Supporters Coop AGM 2014

The Supporters Cooperative were moved to send the following message out to their members today, after a hugely successful year and highly busines like AGM at the Bungalow last night.

The message related to the new Guardian Account , and read as follows:-

Please Help Safeguard a Sustainable Long-term Future for County

`We passionately believe that County Supporters are the Club’s greatest asset and deserve greater influence over how their Club is managed.

One way to achieve this is to build up a significant collectively-owned lump sum to invest in the Club, in genuine, equal partnership with other like-minded investors.

Following a Members’ vote at the AGM Thursday 11^th December, County Supporters now have the opportunity to achieve this through the creation of the Stockport County Supporters’ Co-operative Guardian Account.

Investing in the Club could mean:

· obtaining a stake in County; and/or

· acquiring Supporter-owned assets for County to use, perhaps even Edgeley Park.

Members decided that funds amassed in the Guardian Account may not be used without Members’ explicit permission, i.e. Members voting in favour at a General Meeting (or remotely if unable to attend).

Members also voted to immediately transfer £10,000 from existing reserves into the Guardian Account.

The Guardian Account creates the real prospect of Supporters helping to safeguard a sustainable long-term future for Stockport County.

Members and Supporters can support this initiative by making payments direct to the Guardian Account:

· Account Number: - 65510425

· Sort Code: - 089299

Setting up regular payments by standing order will help demonstrate that Supporters are capable of covering considerable monthly repayments, should that be required in the future.

One-off payments are also very welcome of course.

We will also be boosting the Guardian Account via a series of fund-raising events.

Consider this: Had County Supporters had £50,000 available to invest when the 2015 consortium was formed, a 10% stake in Stockport County may have been acquired, collectively owned by Supporters, creating the opportunity to play an active role in helping to run the Club.

And: The Guardian Account is also a vehicle that could be used should Supporters ever need to raise a large sum of money in a hurry.

The Guardian Account can, and will, make a major difference, acquiring a stake for Supporters in the Club and securing assets for the benefit of the Club.

Only by working together will we become stronger.

Thank you in anticipation of your continuing support.

We will keep Members & Supporters regularly updated as the Guardian Account builds up'.

What follows now is a snap shot of last night`s meeting....not intended as a verbatim record or anything remotely like a minute.

Last night`s AGM adopted the Guardian Account proposals unanimously-with Chairman Pete Towey, and prime mover Dave Marchbank, stressing that control of moneys in the account would remain with the members , and the ,members alone!

Peter, in his address to the AGM, pointed to a vastly improved membership of 600+, during a year that had seen the Cooperative create a good relationship with the Club, and an even better one with Help the Hatters which had helped transform Steve Gibbons Players Fund initiative from dream to fruitful reality! Despite better relations with SCFC Pete stressed that we remain independent and proud to be so.

Regarding the Accounts and Membership, the meeting agreed to set up a Special General Meeting to receive the accounts and consider proposals on the membership.

The Chairman`s call for the Cooperative to adopt Stockport homeless charity `the Wellspring’ as our designated charity was agreed without dissent.

Involvement with The Wellspring during the year, was just one element touched on by Dave Marchbank in his Events and Community Report. Dave also pointed to recent contacts with the SCFC Foundation as an indicator of our interest in community matters. Some great events had been organised in 2014 by the Coop....5 a side tournament....Comedy Night......Band Nights, all a great success and useful fund raisers, with the Xmas Cavort completing the picture tonight( Friday 12 December). Tickets for all these events offered discounts to Coop members. Dave thanked the organisers concerned for their excellent efforts.

Board Member Billy Byrne outlined his thoughts on how we might move forward and deal with membership better in the future. Adopting a new system, and moving to a single start date for payment of subs are likely options to be discussed at SGM.

Mike Davies was stepping down as Board Member responsible for Media, and he was warmly thanked by the meeting for his efforts over the years. Mike pointed to the website....frequent email comms....radio content, and coverage via Stockport Express as good elements in the year past, urging the meeting to ensure that media issues stay high on the Coops agenda!

The meeting agreed to organise some token of thanks to retiring Independent Secretary Mary McGee- Wood who had done terrific work over a prolonged period for the Coop. Caroline Burt was welcomed as the new Independent Secretary.

There was only one nomination to fill the vacancies in the Board Elections, that of Christine Robinson, and Christine addressed the meeting offering an insight as to her likely approach, which had the proposal to co-opt young members onto the board as an interesting starter!

A raffle.....a Q&A and that was the AGM concluded, and a pretty successful one too in my view!

Oooh....err.....pics from tonights Xmas Cavort at the Magnet, will be added to this report very late on tonight.

Ian Brown

Xmas Cavort Gallery......