The Trust seems to have made a big impression

[avvenalaf]

From Weekender.........

The chairman thanked the club’s fans for their loyalty throughout the season. He acknowledged the three Sligo Rovers supporters’ clubs based in north Sligo, south Sligo and Dublin.
He highlighted their valued presence at home and away games plus their fund-raising efforts.
Toolan encouraged Sligo Rovers fans in Sligo town to mobilise themselves into a tangible group.
“I would like the people in Sligo town to set up a supporters’ club. As chairman [of Sligo Rovers FC] I am a bit envious of the supporters’ clubs that are already there in Sligo town for the English Premiership clubs and for [Glasgow] Celtic. We have actually no supporters club within Sligo town and I feel that there could be one or two set up.”

[1 9 2 8]

No offence to them but they have done fúck all this season in raising funds for the club considering that they are based in the biggest urban area where Sligo Rovers gets its support from. I haven't heard much from them since the fanzine which was meant to be monthly or bimonthly AFAIK

[Redzer]

Toolan is right. The Trust has no affiliation to Rovers. It's time at least one supporters club was formed. Only problem is it could cause tension between the two groups. Is the Trust still active? Like 1928, I havn't heard much from them.

[sligo1]

Redzer,
Where exactly does Michael Toolin say that "the Trust has no affiliation to Sligo Rovers"?
Redzer,Rogue Trader and 1928-if you feel that strongly about setting up a Supportors Club in Sligo, why dont the 3 of ye get together and set one up?Better still,are the 3 of you members of the Trust and if you are,then you should be able to let us know what they are at.
If you are not,why not?
Maybe the public of Sligo town dont want a Supportors Club/Trust and just dont have any interest?
Out of curiousity,what exactly have the other clubs done that the Trust haven't done?
As far as I can see,the management committee dont want anybody associated with Sligo Rovers that tend to ask too many awkward questions.
Hopefully somebody from the Trust can let us know what they are up to.

[sligo1]

That's not an excuse Rogue Trader-if you really wanted to join the Trust,what was stopping you going to one of their meetings and join up there and then?They have stated a few times on the site that anybody can join on the night and they even had an open night and a few presentation nights where forms were readily available.Carrying on from my point earlier,if you were really interested in joining the Trust,you would have done so.The 2 people from the Trust on the site are Gary and Alan kearins-did you ever let them know that you got no form or was it one of them that didnt send out the form?
As far as the club being run professionally,far from it.
How much do you think you would raise on a table quiz by the way?

[Redzer]

Redzer,
Where exactly does Michael Toolin say that "the Trust has no affiliation to Sligo Rovers"?

The trust has been saying they have no affiliation, not michael toolan. The trust have been pushing it's total independance from Sligo Rovers since its foudation. It is not answerable to Sligo Rovers, and the money collected by the trust does not necessary end up with Rovers, unlike the supporters clubs.
Is the trust still alive or dead, thats all I want to know?
If its dead then we should set up a supporters club.

[Rory H]

If its dead then we should set up a supporters club.

its something that would be great to be involved in..we have a regular group who travel on buses so to make it offical would be good...

[DonalE]

its something that would be great to be involved in..we have a regular group who travel on buses so to make it offical would be good...

As always Wildrover, i'm with ya on this one.

[feo123]

the bit o'red foot.ie supporters club

[Rory H]

i dont know why the trust never took off because they had some great ideas....id like to hear what there future plans are...

[gustavo]

Not sure really why they havent been as vocal of late but i know one of the main members is based in Dublin now so that probably affected things

[SligoBrewer]

im in with wildrover as well..that group would definetly get things going...

[sligo1]

Redzer:

In my opinion you are wrong to say the Trust is not affiliated with Sligo Rovers, you say they are independent of Sligo Rovers but what is wrong with that? In what way are the other 3 supporters clubs affiliated with Sligo Rovers that the Trust isn’t?

