JTulip

Last call! Just 2 days to the Queens Trust super season ticket draw. Join the Queens Trust today to be in with a chance of winning. Now at an amazing 175 members! The highest it has been since the Save our South campaign. So very close to our target of 180. Can you help us to reach our target?! Thank you to everyone that has been helping spread the word. only £10 and £5 for all concessions.

A fantastic 173 members have now joined the Queens Trust! We are now just 7 short of our 180 target. Please join to help us reach our target and remember to join by Wednesday the 22nd June to be in the draw for the 5 QOS season tickets. Thank you to all for the super support!

Queens Trust is now at 164 members, highest in years and just 16 short of the 180 target. Can you help? Then please join today. Less than a week to the members draw for season tickets. Ebay, paypal, chq, direct banking, cash couldn't be easier. Just £10 for the year or £5 for all concessions.

Super support for the Queens Trust from the Blue Army! We are now at 156 members meaning we have beaten last years number of 155. Now to go for our target of 180! Please help us reach our target. Don't delay join today! At just £10 adults and £5 all concessions it is the same price as it was 12 years ago. Just one week left to be in with the chance of winning a QOS season ticket! Join now so don't miss out. Thank you for the great support so far.

Ps it's only £10 or £5 for concessions!

Big thank you to the 113 Queens Trust members signed up already. Getting closer to our 180 target. By becoming a Trust member you: Support the work of the trust. Promoting QOS (match posters, football events etc) helping where we can (Sponsorship, youth tournaments) As a member you become part owner of the shares in Queens held by the Trust (904 at present) and can therefore attend the QOS AGM We will do a draw from members to win 1 of 5 Qos season tickets 1 adult 2 senior 2 junior blue If there is a vote on any matter each member (over 18) will get 1 vote Your name will be listed on our members page on our website (unless request for it not to be) Don't delay, please join today!

Queens Trust 2016/17 Since our 2 shirt draw entries, the quiz night held at Palmerston and our table at the theatre Royal for the football night we have helped sponsor a local youth football tournament, are planning to do matchday posters again for the coming season, trial freebies at games for the Junior Blues, have a card sticker trade table in the Arena for youngsters to do swaps, if possible organise a meet the manager night, be the main sponsor for the charity calendar (in aid of the Sick Kids Friends Foundation) full of queens photos now in its 11th year and lots more to help and promote the club as much as we can. We can only do these things thanks to the backing/support of our members. Becoming a member doesn't mean that you need to help out or attend meetings etc but we need people to sign up in support of the work we do. It is same price as it was 12 years ago at just £10 for adults and £5 for all concessions. There are 84 members now signed up for 2016 and 2016/17. Aiming to get to 180. And in 3 weeks will be the draw from all members to win one of 5 QOS season tickets! Please join today. Very easy to join. We have listings on eBay (search queen of the south trust) or can pay by paypal, direct banking, cheque in the post or happy to meet up to take payment in person. Don't delay join today!

From the Queens Trust website... A big thank you to everyone who has helped the Queens Trust in anyway over the last year. Whether that is by being a Trust member, making a donation, regular direct debit or by supporting our events like the recent quiz night or our 10th anniversary auction and raffle that we held or by supporting our Twitter and Facebook accounts with shares, retweets and likes etc. It all helps greatly and is very much appreciated. Trust memberships for 2016/17 are now due. As last year there will again be the chance to win one of 5 Queens season tickets (1 adult, 2 senior and 2 junior) for all those that join by 22nd June. The Trust membership which was high when the Trust first started and also during the Save our South campaign has been steadily increasing over the last few years and it would be great if we could continue this trend. So please spread the word and encourage anyone you know to join. It really does help to have the backing of as many fans as possible. It would be fantastic if we could get to 180 members this year so please help if you can. 2012. 59 members. 2013. 72 members. 2014. 112 members. 2015. 155 members Thanks to the support of our members we were able to put 2 entries (£800) in this years Queens shirt draw. We also have a number of ideas for next season to continue our work of promoting Queens in the community and of supporting the Club wherever we can. The Trust will be at the Dumfries Theatre Royal this Thursday (12th May 7.30pm) for the ‘Football in Five Images’ tour by Stuart Cosgrove and Graham Spiers. We will have a stall there where we will be taking Trust memberships / renewals for 2016/17 and also holding a small raffle on the night. If unable to make that event memberships can be purchased through our listing on eBay ‘Queen of the South Trust Membership’ or by paypal, direct banking, or by cheque or cash. More details on the ‘How to Join’ tab at the top of this page. If you have any questions or queries or any suggestions or ideas please do get in touch with us at joetulip1919@hotmail.co.uk it would be great to hear from you. The next two meetings of the Queens Trust will be on Friday 27th May and Wednesday 22nd June in the Queens Arena at 7.30pm and is open to all Trust members

