SUFC Ex-Players Association (SUEPA)

[Shrimperstrust]

EX-PLAYERS ASSOCIATION – YOUR HELP NEEDED

Recent events such as the Moody Blues campaign in August run as a tribute to our record appearances holder Alan Moody, and the visits to Roots Hall in 2017 of a number of ex-players such as Derek Spence, Keith Mercer and Billy Best, have highlighted the value of staying in touch and have all been occasions to remember.

With this in mind and we are excited to announce that we are setting up a Southend United Ex-Players Association (SUEPA).

The aims of SUEPA are:

• To help rekindle player relationships by putting ex-players in touch with each other
• On occasion and where possible, to help ex-players facing difficulties
• To celebrate past achievements
• To hold events from time to time
• Help promote a positive image for the club
• Allow fans to meet their former heroes when appropriate

We want to keep it simple, so envisage sending out a Newsletter to ex-players every four months or so accompanied by a list of players names ‘signed up’ to SUEPA. Then, if say ex-player A saw ex-player B on the list that they would like to get in touch with we would pass on ex-player A’s contact details to B for B to then get in touch with A if they wanted to. That way no one gets bothered by someone they might prefer not to hear from!

We are delighted that Adam Barrett has agreed to be SUEPA President. We also have the full support of the football club.

SUEPA will be administered by the Shrimpers Trust, with one of our members, Andy Leeder (Suffolk Shrimper here on the Zone), currently doing the day-to-day work on it and being fully accountable to the Trust’s committee. Costs (not expected to be high) will be borne initially by the Shrimpers Trust.

The data we will hold for SUEPA purposes, subject to each ex-player’s agreement, is simply their name, dates at the club, their telephone number, email and postal address.

All ex-players (even if they never made it to the first team, e.g. for those of you with longer memories, Tony Currie!) and previous coaching staff can join. There will not be any membership fee.

Our aim is to get an initial database of at least 50 ex-players and then issue them a Newsletter in February with the possibility of holding an event towards the end of the current season.

Whilst we have a number of ex-players we have contact details for and will be getting in touch with in the next couple of weeks, we would like to get as many as we can at this initial stage and then build from there – there is an ever-growing potential membership! So, if you are in contact with any eligible SUEPA person, could you please consider either:

1. Asking them if they would like to join and let us know (we will then contact them to verify) – we have a crib note for you to use for making contact if you wish, or

2. Provide us with their contact details and we will then get in touch with them.

For all SUEPA queries please use the following email address: suepassoc@gmail.com Or, if you prefer, send a private message to The Shrimpers Trust on Shrimperzone or use any of the other ways of getting in touch with The Shrimpers Trust.

This is an initiative that we believe will be great news for the club and its fans as well as the ex-players and coaching staff. We will keep you informed on its progress and hope you will give it your support.

 

[Suffolk Shrimper In Dorset]

Dear All,

Just to bump this back up the list for evening viewing and to say do please get in touch if you have contact details for any ex player. Or contact them yourself and see if they are interested - it really is a win-win.

The Moody Blues and other meet ups with Derek, Keith etc showed me how much keeping in touch means to the ex-players and fans alike. Keith came off the pitch in tears back in April in awe of the reception you all gave Derek and him, and watching them afterwards greeting Ronnie P, Frankie Banks etc was joyful. The Moody Blues campaign to was just great from start to finish.

Ronnie P was delighted to hear about SUEPA and he will be trawling his address book for contacts for us and a few other chats today have shown nothing but support for this. A personal hope is to get a re-union of the 80/81 squad together but this will be more than just doing that. I'll be hoping to get Stan signed up for it later this month at his evening event, and others too. And yes, maybe even Tony Currie. I found out the other day where Dave Cunningham sometimes drinks so will be following that up. And more recent leavers too - Mr Leonard can expect to receive an invite.

It's great that Adam has agreed to be President, I cannot think of anyone better for that. So whilst some of us with longer memories might go on about past stars who younger fans think are just black and white images, Adam might help us bring along more recent great names we all know.

