[maccawozzagod]

I can thtink of one football club that has a free official supporters club.

The price for memberships for adults are £5 at any home match or OSC meeting (as you are already donating to the club by being there), £8 national members and £10 international members.

At present you recieve your membership card and limited run, one season issue badge. The membership entitles you to join in with choices made by the OSC regarding future plans and ways of helping the club. There are plans (and have been for a while to be fair) to expand what you get for your money to include christmas cards, newsletters etc.

The main reason for becoming a member of any supporters body is identifying yourself as affiliated to that particular body. Wherever I go on holiday, people dont have to ask me where I am from; the badge, the shirt etc give it away.

All monies raised by our OSC go into the football club but via something that we approve of. We wouldn't just give them a cheque for x amount so that they could go out a buy a duffer or a bronze statue of Frank Martindale etc. But in the past we may have spent money on decorating the clubhouse, new carpets, etc. The point is - we decided what the money goes on. As the club has progressed so has the expenditure and we cant generally afford the things the club now needs like a roof or a new bar. Not unless we drastically increase the OSC and drastically increase our activities. We should have a 1000 members at least through our home crowd - that would double last years fundraising. We should - and will by the start of the new season -have at least one event planned per month in the sportsbar that should raise at least £150 per event. Thats another £1800.

etc etc

little things that should be done as standard and will be given the passage of a little time and we have more money to do something with. There were numerous dissenters last season against the OSC and I was one of them, I hope that some events this season have gone a long way to swinging their opinion and that next season I can sit back and wait for the memberships to come flooding in.

In essence it is a only donation to the club, but via a means of getting that money to something you would like to see it go towards.

We all recognise that Stanley could benefit from improved corporate facilities, but I wouldn't contribute personally to that as I would not see the benefit - apart from the long term increased revenue streams that in turn filter down to improved players and general facilities. Whatever the club does it does so with the view that it will be beneficial to the long term stability. But sometimes it may not remember to paint the turnstiles or whatever. Thats where we can come in. Personally I'd rather hoard any funds until such time as we have something constructive to put it towards. At this moment in time 10 grand would go a long way towards a bar behind one goal!