The Tottenham Hotspur Supporters Trust

[dimiSpur]

What is their point? They are in a fantastic position where they are able to meet with senior Club officials. They have recently created a Twitter account (as in the past week) and I followed them. This morning they tweeted saying that the minutes of the meeting with THFC officials would be posted on their website within 48 hours, so I checked out their website to see what else is new.

What I saw was a joke. The website looks like it was created decades ago. You can't become a Trust member, which is fine, but there's no reasons as to why. Is it some kind of illuminati group? The most recent website published event was Steve Perryman's induction into the Hall of Fame in 2008! 5 years ago. A spell to rival Arsenal's last trophy win.

As a Trust they are in a fantastic position to consult fans on what they feel is wrong and put their worries to those in charge. We plough alot of money into Spurs and if the Club meet with a section from time to time, that small section should IMO make sure as many fans opinion's as possible are taken into consideration, not merely the Masons currently running things.

So I tweeted them my concerns, in no uncertain terms. I will reply here with their answers. I feel strongly about this and I think as fans we should take control of this. The last meeting posted was in the summer of 2011. In that meeting very simple things were said. The board mentioned no new details and didn't seem to be posed with any difficult questions. Daniel Levy himself turned up for that meeting. We await last night's meeting to be posted to see what was asked and said.

 

[John Ramsey]

Don't know if you read the minutes yet but the new board makes for grim reading. A number of supporters filing complaints with Supporter Direct on how We Are N17 essentially became the board without any rebrand or launch of a group that was essentially dead. All of a like mind which means no objectivity, utter disgrace! Some of the abuse Spurs fans have taken from one or two of these folks was shocking. Ask Norman Giller! For anyone that thought the trust was a waste of time Wednesday night removed all reasonable doubt #sadtime

 

[Dangerous_Clive]

You have my sword, OP.

 

[dimiSpur]

You joined today and this is your one post. I'm guessing you might be in some way connected or formerly connected to the Trust?

I've tweeted them today also asking how one becomes a member or why details of re-opening membership were not disclosed. Are they some kind of secret society amongst Spurs fans with monetary gain? The AGM meeting suggested they have a balance of £11.500. No idea whether that financial position is a strong one or a weak one for the THST, but given they are a profitable company (at least in some sense) makes cynicism particularly easy to draught.

 

[playboypaul]

I found this on the THST website:

2) Become a member of Tottenham Supporters Trust. Membership is just ten pounds per year. The trust gives you a direct link to Spurs by giving you a voice in business issues of the club. As well as issues involving racism, importance of overseas and remote fans as well as other supporters who cannot always get to games. They realise that fans really care about the good name of the club and if treated properly will reward the club with absolute loyalty. On this note Jimmy Brecknock is in charge of regional matters with the trust. This is of importance, at least to those of us in Canada because our own member of the Ontario Supporters Club, Kevin Cracknell is liasing with Jimmy. Kev is in an ideal situation, having been an overseas supporter and now spending considerable time in London. Again, I am a member of the Trust and proud to be one.

It was under Home>About Us>Regions.

It was written by the head of the Canadian Supporters Club.

I have highlighted the relevant sentance's. At least it appears that you can join and maybe the name, Jimy Brecknock means something to you or if not, through him you maybe able to get in contact with the trust as he is apparently involved with them somehow.

He has a facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/jimmy.brecknock if that helps.

Also, the writer of this piece, Cameron Tilbury leaves contact details and says this:

"I'm more than willling to help anyone get more information on Spurs Members, Spurs Trust, starting a branch of a supporters club all you have to do is ask."

So he may also be someone through who you could get some form of dialog going with THST.

His details are:

Cameron Tilbury
Whitby, Ontario, Canada
[email protected]
mobile e-mail: [email protected]

PS: And there is a page of Trust members: http://www.tottenhamtrust.com/index.php/aboutus/membership

Maybe there are some contact details amongst that lot. Worth a look if you feel strongly about it.