I'm sure this will be a success - as the club moves forward to (one day) pastures new at FF it will be vital that it takes its history with it and keeps it alive, and SUEPA is what that is all about.

SUEPA will be getting some more publicity soon via the club website, The Echo, and I hope BBC Essex. If you have any ideas or can help on publicity too, just get in touch.

So, if you have a contact, or even a contact who knows a contact, DO please get in touch. The SUEPA email address is given above, or get in touch any other way you like. I'm in the Shrimpers Bar before most home matches in the Shrimpers Trust corner. Don't assume we must know how to contact someone, we might not, any assistance you can provide will be much appreciated.

And rest assured all contact details will be kept private.

Oh, and also to add you will be kept informed of how things are going.

Cheers, Andy

 

[Crowstone Crevette]

Dear All,

Just to bump this back up the list for evening viewing and to say do please get in touch if you have contact details for any ex player. Or contact them yourself and see if they are interested - it really is a win-win.

The Moody Blues and other meet ups with Derek, Keith etc showed me how much keeping in touch means to the ex-players and fans alike. Keith came off the pitch in tears back in April in awe of the reception you all gave Derek and him, and watching them afterwards greeting Ronnie P, Frankie Banks etc was joyful. The Moody Blues campaign to was just great from start to finish.

Ronnie P was delighted to hear about SUEPA and he will be trawling his address book for contacts for us and a few other chats today have shown nothing but support for this. A personal hope is to get a re-union of the 80/81 squad together but this will be more than just doing that. I'll be hoping to get Stan signed up for it later this month at his evening event, and others too. And yes, maybe even Tony Currie. I found out the other day where Dave Cunningham sometimes drinks so will be following that up. And more recent leavers too - Mr Leonard can expect to receive an invite.

It's great that Adam has agreed to be President, I cannot think of anyone better for that. So whilst some of us with longer memories might go on about past stars who younger fans think are just black and white images, Adam might help us bring along more recent great names we all know.

I'm sure this will be a success - as the club moves forward to (one day) pastures new at FF it will be vital that it takes its history with it and keeps it alive, and SUEPA is what that is all about.

SUEPA will be getting some more publicity soon via the club website, The Echo, and I hope BBC Essex. If you have any ideas or can help on publicity too, just get in touch.

So, if you have a contact, or even a contact who knows a contact, DO please get in touch. The SUEPA email address is given above, or get in touch any other way you like. I'm in the Shrimpers Bar before most home matches in the Shrimpers Trust corner. Don't assume we must know how to contact someone, we might not, any assistance you can provide will be much appreciated.

And rest assured all contact details will be kept private.

Oh, and also to add you will be kept informed of how things are going.

Cheers, Andy

I often see Dave walk past my place of work, i assume he lives nearby. I also worked at the same place as him for a short period, so know him enough to say hello. If i see him would you like me to mention this?

 

[Suffolk Shrimper In Dorset]

I often see Dave walk past my place of work, i assume he lives nearby. I also worked at the same place as him for a short period, so know him enough to say hello. If i see him would you like me to mention this?

Yes please!! We will need his contact details assuming he is up for it, and also to ask if he knows of others to ask.

Cheers, Andy

 

[Mr Browns Ghost]

I was hoping you would have seen sense and offered the role of ‘president ‘ to Neville Roach

 

[The Big Dady]

What a great idea, well done everyone involved.

Question:

and previous coaching staff can join.

Does that include Ex Managers as well?

 

[Suffolk Shrimper In Dorset]

What a great idea, well done everyone involved.

Question:



Does that include Ex Managers as well?

Yep - could be interesting ....... I certainly hope I can get Dave Smith on board, I recall one or two folk know how to get in touch with him so please shout if you do!

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

A fantastic initiative.

Have you considered a facebook, twitter and LinkedIn presence? That might help gain momentum by exploiting existing contacts once you have a few on board.

 

[Suffolk Shrimper In Dorset]

A fantastic initiative.