18 just to add - ideally I would like to see adult pricing of £10 terrace and sitting at £15. I know I've heard the club say we tried lowering the price before and it doesn't work. Well I don't think it would work for just one off games. It needs a bit of time to get the message out there so it would be really great to try if for a season. If you take the crowd and take out the junior blues and kids and the seniors and the shirt draw season tickets holders then you are maybe left with say 500 adults. Reducing some by £1 and some by £6 say average £3.50 would cost about £1750 a game. So you would need to attract an extra (at say average of £12.50) adult crowd of 140. I think it could work. I know a lot of folk that would possibly start to go or go more regular if they could get in for £10. Would be fantastic publicity and could result in more sponsorship, merchandise, drink,programmes 50/50 tickets and catering. And having extra folk could make the atmosphere better which in turn may help keep attracting folk more regular. Even at say £12 for the terrace with those figures it would only need an extra 92 extra to replace ticket revenue. 21. There was some photographer that took photos fairly recently of Palmerston and posted them online and heard a few folk say that the place looked a wee bit rundown. These things might be oblivious to us that go regular and not very important but to people that may be new to the ground the club wants to create the best possible impression.

There was a thread on Doonhamers mad re QOS AGM last week that led to discussing the falling crowds at Palmerston and what if anything could be done to help improve them. I posted a reply and someone has asked me to now put that reply on here. I assumed folk read both sites but maybe that's not the case. I am sure folk will have a pop at some or all of these but hey I'm just putting some ideas and suggestions out there seeing as I was asked. It is not that long ago that crowds were bigger so I believe that the fans are out there. It's getting the ones who already go to go more often than they do at present and also constantly attracting new ones. The start of the season is the time when you really to need to get folk hooked up for the whole year. So that no matter what happens the fans have already paid up and more likely to come along. This needs to be promoted and promoted very hard. 1. Make the adult season ticket much better value. It really doesn't make sense to buy one at present. All you need is to miss is two games and you are no better off. Now what can happen during a season you could miss a game if ill, holiday, work, wedding, birthday, bad weather, transport problems, having to look after someone, etc. So I would propose to make that the season ticket gives you four games free. So be able to miss 2or 3 games and still have a 1 or 2 game discount for buying for a year. 2. Promote the junior blues season ticket much harder. It is really superb value. In the past when the Trust was promoting it there were about 800 junior blues but now I think that number is about half. 3. Do season ticket holders get an reminder through the post to renew? If not this needs to be done. Make it easy for folk. 4. Reward loyalty. After say 3 or 4 years in a row (or for those who already have had a season ticket for a few years I a row) throw in some yearly reward. If they stop having a season ticket this reward stops and you start again at zero and have to wait a few years for the reward again. This might make the holder less likely to give up on the season ticket for a year. As it is you can miss one year come back and nothing is different. Even have another extra special band for those who have had tickets for say 8 or 10 years. Give folk something to aim for. Keep them hooked. 5. Possibly allow people to spread the payments prior to the season starting say 4 payments over April, May, June July. Help spread the cost. 6. Promote the fact that pre school children are FREE entry. Seems a bit hit and miss at moment but been told that they are but this is not advertised! Young kids can easily get bored by half time and want to go home. So the financial loss isn't wouldn't be to bad and make the parent happier to try it in the first place and again further times. 7. Provide a room at the ground as a crèche! But it's something I think most parents would be happy to pay for. It would get kids going to the stadium crèche with the parent(s) and would hopefully evolve to then going to the stadium to see the match with the parent(s). 