And if all else fails, here is their postal address. I Know its only a PO box number but you never know.


Tottenham Hotspur Supporters' Trust

PO Box 38902

London

N22 8XH

 

[playboypaul]

Looking through the site further, I found more names of people associated with the trust, at:

Home > About Us > Finance and Treasurer.

I found the name Trevor Payne. He was the treasurer of THST but has since passed away. Doing a little digging and his name led me on to be able to find the names of others who are/where part of THST. One of those names was, Peter Haring.

He was/is Chairman of THST. He is also part of something called the TTT (Tottenham Tribute Trust), this trust is still active (as recent as 15th Feb '13) and Peter is still part of it, so maybe through this site you could get in contact with him and get some answers to what you want to know, seeing as he was/is chairman of THST.

Website: http://www.tottenhamtt.org/home/

Also I found the name of, Daniel Wynne. He was Vice-Chair, then elected as Chairman but stood down and the last info I found said that he was still a board member. He may or may not be, still involved with THST but he is a lot more accessible.

He also happens to be the clubs match day commentator.

He can be contacted here:

https://twitter.com/danielwynnethfc

He was posting as recently as five miutes ago.

Hope that helps.

 

[playboypaul]

One more thing, they have their own forum and it was active today. They have a link to it on then menu of their website.

Here it is: http://www.tottenhamtrustforum.com/

They have a thread about how to join the trust but there are no posts, hhhmmmm, weird.

Good luck.

 

[dimiSpur]

They have a new website now. That website is from 2008. They unveiled their new site today: THSTOfficial.co.uk

Thus far it's a very simplistic site and its mentioned in the AGM report as something that took a chunk of their budget. I made a website alot more intricate than that one for a grand total of £50. So I don't know how much they're putting that one down for.

In any case, there is a sense of mysticism surrounding the THST. I feel its a great format for fans to relay concerns to the Club. Imagine a Trust with many members with threads on sites such as these dedicated to getting opinions and concerns of the majority of fans. It's a great platform and a great link between Club and fans. The Trust is entitled to 3 meetings with Club officials per annum, something wasted on this sorry bunch.

 

[whitelightwhiteheat]

We bang on about Arsenal's lack of trophies BUT... 2008 was our last trophy win....

 

[punky]

Thus far it's a very simplistic site and its mentioned in the AGM report as something that took a chunk of their budget. I made a website alot more intricate than that one for a grand total of £50. So I don't know how much they're putting that one down for.

Web site costs are down as £537 but not only would this cover development but also hosting (reasonable figure would be £60-£120 per year, plus the new domain which could have been purchased for up to 5 years in advance. It's a basic site but there may be a SLA in place which includes further changes/updates or responding to downtime involved. We'd need to see the invoice before we can speculate.

The annual income for the year ending 31st August 2012 the income was a grand total of £68. So their website costs are almost 10x that amount and so would be fair to say accounts for a fair chunk of their budget. The accountants (auditors) charged £360 and they paid £450 in donations (to where it doesn't say).

In summary:

Income = £68 (subscriptions) + £7 (bank interest. they have £476 in investments) = £75
Expenditure = £1593

Total operating loss = £1518


So it's unsurprising the group is so impotent with financial statements like that really.

 

[Bill_Oddie]

THST Official ‏@THSTOfficial
*THST NEWS* The Minutes of the THST AGM are now available to view at http://www.THSTOfficial.co.uk Please RT. #COYS

 

[John Ramsey]

You joined today and this is your one post. I'm guessing you might be in some way connected or formerly connected to the Trust?

I was involved with the Trust over 10 years ago for a few years. I lurk many forums just to read opinion but I did feel compelled to reply when I read your post.

THST lost its way and the club has never really taken it that seriously thus I stopped supporting it. And the new vice chair was a root cause of many of us walking away from the trust at that time. Also can't believe that some of the people now involved in the changes on the board had also walked away some time ago and to my knowledge not even members.

