Trust Newsletter – October

Trust news

Trust on the Board

Following on from last month’s Newsletter, having achieved ten points from six games, we have continued the positive trend in September, having achieved a total of nineteen points from thirteen games to date, placing us in the play-offs, with performances, such as those against top of the league Chesterfield last Tuesday, and Southend on Saturday. It’s early days, but shows encouraging promise for the fixtures ahead. The most encouraging aspect in the performances is the positive style of football and entertainment value for the fans, not exactly a feature of recent seasons, and credit must go to Jim and the coaching staff in building a squad to perform in this new environment we find ourselves for the first time with limited financial resources.

September saw the Lotto “Kick off the Season” promotion draw resulting in Brett Grange winning the £5,000 prize, presented to him at the game against Chesterfield – congratulations Brett. In addition, the Rollover prize worth £6100 has been won by Mark Pritchard, incidentally, a Trust member. Mark is on holiday at present and his winning cheque will be presented to him at a future game – something for him to look forward to on his return. You have to be in it to win it, so if you’re not already playing, why not give yourself a chance to participate in the weekly and promotional prize draws, whilst contributing to the funding of the Academy at the same time.

Discussions with prospective investors continue but, as reported in previous Newsletters, continue to frustrate with regard to a positive outcome. As mentioned previously, the major problem is the time scale of any prospective investor differing from that we require, but efforts to achieve a positive result continues. We received the disappointing news last week that the Trust application for a grant under the Community Ownership Funding project worth £1m had been unsuccessful. However, we do have the opportunity to re-apply, and will do so in anticipation of a successful outcome next time.

The decision to live-stream the Boreham Wood away game on Tuesday 19th September in the Ratcliffe Suite was a huge success. The streaming fee was sponsored by the Trust, and the we will once more be sponsoring the streaming of the away game against Solihull Moors on Tuesday 3rd October. Details, including the opportunity to book catering for the evening have been posted by the Club, and we look forward to seeing all those who can’t travel attending the evening.

As part of the Fan Engagement Programme organised in conjunction with the Club, a reminder that the re-arranged meeting regarding volunteer involvement sought by the Club will be held on Thursday 5th October by “Teams”, commencing at 7.30pm. Details of the link to participate in the meeting was posted on the Club web site so please take part to find out how you may be able to assist.

Stacey Cliffe, a Trust member contacted me to request if members of her daughter’s local girls team could be considered as flag bearers for a future game. So many of the girls turn up at training sessions wearing Dale tops but never come to games and it was felt that introducing them to the Club in this way could convert them into attending future games. I contacted the Community Trust and Stacey and Dean are in touch with each other to arrange a suitable date.

That’s just one example of how contacting me regarding any topic may be able to be progressed. So, as I repeat every month, the Trust being represented on the Club Board, is to act on your behalf, so the above is only one example of how this request has been able to be achieved. Please contact me at murray@daletrust.co.uk with any suggestions, views, questions and I’ll certainly take them up on your behalf and report back to you.

Up the Dale
Murray

Member Engagement

This Thursday sees the first meeting of the much heralded Volunteer Army. It was meant to have been held last Thursday but was postponed a week at our request.  The meeting will be held via Teams starting at 7.30pm on Thursday 5th of October to discuss volunteering for the club for the remainder of this season and beyond.The first part of the meeting will cover current and upcoming opportunities that supporters can immediately get involved with, while the second half of the meeting will be an open forum to allow new ideas to be discussed.

To register for the meeting, please email media@rochdaleafc.co.uk, and the link to the teams meeting will be sent to you 24 hours before it commences. Can we urge as many Trust members to get involved as possible, even if it is just to hear what is being put forward?

Membership News

Hi all

Here’s the October membership update…

Firstly, I can confirm we now have a whopping 883 members (32% of Dale’s average home league crowd).

Here’s the full membership breakdown, for your reference:-

Member Summary – 2023/24 Totals         

Adult: 416

Exiles: 257 (UK -195; Overseas – 62)

Junior: 210 (12’s & under -111; 13’s to 16’s – 99)

Total: 883

Renewing: 819

New: 64

Total: 883

Donations: £1,195.00

Standing Orders (per month): £73.00

Standing Orders (annual): £480.00

NB: Share Donations not included

As a member of the Trust, you are ideally placed to promote membership, so if you are aware of others who have not already joined, please encourage them to do so. It could not be easier – either in person at the Trust Desk at home games, or simply joining on-line on the web site www.daletrust.co.uk.

