G
Gareth Nicholson
Guest
Damon.Lenszner":3neor7ze said:I Am also glad that woz will continue as chairman and thank him for his clarification. One part of his post does lead to further questions, maybe for a separate thread but I will let mods decide. Fund raising will start in earnest for the 20per cent stake - will these be voting shares? What value has been put on a club with no assets and a stonking great debt? Why are fans being asked to pay for shares when the other boArd members were not? Have the fans not done enough in saving our club to be rewarded with the shares rather than having to pay for them? As I say maybe all questions for another thread but questions this trust member feels need to be answered by the Board members.
Hi Damon,
A couple of points in response to that. Woz talked about fundraising and the 20% offer seperately, so I'll touch on the two issues separately too.
The Trust needs to raise money to enable it to run and meet all of its objectives. We need to meet running costs that, with the rising cost of postage as one example, are going up. We also need to raise money to do more in the community, continue the Trust's support for things like the womens' team and for local charities like the Foodbank (I'd like to see a Christmas Foodbank campaign as an annual event).
And aside from that, if the Trust's members agree that the best way forward for the Trust in achieving its aim of community ownership is to take up the share offer made by James Brent (and there are strong arguments both for and against I feel), we will of course need to raise a significant amount of money to achieve that.
So to answer your questions:
Will these be voting shares? - We are waiting formal confirmation from James Brent as to what the formal offer is, what the share offer will look like and cost.
What value has been put on a club with no assets and a stonking great debt? - We have asked those questions and are awaiting answers.
Why are fans being asked to pay for shares when the other boArd members were not? - We will raise this issue with James.
I know that doesn't take us much further, but as James himself admitted in the QandA answers (and let's take a minute to say that we should be proud of the engagement and apparent transparency so far from the club), the Trust have asked the questions and the ball is very much in his (ie James's) court.
A meeting between the Trust Board and James will take place in the coming weeks where we expect to see meat put on the bones. We will impress on James the need for that information to be put to Trust members (and more generally put in to the public domain).
What will follow would, I expect, be a consultation paper for Trust members outlining in layman's terms the pros and cons of the offer and possibly making a recommendation to members. That's something the Board will need to agree the mechanics of following our meeting with James.
We will also seek independent financial and legal advice, using the resources available to Supporters' Direct members as much as we can. However, we are extremely keen to hear from Argyle fans who can either offer themselves or can put us in touch with people who could offer pro bono legal and/or financial advice in understanding the intricacies of the offer, giving an independent opinion on likely risks to the Trust and its members etc. I'd ask anyone who thinks they can help to get in touch with us.
Edited to correct some spelling mistakes.