Trust Newsletter – September

Trust news

Well four weeks in, it’s nowhere near as bad as we were fearing this National League lark.

We know its early days and no one is predicting an immediate return to the EFL but the signs aren’t just positive, the signs are good and without doubt, things definitely look like they are heading in the right direction. We spoke in last month’s newsletter about wanting to have reasons to smile at matches again, and based on August’s evidence, the signs are definitely there. There’s a strong argument that there is still plenty of room for improvement as we’ve not had the goals that our performances have warranted, so for what feels like the first time in years, we are looking forward to games again. Let’s hope that continues.

Turning to off the field issues, we spoke in last month’s newsletter about interest in the Club from a gentleman named Colin Swindlehurst and a meeting that we had held with him as he looked to purchase a controlling interest in the Club. Things progressed from that point but things have gone very quiet on that front. We were due to hear back from them four weeks ago, but we have heard nothing at all back from them. We spoke to the Club at a meeting on Thursday which stated that meetings were taking place with other interested parties, and when we get the chance to update members then we will do so.

Last month was a month in which we held the annual pre-season Fans Forum that was well attended, and following a request from Trust Members, it was broadcast live via YouTube. If you missed it you can catch all two and a half hours of it here.

We subsequently had the EGM that was held by the Club following the forum. The EGM was called to approve a loan of £350,000 from Dale Chairman Simon Gauge and Director Richard Knight that was secured against the ground. The Trust voted in favour of this following 86% of voting members supporting this. More details on this can be found here.

Following on from that, we have held a Fan’s Meeting and then a subsequent meeting with the Board. Both are discussed in length later in this email.

Trust on the Board

Six games into the new season resulting in ten points achieved has to be considered a positive position in which to find ourselves, although, as Jim continues to maintain, rightly so,  the more realistic time to review will be what’s been achieved after ten games. However, the positive performances to date which could well have resulted in more points gained than we have achieved certainly reflects the hard work undertaken in the close season to assemble a small but capable squad showing real promise for the future.

As reported in previous Newsletters, discussions with prospective investors continue, the major stumbling block being that the timescales for those who may prove to provide the type of involvement sought often fails to match the Club’s immediate financial needs. Hence the proposal by Simon and Richard to jointly support the Club in the short term by loans, which was subject to a motion proposed and accepted by shareholders at the recent EGM.

As reported in last month’s Newsletter, the application for  funding under the government Community Ownership Fund project has now passed to the final stage for ministerial consideration, and we have been advised that a decision should be forthcoming by the end of September. Should our application prove successful in being awarded the £800,000 grant, the Trust will be required to raise the matching amount of £200,000 and various options are already being considered to provide this amount.

The reaction to the appointment of Scratch Catering to provide the hospitality and kiosk requirements appears to be working well, and comments from both aspects of the operation have been positive regarding the quality of the product and service provided. It’s early days, and, as I reported in last month’s Newsletter, it’s vital that  feedback from those that use the facilities is received in order for the service to continue to satisfy customers’ needs. Both the Club and the caterer welcome suggestions as to how this can be achieved, so please contact me on murray@rochdaleafc.co.uk with your suggestions and I shall take them up on your behalf.

As aspect of competing in the National League is the number of “southern” based clubs within our fixture list, and a problem encountered recently concerned coach travel for the evening game against Woking on Tuesday 15th August. Understandably, the number of bookings were so low that a mini-bus was provided by the operator. I received an email from someone who had travelled, who justifiably complained about the cramped conditions with no toilet facility on such a long journey, and being unaware of the situation prior to travelling. Also, in addition to the obvious inconvenience suffered by those who travelled, the Club suffered a significant subsidy in providing the transport. At the recent Club Board meeting it was agreed that to prevent a repeat of this unacceptable situation with the evening game against Boreham Wood on Wednesday 20th September, involving significant distance with potential low numbers, fans would be advised that coach travel would not be available. We hope that steps we are taking (as listed further down the newsletter) will go some way to appeasing that situation.

