CLUB STATEMENT + NEW JustGiving Donation Page

[Stan]

When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom, Blame the Trust.

Seriously though, whenever there's trouble at mill, it seems to fuel an anti Trust campaign.
Is this just a smoke screen? to divert attention, only the instigators will know.  But it seems to much of
a coincidence to me.

Stan
 " A few have apparently compromised but the majority have said pay me me what I’m
Owed."

I too read that somewhere last night. But tonight it seems to have disappeared. Hmm dirty tricks dept?

"I too read that somewhere last night. But tonight it seems to have disappeared."  Comedy gold Marcus! 

A reliable source informs me that the original reference was on the club website at some point so I apologise for doubting the integrity of the person who made the original post: Mallard and also Marcus.
I still don't think that you can assume that players can necessarily afford to take a pay cut, however: life ain't that simple.

[Grissles Oleary]

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For sale,best offer towards club funds.

[Stan]

<br /><br />


For sale,best offer towards club funds.

Perhaps you could use them to raise money for that pint that you still owe me Griss

[Brad94]

Quick update;

£880 in the pot, with £1,390 in the original website find.

£2,270 raised so far, with obviously the fans paying for a part of the frost covers to. I think this is a great effort by all!

Dig deep lads and lasses?

[Grissles Oleary]

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For sale,best offer towards club funds.

Perhaps you could use them to raise money for that pint that you still owe me Griss

Ready for a pint when this crap is all over.

[MARCUS ROSE]

When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom, Blame the Trust.

Seriously though, whenever there's trouble at mill, it seems to fuel an anti Trust campaign.
Is this just a smoke screen? to divert attention, only the instigators will know.  But it seems to much of
a coincidence to me.

Stan
 " A few have apparently compromised but the majority have said pay me me what I’m
Owed."

I too read that somewhere last night. But tonight it seems to have disappeared. Hmm dirty tricks dept?

"I too read that somewhere last night. But tonight it seems to have disappeared."  Comedy gold Marcus! 

A reliable source informs me that the original reference was on the club website at some point so I apologise for doubting the integrity of the person who made the original post: Mallard and also Marcus.
I still don't think that you can assume that players can necessarily afford to take a pay cut, however: life ain't that simple.

No apology needed Stan.  Perhaps somebody posted the comments in haste, and someone else pointed out the error of their ways. Who knows. 

[Captain Sensible]

I have to say that I was dismayed by the hysteria whipped up, by the look of it deliberately, on Social Media over the last two days.
It appears yet again that a certain individual has not got his own way again, so the toys have been thrown out of the pram. Dismayed but not too surprised, as he is if nothing else a creature of habit and predictable. At a time where it appears its back to the wall, there's still time to alienate others, burn rather than build bridges, blame all the ills of the world on a certain sector of the local community, and to ensure everyone is aware that he's not to blame for anything.
I have been a supporter of this club for a long, long time. Theres been good times and there have been bad times. Far, far to many bad times. I have never been  a member of the Trust and I am no longer a member of the Friends of the Linnets. I therefore fall into the largest category of supporters.. Probably 90% of us supporters are just that, with no particular allegiance to either the Trust or the Friends.
So when the Club, Trust or Friends attempt to raise money, I'm always interested in the reason behind the fundraising. It appears to me, that some wil give money to the Trust, some to the Friends, and some to the Club. Has nobody else performed some simple Maths? Be it Trust, Friends or Club, their request for fund raising looks to me as if its generally only supported by their own kind. Do the Trust support the Friends fund raising, do the Friends supports the Trusts efforts? Not as far as I can see!
Do either of these two groups of Lynn supporters appeal to people such as me, an everyday Lynn supporter,  and one of the 90% that has no involvement with either group? Those with no axe to grind, those willing to support the Club by paying the cost for admission,  willing to pay for food and drink, programs, 50/50 tickets etc. Supporting the Chairman and his club in the way supporters should, and not because there's something in it for them.
The biggest section of the fans are not interested in the Trust or the Friends of the Linnets, but we are interested in the Club.
Sadly I believe the majority are not interested in these two group efforts to raise funds!
So this leaves the Clubs efforts. If we, the vast majority of the supporters, won't support the Friends of the Linnets or Trust, surely we would want to support the Clubs own efforts?
This is clearly not the case! Look at how much and how many individuals have supported Cleeves cry for help. He has informed us that he needs £100,000 to get him over the next 2 months, £40,000 of which he claims he will put in himself. It's  not for me to say if he actually will or not, you'll have to make your own mind up on that one. Last time I looked, there was £840 donated by 29 individuals. I'm sure that there's more to come, but we have gates of over 1200! Other Clubs wouldn't suffer by having so few people donating. People that are involved with the running of Football Clubs will tell you that they look for and usually achieve 70% of their supporters contributing in some way. If Mr Cleeve believes the supporters are behind him, then he is delusional. At best he can claim that they are behind him putting £400,000 into the Club (money he clearly wants back), but the majority are proving to to their unwillingness to contribute, even in what is increasing looking like a critical time and a struggle for survival.
The 90% majority will all have their reasons as to why they won't contribute. For some it will be that they just can't afford it. Others will think they pay enough via the gate. Others have more important things to donate their money to, and a football Club wholly owned by one man is well down their list of priorities.
I have my own reasons, some of which I have adopted from other supporters on the terraces. If I was ever in two minds about putting my hand in my pocket to help the club, I'm afraid that the much too obviously orchestrated hysteria, whipped up in the Press and on Social Media has made my mind up.  It's nice to see the results that £400,000 put into a Club can produce on the field, but my money  is staying in my pocket, for the time bring at least. I actually compiled a list of reasons I, and maybe the vast majority, are adopting this approach, but this post has gone on far too long as it is.
I maybe wrong, but I really do think that people are throwing goo money after bad. I believe we passed the point of no return quite a while ago, and the end of the season could have ended up bitter sweet. An unexpected title and another end result that we have seen before and dread.
Irrespective of the above, always a Linnet.

