Clarets Trust Open Meeting Report-Press Release

By Turfmanphil
October 4 2005

An Official Clarets Trust Press Release has been issued reporting on the outcome of the recent Open Meeting held in the Foundation on the 24th September following the Brighton match. People are also encouraged to visit the new Trust website to keep up to date on all Clarets Trust issues.

 

 

Clarets Trust Open Meeting Report - 26/09/2005

The Clarets Trust was given a boost on Saturday, when it was announced that trust Chair Steve Corrigan was pledging the proxy voting rights on his 100 shares in Burnley FC to the Trust. This news was the highlight of a busy agenda at the Trust’s open meeting, held at Turf Moor after the Brighton game.

As the purchase of shares in BFC is one of the Trust’s stated aims, the receipt of proxy votes is, in the short term at least, a real bonus whilst the trust raises funds to buy more of its own shares. Other new plans announced at the meeting include the introduction of share-buying targets, but this will initially depend on the take-up of membership renewals, which will soon be due.

David Newton then spoke about the launch of the new Trust website, which allows new and renewing members to join the Trust online, and which is packed with information about the Trust for those unsure about what its aims are.

Earlier, Steve Corrigan had outlined recent changes to the organisation of the Trust, and praised the efforts of several volunteers, notably Daz Arnone, Jonas Brown and Alistair Cockroft, whose work on developing the new website had helped to fulfil the Trust’s promise at the previous open meeting to vastly improve communications with the membership.

Another new face on the Steering Group will be former Burnley MP Peter Pike, and details of his position will be announced shortly when he returns from holiday. John Ingham was also introduced as the new Treasurer, and a financial report was deferred due to there now being a handover period.

Phil Lea, another volunteer and himself a Trust Corporate Member, explained several new ways in which the trust is trying to attract more companies to join the Trust, which will help to increase their profile and that of the Trust. Phil then handed over a £200 donation from his consultancy to the Trust, for the purchase of another share in BFC.

Martin Barnes then gave details of the various community initiatives the Trust is undertaking, and appealed for greater involvement from trust members. The next event will be the Anti-Racism 5-a-side competition, to be held at the BFC Leisure Centre on 16th October. Entries from teams are still invited. Points raised from the floor included a suggestion that BFC could do more to involve the Asian community, and Martin Barnes promised to take this up with the club. Another member expressed concern that Trust membership might dwindle now that the Trust had decided that a buy-back of Turf Moor was not feasible.

David Newton pointed out that Trusts only usually came to the fore when their clubs were in crisis, and the challenge facing the Clarets Trust was to attract members by convincing them that the football club is a vital part of the community to fans and non-fans alike.

The meeting closed with an announcement from Steve Corrigan that Burnley FC Chairman Barry Kilby has agreed to attend a future Trust open meeting on a date to be agreed. One topic for discussion would be whether the club would ‘ring fence’ Trust share purchase monies for specific projects, a question which was raised by one member at Saturday’s meeting. After the meeting, a trust member volunteered to help with the manning of the unused programme booths as Trust Information Centre on match days. These were kindly donated by the club for use by the Trust.