8. Kids again. Sorry but getting the next generation is crucial. Each match every kid should get a free something. Whether each game is a different queens player postcard or even just a small sweetie. These things work it's why McDonald's have the happy meal. I asked my daughter almost 4 what her favourite class was and she said dance class. I said why you really like dancing - no because you get a free sweetie at the end. I took my son to a food court abroad and he picked subway. Why subway I asked he told me because of the free gift he saw in the poster. The price of the ticket doesn't matter to the kids as they are not the ones paying. But if it is a Saturday and they are likely to get a free something at the football they will ask to go. 9. I took my friends son with us to the last game of the regular season (last season) and at the end Derek Lyle and Zander Clark came over and signed some autos. They were the only ones to do this. But do you know it totally made that boys day. He was so happy to have got a players autograph. I would encourage the players to do this more often when ever possible. 10. Introduce a small area where kids can meet to swap their match attax and topps cards and stickers. The school kids are mad for them and some even feature queens these days! Gives the kids another reason to go to games and I would be happy cause I wouldn't need to buy so many packets! 11. At rangers game this season there were five of us together in new stand. People to either side and really busy so not easy to relocate. My sons seat had bird shit all over it. Of course he goes home and that is the first thing he says. Same with the game when the toilets were disgusting and the one where he really wanted chips but there were none before half time. Little things like that do go back to the houses and can make a difference to people going again.regardless of the result we need to get kids going back and talking more about the positive things that happened. 12. People really like parking to be easy. At even some of the not so big crowds recently the queens car park has been full. If you've had difficulty parking or had to go far away or miss some of the game it might make folk less likely to go again. Making things easy is number 1. So I would ask, now that we have a bit of money, if we could buy the triangle piece of land back and put extra parking on it. I reckon it could increase the car parking by about 30%. 13. I think Queens could make MUCH better use of social media to promote games. Even sometimes sending direct emails to fans re matches coming up and promotions / offers. Need to promote and intice. 14. Bring in some promotions / offers and change them about a bit. Gets folk talking and see what works and doesn't. Makes it a bit different. At moment it's the same teams and same old stuff every week. 15. Everyone loves Dougie. Does a fantastic job. I would get him a friend to work with. I don't know who though. Maybe a sheep (dolly) for dougie to chase and round up. A giant hand (in honour of the great work of our fan David Gow) could get the hand claps going etc or maybe even a Peter Pan or tinkerbell. Kids would love these and get their photos taken with them and post them on social media - free advertising. 16. Love the murals. They are fantastic. I would have a few wooden cutouts around the ground painted with scenes from queens or football history but have it so can stick heads through and get a photo taken, again just to make it fun and get folk spreading the word of where they are and what doing and what fun they are having. 17. The segregation between the terrace and the new stand is it really necessary to be there between the home fans? If so fine but if not please move it as it really does seem to interfere with a lot of people's matchday, 18. If the segregation of terrace and stand is necessary then I would try bringing in a slightly different pricing system and make the terrace cheaper than the stand. I would like to drop the overall price but I'm sure they would say we can't. So even if instead of all being same price if the terrace price dropped by a £1 and the stand price went up by £1. Then at least when folk ask me how much to get in to Palmerston I could say you can get in for £15. Then it's up to the individual if they wish to pay more. You have try and get it cheaper for the people that need it and also get more out of the ones who can afford it. Like the hospitality box when it's a cup game and there is no actual hospitality I think it's £30 and it usually seems quite busy. So there are folk who will pay more for a few comforts. 19. Could there be a quick food kiosk that just sells cold stuff that doesn't take long to serve. Crisps, juices, chocolate bars etc. Cut down the amount of queuing. 20. Matchday programme. Two ideas here. The programme could be a really good promotional tool for the club. Say it was monthly and full colour a4, less adverts, bits on all activities, promotions parties, hire pitch, gym, arena, youth teams etc sponsorship opportunities etc. Mixed in with great stories relating to the club. Make something people want to pick up have a look and be impressed with. Could sell it in newsagents around town or in arena at cafe etc. The other idea is a much simpler programme covering every game or 2 possibly (cheap or even free like many other clubs I have seen) with basic match info that folk can take home then fold it out into a really big poster that kids can put on their walls. Get them hooked, replace some of those posters of messi etc.

