Secretary's Report
It has been another busy year for the Trust and following the change of status to an Industrial & Provident Society the number of administrative tasks to support this status is certainly much higher than when we were an unincorporated body. I am conscious that the main aim of our organisation is to represent the interests of our members and that at times the procedures we must follow can overshadow this but at the same time I am aware that we have a duty to communicate with our members and keep you informed of what is going on.
In January this year I spoke at a meeting to launch the Rushden & Diamonds Trust at Nene Park, despite the obvious rivalries we have it is interesting that a club who had previously shown little interest in Supporter Representation were now anxious to form their own Trust to take over the running of the club. The fact that the club was formed at about the time our own Trust started demonstrates how far the Trust movement has progressed. The meeting was also attended by Dave Boyle from Supporters Direct and the progress that has been made was again evident at the recent Supporters Direct Annual Conference when further progress was evident not only by the large number of Trusts from clubs within the UK who were present but by speakers from Greece, Norway and Germany who were involved in setting up similar organisations in their own countries based very much on the model that started in Northampton in 1992.
It is clear that the supporters of many clubs are striving to achieve what we already have at Northampton and at times it is disappointing that the relevance of our Trust is called into question. Clearly there are things that we could do better and we are constantly trying to improve how we operate although as a voluntary organisation we are always reliant on the goodwill of our membership to move forward. It is expected that this years AGM will see some " new blood" join the Board of the Trust and hopefully this will enable us to make further progress. Ideas and help are welcome at anytime and if you feel that there is anything we should be doing please come forward, mindful of course that the Trust doesn't just need ideas for other people to action but ideas that come with a degree of help.
We have held an election during the year for the position of Supporters Representative on the Board of NTFC. This went well but it was disappointing that well over 50% of the membership did not cast a vote. We will review our procedures for future elections to encourage more members to vote.
Our lines of communication with NTFC continue to develop and for the first time Trust Membership was offered as part of Season Ticket Renewals. This produced additional members and also additional Revenue which your Board agreed should be retained to assist with projects involving the Study Centre.
I am grateful to Anthony Collett who continues to provide assistance with a number of administrative tasks even though his duties as Chairman and Supporters Representative clearly take up a lot of time. Thanks are also due to Bill Craven who records the minutes of our regular Board Meetings and Stuart Taylor who continues to maintain and administer the membership records. These are tasks that would normally be the responsibility of the Secretary and it is good that we have people involved within our organisation who are willing to take these jobs on.
Vincent Smith
Company Secretary
NTFC Supporters Limited
