP’s Patricia Ferguson (Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport) and Richard Baker (Enterprise and Culture Committee) who is heavily involved in the Scottish Parliament consultation on the future of Scottish football. Ken McKenzie, Chief Officer of Scottish Co-op also made a brief presentation on the continued support of the Co-operative Society to Supporters Direct throughout the UK.

At 11.30am, the first workshop sessions began. The Honestmen trust representatives decided beforehand which workshops we would attend. There were 4 workshops in the morning session:
Boardroom Representation, attended by THMT Chairman Fraser McCallum Community Clubs, attended by THMT member Lyn McConnachie Scottish Federation of Supporters, attended by THMT Federation Rep Alan Farmer
Football Finance

Community Clubs
This session focussed particularly on improving relationships between football clubs and the community. A number of interesting ideas came out of the debate:
Trust owned Chesterfield have adopted the idea ‘The Club is the Hub’. Shortly after gaining control of the club the Trust opened dialogue with local community organisations asking the question ‘what could you gain from working with the local football club?’.
The Local Health Authority; football clubs have influence over supporters health, especially males who are often reluctant to seek advice from health professionals. Club and Authority could work together to promote health, issue advice.
Further Education Colleges/Schools; some students have difficulty coping with strict classroom learning environment and find it easier to learn outwith ‘normal’ classrooms. Club and Education Authority could work together to provide ‘more relaxed’ learning environment.
Police; football clubs have influence over children and youths which could be beneficial in rehabilitation of offenders. Players could act as mentors helping guide youngsters, and being positive role models.
Chesterfield were able to obtain grants to fund a lot of this work and employ consultants to help develop a full business plan, which they are now putting into place, moving the club forward from near extinction under the previous regime.
Other Trusts present had a range of different ideas and concepts that they had worked through with their representative football clubs
Many schools in England require to have 2 hours non-contact time with students. Many football clubs have offered to take up this time with youngsters, offering physical education with players and coaches, healthy eating/lifestyle classes, etc.
Dee-for-life (Dundee Trust) paid for a large banner with the trust logo on which randomly selected young supporters walk round the pitch before games, during player warm-up. Kids like being on a football pitch with the players and this idea has proved very successful. Dee-for-life also distribute free tickets to matches through local youth groups and schools.
Chesterfield now offer a 16-21yr season ticket (no gate price, season ticket only), as the jump from kids prices to adult prices can often be too high for this age range. Many youths this age have other expenditure, are on low pay, or are students.
Warrington Wolves have opened up one of their new stands to the local Healthcare Trust, who have access to it 7 days a week, running health clinics, fitness classes, well-woman/well-man surgeries etc. A lot of people feel more comfortable attending surgeries and clinics outwith a medical environment.
Berwick Rangers Trust print and distribute vouchers with Trust logo on to schools and local youth groups, which on presentation at the ground allow one child entry to the match for £1.
Many trusts in England have asked local youth groups/schools to design logos. Kids are happy to wear and promote merchandise with logo which their group designed.
Other trusts/football clubs have sold tickets for matches through schools with a percentage of the price going to the school, eg Adult and child for £12 with £2 of ticket price going to school providing an incentive for school to promote tickets to local families.

With many ideas from this morning workshop now swimming about in my head, I headed off to meet up with THMT board members and mingle with other Trusts over lunch, which made the day all the more worthwhile! The afternoon followed a similar structure to the morning with another 4 workshops planned to keep us occupied:
Campaigning, attended by THMT Chairman Fraser McCallum
Co-operative Development, attended by THMT member Lyn McConnachie
Equality Issues and Football, attended by THMT Federation Rep Alan Farmer
Financial Best Practice

Co-operative Development
This workshop focussed on the co-operative movement and how to best work with Supporters Direct in benefiting both parties. Jim Lee, of Co-operation and Mutuality Scotland described an approach made to Westminster government a few years back on how it might be possible to get UK football back into the hands of the community and out of the hands of the fat-cats who were and are still ruining the game both north and south of the border. Jim told of the notion that the most successful clubs in the world were all owned by big business. Not true, however! Barcelona became a community owned club in 1994 and are one of the major forces in Spanish and world football. The Co-op Dividend card also came under discussion at this workshop! Proceeds gained by Co-op customers through Dividend cards can be donated to Community Initiatives/Trusts within the local area! So get those purchases made and get donating to THMT!

The day finished off with a question and answer session on Moving Football Forward. Speakers at the top table were Brookes Mileson (Gretna FC), Derek Roberston (Dundee Utd FC), James Proctor (Supporters Direct) and Brian Lomax (Independent Football Commission). A good number of questions were taken from the floor and answered admirably by the panel. Finally, wine and cheese were served at a closing reception.

All in all the day was highly interesting and well worth crawling out of bed on a Sunday morning for. For board members and ordinary trust members, days like these are invaluable as a source of reference of how to move our own Trusts forward on a local level. Also, it’s great just to get out and meet folk from other Trusts around the country. I even managed a brief chat with Brookes Mileson! Unfortunately though, I didn’t quite manage to secure Kenny Deuchar’s services for next season !