During the month, I also received an email to advise that a life-long fan had been wrongly refused entry to the game against Eastleigh. Knowing the fan involved, and the reason for the misunderstanding, I resolved to take the case up on his behalf. However, CCTV evidence resulted in an apology being given immediately without my involvement, and I also apologised to him at the Bromley game, which was fully appreciated.

Please remember, the objective of having the Trust represented on the Club Board is to act on behalf of its members and the fan base in general, but for this to happen I need to be made aware and to act on your behalf. Please contact me on murray@daletrust.co.uk with your suggestions, views, and questions for me to take up on your behalf with the Board. You can rest assured I shall do my utmost to represent you and report back.

Up the Dale
Murray

Supporters’ Meeting 25/8/23

We held a Supporters’ Meeting on Friday 25th August ahead of the Bromley game. We switched the meeting when the fixture was switched to the Friday evening. Unfortunately, this led to a couple of minor issues as the bar filled up making it difficult for people to hear. Our next meeting is scheduled for before the Oldham game in October, so we will look to ensure that these issues aren’t repeated.

The purpose of the meeting was to address the start of the season and to ensure that we were heading into the meeting with the Board with all the right information from supporters.

1) The start of the season
Stewarding
We had one issue from the first game of the season. Members from the Trust Board had spoken to the Trust Member involved, but by the time we approached the Club on the Monday, it had already been sorted by the Club and an apology issued to the Trust Member. The Trust Member was pleased with the response by the Club.  We had concerns raised at the meeting regarding inconsistency with searches at the turnstiles by stewards. We requested that whenever there were any issues, supporters provide us with as many specifics as possible eg time, location etc.  Additionally it was stated that Taurus should look to attract a better standard of steward by paying the living wage to those that they employ. There were further concerns regarding the Oldham fixture in October following the pitch invasion from some of their supporters at Chesterfield last month, and the ability of our stewards to prevent that happening here. Bob from the Trust stated that he was due to have a meeting with Dale COO George Delves regarding the stewarding amongst other matters the previous week but that had been cancelled due to illness. This meeting has now been rearranged for 14th September.

Catering
There was praise for the new caterers at the ground, with one Trust member stating that the Cheese and Onion pie was the best they had ever tested. There was a request for decaffeinated coffee to be made available, as well as soup in the winter months. We have also received a concern raised about all food products being pastry products. It is our intention to carry out a supporters’ survey following the Barnet game regarding the catering.

State of the Ground
Most supporters seemed satisfied with the state of the ground since the new season had started, with only one concern which regarded one of the taps in the Main Stand toilet that won’t turn off.

2) Communication
We all know that one of the biggest issues emanating out of last season was the Communication from the Club. Repsonse from the meeting suggested that supporters are happier with the communication but there was a lack of consistency to it. It was felt that there was an assumption that if news was released in one format, it would automatically be seen by everyone. One example of this was if something was announced at the Fans Forum, it needed to be followed up on the OS as a news story. This wouldn’t be needed for every little piece of info but certainly for the headline stories.

3) Update on Investment
As reported above, things have gone very quiet on the Colin Swindlehurst front, and the Club continue to be in talk with other related parties. We reiterated at the meeting that when the Club reaches the stage where a deal looks like a possibility. we will be seeking a Supporters’ meeting with those looking to get involved. This had been the case with Swindlehurst’s representative and a meeting was arranged. It was cancelled on our request whilst we awaited information being supplied to the Club. We also stated that Trust Director Murray Knight is involved in all discussions with interested parties.

4) Community Ownership Fund
Muray spoke about the application the Community Ownership fund and how it would work. We anticipate that we will get further feedback on our application before the end of September.

Meeting between Club and Trust 31/8/23

Representatives from the Trust met with Dale Chairman Simon Gauge, COO George Delves and Ryan Bradley who it was explained had taken on a dual role with the Club and the Community Trust with a view to bringing both parties closer together. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss matters raised at the Supporters’ meeting and other things of concern at this moment in time.