Many thanks again for your continued support.

Trust in us.
Scott Goulding- membership officer

Former Players Association

Hi all
This month, we have introduced former players stories from their time at Dale featuring Dave Bayliss for October.
DOB: 8th June 1976Dale debut: 1^st April 1995 v Barnet, Home 2-2

Also played for: Luton Town, Chester City, Wrexham, Lancaster City

Time at Dale: Dave Bayliss is a central defender who has represented Dale in two separate spells making 189 appeances, scoring 9 goals.

Having come through the ranks at the Club, he came back for a loan spell later on in his career. He was the first real product of the youth set up that had been reorganised in the late 80’s. There had been others before who had come through and threatened to make it as a professional footballer but significantly none of them went on to play more than a handful of appearances.

It was under Mick Docherty that he first made his appearance in a Dale shirt as a fresh faced eighteen year old and he did well enough to remain a regular member of the squad during this time. Cruelly, Dave was left out of Dale’s trip to Anfield in the FA Cup despite being a star performer in the side which had got there in the first place. Despite that snub, he continued to be a regular in the side and looked to be a real prospect for the future, however that summer, Docherty was on his way out and Graham Barrow was appointed manager, never really taking a shine to him.

Under Steve Parkin, Dave became more of a regular in the side, despite there always being another two or three central defenders at the Club for competition, he played more games in two seasons than he had under three years of Graham Barrow. He matured as a player and was no longer looked upon as being the young up and coming player, but more as a player worthy of a first team place.

Dave left to join Luton Town but returned to Dale, making four appearances for Dale, the last of which ended with a red card against Wrexham, the side he was on loan to Dale from at the time.

What are you doing since leaving Dale?: Dave spent 4 seasons at Luton Town making 37 league appearances plus 9 games on loan to Chester City before being released in the summer of 2005.

He spent the next season with Wrexham making 22 league appearances plus the 4 game loan spell back at Rochdale.

In the summer of 2006, he joined Lancaster City but then left at the start of November to join Barrow, later becoming joint manager of Barrow, along with Darren Sheridan overseeing a major turnaround in their season. The Bluebirds were 19th in the Conference North when they took over before an excellent second half to the season saw them finish 5th and qualify for the end of season play-offs. A 4–0 aggregate win over Telford United in the semi-finals was followed by a 1–0 win against Stalybridge Celtic in the final thus a place in the Conference National for the 2008–09 season followed by successfully keeping Barrow in the Conference National the following season, finishing 20th. With Sheridan he led Barrow to Wembley and the 2010 FA Trophy final, where they played Conference National champions Stevenage Borough, who they defeated 2–1 after extra time to lift the Trophy. He remained registered as a player until the end of the 2010–2011 season before leaving in November 2013.

We will be looking forward to some great stories, which can be viewed on the FPA website, www.rochdalefpa.com, which also has news on other stuff happening over recent times.

If you used to play for the Club or you have contact details for someone who has, please contact Keith and Shiv at formerplayers@daletrust.co.uk

Trust Board Meeting

Next meeting date: Monday 2nd October

Agenda:
1)    Welcome and Apologies
2)    Approval of minutes
3)    Membership News
4)    Events
* Soilhull Moors broadcast
* Volunteer Army
* October Fans Meeting
5)    Community Ownership Fund
6)    Oldham home game ticketing
7)    Planning for Trust Response to situation where Club requires large amount of money / Purchase Shares
8)    Update of MOU
9)    Actions on Catering
10)    Programme / Memorabilia Collection
11)    Xmas Kids Activities
12)    AOB

Trust Diary

Tuesday 4th October – Solihull Moors (a) – Ground Guide
Saturday 7th October – Maidenhead (a) – Ground Guide
Saturday 14th October – FA Cup 4th Qualifying Round
Saturday 21st October – Oldham (h) – Buy Tickets
Tuesday 24th October – Gateshead (h) – Buy Tickets
Saturday 28th October – Hartlepool (a) – Ground Guide

Questions – General

Q: With Oldham selling their full allocation of tickets in a few hours today, could it be quickly established with the club whether the game will be all ticket and what plans are in place to stop away fans getting into home areas? One look at various social media sites gives a clear idea that many have that intention. Tickets appear to be currently on sale via the Dale website, so this needs addressing urgently.

