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Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons


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2 minutes ago, Rod said:

"with over 2,400 members who currently do not make monthly contributions" that bit really surprised me, and speaks volumes to (in my opinion anyway) the really daft way the society started by asking for a ~£350 one-off donation. Reading through the plan, it really boils down to asking the members for money, which is fair enough really.

If the current income is £180k and assuming 2/3rds of the 2400 members pay the suggested £12 then thats another ~£230k income, which could be invested into the club and would be a great source of funding. Does anyone know if thats that the way the Foundation of Hearts work?

The flip side of it though is that it can look like a tax on existing supporters but if members are happy to pay it alongside actually being able to have a say on key club decisions (which is suggested in the plan "a clear definition on what merits a full Society vote") then fair enough.

The big question I have is where does the society's income currently go? Is it in the WS fund to loan to club, income to the club, what? Should point out that I'm not a member but if I knew where my membership fees were going then I would seriously consider it. Thats always been my problem since day 1.

 

 

Its been a while but did we not have to reach a certain amount in the bank to ensure it was viable. the pay monthly part came much later on (I think)

With the old board, I had thought about ditching the monthly contributions as there was nothing to buy into. Now, assuming the vote goes the way I hope it does, I will look to increase it and by look I will ask the wives permission.

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42 minutes ago, camer0n_mcd said:

Maybe I'm looking into to much but that middle paragraph looks like a very thinly veiled dig at Feely and Dickie Screenshot_20240702-1259322.thumb.png.928ad49618105181c4f8be1631e3795a.png

I love "Reserved Matters" - using the Scotland Act as the template for this stuff is a bit of a plot twist.

"We'd like to change the club colours" "Now is not the time" 

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14 minutes ago, Rod said:

 Reading through the plan, it really boils down to asking the members for money, which is fair enough really.

The big question I have is where does the society's income currently go? Is it in the WS fund to loan to club, income to the club, what? Should point out that I'm not a member but if I knew where my membership fees were going then I would seriously consider it. Thats always been my problem since day 1.

 

 

On your first point, I don't think it does; there's two sections about other areas the WS is proposing to target; strategic investment and local partnerships. Any long-term or significant investment into the Club will be a hybrid of all that's being proposed, I would imagine.

On your last one, as far as I understand it, the income currently goes into the Well Society's account which is then used to support the Club when it's requested. The loan consists of previous cash injections the Society has made and regular contributions do not go to that immediately; they go to the Society, which then uses that money to support the Club when required.

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13 minutes ago, wellboy1991 said:

‘She’s fine thanks….’

Or commonly known as the worst football joke on earth. 

Aye. And this wee observation from Flamurtari fans - 

IMG_8494.jpeg

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3 minutes ago, steelmen said:

With the old board, I had thought about ditching the monthly contributions as there was nothing to buy into. Now, assuming the vote goes the way I hope it does, I will look to increase it and by look I will ask the wives permission.

I think it's now well accepted that the Society made tactical mistakes in the past. The theory of building a safety net was great but once you've got X hundred k there, it's hardly a marketing slogan of dreams...

But it should be acknowledged the alternative wasn't - and indeed still isn't - easy. It would have been hard just to change the philosophy on a whim and there were ethical/practical reasons not to squeeze our small fan base over and over again without a concrete need or plan.

Even now (assuming Eric fucks off), we'll be back to our main problem which isn't money, despite the recent noise, but bodies. There was a reason it was so easy to let the governance go to hell when Burrows did everything, there simply wasn't anyone else around to pick up the slack, challenge or contribute.

If you say we're looking for an executive board of 6-8, a Society board of 9-12, without duplication to ensure accountability, that's mid-teens of people who have relevant skills, a bucket of enthusiasm, an abundance of time and skin like a rhino... that's a lot to produce every two-three years from the numbers of our fan base.

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7 minutes ago, steelmen said:

With the old board, I had thought about ditching the monthly contributions as there was nothing to buy into. Now, assuming the vote goes the way I hope it does, I will look to increase it and by look I will ask the wives permission.

I stopped my contributions last year because it seemed very much like money for nothing. It was a case of cancelling my direct debit and I heard nothing more. I would have expected at least an exit survey to find out why.

I also didn't renew my season ticket while Alexander was manager because I was getting absolutely no enjoyment in exchange for several hours of my time and hundreds of pounds. There was no persuasive phone call from the club or attempt to sell one to me.

Outside of this, I am based in a north Lanarkshire village of about 3000 people where I am unaware of a single other Motherwell fan. 

