NUST meltdown

[MichaelNUFC 0]

Regardless of Time, regardless of venue, a turnout of 18 people for something like this is a fucking disgrace (a meeting that was open till 8:00pm). More people have commented in this thread than could be bothered to turn up.

 

So much for "I'm going and so are five of my mates". Half the audience were made up of former NUSC comittee members.

 

Fucking bullshit. We have ultimately ended up with exactly what we deserve:

 

A joke.

 

Hope everyone is happy with what's happened tonight at the club. You're stuck with it forever because you can't be fucking arsed.

18 is a fair reflection of the way the trust has been run over the last 18 months. I toyed with renewing just so I could tell the committee what a mess they’ve made of things, but at the end of the day they don’t give a shit.

 

I can understand why you’re angry but the blame for the crappy turnout lies entirely at the door of those who have treated the membership with contempt.

I renewed even though the heresay from this site was compelling me not to. I originally joined as I was all for the Supporters Club when it started up and thought it was a good idea, and could only do good. I was impressed with a few of the people at the very first meeting and renewed as I felt that a lot of people deserved the benefit of the doubt for actually trying to make something happen. It looks as though my tenner went straight to Thompson House!!! I can't stand our local papers and this boils my piss even more. I thought these people were backing the trust out of some kind of local benevolence, however, true to form they weren't.

 

Anyone, with only limited knowledge of whats been happening with the NUST would've been forgiven for jacking it in and for anyone to show surprise at a shit turnout shows just how out of touch they must be.

 

Being fair, I don't think that anyone who attended has said that they were surprised by the turnout. Certainly the post you've quoted from me, made on the night in question wasn't intended to be one of surprise at the size of the attendence but rather one of frustration and annoyance at the predictability of it all (and if you check back a few pages you'll see that while some were complaining that the venue wouldn't be big enough, I was indeed predicting that we'd struggle to get more than 50 people).

 

As for jacking it in. The reality revealed to those of us who did attend the AGM is that while 1000+ people did just this at renewal stage, another 1000+ people didn't; among that number were 500+ who live in the Newcastle area and who could, more than likely, have attended.

 

I understand that your point might be that these people became disenfranchised after they renewed and subsequently chose to express this disenfranchisment by not attending. However, if that is your point, and indeed the case, then it only reaffirms my belief that we have ultimately ended up with exactly what we deserve from our supporters group because, yet again, rather than taking the time to voice our grievances, or in your own words "make something happen", we simply chose to give up at the first hurdle, letting apathy reign and protesting the waste we feel our tenner was by saying and doing nothing to the people responsible for that waste when the opportunity presented itself.

 

If NUST has become a parody of the club, as some have claimed in recent time, then it seems its active membership have become a parody of the fans who protest Ashley's tenure by being quiet and putting up with it (or at worst grumbling about it online).

 

That's a rather depressing thought for me, hence my frustrated post on the night in question.

 

Of course it could be that the dissenting "rabble rousers" are really as small in number as some within the committee apparently think they are...and that French lady at the meeting was right: everything is rosy in the garden and we're just being grumpy old curmudgeons when everyone else is perfectly happy with the Trust's direction.

 

I think the new chairman needs to ask questions of some of the committee members, because a number of them have kept both members and other committee members in the dark.

 

I wasn't overly impressed with the new chair at the meeting, especially when he resorted to the truism "we are only volunteers". While that's a fair and reasonable defence to a lot of things levelled at people in such roles; it wasn't really a very robust response to people who have held the exact same roles as those on the stage and who wern't trying to pick on the committee but were simply wanting clear, tangible answers as to what had happened to a once well run, profitable and progressive organisation to turn it into a silent, uncommunicative, 'going concern'.

 

It did seem he was still finding his feet, however, so I'd like to give him the benefit of the doubt that he can turn things around and will listen to what he has to say at the next meeting. I hope by then, however, that he's learned to seperate what he called "negativity" from genuine member concern over direction.

 

In his favour, we've seemingly had more movement over highlighting supporter issues/concerns from the Trust in the last few weeks than there was in the whole of the previous chair's tenure, so I hope this continues under his leadership

 

As I and others have stressed though, the Trust model itself isn't the problem. That lies with those who have been running NUST.

 

Very true of course, but it also relies on the membership actively guiding those running it with their input. This can't be achieved if everyone stays at home at the next meeting, where the excuse of a poor timeslot/choice of venue won't exist.

 

I really hope that as many members as possible take the opportunity to turn up on March 3rd and have their say; whatever that say may be. The AGM finally got all of the secrets out from under the carpet (or at least the important ones) so the next meeting should very much be about how to move the organisation forward from the mess it somehow managed to get itself into over the past year.