In relation to money collected by the Trust, you say that it doesn’t necessarily end up with Rovers unlike the Supporters Clubs-if it doesn’t go to Rovers where does it go and what proof have you got of same?

Is the Trust still dead or alive-well seeing as nobody from the Trust has replied yet,it doesn’t look too promising.

You said that if the Trust is dead ,that you would get involved in setting up a Supporters Club in the town-why are you not a member of the Trust?If the Trust is finished for whatever reason,will you organise a meeting to set up a Sligo town branch and if so when will it be?
Maybe somebody can answer this one for me-there used to be a Supporters Club in town-did the Trust form from this?If they didn’t, what happened that club?

Rogue Trader:

If you are living in Dublin, then the obvious choice of supporters club to join is the Dublin branch.

Are you saying that there were no forms available the night your friends went to the Trust meeting?I think the Trust has being going for over 2 years now so was it a case that they went to one meeting or there was no forms available at any meeting they went to?If that’s the case,I cant understand why as the Trust have being saying that you could join up at any of their weekly meetings.

You said that supporters clubs should be raising money through table quizes etc to help fund the Rovers.In your next post,you said that the main aim of a supporters club should be social and then after that to raise money.

How much did the table quiz you were involved in raise for Sligo Rovers?

In relation to buses, they did organise buses but if interest isn’t there, what do you expect them to do?

As far as the club been run professionally,far from it-another statement without foundation
Rogue Trader, I’m hardly going to make a statement I cant back up but if you think Sligo Rovers is run professionally,then I’m afraid your idea and my idea of “run professionally” is obviously a lot different.
A couple of quick examples:
1. The extension of Don O’Riordan’s contract.
2. The appointment of a Commercial Manager without advertising the post.
3. A friend of our manager (that everybody loved and could do no wrong) was appointed.At the time,the main thing I remember was that the Committee/Connor saying that he could help out with the coaching-should be nothing to do with the role of a commercial manager.
4. What exactly has he done?One of our main sources of income is our Lotto-he comes along and offers a % to anybody who will come and sell the lotto for the club.So if you are already selling the Lotto for the Club for free ie the good of the club, then why should you keep selling it if other people are now getting paid to sell it? As the Lotto is the main source of fundraising for the South and North Sligo branches of the supporters clubs,then this major incentive will eventually affect the fundraising of these branches and in turn the clubs main source of income.
Hopefully the committee will put a stop to this if they haven’t already.
5.The general lack of advertising and promotion of the club.
6.We have a PRO ( a nice man ) but what actually does he do?

You say there are a lot of good lads in the Trust,so who are they and lets see can they continue with the Trust or start up a supporters club in town.

Wild Rover;
Why are you not a member of the Trust?

I don’t think there is any real interest in Sligo Rovers in the town.If the Trust is gone, I don’t think a supporters club will make any difference.
Maybe it is down to the people in the Trust-if different people were involved then maybe it might work but I doubt it.

It’s over to you now Redzer to set it up.

[Red&White Rover]

6.We have a PRO ( a nice man ) but what actually does he do?

set up the Junior Reds program for kids this season to great success, and as well as Benny the Bull...

[1 9 2 8]

then why should you keep selling it if other people are now getting paid to sell it? As the Lotto is the main source of fundraising for the South and North Sligo branches of the supporters clubs,then this major incentive will eventually affect the fundraising of these branches and in turn the clubs main source of income.
Hopefully the committee will put a stop to this if they haven’t already.

AFAIK the supporters clubs that sell lotto tickets hand the commission for selling tickets back to the club.

[1 9 2 8]

Second of all your missing the point the we were told the the applications were being sent out via the post. As well as that my friends have attended a number of these meetings and still we wait. I mean if you can get lads the forms to join will then no wonder the trust seems to have fallen by the way side. If i am told something i for one usually tend to believe what i am being told, i have no times for games.

..and these are the guys who wanted to run our club

[akearins]

Just after reading the thread on the Trust (was actually an Athlone fan I know who told me about it) and hopefully I can answer some questions posed.

