Zone Update Shrimpers Trust Statement

[EastStandBlue]

And from your privileged position of not being in the situation where you had to deal with questions from every angle and from every corner, trying to do what's right for the supporters whilst also mindful of not rocking a boat we all have to sail in you perfectly entitled to your opinion.

Think I'd better zip it now before I engage fingers before brain...... toodles.

My gripe is that the questions asked were, by RM's own admission, of a nature too sensitive to answer in a public forum. Then, when answers were not forthcoming, the silence was used against him to paint him in a bad light. I'm not saying RM is our saviour and we should all bow to his every word, far from it, but in such a sensitive position the Trust needed to remain neutral and positive.

Instead, they opted to take an Anti-Establishment stance... Made pretty clear by deciding to announce that they had spoke to, and supported, the consortium bid to oust Ron.

In the wake of the incident, the relationship between the Trust and the Board must be at an all time low now and, ultimately, it's the board that have the hand.

Anyway, the HMRC wouldn't have given as an adjournment if there wasn't sufficient evidence to suggest we will have the money on Friday, so I think it's unfair to comment on this further until the matter is resolved.

 

[Ron Manager]

Questions are fine, but when Ron has been a little busy, snidey statements, stropy emails and then ignoring his demand to not fundraise all seem unnecessary.

Why shouldn't fans ignore requests to not fundraise? It could transpire that any new future owners would offer the fans a seat on the board (just a hypothetical suggestion, I have no inside info) and money raised could go towards funding expenses for that. It could all have gone completely tits up and the club would need to be ressurected from scratch and we'd need funds towards that. Because quite frankly no-one knew what was going to hapen except (maybe) Ron himself, and I'm sorry but him telling us "don't worry, it's all going to be OK" was never going to be good enough for many of us. He's a property developer running a football club, if we've learned anything from other clubs surely it's to be wary of that?

My loyalty is to Southend United, not Ron Martin or anyone else who ends up running it in the past or future and supporters organisations should be independent of him and not neccesarily do what he says.

 

[canveyshrimper]

Questions are fine, but when Ron has been a little busy, snidey statements, stropy emails and then ignoring his demand to not fundraise all seem unnecessary.

Seems to me there would be plenty of criticism of the Trust if they had not used their position to try and glean information, which IIRC the world and his wife were demanding.

A case of damned if they do and damned if they don't perhaps.

 

[Ron Manager]

Questions are fine, but when Ron has been a little busy, snidey statements, stropy emails and then ignoring his demand to not fundraise all seem unnecessary.

Why shouldn't fans ignore requests to not fundraise? It could transpire that any new future owners would offer the fans a seat on the board (just a hypothetical suggestion, I have no inside info) and money raised could go towards funding expenses for that. It could all have gone completely tits up and the club would need to be ressurected from scratch and we'd need funds towards that. Because quite frankly no-one knew what was going to happen except (maybe) Ron himself, and I'm sorry but him telling us "don't worry, it's all going to be OK" was never going to be good enough for many of us. He's a property developer running a football club, if we've learned anything from other clubs surely it's to be wary of that?

My loyalty is to Southend United, not Ron Martin or anyone else who ends up running it in the past or future and supporters organisations should be independent of him and not neccesarily do what he says.

 

[CocklesShrimps&Whiteweed]

Why shouldn't fans ignore requests to not fundraise? It could transpire that any new future owners would offer the fans a seat on the board (just a hypothetical suggestion, I have no inside info) and money raised could go towards funding expenses for that. It could all have gone completely tits up and the club would need to be ressurected from scratch and we'd need funds towards that. Because quite frankly no-one knew what was going to happen except (maybe) Ron himself, and I'm sorry but him telling us "don't worry, it's all going to be OK" was never going to be good enough for many of us. He's a property developer running a football club, if we've learned anything from other clubs surely it's to be wary of that?

My loyalty is to Southend United, not Ron Martin or anyone else who ends up running it in the past or future and supporters organisations should be independent of him and not neccesarily do what he says.

Spot on. My sentiments exactly. The Trust did exactly what I hoped they would do in a crisis.

 

[Holy Joe]

Blimey - I'm pretty stunned that people are criticising the trust. I'm not sure I've read every statement - especially if they've been every 6 hours but most of the criticism I've seen is of Ron not living up to his promise of communicating daily with them - that sounds like fair game - he shouldn't have agreed if he was too busy or didn't think it necessary. I thought on the fund raising Ron changed his mind and said he didn't think it was needed but he had no objection to it.

