The meeting started with a statement from the (outgoing) chair, followed by reports from each of their nine sub-committees. The following are some of the 'interesting bits' noted by NCST Secretary, Nigel King:
The PR person said that they have a regular column in the match programme, but aren't allowed to say anything too controversial. They also have a regular column in the Derby Evening Telegraph and recently they have recruited people to the PR team specifically to write this column. They also have a Human Resources type person to identify and recruit such people.
The Website person (Steve Tickle) said that their website was getting about 36,000 hits a month. They were just about to add a members area to the website. The members area was to try and give "added value" to members. They have decided to stop emailing newsletters out to members, they now put the newsletter on their website and email out a link to it. They are also asking members for suggestions and comments on their website.
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Another interesting speaker was the Community Lady (Ann Whitlock). She has overcome a lot of problems in developing the Community section. The main point of interest was that the group running the Community activities was separate from the Trust, Ann was not on the Trust board. The reason for this was that it enabled her to involve people who otherwise couldn’t be because of the problems between the club and the Trust. The Community team includes the vicar from the
Cathedral, the headmaster from a local school and Rammy the club mascot.
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Following the reports were the passing of the three resolutions. The first was to accept the officers and sub-committee reports.
Simon Binns from Supporters Direct was there as the Returning Officer for the elections. They had posted out nomination forms to all their members (currently circa 700). They had only received 12 nominations for 12 posts so a ballot was not held as they were deemed elected unopposed. I got the feeling that the 12 were already connected with the Trust. The second resolution was to accept the result of the elections.
The third resolution was to approve the appointment of their auditors, Smith Cooper from Derby, who were not charging for the Trust's first financial year.
Elaine Dean is the new Chair and Pete Drew is now the Vice Chair. One thing of note from Elaine's speech was that they are looking at rule revisions as some rules have proved to be too restrictive. They were holding a board meeting straight afterwards we didn't get to speak to Elaine and Simon for very long afterwards.
One other point was that they have gone through/continue to confront issues of independence, with a turbulent relationship with Lionel Pickering. This seems to have polarised supporters, and that much of their credibility is drawn from their community events, including Rams Trust on the road, where they arrange to meet supporters across Derbyshire. This 'high visibility' strategy, along with highly effective PR and website teams, means that the Trust is seen to be open and in constant communication with its members.
Both Nigel and myself would like to express our thanks to RamsTrust for the invitation to attend their first AGM, for their hospitality, and continued support.