1) Start to the season
Stewarding
In terms of the stewarding, Taurus represent a lot of Clubs in the Greater Manchester area. We will have the same team leaders for each home game but the stewards aren’t always the same which can bring some issues with regards to consistency. It was appreciated that the Oldham will bring its own challenges. This game will carry a significant level of policing. The meeting between the Trust, the Club and Taurus will be rearranged for 14th September and it will be good to raise some of the concerns directly with Taurus.

Catering
We reiterated the praise that the catering had received in the first few weeks of the season, and our desire to conduct a survey of supporters following the Barnet game.

State of the ground
We raised the tap concern that was mentioned, and the Club are now aware and going to fix this.

2) Communication
We raised the points that were mentioned above on communication that were accepted. Ryan Bradley will be taking a lead role on the Club’s output and will be speaking to those involved in terms of addressing this.

3) Update on investment
Talks were continuing with a number of different parties. These as always are protected by non disclosure agreements.

4) Trust Planning for Plan B, Plan C etc
One of the things that have been raised with the Trust over the past couple of weeks is the need for the Trust to be actively prepared for any eventuality. The finances at the Club have been discussed a great deal over the course of the past month along with the reasons for the loan to be agreed by two Dale directors. One thing the loan will not be repeated and the Trust needs to be three or four steps down the road should we find ourselves in a situation where we find ourselves in a situation where the Club needs to find a similar sum in the future. Equally, we are now eight months into the search for an outside investor to come into the Club without success. We as a Trust have been asked by members to look into a situation where we may need to look at purchasing the unsold shares. Please note, this is all about the Trust preparing for hypothetical situations and isn’t a way of drip feeding information into the public domain.

5) State of the Car park
The state of the Car Park was raised due to the number of potholes. Given that the car park is not floodlit, this carried a risk to supporters. It was discussed that the Club have purchased the materials that will address the issue, and it had been planned as part of the volunteer day in the Summer. The Trust offered to source a volunteer who could complete this task.

6) Fixture Board
We raised concerns about the new fixture board that is on the corner of Willbutts Lane / Sandy Lane. The colour scheme used made it difficult to read at a time where we need to push our fixtures more than ever given the lack of coverage in the media of National League matches. The colours used do not stand out to passing traffic. Equally, with two days before what is arguably our 2nd most attractive home game of the season, the display is showing our games from July and August. The Club stated that the new sign is arriving on Friday and will be in black and white which will make it easier to read. It will be disiplayed at the back of the Sandy Lane terrace near the Vanarama sign whilst the area on WL/SL is cleaned. We stated that this would not be suitable as a long term placement as sideways on it would not be displayed towards passing traffic. We also suggested the addition of a QR code to allow online purchases.

7) MOU / Defining role of Trust Director
We stated to the Club that we were looking at redefining the MOU. We signed an MOU in January 2019 but it was very much a FSA generic document, rather than something bespoke that reflected the needs of the Trust and the Club, defining a long term relationship and incorporating the role of the Trust Director.. George from the Trust has actively been working with other Clubs to see what they use and we hope to get a first draft of a document in place ahead of our meeting with the Club in October.

8) AOB

• We discussed the Volunteer Army meeting that has been arranged for September. We will iron out the details and get that out to supporters within the next week or so in terms of what format it will follow.
• We have been asked to sell tickets for the Sandy Lane terrace from the Trust desk on matchdays. This is something we are going to trial on Saturday for the Halifax game.
• The Club spoke to us about a future game that they are going to do a tickets promotion. We were pleased to hear this. More details will be released regarding this in the next few weeks.
• We have been asked to help push the women’s FA Cup game that takes place at the Crown Oil Arena on Sunday 10th September. Tickets can be purchased at https://www.rafcshop.co.uk/tickets/match-day-tickets

Volunteer Army meeting

The Club will be holding a meeting on Thursday 28th September with regard to the much talked about Volunteer Army. We are currently working on a few things in preparation for this, and we are in talks with the Club regarding the format for this, whether to host a face to face meeting or to host it via Zoom. We will get details of this within the next few days.

