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Answers To Questions
Friday, 1st Nov 2002 00:00

More Answers To More Questions - The Trust

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First off, the mail that I received.
"Phil
I am a Trust member. I joined up for a various reasons. I can't "get involved be involved" in the true sense but I care about the club and my home town so in an attempt to help in a small way I signed up. I will continue to be a member as well. However when I mention this to family and friends they say "why? what do they do?". The answer was easy at the outset - to help the consortium and to get supporter representation on the board, but for 2002 and beyond I think these are valid questions for the Trust to have to answer. I am a bit vague as to what to say at the moment.....
To get the Trust membership up and also to improve its profile I think we need to clarify their role, establish what it is the Trust officers want to do in the coming months and years and set some small achievable targets.
So why don't I say this? I have a perception (maybe wrong) that if I did that I would be seen as being critical of Leigh and all those who give up their valuable time. Thats not what I'm driving at all - far from it. My views are of someone who is on the outside looking in, without any real knowledge of whats going on at the club, and who wants to see their efforts receive the rewards they deserve.
All of this can be achieved through friendly, open debate and effective communication. As you say, answering a few questions always helps!
Best regards
Jonathan
This was forwarded to the board of the trust and this was the reply that Richard sent to Jonathan this week.
"This is my personal view on the points you raise. I'm sorry you've had to wait this long for a response but the group has been immersed in organising board elections, Xmas raffles, managerial changes, Morfa and, of course, the personal grief that comes from seeing the team in 92nd spot.

Firstly the "perceived criticism".

The Trust is there first and foremost "for the benefit of its members". The Trust Board are elected representatives and answerable to the members. So questions and answers must flow. www.swanstrust.com has details of all board members and e-mail addresses. The success of the Trust depends on an active and involved membership - even if that involvement is limited to putting questions and comments. The Trust webmaster is looking into a "full time" Q&A facility on the Trust web site. But he has limited time to spend on maintaining the site. We'll see. In the meantime please keep the questions and comments coming. If we can't handle comment from a committed member we're going nowhere!

Secondly, the short term achievable aims.

There are two

1 After the frenzy of the Petty fiasco many people joined the Trust through a fit of anger and will (like your family / contacts) now think that nothing more needs to be done. So the first challenge is to take the membership numbers back up to last year's peak of just below 1,500. 2 The supporters (through the Trust) should maintain the current level of shareholding (at least). There will undoubtedly be further shares issued sometime this season. More money will be neded to cover NTL and FLPTV shortfalls - before we start to talk about managers, gate money and any squad changes! There is a preliminary target of £20,000 for the Trust to buy further shares.

Thirdly, - the 'easy' question ! - why people should join the Trust.

The change in ownership, the shareholding, the Supporter Director - these are just the opening steps. Just like a poker game where you need a stake just to play the game. Well we've got our stake and only now does the game begin in earnest. The "pot" we're playing for is a football club of which we can all be proud. Not only on the field but in all aspects off the field. This is a very long haul.

The Trust will exist long after the present Trust Board and consortium members have left for "the Vetch Field in the sky". So it is the guardian of our club for generations of Swans fans to come.

The Trust has a significant role to take on in knitting together all the different strands through schools and the Swans youth set up so we stop the constant drain of local talent (which still seems to be there in abundance) away from the area.

The Trust has to "grow" to become the critical link between the club and community. The club can't handle this as the mass of Swans support is very varied and it's almost impossible for them to work out which messages are important. But if the Trust delivers the message on behalf of 1,500+ supporters the club has to listen.

The Trust gets it's strength and credibility through numbers. The larger it is the louder it can shout.

The Trust ensures that the club will remain part of the community. Many people yearn for a Sam Hamman or an Al Fayed. But where will Cardiff and Fulham be when these two get bored or die? Look at Wimbledon now. We've relied on others for years and look what's happened. If the Swans are going to be rebuilt we're going to have to do it ourselves and get a lot more people in Swansea and South West Wales involved as well. The Trust is far from perfect but it is an incorruptible structure that allows the colourful variety of individuals that make up the active and latent fan base to exercise significant collective muscle."

I'd like to thank Richard for taking the time to reply to Jonathan and raising his points. If there are any other people out there who would like to raise questions to the trust, then I suggest that you either visit their site and use the contact details on there or you can e-mail me and I will pass your questions on.

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