The Trust committee met on Thursday for one of their regular meetings, and a brief summary of the meeting is as follows:
Memberships have been open for two weeks now, and there have been in excess of fifty members signing up for the new season. As always, there is a very healthy number of exiled supporters, with five supporters signing up from Norway. Our furthest afield members are from China and Western Australia.
The new looked membership cards will arrive next week and will be sent out as soon as after. All of last season members are being wrote to in the next few days regarding signing up again for the new season. The move of the website to www.DaleTrust.co.uk had gone relatively smoothly, and the vast majority of the renewals had been online.
A fundraising competition is to be held by the Trust in the next few days. The competition will feature a series of predictions over the coming season by supporters. Entry will be £3, with 50% of the funds going to the top three, and the remainder being kept by the Trust. One or two minor changes are planned, but it is hoped that it can be launched in the next few days.
A Fans Forum which will allow supporters to quiz the management and directors is being sought, and a date for this should be announced very soon. It was agreed to keep this as free entry to all supporters, as it has been for the last few years. The event would be used by the Trust to boost membership and to get people taking part in the aforementioned competition. In addition, the Trust would be seeking one of the regular meeting with the directors to take place in the next month or so.
Further work is planned with the club. The club’s involvement with the forthcoming Rochdale runs would see the Trust support the club on this. Two of the Trust committee members would be taking part in the races, and the Trust would be encouraging as many members to take part wearing Dale shirts as possible. The non running members of the Trust would support the club’s promotion at the event to the people of the town.
The Trust Charity of the Year vote was still continuing with the close of vote being on Friday 17th July. An announcement will be made as soon after on the Trust website.
Following concerns from members and supporters, the forthcoming fixture with Blackpool was discussed. There is a fear of whether supporters will be refunded or not, should the fixture be abandoned as was the case in their last fixture. The Football League have been contacted on two occasions so far, but they have so far failed to respond. Further requests will be made to both Blackpool and the Football League, and members will be informed as and when they respond.
The committee voted unanimously for Colin Cavanah to return to the Trust as a co opted member following his recent work with the relaunch of the website.
The meeting finished with a discussion regarding a new fundraising possibility that would have benefits for both the community and the football club. Further discussions are planned with regards to this, but it is hoped that an announcement could be made in the next two or three weeks.