We will follow this up with a report of the meeting within a couple of days of the meeting with next steps.

Former Players Association

LAUNCH 2ND YEAR ANNIVERSARY
We launched the Association on 27th August 2021 for the match against Colchester United to celebrate the Club’s 100th year in existence.

The night began with meeting up with ex colleagues from the 1960’s up to modern times at hospitality before the match in the 1907 lounge, sharing stories and listening to the exploits of two Dale legends in Shaun Reid and Gary Jones followed by a parade at half time, which brought a rousing response from both sets of supporters.
To end a fantastic experience, Shaun Reid presented Aaron Morley with the “Man of the Match”
Legends making an appearance were:
Dave Bayliss, Colin Blant, Dennis Butler, Les Chapman, Barry Diamond, Tony Ellis, Kevin Formby, Wayne Goodison, Gareth Griffiths, Paul Hallows, Keith Hicks, Mark Hilditch, Dean Hill, Keith Hill, Richard Jobson, Gary Jones, Alan Keeling, Tom Kennedy, Lee McEvilly, Steve O’Shaugnessy, Shaun Reid, Billy Rudd, Derek Ryder, Nathan Stanton, Mark Stuart, Brian Taylor, Steve Taylor, Kevin Townson and Scott Warner.

Articles and hospitality appearances involving some of your favourite legends may have appeared on the Association Website-for a look, visit Rochdalefpa.com

If anyone has contact details for an ex-player, get in touch with Keith and Shiv at  formerplayers@daletrust.co.uk

Easyfundraising

We were delighted to receive the quarterly email from Easyfundraising last week explaining that the latest cheque is on the way to us. We will be the recipients of a cheque for £337.55 covering the last three months for which we are very thankful indeed.

That £337.55 has all come through online purchases by Dale fans. Some are for a few pence at a time, but others are £15, £16 + and as you can see everything adds up to give us what is free money to us.. Car and home insurance is the big one for us, so if its renewal time please go via Easyfundraising.

To sign up with Easyfundraising, click here.

Trust Board Meeting

The Trust Board will be meeting on Monday 4th September

Agenda:

1. Welcome and Apologies
2. Approval of minutes
3. Membership News
4. Actions following Club meeting on 31/08/23
5. Planning for Trust Response to hypothetical situation where Club requires large amount of money
6. Planning for hypothetical situation where Trust are required to purchase remaining shares
7. Update of MOU
8. Volunteer Army ahead of meeting 28/09/23
9. Actions on Catering
10. AOB

Share Purchases

We are looking at this scheme and our next steps. We have been running this for a couple of years now and it has brought in a significant amount of money that has been invaluable in increasing our shareholding in the Club. We discussed this at the Supporters’ Meeting and questioned the worth of purchasing further shares in the event of an outside investor coming into the Club. We will discuss this at Monday’s meeting and contact all those who are currently donating regarding the next steps.

Trust Diary

Saturday 2nd September – Halifax (h) – buy tickets
Monday 4th September – Trust Board Meeting
Saturday 9th September – Kidderminster (a) – ground guide
Saturday 16th September – Barnet (h) – buy tickets
Wednesday 20th September – Boreham Wood (a) – ground guide
Saturday 23rd September – Dorking (a) – ground guide
Tuesday 26th September – Chesterfield (h) – buy tickets
Thursday 28th September – Volunteer Army meeting – more details to follow
Saturday 30th September – Southend (h) – buy tickets

Questions – General

Question: Would it be possible to ask the club about whether they could determine if forthcoming midweek away games can be shown in the Ratcliffe Bars? The Boreham Wood game in a few weeks would be a good opportunity to do this if possible.