A) We are discussing this at our Trust Board meeting on Monday and will update when we can. There is a need for this to happen sooner rather than later, with the fixture just three weeks off.

We have also been contacted recently regarding the lack of shirt printing that is taking place in the Club Shop. We have spoken to the Club, and whilst there has been a significant cost increase with the letters and numbers, there is a massive problem across the division with a shortage of letters. The letters come from https://www.nbstore.nl/category/letters-and-numbers/ and they are out of stock for many letters. At this moment in time, it is not possible to purchase letters c, d, f, or y in white, letters c, d, or f in black, or number 0 in black.

Of the current senior squad, based on the above stock, it would not be possible to have the following names printed on home shirts: MOULDEN, TAYLOR, EBANKS-LANDELL, SINCLAIR,  CLAYTON, MITCHELL, RODNEY, UCHEGBULAM, KELLY, McDERMOTT, ODUROH, AFUYE, CONWAY, FERGUSON and HENDERSON.

It is not just us who is affected by this. There has been one club who has been to the Crown Oil Arena this season who have used alternative lettering, and Trust Director Murray Knight was present at the Club this week when a supporter from a rival club contacted the Club wanting a shirt printing as it was unavailable at their own club.

This is also having an impact on Trust activities as the availability of letters is preventing us giving away the player’s shirt for our Player of the Month winner. We are currently working on a solution to this.

For general enquires, email info@daletrust.co.uk

Questions – Trust Director

Murray
To contact Trust Director Murray Knight, email murray@daletrust.co.uk

Matchday and Commercial Team

Firstly, contact details.
a) Contact this email matchday@daletrust.co.uk if you have any concerns about any home game at the Crown Oil Arena. This can relate to ticketing, kiosks, stewarding, and crowd issues. 
b) If you have any concerns regarding the Club Shop or Hospitality at matches, then  email commercial@daletrust.co.uk

Following our last newsletter, the Trusts Commercial and Matchday team furthered the action plan we published in our last newsletter and had a successful and fruitful meeting with club representatives, COO George Delves and Ryan Bradley. It was pleasing to report that both Trust and Club were basically on the same hymn sheet though some actions need further work. Both sides agreed that we should meet further to progress/discuss what was raised and to further develop the types of specialised meetings.
Below is a brief report on progress made to date.  Our work is in an early phase and as we stressed before, is a work in progress. We will be bringing additional things to these meetings, but we hope to finalise below first.
Below is where we are up to at the moment. following the meeting, agreed actions in italics.

ACTIONS

• Family section to be agreed with club (yes we know we are supposed to have one but we need to reinvent it again.) plus set up a space in the Sandy (first 30 ft) complementing the seated area at the car park end, both sections clearly signed and marked with signage in the ground and on perimeter reminding that this area is for parents/guardians and younger children, couple this also with “her game to” it can provide a safer refuge for some of our female fans.

Along with these areas being clearly marked and clearly advertised and allocated the need for a constant continuity stewarding is needed, regular and consistent stewards for these areas is essential, it will build up trust and if the right people are allocated then a “relationship” with the fans can be established. Also, we wonder if the club/CT could furnish a couple of people to become possible family support liaison stewards for both these areas, this would show a clear link for fans to the club/CT/Fans Trust and act as liaison personal for family fans.
From conversations and from comments received any designated area in the Sandy does not have to be inclusive, but any others using that area would need to be aware it is a family area so maybe modification of language and behaviour might be needed.
Agreed:

• Club to look at signage in the family stand to make it clear and identifiable.
• They are going to talk to Taurus about having a family liaison officer covering each stand who are consistent member of their team covering this area who will be clearly identified.

           Not agreed:

• Sandy Lane at this time having a family area was not agreed due to logistically managing it in a standing area.    

