TUST AGM - a chance to say hello?

A few points from the Trust meeting :

A lady called Louise, Rivieralou on here I believe, has joined the Trust Board and is dedicated to promoting a club for junior Trust members. She missed the first half of the AGM because she was with a group of junior members who got to meet Colin Lee, Paul Buckle (or have I got that wrong?) and some players after the game. The club is very enthusiastic about working with the Trust to get a “Junior Gulls” section active. To me this is fantastic – just what the Trust should be doing and great to see the club willing to work together with the Trust on this. We all know that hooking the youngsters at an impressionable age is the way to ensure our club’s future.

The Trust has been hard at work on enhancing facilities for wheelchair-bound fans. Work will soon begin on some ramps and raised wheelchair bays in the Family Stand – the process in doing this properly has been tortuous! A lot of work has already been done, and don’t forget the equipment for visually-impaired supporters, but it will be great to see this work underway – a visible, tangible sign of what the Trust can do.

Rob asked me to raise the question of funding Youth Development, but I did not need to as it was raised by another Trust member. As I suspected, the Trust’s finances would not currently stretch to being a main sponsor or funding provider. The Trust was “associate sponsor” for the Cambridge game and asked specifically that the £500 paid be ring-fenced to go to Youth Development. Other practical ways of helping were being explored such as supplying referees or transport.

I think it was when this was being discussed that it was stressed that the Trust will fund specific projects/ items but will always be independent and not just be a “cash cow” for the club. At this point, Alex Rowe just happened to pop his head in and had a little light-hearted banter about that. I remember that when I first met Alex he said that he was quite happy for the Trust to be an independent “critical friend”. He again repeated his appreciation of the Trust’s efforts and stressed the Board’s commitment to the club. He mentioned again how Paul Buckle had pledged to bring in not just good players but good people and that he had tremendous pride in the players as a group – saying that they were a credit to the club. He offered to do a brief Q&A and our very own Jamie asked the very pertinent question of whether reduced crowds would lead to cuts which would derail the season. Alex said, to everyone’s relief, that funds for this season were in place regardless. He said that he could understand that the start of the season had been uninspiring and understood that December was a tough month for people’s finances. He noted that crowds had picked up a little and hoped that they would be up around 2,500 after Xmas.

I couldn’t help but think that Alex had an incredible talent for saying the right thing and “pushing the right buttons” and could not help but contrast to a previous Chairman’s talent for saying the wrong thing and ”pushing the wrong buttons”. I appreciate that having the financial backing that he has makes the answers more palatable, but still thought that the presentation and fan-friendliness was excellent.

Two pleas. Firstly, if anyone hasn’t joined the Trust or has not renewed membership, please do. A small standing order, say £2 a month, is an excellent way of helping – saves the hassle of having to renew each year.

www.torquaysupporters.com/downloads/misc/standing_order.pdf

Secondly, if anyone has any spare time or energy to help the Trust, don’t be shy to volunteer – the more the merrier.

For me, it was a really good evening. Great to meet Ricardo and Rivieralou. Shocking to see Stuartb’s pornstar tache from his 80s TUFC ID card, Chelston and I had a good curry – and my bus arrived before his did!