There is a thread on the messageboard (‘Bars feedback and matchday operations’) where a fan has come up with a good suggestion where any extra costs incurred for screening could be partially covered by the Trust ‘sponsoring’ the event. From there, that can be made up with some fundraising – eg. raffle/football cards etc on the night. Could even have a mini-quiz, it’s something I’m sure fans would be happy to help with arranging.

Of course, it would need establishing with the club what this extra cost is – something Bromley will have info on having done their ‘beam back’ last Friday – as they may be able to cover this, in anticipation of sales at the bar. The Trust could also play a part in garnering initial interest on the club’s behalf if they’re unable to do so as well.

Answer: We have spoken to the Club over this. There is a cost involved for doing so but the Trust are happy to pay for this. We will discuss this at our meeting on Monday evening and make an announcement at some stage next week once we have decided how we are going to run it.

For general enquires, email info@daletrust.co.uk

Questions – Trust Director

All questions covered above

To contact Trust Director Murray Knight, email murray@daletrust.co.uk

Questions – Matchday

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Contact this if you have any concerns about any home game at the Crown Oil Arena. This can relate to ticketing, kiosks, stewarding, and crowd issues. Email matchday@daletrust.co.uk

However, Bob M and Dave E from the Matchday and Commercial sections of the trust have been working on some joint aspects recently.

Following on from the recent Fans Forum prior to the Bromely game, we were asked about recent postings on the various message boards, particularly regarding Stewards and stewarding in general at games. The relevance of this is important and some of the contents concerning.

Following the three special forums we had at the end of the last season the Trust board collated the various topics raised and various board members took on specific areas as working projects for the season, Two of these sections were “Matchday” and “Commercial”.
The two teams recently collaborated on an informal working document in which we explained to the members that among other things game stewarding and effects on various commercial activities was discussed and in particular the matchday experience to which stewarding and certain fan behaviours were discussed. The informal document, accepted by the Trust board has been shown to the club via George Delves with the intention of getting a meeting and looking at the various suggestions we wanted to explore. George has been most positive and a meeting is being set up initially with him and the stadium safety officer to explore and look at future initiatives, We of course will keep members fully in the loop on this.
We did however say that we did have some action headings that formed the basis of our future work and we said we would publish these in the newsletter which you will find below. We stress that though the headings may seem initially vague we have much meat to put to the discussion, and, if any fan wants to discuss this further with us both Bob and Dave will be happy to meet anyone to discuss further, say prior to a home match for example
The working headings accompanied by some discussions are;
ACTIONS

• Family section to be agreed with club (yes we know we are supposed to have one but we need to reinvent it again.) plus set up a space in the Sandy (first 30 ft) complementing the seated area at the car park end, both sections clearly signed and marked with signage in the ground and on perimeter reminding that this area is for parents/guardians and younger children, couple this also with “her game to” it can provide a safer refuge for some of our female fans.

Along with these areas being clearly marked and clearly advertised and allocated the need for a constant continuity stewarding is needed, regular and consistent stewards for these areas are essential, it will build up trust and if the right people are allocated then a “relationship” with the fans can be established. Also, we wonder if the club/CT could furnish a couple of people to become possible family support liaison stewards for both these areas, this would show a clear link for fans to the club/CT/Fans Trust and act as liaison personnel for family fans.
From conversations and from comments received any designated area in the Sandy does not have to be inclusive, but any others using that area would need to be aware it is a family area so maybe modification of language and behaviour might be needed.

• Stewards in general desperately needs to be better, customer friendly, and look to engage supporters whilst looking to ensure they enforce ground rules, Protocols for behaviour in the ground need to be available to all especially for any family designated area so stewards can enforce the rules if need be.

A clear policy on searches needs to be approved and published so all know what the policy is, this is something that families have asked for as a parent often does not get searched but an accompanying adolescent does, clearly not right.

