The 12th Man : An Overall View

By Helgy
January 4 2010

Recently a new incentive started called the 12th Man, a fantastic opportunity for the Imps fans to get behind the club in ways that they never could.

 

The 12th man is run by Julian Burley, Paul Wilson and "Helgy". With the help of Dave Roberts, they set up the 12th man initiative.. The club wanted to remain seperate and not involved but would support the 12th man hence no-one given the squad number 12, it was for the fans.

We got involved in charity work and played some fans games against the Cods at their's, winning 3-2, then again at Sincil Bank and again running out 2-1 winners for my first ever game at the bank.

From these we donated £550 to Lincoln's Children's Ward, then at Christmas I donated 30 toys but this was done under the 12th man. Our first meeting was held in November at the Bank and various ideas were sought and raised.
The 12th man is not based on the trust we have no ruling body all fans are the 12th man.

WE are not interested in politics or maintaining a power base. We just see that nothing is being done to help the club so the 12th man was born to do this.

The first 600 shares were purchased just before xmas and it was my idea to set up a scheme of a tenner a month paid by the fans in exchange for shares but the thing is even if you cannot afford this then £2 would be great and you can pay more than a tenner if you wish.

It's great that we have 3 LCFC sites run by the fans and we all need to work together as each site offers something different. Poshimp's site offers a more mature debate, Nathan's site is similar to a shock jockey with no holds barred, while Vitals can be either serious or funny.

We need to get the message out that we all have a role to play in the clubs fortunes. There was some negativity from certain quarters when ideas were first floated but these have died down, even the old Trust chair thought that the 12th man had a hidden agenda. No hidden agenda just seeking a way forward after 24 out of 25 seasons in the bargain basement.

In the new year we hope that the tenner a month scheme really takes off, there has been plenty of interest, we will be hosting a race night soon and all the funds raised will be used to purchase shares, the one thing that came out was that we should not just hand money over to the club cart blance, but rather get something in return and if this does indeed take off then we shall.

Every fan is the 12th man its that simple.

Helgy.