Hello all, and welcome to the first Green Army update for a while!
Admittedly we did have a ‘ Winter Update’ planned for late February, however the news of the takeover made a lot of that update a bit completely redundant – but here we are at last. Due to what’s happened at the club in recent weeks, the nature of this update has changed a fair bit, which we’ll get onto a bit later.
It is safe to say though that both on and off the pitch, this season has been a wild ride. The second half of the season has certainly been a painful and disheartening at times, and we once again find ourselves in a cut-throat relegation battle – as one of 4 teams looking to avoid that final relegation space as realistically, Gloucester City and Banbury United are down. We only have 3 games to go and 2 of those are against teams in the play offs who are looking to secure a bye in the first round in Brackley and Scunthorpe, so they certainly won’t be be taking those games against us lightly. As for that Rushall game, that may as well be a cup final.
Our home form has been difficult to endure as well, having won only three games in the last 210 days at the time of writing. Despite that though, we still average crowds of 867 – which is phenomenal support when you consider how little we’ve had to shout about in recent months. At present and despite being in the midst of our 5th relegation battle on the bounce, our average crowd is set to increase on last season’s average by 15%-20% – which is an incredible increase in numbers when you put everything into perspective.
Before I get into the serious stuff, I would like to say a a thank you to everyone that’s been checkout out the content on the website in recent months and the podcast. The numbers for both have been much higher than that we’ve expected to get in all honesty in terms of views and interaction, and were all extremely proud of it.
Hopefully we’ll have it all sorted soon but in the early part of the summer we are hoping to do a live podcast (in a pub obviously) with a Spartans legend, which all Green Army members will have free access to. Hopefully we’ll have more information on that in the coming weeks though.
Now, onto the serious stuff. I am expecting either the Supporters Club or Football Club to make an announcement on the matter in the near future, however at the end of the season the Supporters Club will be no more, as the club’s new regime are looking to put their own stamp on things and takeover the merchandising side of things. I think it’s best for now we leave the Supporters Club to communicate all the details of how that’s going to play out, but that does leave us with a problem in the very short term – as the Official Supporters Club Player of the Season was due to be sorted at this Saturday’s game against Rushall Olympic, where voting was set to take place.
Following a conversion with Supporters Club chairman Ian Hertwick, he’s asked ourselves to take on the responsibility of organising that going forward – and we were more than happy to take it on. It’s a trophy that’s somewhere between 40-50 years old, and has been awarded some real club legends over the years. To call it a prestigious award would be an understament. So this Saturday you’ll be able to vote in person (and online for the first time) for the Spartans Fans Player of the Season. More information about the voting will be communicated the coming.
With the Official Supporters Club set to be no more by the end of the month, this leaves us supporters without an official and democratic outlet to represent us. While as Green Army we have been able to maintain some clear lines off communication with the football club to try and get supporters points across in the past, it’s always been on an ad hoc basis. Of course we aren’t a democratically elected group either, but for some time we’ve wanted to change that.
With the recent takeover still seeming to rumble on, we’ve been contacted by a number of supporters with a questions and concerns about the new regime and the many rumours doing the rounds – and we can completely understand why people have these concerns So after nearly a year of toying with the idea of establishing a proper Supporters Trust, we feel like now is the right time to make the move and do just that, and set up a fully democratic organisation that can provide a service for supporters and try to keep the club accountable for it’s actions going forward.
On Good Friday we met with the Football Supporters Association Chief Executive Kevin Miles and our Network Manager Garreth Cummins, which was a very positive introductory meeting. Following the meeting, we can confirm that we plan on transforming the Green Army membership scheme into a fully fledged democratic and independent Supporters Trust with the FSA, and setting ourselves up as a Community Benefit Society.
Forming a fully fledged affiliate Supporters Trust with the FSA won’t be a quick process, and will take a few months to be completed if were going to do things properly and there are a number of steps to take to ensure the forming a proper Supporters Trust is done in the right way.
Having an established Supporters Trust gives everyone a fair and equal voice – where an elected committee will work to represent supporters views and opinions. As a member of a Supporters Trust, you’ll also be free to stand for elections to be a committee member, nominate other members for the committee and vote on issues that effect the Trust. I should stress at this point out that it’s not just going to be ‘Green Army lads’ that would be involved in this. This is something that all supporters are welcome to get involved and take part in.
The aim of having a trust would be to create a clear, healthy and productive relationship with the football club where we can feedback any issues/ideas from supporters and ensure supporters views are considered in the clubs decision making – and to ensure that the football club is transparent with it’s decision making going forward.
The work of moving to a full Supporters Trust has already began, and updates will hopefully be following in the near future. To get set up though, we do need to begin raising funds sooner rather than later and as we are already an associate member with the FSA, I thought it we would be wise to begin the 2024/25 memberships sales forward by a month to do just that.
Obviously when the trust is set up you’ll have all the aforementioned voting rights, as well as the right to nominate yourself or another member for a place on the committee when the time comes. As well as that though, you’ll also get the following
- Discounted and priority away travel on supporters coaches
- Free/discounted access to Green Army events and live podcasts
- Exclusive members pin badge
- Membership Card
- Entry into Seaton Ticket draw
For the sake of a bit of admin, we’ve decided to move away from the monthly membership draw prizes. Now that the 1899 club is up and running, monthly prizes are a bit redundant as they are often the same as some things on offer from the 1899 club – plus getting items signed is difficult when the kit staff already have 20+ shirts and balls to get signed. The remaining prize draws for April and May will still be going ahead as planned though, and you can find a round up who’s won what from this seasons monthly draws so far here.
Instead of the monthly draws, we’ve instead decided to giveaway a season ticket before the beginning of the new league campaign. To give enough people time to get signed up, we’ll likely do this sometime in July. If you do happen to buy season tickets when they first come on sale and you happen to win, fear not! As you can either have the season ticket you win (and bring a mate) or get the cash value for it.
As an extra thank you to the first 100 people that get signed up I’ll be giving away a prized possession of mine, in Peter Jeffries match worn shirt from the FA Cup 2nd round victory at Hartlepool United, which has been signed by all the team from that night. A truly special bit of Spartans history!
As soon as we hit that magic 100 number, I’ll sort out a draw for it.
So if you wish to sign up to help out with the trust, join us on the road next season (in whatever league were in) or just enjoy the podcast and just want to support us – you can do just that here.
I’d like to think that our first ‘open meeting’ as a trust to adopt articles of association and nominate committee members will take place at some stage in the summer – but of course we’ll keep you updated on that.
If anyone has a business and wants to support the trust with any form of sponsorship as a ‘Corporate Member’ then superb! Please drop us an email to danrolls94@hotmail.com and let us know how you’d like to help us. Obviously with the website, podcast and social media channels – we have plenty of scope to offer promotion.
Finally, thank you for reading this mammoth update. If you have any questions as ever, please just drop us a message – or email the above.
Cheers, Dan.