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The Well Society


stuwell
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Whilst I believe it's an email that should have been sent as soon as the issue was identified I'm pleased to see the latest communication from the 'Well Society Board. It gives a bit of the clarity I had been looking for since the article was published in the Ross County programme.

 

I would fully expect the changes to be approved so the original intention of loaning funds to MFC rather than having to purchase shares becomes possible.

 

But the fact that the board did not seem to have been aware of the legalities of carrying out one of its key functions in the manner anticipated and that only some months later are they being addressed, or at least communicated does not instil great confidence I'm afraid.

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Membership and voting rights may well stay the same, but you will not be entitled to any of the benefits that your level of membership offers, in terms of discounts and free tickets etc.

 

I might be wrong, having never used any of the discounts, but surely you would just show your membership card when making your purchase. I can't imagine all of the retailers have a constantly updated list of eligible members.

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Membership and voting rights may well stay the same, but you will not be entitled to any of the benefits that your level of membership offers, in terms of discounts and free tickets etc.

That's why I didn't pay my subscription this year. The discounts are pretty worthless if you live a bit further away.

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the board of the Well society have questions to answer for, and to be quite honest there a very few answers that would explain a breach of the core value of the society existing and weakening its existence in the very first term of office

 

 

If this is a genuine mistake/oversight in the set up of the rules ( hard to believe a core value was not covered when the society was delayed for almost one year whilst the legal side was reviewed and scrutinised)

 

 

so a fair bit of time after the event and only after reaction to a snippet of news, those society board that are meant to represent the society members first and foremost(not the club) choose to finally brief they members on the fact that almost one third of the funds have been given away in a manner that was never published as a society intention.

 

the reaction, has led to a letter which tries to justify it after the event?

 

by using emotional leverage that the club needed these funds and the society board choose not to delay the transfer by briefing members and in effect choose to give away these funds for a worthless share.

 

now if all is above board, and this was just a minor legal loophole that genuinely caught both parties out.

 

would it not be best if the changes proposed were implemented, setting up the legal permission for the Society to provide short term loans when required,

 

and then Motherwell football club returned the £150,000 society funds by purchasing a single 'A' share in the society, or indeed the society sets up a membership level that costs £150,000 that the club could purchase.

 

then all looking in would see that it was simply a short term exercise working around a legal obstacle that tripped up the initial requirement of supporting the club with the method sold to all the members

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As far as I'm aware your membership rights stay the same whether you pay your yearly subscription or not.

[/quote

 

that was how it was explained at the meeting i attended in the cooper suite but if you read the rules on the club website it says you can be expelled for non payment.

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As far as I'm aware your membership rights stay the same whether you pay your yearly subscription or not.

that was how it was explained at the meeting i attended in the cooper suite but if you read the rules on the club website it says you can be expelled for non payment.

One of the items being voted on at the upcoming meeting is whether to delete "Rule 20 (a): A member shall cease to be a member if they fail after written demand to pay their annual subscription." That suggests to me that they can't currently chuck you out if you don't pay.

 

EDIT: CAN chuck you out, of course, not "can't".

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One of the items being voted on at the upcoming meeting is whether to delete "Rule 20 (a): A member shall cease to be a member if they fail after written demand to pay their annual subscription." That suggests to me that they can't currently chuck you out if you don't pay.

 

it suggests to me that currently, they CAN chuck you out,

 

in direct contradiction to what we were told at the Society launch nights

 

but as they are trying to delete that rule, it will bring it in line with what everyone was sold, that you are a member for life, but not active if annual subs are not paid, but able to reactivate at any point when you pay annual subs.

 

and it would appear that they are practicing good judgment and not sending out those written demands and ejecting members whilst they make good the rules

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To be fair not only did the club - or more so their advisors - not notice the mistake when setting the society up but neither did any of the members when they joined up - surly someone took the time to read the info.

 

Very true, we were all given a copy of the rules to scrutinise and no-one raised this issue. We're all culpable.

 

That said I agree with Iain that there is surely a simple legal / administrative fix that could be applied to rectify the situation.

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Very true, we were all given a copy of the rules to scrutinise and no-one raised this issue. We're all culpable.

 

 

Wouldn't agree there, I haven't the time to read through all the rules for omissions like that, that's why there are guys elected onto the board.

 

Another gripe for me is a demand for annual subs just a matter of months after paying my last instalment. Apparently the board decided to split renewal dates and ours came in the first batch. Having burst my arse to get the initial payment for the full family, last thing I needed/wanted was a renewal notice at the same time as season tickets, road tax & MOT all fall due just a few months later. I expected my renewal to fall a year after the final payment of the initial fee so was caught out, again through lack of communication when the decision was taken. Granted there has been no demands made and I'll probably pay it when times are better and I would expect that is acceptable but again a wee bit prior notice could have been given when the it was agreed to take that route.

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I just read the piece in the local press with Graham.

 

This and other recent communications have been a wee bit disappointing. I'm WS member personally and contribute here too. In principle it's a tremendous initiative.

 

I don't think for a minute the the society board members role is one dimensional, however we need to move the dialogue on from where it is at the moment.

 

We need more members

To raise more money

To give to the club

It's a hard job running a club on our budget

 

All of the above we know and understand. The issue is that membership has plateaud. Now I might be wrong but I think the way forward may involve a bit more than beating the same drum again and again. Harsh as it might sound, I think the society will only move on from this stage when the support see the society board members begin to notch some achievements, shape some policy based on concensus fan opinion. The risk is (and has always been) that society board members are perceived as being too compliant and servants of the club board rather than the society. My own personal view is that the society should be a slightly uncomfortable presence in the boardroom representing the broader fan view which at times is not entirely cosied up to the views of the board on every occasion.

 

The only way the membership is gonna change significantly is when we start to see fans views being strongly represented.

 

That doesn't mean like in the recent league restructuring debate, where to generalise it was a bit "well we hear what the fans are saying, but we've also heard the club view and folk need to understand its a difficult job running a football club and if you could see what we could see then you'd mibbe have a different view" no! This is our view go represent it to the board.

 

Where's me tin hat

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The issue is that membership has plateaud. Now I might be wrong but I think the way forward may involve a bit more than beating the same drum again and again. Harsh as it might sound, I think the society will only move on from this stage when the support see the society board members begin to notch some achievements, shape some policy based on concensus fan opinion. The risk is (and has always been) that society board members are perceived as being too compliant and servants of the club board rather than the society. My own personal view is that the society should be a slightly uncomfortable presence in the boardroom representing the broader fan view which at times is not entirely cosied up to the views of the board on every occasion.

 

The only way the membership is gonna change significantly is when we start to see fans views being strongly represented.

 

 

I agree with all you say above; however, even if the WS board members kicked off more of a fuss in the boardroom it's not really going to double membership of the society and even if it did, we'd still be a long way from the target. I realise this is a long term project though and it's far too early to get impatient.

 

I know stability is important but I do think that the board roation policy is too slow with the first two board members retiring at the third AGM (we've not had the first one yet, have we?).

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