[Grissles Oleary]

Very sensible post, there should be more co-operation between trust and FOTL,maybe when this is over then they can be seen to work together. I may just be one of the rare ones that is a trust member,a member of the FOTL,and I watch as many games as possible,and use the bar.

[m a hill]

Sounds like you want the club to flod

[Blue_and_Gold]

Sounds like you want the club to flod

I’m sure new drainage will cope!

 

[Grissles Oleary]

Sounds like you want the club to flod

Of course he doesn't want it to flod,just a balanced view from someone taking no particular side and presenting the facts.

[MARCUS ROSE]

Far to sensible For your own good Captain. Certainly has been the usual hysteria. Even Trust funders are apparently at it. People who have been there from the start. They of all people should know the Trust cant just give its money away for no return. Whatever the circumstances. Tis a shame there's no football, the Chairmans notes would certainly be interesting.

[Blue_and_Gold]

Far to sensible For your own good Captain. Certainly has been the usual hysteria. Even Trust funders are apparently at it. People who have been there from the start. They of all people should know the Trust cant just give its money away for no return. Whatever the circumstances. Tis a shame there's no football, the Chairmans notes would certainly be interesting.

I did hear that someone went public saying they were going to resign from the Trust, and was then informed that they were not a member of the Trust anyway.

Why on earth would someone want to say that?   

[TonyM]

Captain, I am sorry but I just can't agree with some of your basic premises and to categorise "Trust", "FotL" and "Club" as wholly separate and distinct entities is probably part of the problem in itself.  I think the truth is there is far more overlap

Gris has already stated he is a member of both supporters groups, as am I and so is my dad, so asking if Trust supports FotL or FotL supports Trust events is missing the point - we are because many of us are one and the same!  I do take your point about the rump of the fans that attend the Walks every fortnight are not members of either organisation but membership and support are not the same ie I would imagine there were 'non-Trust' members at the GDF fundraising quiz earlier in the year, non-members of both organisations bought raffle tickets in their respective Christmas raffles and there are certainly non-Trust members in their 100 club which has been one of the mainstays of their fundraising since formation.

I do take the point about various snipes between the groups and whilst some of it is petty and unnecessary some of it goes back to a fundamental lack of understanding about what each group does (or should do imo).  To me it is fairly straightforward:
   * Club is the legal entity and gets 'commercial' revenue with sponsorships & match day income
   * Trust is there for the long term and by its nature, money raised needs to be protected so there are more checks and balances in place and I think they still have to be registered with the FCA (or whatever the regulatory body is now called).  Annual subs and fundraising is raised on this premise and thus large donations would have to have approval of the membership, hence SC's request for £15-£20K didn't really fit their criteria.  Where the Trust could be more active is things like the GDF where their MOJO of long term can fit nicely with the club's requirement of upgrading facilities as we moved up to step 2.
   * Friends of the Linnets are specifically there to raise money for the club and I tend to think of this as route for supporters to fund raise for day-to-day / in-season expenditure so things like the 12th Man, support for the groundsman, etc.  Therefore I would be much more comfortable if things like the Pitch Cover fundraising and the current COVID-19 supporters donations were to go through the FotL. 

