[maccawozzagod]

to the non attendee's

tonights meeting was pretty much a verbal oration of everything that can be found at supporters direct (click the link). We could possibly have pushed a vote for enough people who were decided for this to have happened anyway but we/I would rather that people were enough informed/opinionated to make a rational decision properly.

There was no recording of the night, but as I said, everything you need to know can be found at Supporters Direct, you just need to plough through the information,

To put it into as short a nutshell as I can (and there is plenty of padding out):

the pro is that an ST is there to try to benefit the club and the fan for a long time as opposed to (in our situation) an OSC that provides funds where and when it can for this, that, and t'uther.
a con is that an ST will hold onto money and use to acquire shareholding when and where it can rather that just giving money where it wants or can (not set in stone though).

these things are changeable to a degree so an ST could, if it wanted to, fundraise and pour its money into what could be seen to be a blackhole. However, the Supporters Direct model is that you try to exchange funds for representation wherever possible, as well as other things that can become transparent as we go along

There were around 35 people present tonight. Whilst this is not FANtastic it is a reasonable start (only 17 at the PNE version) . I would hope that the next meeting will attract the same people plus a few more at the very least. What was decided tonight was nowt! The people who were interested enough (and there were a couple of apologies) to get involved from the beginning have come along and listened to what was said. There were a few negative comments (justified) and there were some positive comments (justified) - those present had the benefit of making their own mind up. We decided that rather than try to push something through here and now we would adjourn until the next OSC meeting. In the mean time the concerned people could discuss what they had heard or view extra information until they had decided one way or the other.

I was premature in my opening post when I said that the OSC and ASSF would cease to exist afterwards - this may not be the case. Especially as it may be necessary to maintain a fundraising arm at the very least. But these organisations could be brought under the wing of an umbrella organisation if necessary. But that will be down to the individual groups to decide.

So, the next scheduled OSC meeting will be utilised again for the purpose of discussion of a Supporters Trust. There may need to be a bit of 'officialdom' regards the initial set of the meeting just to formalise one or two things that have gone before - but the crux of the meeting will be for the wider fanbase to decide for themselves whether A) this is something that ASFC wants and B) whether they want to get involved.

What I would ask of each and every one of you is whether you think the future of this club is worth fighting for? We may not be in immediate danger now but we were a week ago. As fans, we werent in any position to act postively - we only had protests and vigils. We can now act in a postive manner and try to safeguard the future of our club? Do you want in?

Meeting set for 14th December at 7:30 in the clubhouse

I will attempt to call an OSC meeting prior to this as I think we have other things to discuss in addition to this matter. Could all those concerned please put their hands up and I'll try to set a date.