Stewards in general desperately need to be better, customer friendly, and look to engage supporters whilst looking to ensure they enforce ground rules, protocols for behaviour on the ground need to be available to all and especially for any family designated area so stewards can enforce the rules if need be. A clear policy on searches needs to be approved and published so all know what the policy is, this is something which families have asked for as a parent often does not get searched but an accompanying adolescent does, clearly not right.
Agreed

• Club to talk with Taurus about looking to set up more consistent stewarding for each game.  40% of stewards are consistent members of the team George is going to discuss with Taurus about looking to improve this % but we have a clear % of the current situation.  
• Clear and quickly identified Do’s and Don’ts to be on each this is aimed at what panned items that should not be brought in other ground.
• The Amnesty suggestion is going to be talked through with the police because to items being placed in the Amnesty box could contain illegal items but not dismissed at this time.
• Concerns around drug use in the ground, whilst it was acknowledged that this is a wider societal problem the steward needs to be more vigilant around this area and take action. 

• Community Trust needs to identify what support is needed from the club/trust to help them improve the attendance of young people at the club on match days. The CT and Fans’ trust need to liaise more to see if the fans trust can be of help.

Agreed

• Special promotions for each event will look to include the trust in how we can help promote and support.
• However Ryan was of the opinion that for this to be best supported it needs the club to look more into how it markets itself and this would possibly need a full-time member of staff. 
• Club to include marketing has part of the volunteer army to see if we have members of the fan base that could offer help in setting this up.

• Dale Youth need to be engaged with, proper engagement will allow for proper explanations to what is and what isn’t acceptable. The voice of the youth (AND WE HAVE SPOKEN TO SOME OF THEM) are clearly stating that on match days they are treated badly so why shouldn’t they react badly. They need to be talked to and possible amnesty of such items like flares etc being able to be handed in/dropped in a container placed outside the ground and the club need to identify unacceptable behaviour which has to be clearly conveyed prior to fans entering the stadium and this should also include what actions the club will take to those who choose to flaunt the rules. We noted Stockport’s amnesty buckets and also the occasional use of sniffer dogs served to remind fans that sneaking things in may backfire and that sanctions would be acted upon. Fans and young fans need to know that if caught there will be sanctions, yet dialogue and building a rapport with the younger people (now on the mid to left side of Sandy) is clearly needed Stewarding/ Fan Liaison officers need to engage the youth who clearly won’t change their behaviour patterns till we accept that we need to respect them as individuals

Agreed

• The  Amnesty suggestion is going to be talked through with the police due to items being placed in the amnesty box could contain illegal items but not dismissed at this time.
• Clear signage of what cannot be taken into the ground
• The club with support from the community trust are looking to support the education process rather than simply banning young fans to try and make positive change and continued support. However, the club acknowledge this will need to be subject to the seriousness of the behaviour displayed and could involve short-term exclusions whilst education work is undertaken. 

Smoking additional item
Club have stated they would like to resolve this long-standing issue and this could include break-out areas at half time but acknowledge that smoking inside the ground cannot be allowed in any area under current legislation.
The possibility of setting up temporary areas outside the stadium will be explored but then the cost of setting this up and stewarded will be undertaken, by George and Ryan.

This work is ongoing, we look forward to members contributing where they think fit and the team will progress where appropriate issues raised.

Finally, on a more commercial nature. The trust has been constantly asked in recent times, especially as we all are aware of financial strains that the club has reported back
on and its potential for dire consequences if we, the Trust, have a Plan A, B or even a C should we find ourselves in peril like some other league and non-league clubs have suffered in recent times. While we hope that this will not happen at the Dale the Trust has turned its thoughts to what would happen if we were to find ourselves with the unthinkable.
Though in its very early days, the Trust is looking at what we could do should action be needed, and we stress here it’s a planning consultation we are working on which hopefully we may never need to do, and will outline further in later newsletters. At this stage, though one idea floating is which businesses in Rochdale and the district if needed could be called upon to, and we stress again at this moment it’s hypothetical, but which businesses in the area may be prepared to invest a sum, small or large to join some form of investment working with the Trust. So our question is, if you are a business, small or large the Trust would like to hear from you in confidence to progress some ideas which we the trust are considering and, more importantly, to hear views and feedback from the local business community..

Again, it is early days, but we hope to have some more concrete proposals in the future which we want. local businesses to consider. If you want more information then contact the trust either at info@daletrust.co.uk  or commercial@daletrust.co.uk

Questions – Fan Liaison

George, Rhys

For any supporters of other clubs ahead of their trip to the Crown Oil Arena and to offer any feedback following the game email fanliaison@daletrust.co.uk

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