Have you considered a facebook, twitter and LinkedIn presence? That might help gain momentum by exploiting existing contacts once you have a few on board.

Yorkshire - good idea. Might give the FB idea a whirl, Twitter to me seems too much like hard work, will refer to others at Shrimpers Trust tho as you say (and also as I'm swamped with other stuff at the mo including a house move) I'll leave it a bit for now. Cheers, Andy

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Yorkshire - good idea. Might give the FB idea a whirl, Twitter to me seems too much like hard work, will refer to others at Shrimpers Trust tho as you say (and also as I'm swamped with other stuff at the mo including a house move) I'll leave it a bit for now. Cheers, Andy

I know only too well that feeling of being swamped, but when you do get some time I don't think twitter needs to be hardwork. The beauty of it is that you could just quickly set up an account, post a message saying 'any former Southend United players get in touch we're forming an ex-player association to help old players, celebrate past achievements and get former team-mates in touch' and get the club and people like Stan (who's big on twitter) and Slipper to retweet it. It'll be by far the easiest way to quickly spread the message. Hopefully someone at the Trust can give you a few pointers as I think it would be a really useful tool for you.

 

[OldBlueLady]

I think Twitter is a "must" Andy, it's where we'd be able to make contact with a host of former players without any difficulty.

 

[Suffolk Shrimper In Dorset]

I think Twitter is a "must" Andy, it's where we'd be able to make contact with a host of former players without any difficulty.

Ok, will speak to you Saturday!

 

[Shrimper]

This is a good idea, I may be able to get in touch with Glenn Morris. I have a relative who is a friend of his father.

Re: Twitter. It is a lot simpler than you think. If you use a platform, i.e tweetdeck, you can schedule regular tweets i.e a weekly call for any players. Might be worth looking on twitter for any players too.

 

[Suffolk Shrimper In Dorset]

Right, I've now set up @SUEPAssoc on Twitter, so please if you are on it follow the page, Tweet away maybe re-tweeting one or two of the tweets I've just quickly put up and if you know of ex player (or ex coaching staff) twitter accounts retweet to them and from there I'll get the page to follow them etc. I'll speak to Kay tomorrow about trying to use the page effectively

 

[Suffolk Shrimper In Dorset]

199 Followers on the SUEPA Twitter page in just over 24 hours. Visit @SUEPAssoc

This afternoon the SUEPA Facebook page has been set up - please visit and 'like' the page. Link: https://www.facebook.com/SUEPAssoc/

The more 'followers' and 'likes' we get the more it is likely we'll get 'hits' from ex-players. As one small example I've just noticed I've got a 'like' this pm from Mark Beard on my Roots To The 92 page so I've duly followed up with an invite to him to join SUEPA.

We have 15 ex players signed up to SUEPA so far, not many but we've only just started and a few good folk are trolling their address books and starting to make contacts. Those ex players already signed up have been asked to see if any ex team mates they are in touch with would like to join too.

SUEPA membership is free, and if you have anyone you can contact and need a crib note to use just let me know (or the Friday club website article also does the job).

We are targeting at least 50 SUEPA members by end Jan and hope to then grow it much further from there. We do need your help though, so if you can make contact with any ex players please do - the key item we need if they agree is their email address, and we do not disclose it to any other party without their permission.

Cheers

 

[OldBlueLady]

All time legend Mervyn Cawston the latest to sign up - well done Andy on your hard work over the weekend.

 

[Mad Cyril]

Has Nile Ranger been approached?

 

[Napster]

Andy Thomson latest to join - with Mike Marsh coming soon apparently.

 

[Suffolk Shrimper In Dorset]

Has Nile Ranger been approached?

Not yet, taking legal advice first.

A good number of others signed up this eve though including two managers (both ex-players too), take a look on the SUEPA Twitter and Facebook pages.

It's a bit like having an online Southend-themed Panini sticker book. No swapsee's yet tho.:smile:

 

[LBBlue]

Like the team photo on the Facebook page. Do I spot Tony Currie in the back row? He would be a coup! Mind you does a warm up count for eligibility?