Edited February 16, 2011 by MichaelNUFC

[Rob W 0]

as they say about Spin Doctors - when you are the story its time to quit

 

The NUST Board are now the story and they should go

[Guest Your Name Here]

Anyone go to the NUST public meeting on Thursday?

[MichaelNUFC 0]

Anyone go to the NUST public meeting on Thursday?

 

I went. It was sparsely attended as usual but the presentation was professionally done and threw up some interesting figures from the survey both in terms of how people percieve the club and the Trust. One very revealing stat was the stark contrast between people who say they want public meetings and the number of those people who then say they are likely to attend them.

 

I don't have the exact figures to hand but I believe that something like 35% of the 4700+ people who replied to the survey wanted Town Hall style public meetings to be held by the Trust once every three months yet when asked the follow-up question as to how likely they would be to attend the said meetings only 40 people of this 4'700 said that they would!

 

I thought that the new chair was a lot more impressive at this meeting than he was while finding his feet at the AGM and in general the meeting was more positive with the Trust clearly accepting the areas of criticism they had recieved via the survey and looking to improve the channels of communication with both members and the media, which to be fair to them has also been a lot better in the past few weeks since the new chair took over.

 

Overall quite a positive meeting with some intelligent discussion of global footballing matters...just a pity about the attendence.

 

They are hoping to hold another meeting next month (I believe) and get a speaker from the Bundesliga over to talk about the German model.

Edited March 4, 2011 by MichaelNUFC

[peasepud 59]

I'll copy you into the email I received from the new Chair Michael, communication isnt always his strong point it has to be said.

[Guest Your Name Here]

Cheers Michael

 

Getting some kind of two way dialogue going between the committee and the membership is going to be vital restoring confidence in NUST. Hopefully the new chair might bring some new ideas on this front. The odd poorly advertised meeting isn’t going to do the trick in isolation.

[1892 0]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/democracylive/hi/hou...000/9431342.stm

 

MPs continued their inquiry into football governance by taking evidence from the former chief executive of the Football Association on 22 March 2011.

 

The inquiry is looking at the governance of professional football clubs, over concerns that football supporters of clubs across the country are poorly served by current football club regulations.

 

At an earlier session, the former chair of the Football Association (FA), Lord Triesman, criticised the organisation for failing to regulate the sport.

 

MPs are investigating the possibilities of giving greater involvement to supporters in the decision-making processes.

 

Sports minister Hugh Robertson recently described football as the country's worst-run sport.

 

The coalition agreement, drawn up after last year's general election, pledges to encourage the reform of governance rules to support the co-operative ownership of clubs by supporters.

 

Evidence was also taken from:

 

• Richard Bevan, Chief Executive of the League Managers Association

 

• Martin O'Neill, former manager of Aston Villa

 

• Steve Coppell, former manager of Reading

[Kitman 2207]

Just received this:

The NUST is committed to developing links with the community and we intend to continue this process by developing awareness, and building membership, by arranging events and meetings to strengthen the influence of the Trust. We want to build on the successes we have already achieved which include:

• NUST has already helped to raise considerable amounts for local charities, including over £7,500 for the ‘Sir Bobby Robson Foundation’.

• The ongoing formation of a ‘Junior Trust’ which through coaching and other various events will help to connect young people in the north east with their football club and hopefully assist in guaranteeing the future support of Newcastle United.

• The Trust’s ‘Local Achievers’ initiative has already rewarded numerous people in the local community by providing them with tickets for a wide range of ‘good citizen’ activities. This scheme will continue and help many fans, including many from disadvantaged parts of society, to see their team at St James’ Park.

The Board of the NUST firmly believes that the only way for NUFC to have a long term stable financial future, and success on the pitch, is for the fans organised with the help of the Trust, to try to arrange the finance to place the club permanently in an ownership model which involves fans as essential stakeholders. The NUST Board is currently considering a number of ideas that we believe will help to achieve this aim.

 

I have mixed feelings about this. I feel NUST has taken a direction I can't fully get behind since the 'Yes we can' push. I'm probably not going to renew.

 

Anyone else had theirs?

 

Seems they've really achieved fuck all. They certainly haven't spent the last year "building membership" based on what people on here have said.

[Rob W 0]

if they want to devote themselves to grass roots stuff - fine

 

but that's not what we all signed up for - I thought the scheme was to buy enough arms to storm the place and hang the current owners from the lampposts outside SJP

[ewerk 31195]

Not unless they've had the lamp posts reinforced recently.