These are three different areas which are all being targeted by the WS so I'm not going to actively start contributing out of nowhere. Instead I'm going to see if they target me to start contributing and follow-up on their promises. I couldn't be more of their target market for this so it will be a good test. If they do get in touch I will happily pay in some way.

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24 minutes ago, Rod said:

"with over 2,400 members who currently do not make monthly contributions" that bit really surprised me, and speaks volumes to (in my opinion anyway) the really daft way the society started by asking for a ~£350 one-off donation. Reading through the plan, it really boils down to asking the members for money, which is fair enough really.

If the current income is £180k and assuming 2/3rds of the 2400 members pay the suggested £12 then thats another ~£230k income, which could be invested into the club and would be a great source of funding. Does anyone know if thats that the way the Foundation of Hearts work?

The flip side of it though is that it can look like a tax on existing supporters but if members are happy to pay it alongside actually being able to have a say on key club decisions (which is suggested in the plan "a clear definition on what merits a full Society vote") then fair enough.

The big question I have is where does the society's income currently go? Is it in the WS fund to loan to club, income to the club, what? Should point out that I'm not a member but if I knew where my membership fees were going then I would seriously consider it. Thats always been my problem since day 1.

 

 

I get that we obviously want to increase the number of contributing WS members but a facility to alter your existing contributions would be ideal, I've looked at increasing mine a few times but it's proven to be such a pain in the rear end or something that the WS have to alter in your behalf that I haven't bothered, or been able to.

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Huge well done to the 'Well Society board for producing this, there's obviously been a tonne of work put into it. To see such a clear, concise and realistic plan to grow the club is great, but really puts into perspective the lack of proactive planning and strategy by previous board members. 

I was never going to vote for the Wild Sheep proposal once the details came to light, but did admit I had reservations over the WS' ability to generate sufficient levels of additional income to continue supporting the club despite being a monthly contributor for years. This was absolutely nothing to do with the recently appointed board members, but there's only so many Motherwell fans in a position to contribute money on top of the usual expenses of following the team - but the details contained within the strategy doc, and the passion and enthusiasm that clearly comes through in the wording, really ally a lot of my doubts. Once the Wild Sheep proposal is (hopefully) booted out and the Exec Board refreshed, I'm really positive about what can be achieved with some fresh impetus and a solid, accountable plan moving forward. 

Vive La Well Society  ✊

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3 minutes ago, Dosser1886 said:

I get that we obviously want to increase the number of contributing WS members but a facility to alter your existing contributions would be ideal, I've looked at increasing mine a few times but it's proven to be such a pain in the rear end or something that the WS have to alter in your behalf that I haven't bothered, or been able to.

I upped mine at the end of the season, I emailed the society, it took them 3 weeks to phone me but I told them the new amount and that was job done.

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2 minutes ago, Richie said:

Stating that it's hypothetical... Aren't all projections, plans etc based on external factors hypothetical?

Yes - and some people will always doubt a plan like this. The only way to answer that is for the WS to show that they are delivering parts of the plan (and they have talked about measuring what they do, so they understand that too) - because that is the next stage in building credibility (today has been a brilliant start to that).

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26 minutes ago, Dosser1886 said:

I get that we obviously want to increase the number of contributing WS members but a facility to alter your existing contributions would be ideal, I've looked at increasing mine a few times but it's proven to be such a pain in the rear end or something that the WS have to alter in your behalf that I haven't bothered, or been able to.

Geez that's some take. Just phone them up - their number is openly available. That's all I did to increase mine.

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30 minutes ago, standupforthemotherwell said:

These are three different areas which are all being targeted by the WS so I'm not going to actively start contributing out of nowhere. Instead I'm going to see if they target me to start contributing and follow-up on their promises. I couldn't be more of their target market for this so it will be a good test. If they do get in touch I will happily pay in some way.

Why not be proactive and help out rather than making things difficult?

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1 hour ago, camer0n_mcd said:

Just got to say a massive well done to Jay, Derek, Sean, Markus, Amber and Phil with this. A clear, realistic plan for the club and if people are still willing to vote for this deal then I give up. 

 

The future is with Fan Ownership.

Out of interest did the others not participate in this before they jumped ship i.e. did they take a back seat or have their heads turned halfway through, has Feely bought into it?

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1 minute ago, ropy said:

Out of interest did the others not participate in this before they jumped ship i.e. did they take a back seat or have their heads turned halfway through, has Feely bought into it?

I don't know but on the basis Feely didn't put his name on the foreword and wasn't quoted in the release, I'll draw a conclusion for the post-shenanigans view.

And given the other pair would have binned fan ownership, I doubt they'd have been burning it up with this sort of effort before.

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