Supporters Trust

As we look forward to the new season we wanted to update you on a few things:

Member Survey

By now you should have received the survey which has been compiled in collaboration with the Club. Many of the questions relate to new initiatives that we are exploring with them to improve the fan experience and projects that will provide financial assistance to the Club. Your feedback on this is really important as it will help shape ST policy and inform our decisions. If you can spare a few minutes to complete the questionnaire it would be much appreciated.

Launch of the Academy Fund

One of the most important and exciting new projects is the launch of the Academy Fund. This fundraising initiative is being launched in conjunction with Bolton At Home who share our desire to see young talent developed at the club. To get the ball rolling with our support of young players, we will be sponsoring Jeff King, Connor Hall, Jake Turner and Alex Perry for the 17/18 season. In addition, we have also sponsored Filipe Morais.

This new fund is entirely separate from the Supporters' Trust membership fees and we will be in touch very soon to explain exactly how it will work and how you can donate. In the meantime, look out for the interview with our Chairman Daniel Izza in today's (3/8/17) Bolton News where he explains in more detail about the direction of the Trust and the new initiatives.

Elections and AGM

We are proposing to hold both the AGM and Board elections in late Autumn. In preparation for the elections, we would like to give members who think they may be interested in standing for election or helping the Trust in any way, the opportunity to meet with us and find out more about how we work and what would be involved. If you would like to register your interest and can spare a few hours a month, then let's have a chat.  To register your interest, either email to [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] or go to our website, [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] fill out the simple contact form and a board member will be in touch with you as soon possible.

ACV

We are continuing to make enquiries of Bolton Council in respect of the review requested by various parties of the ACV process completed in February 2017. We have requested from the club their application details requesting the review but to date we have not received a response. We believe the ACV remains a generally good thing for the long term position of the club as it preserves the club's assets and ensures a transparency in transactions of significant community value.

SSBWFC Petition

To our knowledge the petition in respect of SSBWFC remains outstanding and is due to be heard on 7 August 2017. It is not likely that the Court will grant yet another adjournment. The remaining alternatives would be that the petition is dismissed or a winding up order is made. Making a winding up order would impact on the affairs of the club as this would mean that a substantial proportion of club shares would be in the hands of the liquidator of SSBWFC.

Whatever the outcome we will continue to hold a supportive, if critical watching brief and keep BWFC and its supporters' interests uppermost.

Finally, the long closed season has come to an end and we embark on another campaign on Sunday against Leeds Utd at the Macron. We at the Supporters' Trust would like to wish the players and Staff at BWFC all the very best for the coming season and hope we can emulate last season's unbelievable achievements.

#COYWM

Regards
The BWFCST Board

Are you deliberately trying to wind up Sluffy today BTID? 

Norpig wrote:Are you deliberately trying to wind up Sluffy today BTID? 

I'm just reporting the news

BoltonTillIDie wrote:

Norpig wrote:Are you deliberately trying to wind up Sluffy today BTID? 

I'm just reporting the news

I've no problem hearing what the ST has to say.

Maybe if they did more of that and less of the 'we are here to hold the club to account' stuff, they may be better perceived by me and I would suspect many others.

I do note though that the sponsorship of the five 'academy' players is not what it seems.

It appears to be a fund raising activity from the public to finance the players - not the ST themselves.

I await to hear more.

Whatever happened to Nuts sponsoring Madine's y-fronts?

The new season is here and we are all filled with excitement as to what lies ahead this year for our club. Last year was very satisfying and we applaud the efforts of Phil Parkinson and the team in getting promoted. We would like to make it clear that Mr Anderson also deserves praise in managing a very difficult situation. Whilst some of the events of last year were unpalatable to experience, the club remains in existence and the revenues of the Championship and the expiration of legacy contracts from more prosperous times, must make our club more likely to be viable. The work done must now be built upon to create a stable and sustainable club.

The Academy Fund

Turning to the present, we are very excited by the Academy Fund which has been borne out of a desire to support the club’s young talent. Sponsoring the 4 new professionals in the team is part of this and we are dismayed to see that their progress into the first team might be frustrated by the EFL embargo rules. In our next meeting with the club, we will ask them how we might assist them in lobbying the EFL to lift the embargo or intervene for our young professionals.

Further Initiatives

We are working on further initiatives to support the Academy and we hope that you will support our efforts in these new initiatives to help raise money for the Academy Fund to continue the excellent work of Jimmy Philips, David Lee and Nicky Spooner, so watch this space.

Embargo

We are mindful that the financial troubles of the club are far from over and we will continue to seek clarity on the embargo terms which continue to hamper Phil Parkinson in his great work for the club.
Whilst the EFL embargo is intended to make sure that our club becomes more stable and capable of living within its means, the defaults in connection with filing accounts are largely rectified and the club must now show its plans for future funding.

ACV

On the issue of the Asset of Community Value “ACV” we have engaged with Bolton Council in respect of our nomination. We have requested from the club the precise reasons for their request to remove the ACV over club assets.