First off the TRUST is still alive, and we accept fully that things have gone quiet but that is largely due to lads who have been involved from the start moving or changing jobs etc..and other commitments they had to tend to and we are down to the bare bones. In fact we have only 3 working members at present.

As for a supporters club in town well many have come and gone in the past and it was to stop this trend that the trust was established to try and maintain a body of support for the club that could be maintained. This is one of the major reasons we set up the trust as a co-op.

Also remember one of the first steps that the trust took was to seek a mandate from supporters and Sligo Rovers management to go ahead and set up the trust. At that meeting we set out our stall for all and members of management including the chairman were present and gave us their full backing (not one person voted against the trust that night)

I read where supporters are looking for trust application forms to be posted out to them. There is an application that can be downloaded on the website if supporters are really interested. Only last week we had out first life time membership subscribed too by a supporter in London.

Also opinions of others on the forum are not the views of the TRUST but individuals. I think great credit should be given to any body that raises funds for the club through whatever means. Those selling of lotto tickets on the town especially deserve great credit for giving up their free time to do so.Only when you try and raise funds will you really know the effort it takes and a lot of the time its a thankless job.But we are not in it for that.

Also someone mentioned that the trust raise money and do not hand it over to the club. Absolute rubbish. Remember the trust is the only one of the supporters bodies legally obliged to produce accounts.We have a bank account and if anyoen wants a copy of the stament just PM me.

As for the affiliation issue. The trust is an independent body. I cannot see the problem with this especially from the club .As mentioned earlier when we sought a mandate it was strongly emphasised that the trust would be independent form the club and again club members were in attendance and voted in favour of this.
Also why should the club have an issue with any body of supporetrs affiliated or indedendent if they are attempting to help the club in any way.
The club did not bring up any affiliation issues when the trust handed over over €3000 to them.
And at one managemt committee meeting one member rightly stated why should they have a problem with any supporetrs body if they "raised €10, sure isnt it €10 more than if they never existed"

In the beginning we met quite regularly with club officials, we outlined our plans and they expressed what they expected from us. One point we kept emphasising was that being independent we could maybe tap into revenue which for one reason or another club had overlooked or maybe some previous sponsors who had fallen out with the club may feel more comfortable donating indirectly through the club via the trust. Bottom line was that all money only raised would return to the club. But what we wanted was to take annual bills and pay them directly e.g previously the town supporters club paid the bus for half a season. This is the sort of thing the trust wanted to do so when we returned to sponsors we could tell them hand on heart that’s where your money went to.
Sad but true, sponsors sometimes want to know where their donations went too.

Finally. The trust will be meeting tomorrow evening in the City Hotel at 6.30pm (we can wait until 7pm if too early) and I would invite anyone interested to come along. The trust is not a dictatorship and anyone who wants to join and may have ideas of what they want to do with the trust are free to express their views at the meeting.
The trust can be the body that the club needs in town, but cannot operate without supporters being involved.
So please come along.
Rememebr the trust belongs to Sligo Rovers supporters.

P.s.At present there are 5 of the present management committee members who are members of the trust.Anyone who wants applications forms then pm me and I will psot them no worries.

[Guts&Glory]

Just after reading the thread on the Trust (was actually an Athlone fan I know who told me about it) and hopefully I can answer some questions posed........

Fair Play Alan, dont think anyone can dispute the above.

Having being involved in supporters clubs and raising funds for SRFC as well as Junior clubs for 20 years I know how tough it is trying to get money raised and keep peoples interests in supporters clubs.

In my time I have been involved/member of in 5 seperate ones alone in town all of which dissolved due to lack of interest by Sligo people.

I think a few lads need to get their facts in line before they comment which you have done in your reply.

Keep up the good work.

[akearins]

Trust meeting will now be at 7pm(not 6.30 as previois;y stated) in the city hotel Quay street this evening..

Look forward to seeing some new faces maybe...

[akearins]

Trust meeting held last night and only one new face turned up...

Talk is cheap