As you point out in this thread there is not a considerable amount of money in the bank for an organisation that is non-profit by definition. And effectively membership has been closed for some years.

Sorry if anyone takes offence but something stinks. No democratic process on a body to represent fans of the club? Even if fans wanted to become members to have their say on the board changes they simply couldn't. It all stinks to high hell for me I am afraid and I will be voicing the same concerns to Supporter Direct and the club

 

[OmarsComing]

Create our own trust

 

[dimiSpur]

Create our own trust

Don't know if you're serious or kidding but it could be something viable. Something needs to be done about this anti democratic bunch. Their secrecy is something Dan Brown could write about.

 

[OmarsComing]

Obv serious, otherwise why would you have created this thread?

 

[benski]

1882 movement seem much more appropriate guys for something like this. Sounds like THST are a pretty clueless bunch

 

[Nocando]

Great work Dimi and the rest.

I think creating a new one does sounds viable. I don't necessarily think it should be part of 1882's remit though, more so I think it should incorporate that as a standing agenda item or be intrinsically linked.

Having a democratic, open book, policy is the only way forward and board members should be voted in (and out) on an annual or bi-annual basis. As it's unlikely to entail complex matters, rotating the board shouldn't be a problem.

Of course membership should be open to all and the accounts should be made public.

I'm willing to join at the very least. Maybe someone should contact the club offering to either open up the existing trust or create a new one listing how the propose it should be run and maybe include a list of those people (names and addresses) that are willing to join or help out (to show seriousness).

Daniel Wynne often speaks on behalf of Tottenham supporters on Five Live. There's a certain media element to the Trust when the club may not be willing to comment (therefore policies needed to be noted down). He commented recently on the yid chanting and came across eloquently and I'd say he was generally representative of the majority of supporters views.

 

[dimiSpur]

Well when it comes to fan interaction the go-to man is Jonathan Waite at Spurs. I see him regularly walking around behind the Paxton. I was going to say if I see him today I'll mention something or ask about the possibility, however my plan for today involves getting absolutely hammered before kick off otherwise the nerves are unbearable.

Daniel Wynne is part of the THST. I'll track him down on Twitter tomorrow and ask around for more details on this secret society that represents us.

 

[John Ramsey]

1882 movement seem much more appropriate guys for something like this. Sounds like THST are a pretty clueless bunch

1882 would be a very good group to spearhead any supporter/club communication. They very much champion fans working together, THST now has a board with members that have divided and abused fans through social networking. And if they decided, could in fact form 1882 in to a supporters trust.

Important to note that the club will listen to any supporters group or representative group. They only commit to meet with THST a few times a year. That doesn't mean they will ONLY meet with THST to discuss fan issues ...

Some feedback I have regarding the "appointment" of the current board to the trust. They can only be interim and must by virtue of the rules that dictate trust conduct be voted permanently by member within a time period deemed reasonably sufficient to allow others to submit candidacy for vacated board roles. In other words can only be permanently appointed through democratic vote of members (yet no one can join) and can only have an interim status if the roles have been abdicated by other board members and those replacing can not have resigned positions on board before.

I see also the first campaign is to improve 3G/Wifi at the ground. Just what we always need during a game, a way to bury hour heads on our mobile devices, after all that is exactly why we go to games right? Glad the burning issues are being appropriately addressed

 

[John Ramsey]

Some feedback I have regarding the "appointment" of the current board to the trust. They can only be interim and must by virtue of the rules that dictate trust conduct be voted permanently by member within a time period deemed reasonably sufficient to allow others to submit candidacy for vacated board roles. In other words can only be permanently appointed through democratic vote of members (yet no one can join) and can only have an interim status if the roles have been abdicated by other board members and those replacing can not have resigned positions on board before.

Just a note on this point. It is unofficial though from a source working closely in another supporters trust. Waiting on a proper confirmation