 

[Holy Joe]

I work in the legal profession and having spoken to colleagues they were of the opinion there would have to have been proof that the money was there or they just wouldn't have believed it.

Having gone this far without paying a penny and had a winding up order turned into an administration one I cannot see any judge agreeing to an adjournment without seeing something pretty concrete by way of evidence that RM even has access to this sort of dosh.

It would have to be more than

"I need 3 more days - honest!"

Even if it is the 'prosecution' that asked for the adjournment? I can't see how the judge could object to that. If it was Ron asking and HMRC objecting then I agree the judge would need to see something pretty darned good.

 

[OldBlueLady]

You know what? I'm really not at all surprised at those who are criticisng the Trust, because it's what they DO.

Yes, I'm privileged to now be a member of the Trust committee, and God, have I hit the floor running. From my perspective, we responded to the wishes of supporters across the boards - not just SZ - in the wish to harness the huge groundswell of support with the bucket collection. Had we left it longer, then that impetus would have been lost.

As to the statements, well, if you only had an inkling of the flippin' emails that have been flying back and forwards since this all broke last week.........

 

[chadded]

I could write a massive long post on all my views about this, but I can't be arsed to do a Matt the Shrimp impression, when I can write it in four words.

I. TOLD. YOU. SO.

Here endeth the Sermon.


I am available for after dinner speaking, and any general advice on any matters, now that it is public knowledge that I am always right.


Kind Regards.

Chadded.


P.S. As per the BBC article, found here; http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/s/southend_utd/8343073.stm congratulations to the trust in raising nearly £4000 of the £660,000 needed. Hmmm. I'm pretty sure the money was for the trust, not the club.....

 

[EastStandBlue]

You know what? I'm really not at all surprised at those who are criticisng the Trust, because it's what they DO.

Yes, I'm privileged to now be a member of the Trust committee, and God, have I hit the floor running. From my perspective, we responded to the wishes of supporters across the boards - not just SZ - in the wish to harness the huge groundswell of support with the bucket collection. Had we left it longer, then that impetus would have been lost.

As to the statements, well, if you only had an inkling of the flippin' emails that have been flying back and forwards since this all broke last week.........

Ah. Of course, here we go. The minute the Trust is criticised ever-so-slightly it's what we do. I assume, by We, you mean Me and Pubey, who I think have put forward some well reasoned points and raised some issues regarding the Trust's actions in the week. I think it's quite clear that the statements took an Anti-Ron vibe as the saga drew on and I've made my opinions clear that I thought it was a counter-productive stance to take. As the smoke clears, RM is still in the Hot Seat and I believe that the Trust will find it exceedingly difficult to earn his trust again.

The bucket collection, for me, is a non-story. RM didn't think it was necessary, the Trust went ahead to raise money for the Trust and RM, seemingly, allowed it. I've got no problems with it, I donated myself.

As for the eMails, and I'm presuming you mean between RM and the Trust here, we were given an inkling as RM asked Scriv's to post an excerpt. Obviously I can't speak for the entire communication as I haven't seen it, but it seemed to me that RM responded when he was able to and provided answers where he was able to...

 

[OldBlueLady]

No, I'm talking of the thousands (and I don't think that's much of an exagerration) flying back and forwards between us all). Just seems very easy to criticise when you're not at the sharp end, so to speak. The fact you and Pubey often seem to be in direct opposition to anything at all that I'm involved with is obviously purely coincidental....and I have at least met Mr Tosh. And it was "they" not "we" incidentally!

 

[chadded]

You know what? I'm really not at all surprised at those who are criticisng the Trust,

QUOTE]

Because the trust were wrong?

RM says don't panic- Trust panics

RM say's don't collect- Trust collects

Trust sets up facebook groups, twitter feeds, plenty of press ****, and all it does is scaremonger.

Forgive my criticism, but you, the trust, either advertantly or inadvertantly, convinced thousands of people that the club was minutes from going down the swanny, even though the club urged calm. When things were all good in league one, before the Championship, and then in the Championship, everyone, the Trust I'm sure included, would have loved to have seen RM knighted. As soon as there is a problem, you are jumping all over him, criticising him, and IMO, preventing him from doing what he needs to do at what we all will agree on, was a very important time for the club.

Imagine RM is trying to sort the situation out and he missed the deadline by minutes. Those would have been the minutes he spent asking you to do or not to do things, which you then ignored.