• Community Trust needs to identify what support is needed from the club/trust to help them improve the attendance of young people at the club on match days. The CT and Fans’ trust needs to liaise more to see if the fan’s trust can be of help.
• Dale Youth need to be engaged, proper engagement will allow for proper explanations to what is and what isn’t acceptable. The voice of the youth (AND WE HAVE SPOKEN TO SOME OF THEM) clearly states that on match days they are treated badly so why shouldn’t they react badly? They need to be talked to and possible amnesty of such items like flares etc being able to be handed in/dropped in a container placed outside the ground the club need to identify unacceptable behaviour which has to be clearly conveyed prior to fans entering the stadium and this should also include what actions the club will take to those who choose to flaunt the rules. We noted Stockport’s amnesty buckets and also the occasional use of sniffer dogs served to remind fans that sneaking things in may backfire and that sanctions would be acted upon. Fans and young fans need to know that if caught there will be sanctions, yet dialogue and building a rapport with the younger people (now on the mid to left side of Sandy) is clearly needed Stewarding/ Fan Liaison officers need to engage the youth who clearly won’t change their behaviour patterns till we accept that we need to respect them as individuals

We stress that this is a work in progress but we hope members will appreciate that work is taking place and very much ongoing. Anyone who wishes to talk further with us can either email in on our info@daletrust.co.uk email but more specifically either on matchday@daletrust.co.uk or commercial@daletrust.co.uk and rest assured we will get back to you.

Questions – Commercial

If you have any concerns regarding the Club Shop or Hospitality at matches, email commercial@daletrust.co.uk

Three recent questions to the Trust commercial team regarded booking of hospitality at games, to which they had no replies to emails and one query following up from a sponsorship deal from last year which included a player shirt and some equipment to the sponsor, which prior to the Bromely game had not been delivered.

Taking the latter first, the Trust are happy to relate that we managed to sort out our member’s sponsorship goodie bag promised following the end of last season and the member has since received his promised items. This was down to some miscommunication and trouble the club had with sending the goods, We thank Dales Commercial Manager Matt Davies for assisting in sorting this out and we now have a happy member.

Regarding the other two questions raised with us regarding the lack of feedback from the club on potential commercial bookings, we can only speculate as to why this happened, but we appreciate recent staff shortages will not have helped, however, The trust’s commercial team have spoken to Matt at the club and we are assured that this may have been an oversight but Matt was most clear that in the first instance, email to him directly ( matt.davies@rochdaleafc.co.uk ) and this should always do the trick, but if any member does not get any reply then just ask us (commercial@daletrust.co.uk) and we will happily liaise with Matts team for you and don’t forget, we have our man on the inside, trust Director Murray Knight ( Murray@daletrust.co.uk)

Away Ticketing.
Finally, one question that came in recently via the Trust desk in the Dale bar was why could they (the fans who spoke to us) not buy tickets for away games at the Clubs ticket office as they had had trouble trying online with the away club (York being mentioned in this instance) and the answer is simple, some of if not all don’t send tickets out and all tickets for away fans have to be obtained from the away clubs ticket office (this may not be totally inclusive). This will probably mean (again not inclusive) that you have to register with the away club as a fan and then go to their ticket section where there will be an away fan section (hopefully), a bit of a faff maybe be but our advice is to check on the Dale ticket site first to see if we do have tickets to sell and if not go to the away club’s website and follow their instructions, we suggest to not leave it too late.

Finally, all the away clubs have a telephone number for their ticket office and from our preliminary checking all will take telephone bookings, useful if you’re not computer savvy or just have not got the time.

Finally,
Regarding other matters, the Commercial team have recently worked on a document with the Trust’s matchday team, you can read more on this above in the Matchday section

Questions – Fan Liaison

No questions received

For any supporters of other clubs ahead of their trip to the Crown Oil Arena and to offer any feedback following the game email fanliaison@daletrust.co.uk

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