We thought it would be useful to provide a brief round-up on recent activities.
Converting to a Trust
On the 23rd July members voted to convert to become a Supporters’ Trust and you can read the full minutes here. The meeting was held on Zoom and despite large numbers and the complexities of voting, it went very smoothly. Thank you to everyone that attended and all of you that voted by proxy. And thank you to all the volunteers that worked hard behind the scenes to create such a professionally ran meeting in challenging circumstances.
Since the EGM the elected committee (after respective, well-earned holidays) has been working on submitting various papers to the Football Supporters’ Association (who in turn liaise with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)).
So, the process of registering as a Trust is underway. In parallel to this the committee have been researching some of the technical requirements for converting to a Trust which includes things like a flexible and user-friendly subscription platform. We hope to have everything in place before we get the “green light” from the FCA.
After that we will invite Sunderland supporters to join the Trust and then announce the date of the first AGM. Any existing members who don’t join the Trust will remain on our system as non-voting members. We will continue to seek the views of non-voting members and send them newsletters.
Communication with the Club
There has not been a formal Structured Dialogue meeting with the club since December 2019. There have been two widely publicised meetings in recent months that were arranged by the club. The first was after supporter reaction to the initial Season Ticket refund and renewal announcements and the second was a meeting called by Stewart Donald at short notice in July. Details of those meetings are on our website and were covered in local media at the time.
RAWA have also been invited by the club’s Safety Officer to attend discussions around the return of supporters to games. We’ve attended two of these meetings, ran by the Safety Officer, Ticket Office Manager and SLO. The staff involved in these meetings have been fantastic and are working hard to get as many supporters back into the SoL as possible. It’s a huge challenge for them, made even more difficult as many of their colleagues remain furloughed.
We have this week enquired when the next Structured Dialogue meeting will take place. Structured Dialogue, remember, is written into the EFL rules whereby there should be at least two meeting per year with appropriate club and supporter representation. An agenda is agreed and attendees then agree the minutes for publication (ideally within 7 days of the meeting).
Whilst we await confirmation of when that next meeting will be, as always, we want to know what you want us to ask. We can’t ask every question that’s thrown our way but we endeavour to make sure that the agenda reflects the main themes that arise from the points that you raise.
If you have something you want us to raise please email info@redandwhitearmy.co.uk