Notts trust attend Rams Annual General Meeting

Last updated : 02 June 2003 By David Hindley and Nigel King
The reasons for going were to both show a bit of solidarity after they sent a coach load to our January meeting, but also to get ideas for and experience of a Trust AGM.

We received a warm welcome from current and incoming members of their board, many of which were keen to know the latest developments at Meadow Lane. One of the defining characteristics of RamsTrust is that they are incredibly well organised, and the 35-40 people present were supplied with copies of their agenda, sub-committee reports and their business plan.

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.

Nigel King
The report from the Heritage sub-committee chair was also interesting. I had been a bit sceptical about this beforehand but can see the point of it a bit more now. They are trying to preserve and exhibit items and information relating to the history. This is also the group that presented Brian Clough with a 'Life Time Achievement' award recently. They've even sent people to Bury for their centenary celebrations of beating Derby 6-0 in the FA Cup Final. They are obviously very proud of their history, but I also think that it has a lot to do with moving to a new ground and not wanting to loose the history from the Baseball Ground.

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.

David Hindley
Points noted from the Sales and Marketing team (or S&M as they call themselves) - they have conducted a members survey. They are negotiating the rights to sell Derby County DVD as the club are not interested in selling DVDs. They will be having a presence at local events during the summer, the Derbyshire Youth Games and the Co-op Fun Day. These events would be used for both promotion and recruitment.

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.

Overall, observing the RamsTrust AGM and talking to board members before and afterwards, was an interesting experience from which NCST can learn. As stated previously, they are incredibly well organised. From an outsiders' point of view, their sub-group structure appears to be working very effectively. We were both particularly impressed by their community and heritage groups, from whom we could learn a great deal.

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.