I help with the Queens Trust but am just writing my own views here. It has now been 11 years since the Queens Trust was formally established. During this time I would say the Trust has had a good relationship with the club and has worked hard to support and promote the club as best it can. Two of the main objectives in the Trusts founding constitution are: To encourage Queen of the South to take proper account of the interests of its supporters and of the community it serves in its decisions. And To encourage and promote the principle of supporter representation on the board of any company owning or controlling Queen of the South and ultimately to be the vehicle for democratic elections to the board. The Trust wrote to the council to see if they were supportive of the idea of fan representation being added to the agenda for the Queens AGM next year. If they are supportive then this issue will hopefully be added to the agenda for the next AGM. The clubs owners (the shareholders) will then be able to vote on the issue to decide if the Trust Supporters group should have representation on the QOS board. I think this is quite a fair way to decide if it is something the shareholders want or not. As far as I am aware the clubs directors have always said that they are not against the idea of fan representation. The minimum share requirement to become a director is 250 shares and the Trust currently has 904. Of the 800 to 900 shareholders in the club I think this puts us as one of the top 20 largest shareholders. Membership of the Queens Trust is open to all Queens fans. Supporter representation can make fans feel more connected and closer to the club and this could result in greater time and financial investments by both fans and businesses. As membership secretary I have been told by some people that they won't join the trust as its pointless as you don't have a say and I have also had members say that they will not be re joining the Trust if it is seen purely as a 'cash cow'. So I think both the Trust and the club would benefit from fan representation on the board and work well together for the maximum benefit of our team during the good times and the bad.

Queens Trust AGM The AGM of the Queens Trust (Queen of the South Supporters Society Ltd) will be held on Tuesday the 8th of December 2015 at 7.30pm in the Queen of the South Arena. All Trust members welcome.

The Queens Trust auction has been very quiet during the week however there have been a good number of bids today and I am expecting that some will wait till the end of the auction before bidding. So far very happy with how it is going. If returning to the Queens Trust page please make sure and click refresh at the top to see the page with all the latest bids otherwise it seems to just upload the last screen viewed. link added for queens trust home page: http://queenstrust.org/

The Great Queens Trust Auction has started...grab a great piece of memorabilia, match tickets and more... http://queenstrust.org/?p=692

Thanks weeredbook. Not going to put online why it has come to an end just now.

Cheers 19QOS19 but not retiring just working on other things. Hopefully there will be match day posters again one day.

Thank you the_vortex.

Queens Trust matchday posters... http://queenstrust.org/?p=667

Hall of Fame nights: 2011 ticket price £27 (£25 if a queens trust member) 2013 ticket price £30 2015 ticket price £50 Thats quite a jump in price. Following and supporting Queens all year round is an expensive business. Maybe a discount to reward the loyalty of season ticket holders might have been a good idea.

The Great Queens Trust Auction coming soon! For more details please follow link. Anyone with an item they would like to donate please get in touch! http://queenstrust.org/?p=664

Queens Trust 10th Anniversary raffle tickets are available from the Queens club office. Purchase some when visiting to purchase your tickets for the Rangers game. Raffle tickets are 1 for £1 or book of 6 for £5. Also hope to be in the Arena selling them before the Morton game.

Queens Trust raffle tickets on sale before game today at Queens Arena near to the door and next few home games. £1 a ticket £5 for 6. Some great prizes incl £100 and £50 gift vouchers for the club shop, framed limited edition Paine Proffitt queens artwork plus many more items. Raffle to drawn 4th September.

Cheers JRS Left Peg , glad you liked the post and the work the Trust has been doing,

Queens Trust season ticket winners at meeting tonight: http://queenstrust.org/?p=607 Thanks to all members old and new!

Less than one day to go till the Queens Trust picks the 5 season ticket winners out of the 2015 and 2015/16 membership. Don't delay - join today! Only £10 if working and £5 all concessions, very easy to join. Please support the Trust. http://queenstrust.org/?page_id=36