I don't doubt that the members of the trust are loyal supporters. Far from it, but I just do not agree with how the trust has gone about business over the last week. For that reason, I for one will not be joining the Trust anytime soon.

 

[bilbyboy]

OK people, so we have suddenly decided that the Trust is there to hinder, we have decided that they did wrong, we want them to refund our money (someone suggested in beer). Look the trust was set up after our last brush with admin, it was set up to try to help the supporters to support the club if/when the need arose. I have been donating to the Trust on a regular basis for a long time, i personally trust the Trust (UHH) look they are doing an ok job, if anyone begrudges them collecting money, accepting donations, saving for a rainy day then i have a very very radical suggestion to make, DON'T GIVE, see, i have said it, wow, that really is radical. Don't knock those who are trying to help, save your energy for those who are trying to hinder. UTB

 

[OldBlueLady]

Your choice entirely, as was contributing to the bucket collection.

 

[The Late One]

I think he was referring to the Trust's total fund - which I think has been asked a few times recently.

Back in the day when I was on the committee (when men were men and sheep got frightened!!) there was discussion about moving all the "Fighting Fund" money into the main Trust account on the balance sheets, the reason behind the idea was that if the club were in danger of going bust then the Trust would throw all their monies at the club (and not just the fighting fund). I can't remember the outcome (and cannot be bothered to find the minutes at present) but you may find that there is no longer a seperate "fighting fund" so the question about how much is the Trust's total fund, at present, should be refering to their total assets in the bank (which was just under 100k when I left).

 

[OldBlueLady]

No mush in the Trust's accounts, I can assure you of that.

 

[bilbyboy]

Questions are fine, but when Ron has been a little busy, snidey statements, stropy emails and then ignoring his demand to not fundraise all seem unnecessary.

i can fully understand why the Trust got stroppy, Ron assured(promised) them a daily statement leading up to last weeks hearing, he obliged once and then nothing, not even an explanatory call or e-mail, because of this the Trust, on our behalf started to smell a rat maybe, so they did all they could to keep us, the supporters informed and at the same time tried to discover what was going on. These people are not earning thousands a week, or even hundreds a week, thay are doing it, on our behalf for NOTHING. Hello people, wake up to facts, these are people, fans, supporters who give their time to you and your club, come on, at least side with them. UTB IN TILLY & BRUSH WE TRUST (And Shrimpers Trust)

 

[OldBlueLady]

i can fully understand why the Trust got stroppy, Ron assured(promised) them a daily statement leading up to last weeks hearing, he obliged once and then nothing, not even an explanatory call or e-mail, because of this the Trust, on our behalf started to smell a rat maybe, so they did all they could to keep us, the supporters informed and at the same time tried to discover what was going on. These people are not earning thousands a week, or even hundreds a week, thay are doing it, on our behalf for NOTHING. Hello people, wake up to facts, these are people, fans, supporters who give their time to you and your club, come on, at least side with them. UTB IN TILLY & BRUSH WE TRUST (And Shrimpers Trust)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJYSu2OVCGM&feature=fvw

 

[EastStandBlue]

i can fully understand why the Trust got stroppy, Ron assured(promised) them a daily statement leading up to last weeks hearing, he obliged once and then nothing, not even an explanatory call or e-mail, because of this the Trust, on our behalf started to smell a rat maybe, so they did all they could to keep us, the supporters informed and at the same time tried to discover what was going on. These people are not earning thousands a week, or even hundreds a week, thay are doing it, on our behalf for NOTHING. Hello people, wake up to facts, these are people, fans, supporters who give their time to you and your club, come on, at least side with them. UTB IN TILLY & BRUSH WE TRUST (And Shrimpers Trust)

Now then... I wonder what possibly could've stopped RM from cooperating as fully as he had done previously...

 

[fixitkid]

I can't help but notice a lot of people mouthing off and getting aggy on this thread when it seems to me that, while there's still S*** to get sorted and not all the facts are known, today it seems was largely good news.

RM it seems may have won the lottery at the weekend or something miraculous and is waiting for the cheque to clear.

the shimpers trust have gathered 6 grand which will be put to good use, they're a consortium (getting about sick of that word) of die hard fans with only the clubs interest at heart and I'm sure will use the money wisely when it's needed (like maybe when we spend all our money on the tax man and can't pay our players).

so chin up lads and stop the feuding.