VillaTrust

We (AVST) have released a statement about Randy Lerner's decision - please see www.villatrust.org.uk The reason for the post is to direct you all to the Fan Survey. We need 1000's to complete this! Your Club - Your Voice Mat Kendrick today (25/02/14) posted an article on the Birmingham Mail website stating that Villa supporters need to unite collectively to form a “supporters union” with clout like Liverpool’s Spirit of Shankly. Well, that “supporters union” already exists at the Villa – it is the Aston Villa Supporters’ Trust. The Spirit of Shankly have done a tremendous job since its formation, tackling ticket pricing and other fan issues. Along with our fellow premier league supporter trusts, such as MUST (Man Utd’s Supporters Trust), Tottenham Supporters Trust etc, the Aston Villa Supporters’ Trust hopes to be a champion of Villa supporter issues. We are members of Supporters Direct, the governing body of the supporter trust movement, and affiliated to the Football Supporters Federation. We are currently preparing our relaunch strategy, like Tottenham’s trust has done in the last year, and will soon be requesting input from members in a survey. How do we get clout? We need you! We need you to be a member of the Supporters Trust and be involved. The aim is to represent Villa supporters to a level that has never been done before. The more members we have, the stronger our voice will be in representing our collective voice with the Club, so that they will listen to us. Also, if you have a Villa website, facebook group or Twitter page, join our affiliate network. Do you want to see ambition back again at the greatest club in the land? Click on theJoin button now! UTV Follow us on Twitter – @Villa_Trust Keep in touch on Facebook – AVST Facebook

http://www.villatrust.org.uk/wp-content/themes/villatrust.org.uk/files/AVST_AGM_Oct2013.pdf As issued to the Trust membership earlier this week

Yes Jonno but Its not going to be now.

Dont forget the free associate members!

As i said we will write to our members first.

@morley: it was not a secret meeting. I've said it was informal, no minutes. There was one part of the meeting on one question that was sensitive. At this stage, all I'm going to say is that the key focus of the majority of the questions was ambition. The questioner could keep following up on points and others joined in. It was no tea and biscuits with the vicar meeting. Not sure how you can put that down in writing. We are accountable to our members. We will disclose first to them. For those who are so bothered about what was said, then you had the opportunity to come. People came from Cardiff and Brighton, made an effort to be there. Granted there are people with families and jobs, and kids who should be in bed now rather than sat here sniping at people who have spent their time trying to make a difference. Next time, go to the meeting or go on a web chat or read the official minutes from the Club.

Exactly Smetrov. The money the PL gave clubs for away schemes came from fan pressure. The FSF's 20isPlenty was followed by the PL Trusts meeting in Brum, writing letters, marching to PL office and meeting them and lo and behold. Our sister Trusts at Man U, Liverpool, Spurs and Arsenal were heavily involved but the key force was the Spirit of Shankly. We've also met 2 PL officials at St George's Park to discuss supporter issues. Voice is only powerful if you are united as one.

@SikhInTrinity: respect your opinion. I'm happy for the thread to be closed as the purpose of advertising the Q&A so supporters could attend has been met. Hyping up the Trust as we go for a planned relaunch will come in due course. But there is no hype at moment. Next time you are on Trinity Rd, stand by the McGregor statue and look at the name plate on the floor behind it. You will see that we are not just hype but action. Supporters have put £22,000 in membership subscriptions and donations through the AVST since we came into existence. Not hype but fact. We have delivered McGregor statue and his grave restoration. Great achievements only possible through supporter involvement in the Trust. All the best. UTV!

@Mike: sorry, I didn't want to repeat myself as I thought I had stated aims earlier. Representation of members is the key aim in dealing with the Club and at national level. Supporting Grass roots football is the secondary community aim. The details of the plan to achieve the aims are to be discussed and agreed amongst the new team. Once we are in a position to communicate our action plan, then we will come on and open a new thread.

@Skruff: purpose of thread was to advertise Q&A so that people were aware of its existence and could come along. Why I came back on here post AGM: out of courtesy to post a statement as we had done on H&V so we would not get the "H&V old boys" tag.

@Pilchard: thanks for your valuable input. Constructive criticism appreciated as we move forward is welcome. The membership structure is tiered with 1 paid member-1 vote structure; within this, we have life members, ten years and annual. We also have household (2 adult) discount. Beyond the paid structure, we have free non-voting subscriber/associate members who just receive communications/news alerts. In this band, you are not agreeing to any terms of membership. People from this band were invited and for new people to just sign up to gain access. Quite a few did this and said they were coming but didn't in the end. Beyond the free subscriber band, you are into the social media followers where we have 1300+ on Facebook and near 500 on twitter. The structure also includes affiliate free sign up. Going forward, new Directors and new non-director volunteers who have come forward to assist will work on the plan for relaunch. Basic principles of all supporter trusts (as at other clubs) remains, being democratic and to represent voting members. Plan to be developed is to be more active, communicate regularly with members (and better), market ourselves better to grow membership, represent etc We still need help from new volunteers on marketing and heritage (eg anybody with grant application experience for Oral history archive) Good points have been raised on this thread that we need to be aware of and learn from. We've been asking for volunteers for the last 5 years on various forums, Facebook, LinkedIn, twitter. The new volunteers have come forward over the last 5 months, mainly from the social media posts. New volunteers are David, Chris , Joe, Anne-Marie (of the Safe Standing survey). Peter, Mike and I are the old blood. Hope this helps. Mods - lock thread?