Hopefully if any good comes out of the current situation it is that people are more aware of the financial position within the club although I think from previous experience, fans have pretty short memories and most concerns / interest is lost when focus returns to what happens on the grass so both supporter's organisations have a narrow window to engage with the wider fan base, lets hope they both manage to do this in a positive manner. 

Captain, as an initial piece of market research, as a long standing fan, what would make you support on or other of the supporters groups more in the future?

[Blue_and_Gold]

Taken from Facebook;

So, I feel there needs to be some careful PR work done here before we alienate the core of the club from more people.

A ) We have the issue with the Trust. I understand what has occurred, but there was no need to go public with it. That's just caused more juicy gossip for no reason. I would love a trust spokesperson to make a statement, but feel it won't occur due to risk of arguments and worsening the issue?

B ) The tendency to snipe out in the public forum from our chairman needs, well HAS to be reigned in. You make no friends and make every single team that plays us get "up" for their cup final. Not going to win in the long run and it will make more unfavourable decisions come back to haunt us.

C ) This new signing, whatever has occurred. Buy now-pay once season commences? Buy now, defer wages until playing commences? You really need to get it under control. We look a laughing stock, issue a statement asap.

D ) The fundraising, when combined with above. We are community running a raise of around £5000, when it looks like you just spent £10,000 on a new player? Do you see how this looks to all of us?

E ) Local businesses are scared of you, or your tongue(s) and don't want to "invest" or contribute. I know of at least 3 of the big area companies that want 0, nothing, NADA to do with the club with how "businessly" it is running right now. You need to work on relationships and trust back to them all. Local community workshops, giving back to the community and more.

And now some useful ideas to help save face and be a community beacon of hope moving forward:

F ) GET into Schools and offer a scheme when all schools have a flyer or ticket scheme, "bring a parent". If you bring the flyer to a game, you get £2 off the combined entrance fee for a parent and child ticket.

G ) Offer a school "year" or "class" the opportunities to be ball boys once a month. Competitions like colouring in a team mascot or "guess where the ball is" from a still image, or a "submit a video of your class/school club doing a trick as a team or a warm-up drill /goal from a game" and the club chooses one to attend a game. FREE Press in all the local newspapers, schools will promote it as it's fun and there is an actual prize at the end of it.

H ) Local leagues. Maybe run a scheme where you simply have someone at the club check out local leagues and invite clubs near the top of the tables, or after a big game a free invite to warm up before a game and be ball boys. Parents will pay to attend to watch their kids and you get youngsters "bitten" by the Linnets bug and they may want to come back, again and again. Build up the fan base from early. Heck, sponsor the under 16's cup competition, lads then may wish to follow and come through to the u18's scheme.

I ) Local business weekend. Every 3 or 4 home games. if you work for X,Y,Z - you obviously canvas the businesses in advance, you have a marketing/business team now for this sole purpose. If they attend or pay for a ticket in advance, they get a free pint/soft drink and £1 off entry.

J ) JUMP ON THE KEY WORKERS thing. Offer reduced rates for key workers from the current climate next year. NHS, Police, Fire services, delivery couriers, truckers, posties, supermarket staff? Show a pass and get a permanent discount for the whole season. Local people will adore you for the incentive and you WILL get potential national press coverage for offering the scheme. Show you appreciate them and they will appreciate you in return.

All of these will take man-hours, a few logistics, but come on, we have a rife area here, LOTS of kids playing football and a gazillion parents and adults all looking for something fun to do when this is all over. Get planning and put in the work now to reap the benefits next year. It's not like you can't sit at a computer as a collective and brainstorm it together

Now before you say 'tried it before' people don't respond to it. Well, they will if you do it right, actually take the time to promote it properly. Get things created and made up in advance. 

Before you say  "it means fewer takings" - well £13 x 30 is better than £15 x 0 .... simple business here....

Thoughts?