Survey

As you may be aware, we have recently surveyed our membership in conjunction with the club (who asked us to include questions). We have had a great response and we will be closing this survey shortly and reporting on the results which should prove to be interesting.

FanZone & Wifi

We are continuing our review of the feasibility of reopening the fan zone. In order for this to work, we will attempt to find a way to make this facility viable.

By the same token, we have investigated the introduction of wifi at the Macron and unfortunately, the cost of improving the infrastructure at the Macron makes this impossible at present.


We hope our survey and your continued interaction with us helps us to explore new ideas to improve the match experience.

Website

We would ask you to keep an eye on our website which we are in the process of updating and will be introducing some new and exciting features exclusively for our members
We're also anxious for genuine, enthusiastic members to get involved in the ST as we continue to grow. Please contact us here: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]  or email us [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].uk, if you can spare a couple of hours a month


Let’s hope the new season brings excitement and success in equal measure.
Up the Trotters!
Yours sincerely,
 
 
Daniel Izza
Chair
Bolton Wanderers Supporters’ Trust

''We would like to make it clear that Mr Anderson also deserves praise in managing a very difficult situation''



Better late than never!



How  did I end up with David Ngog?
How did we end up with David Ngog?

The avatar changes to better Wanderers players, the more you post, welcome to nuts!

welcome aboard Ten, nice to see a new poster 

It does seem like the new ST chairman is trying to mend some bridges with the club which can only be a good thing in the long run.

Norpig wrote:welcome aboard Ten, nice to see a new poster 

It does seem like the new ST chairman is trying to mend some bridges with the club which can only be a good thing in the long run.

I quite agree. With the final final adjournment of the BluMarble case due in court next Monday this is a week for mending as many bridges and fences as possible.

Hello and welcome Ten Bob.

First time indeed that the ST has made positive mention of Ken Anderson.

They thanked absolutely everybody when we were promoted on their official website - everybody that is except the club owner!

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Don't try tell me that was an oversight either!

I don't believe for one second that those in charge of the ST have changed their spots about Anderson (Izza has tweeted negatively about him in the past and has even gone as far as to block our twitter account for pointing this out by posts made here on the Nuts forum (not on twitter!) - how petty and controling is that from the Chair of a group that proclaims itself to be open and honest?) -but it appears that the penny may have finally dropped with them that the vast majority of Bolton fans simply don't share their anti-Anderson views and the ST popularity has suffered directly because of it.

You'll soon learn Ten Bob that Sluffy is no lover of the ST 

Norpig wrote:You'll soon learn Ten Bob that Sluffy is no lover of the ST 

To be more accurate I am indifferent to the ST whose reason for being is to be the backstop if everything eventually goes tits up at the club and it has no money or assets left.

I am however highly critical of how the ST has been led from its inception by a leadership with a clear desire to become the club owners and accordingly been trying to undermine Anderson wishing and hoping he (and consequentially the club too) will fail.

I can't believe any true fan would want to see the club fail just so they can get their hands on it for themselves.

That's a detailed response from someone who is indifferent 

Norpig wrote:That's a detailed response from someone who is indifferent 

That's a short snappy reply coming from me!

It'll all be the same in a hundred years. The ST might consider it's doing a good job, but it seems to be in a minority so either the rest of the fans couldn't give a flying feck or there's something smelly in the state of Denmark. It could be an asset once it gets the chip off its shoulder and starts some good and decent dialogue with KA and the board and stops this perceived bullying by trotting off to the EFL at every twist and turn. Why, they haven't even mentioned Carr's Pasties once. And as for "Sponsoring" players, that made oi larf. But let's see what happens after the AGM and elections.

Norpig wrote:You'll soon learn Ten Bob that Sluffy is no lover of the ST 

I knew that before I registered. There are other things I have gleaned (nowt to do with Sluffy) but I think it may be best to keep them under my hat (at least for the time being).
Lets see what happens between now and Monday.

With the world's problems popping up everyday, the ST is a trivial matter. But in the same vein, we can all hope that the new administration will find common ground with the club and strive to make it something Sluffy would approve of. The past is the past, and the ST did make mistakes which justified Sluffy's displeasure. I only hope for some good to come out of the ST... something that will help the club. Saying that, I hope there is a settlement that can get us out of the financial distress we are in. Lastly, may we stay up this season.

The ST may have got the balance wrong over several months but it would, I think, be a mistake to dismiss it as being irrelevant. The example of tomorrow's opponents, Derby County, might serve as a reminder that it was the Ramstrust's concerns about 'the three amigos' that helped expose irregularities in that club's re-financing that later resulted in the imprisonment of four individuals.

We need three points this weekend and a final settlement of the long-running BluMarble saga. Here's hoping PP and KA can pull off both.

Welcome to the mad house 10/-  
I think somebody had been spiking Sluffy's cocoa, but he seems to be getting better now