I'm at work. I can respond to your specifics later

We have released statements in the past on specific sessions with the Villa hierarchy to agree areas which are sensitive/non-sensitive. These are formal meetings. What happened last week was an informal session, and not the primary purpose of the meeting which was our AGM. The questions raised were by individuals, who wanted information on their particular queries. It was not a Trust driven agenda. May be in the future some further notes will be issued on the informal part but given we are a few days on and we work/ family/ watch the Villa, there has been limited time to pull together anything. If you want to hear and take part, join. It was free for non-voting associate members had access. As we grow in numbers then such events may only be accessible by paid members.

Neither Risso - it is to represent its members views democratically. We are not the voice of All supporters nor those that can only attend meetings. The subject topics covered are listed above. As i said earlier, i did not take any notes as it was informal. It was not the primary purpose of the evening. Next time, happy for a representative of Villatalk to go and write their own notes / report back to this forum. As for secrecy, its just plain professionalism and ethical. I have my reputation and professional qualification to think about, one that pays my way in life. There was a request for no notes / recording at a certain stage in the informal session. All there agreed. If it was not ok, then the conversation that happened would not have taken place. If we ever get to supporter elected directors, then this same situation will arise time and again. Swansea's Supporter Director has the same issue. One of the things i have learnt over the 12 years is that there is no pleasing everyone.

The objective of the Q&A was to give fans present in the room at the meeting an opportunity to ask questions on the running of the Club. It is no different to any other session that has been run where Paul has answered supporter questions. For example, the web chat held on Friday before was a good example of being able to ask him questions if you couldn't come in person. Sorry, it was not my intention to sit for 75 minutes transcribing Paul Faulkner' answers to post on the web. I've not seen any transcription from these other sessions he has held. The meeting was hardly secretive. It was free to all supporters to join.

Thanks to all that have joined the Trust post AGM. I thought I would share this fuller statement First of all, the AGM went well. We now have a new Board of 6 directors who are eager to relaunch the Trust to represent supporters at a club and national level. The Board is now Peter Warrilow (Chair), Anne-Marie Fern (Acting Club Liaison until next AGM to be fully elected), David Michael (National Liaison), Chris Knight(Communications), Mike Jeffries (Community) and myself Tony Barnes (Finance). Joe Al-Khayat was elected as Company Secretary. The Q&A session with Paul and Robin lasted for about 75 minutes. Questions ranged from strategy, the past spend/managers, spending power, financial sustainability, kits and sponsors, and safe standing amongst others which I can't recall. As I said earlier in the thread, Paul was open and a frank exchange of views was shared with the members present, most of which he has probably shared at other supporter forums and web chats. We are not unique as he regularly talks to various groups. However, on a particular subject early on in the evening, he asked that no notes/recording were taken - so we respect that wish and won't disclose the topic and comments. We have a very good relationship with the Club and to show the benefit of supporter involvement, we need to be professional and maintain that trust. I have not taken any notes from the evening's Q&A, only the minutes of the formal AGM will be issued. (To answer Smetrov's query: I was not take any notes pre and post the request) The aim of the Trust is to bring together a collective voice, and to represent democratically the views of supporters with the Club and nationally. The larger we are, the stronger our voice will be. As we are relaunching, any feedback on how we can serve supporters would be welcome as we brainstorm what our action plan is for the next year. Please email us at enquiries@villatrust.org.uk. We will take up the earlier suggestion of Pilchards

Paul and Robin spoke for well over 1 hour. Due to the sensitive comments made on certain subject matters raised by the supporters present, the session became a closed one so no notes or recordings have been taken. Paul was direct and didn't hold back, and those present enjoyed the session. We would have liked more people to attend but we are relaunching now so we aim to grow All directors standing elected and most of us went to the Bartons after for a pint. A good evening was had!

The meeting will now take place tomorrow in the Directors Suite (2nd floor and accessed from Trinity Reception)

@Pilchard: good suggestion. I will get our new Comms Director on the case! We will be uploading to the Trust website (may be tonight) who the new people are (and the oldies)

@limpid Haha, shows how long ago since I last ftp'd anything up onto server! Hope you're well!

I dont post on Villatalk anymore or any other website, other than posting as VillaTrust for Villa Trust related matters to bring to Villa supporters attention. I've done so for a number of years now. This website and the Trusts website are both kindly hosted on the same server by Simon. For transparency, my name is Tony Barnes and have been involved in the Trust since its inception in 2001.

Doors will open at 7pm on Thursday at the Players Lounge entrance. Q&A forum will start promptly at 7.30pm

We are 3 days away from the Q&A forum with Paul and Robin. Spaces are still available for the Q&A. Please sign up as a minimum as a free member on our website, and notify us of your attendance on enquiries@villatrust.org.uk Many thanks Tony

@ Richard: after the McGregor statue, we lost a few of the directors and we've been searching for new volunteers. We now have new people committed (4 in total) and we are effectively relaunching the Trust. We still have a good relationship with the Club and have a sizable ten year/life member base who have committed cash. The new blood will give us the impetus now to support the membership base.

Why not become a free member and come & ask your question to Paul?