Is anyone acting on this guys & gals? I've just been reading your posts regarding the fortunes of Doncaster RL and wondered if you had considered the possibility of setting up a Supporters Trust at all? My name is Laura Harrison and I am the Rugby League Development Officer for Supporters Direct, an organisation set up to develop and assist supporters trusts across football and now rugby league. I am not aware of the current community activity at the club but perhaps a shift in focus to the community, whilst being a slow-burn' method of building the club, can actually be one of the safest methods of helping the club to survive and a Supporters Trust could have a huge influence in setting and running these programmes. Whilst the example of Rochdale Hornets is an extreme one, with the trust now in ownership of the club, there are several other examples of supporters trusts in rugby league working hand in hand with the professional club to develop the profile of both organisations and ultimately strengthening the game in the area. A supporters trust could work to build links between the club and local community regardless of what happens in the future (whether this be a takeover or administration). The forming of a trust may also help to galvanise supporters who may have fallen away from the club due to the recent circumstances. If this sounds like something you may be interested in, please feel free to give me a call on 07985 628 215 or via email at laura.harrison@supporters-direct.org and I will be happy to provide more information. Kind regards Laura Harrison Is nt it time we stopped pitying ourselves? I ve been to enough meetings over the years to know we have the skills & contacts that have often been overlooked by previous administrations over the years to believe that between us we could make the Dons a succesful community club. Of course this would mean giving up dreams of being a Super League club and concentrating on at least 5 years of building a stable base and trust within the community again providing local players the opportunity to realise their ambition of playing for their home town club. I know that I would prefer this future rather than this yearly doom & despair.

Is anyone acting on this guys & gals? I've just been reading your posts regarding the fortunes of Doncaster RL and wondered if you had considered the possibility of setting up a Supporters Trust at all? My name is Laura Harrison and I am the Rugby League Development Officer for Supporters Direct, an organisation set up to develop and assist supporters trusts across football and now rugby league. I am not aware of the current community activity at the club but perhaps a shift in focus to the community, whilst being a slow-burn' method of building the club, can actually be one of the safest methods of helping the club to survive and a Supporters Trust could have a huge influence in setting and running these programmes. Whilst the example of Rochdale Hornets is an extreme one, with the trust now in ownership of the club, there are several other examples of supporters trusts in rugby league working hand in hand with the professional club to develop the profile of both organisations and ultimately strengthening the game in the area. A supporters trust could work to build links between the club and local community regardless of what happens in the future (whether this be a takeover or administration). The forming of a trust may also help to galvanise supporters who may have fallen away from the club due to the recent circumstances. If this sounds like something you may be interested in, please feel free to give me a call on 07985 628 215 or via email at laura.harrison@supporters-direct.org and I will be happy to provide more information. Kind regards Laura Harrison Is nt it time we stopped pitying ourselves? I ve been to enough meetings over the years to know we have the skills & contacts that have often been overlooked by previous administrations over the years to believe that between us we could make the Dons a succesful community club. Of course this would mean giving up dreams of being a Super League club and concentrating on at least 5 years of building a stable base and trust within the community again providing local players the opportunity to realise their ambition of playing for their home town club. I know that I would prefer this future rather than this yearly doom & despair.

I really hope more fans pick up the phone and give Laura a call or make that e-mail.

The thing is with this supporters trust lark is that it will be the same 30 or 40 who want to get it started.It will be the same 30 or 40 who set up a meeting for the trust and it will be the same 30 or 40 who will attend the meeting.

Everybody harps on about how our average attendance is around the 800 mark, so where then is everyone when its time to dig ourselves out of the 5h1t.
Im afraid it will be the same people trying to do their best for the club (the vast majority of which are on this forum on a regular basis), and until some of the other 760 or so fans decide to get involved it wont be enough.

It needs ALL the fans to get together on this one not just the die hards.The reality and the seriousness of the situation should be enough to get the rest of the fans involved.If it doesnt, then do they really care anyway!!

Understand completely were your coming from Karlos--.
I'ts crunch time for The Dons and if those 760 or so fans can't be persuaded somehow to become involved----
then the harsh reality is that the 30 or 40 die-hards will have to find other things to do on a Sunday afternoon.
Let's hope it dosn't come to that.

If the same 30/40 raised 1K each the Dons would be OK for now.

Starting with you?

How do you know some of them haven't already?

And the same amount could have been raised if the 800 had contributed £50 each.

If that 760 raised £100 each Donny would be up and running again.

My point is its always the same 30 or 40.The other few hundred or so just seem to want to sit back with their feet up, do nothing and hope somebody else sorts it out.And in the meantime come on here and moan about everything.

Also regarding your above quote, I along with quite a few other people have monthly direct debits paying into an account to help out.I have been doing for the last 18 months or so.So dont start questioning the efforts of the die hards my friend.

There is no point in throwing good money after bad.
If the club can exist until next season, hopefully unsaddled by a punitive points deduction to run from next season......anyone interested will come in then.....not now. Why give money to the Inland Revenue.
If they can't last until then.....better they go out of business......simple as that.

I would have thought that the club could have coped financially this year.....even though it was difficult. Without a backer it was obviously not possible with the level of management we had..

Surely it would be better for those 30-40 people to act now rather than accept the club potentially being lost forever? Growing the trust is a longer term project and from this growth you will find new people willing to be involved and help out. If the club disappears for good then nobody will have the chance to be involved.

I would strongly urge anyone who is interested in forming a trust to contact me as soon as possible on the details above and hopefully we can find a solution to this problem that doesn't involve rugby league disappearing from Doncaster.

Cheers

Laura

I m sorry folks, but rather than analysing another collapse of the club should nt we be looking at ensuring that it never happens again.

We can argue between ourselves on this site forever with the hope that another consortium or knight in shining armour comes along to save the club. Arguably if this happens there is a very good chance that some of the people who may have got us into this position would still be around.

And I believe we the supporters would find ourselves in this position again, after all, the likelihood is that these people will either not have club's best interest at heart or be capable of promoting the club properly and repairing its tarnished reputation.

I believe we should look at the possibility of a Supporters Trust either to take club forward alone, or as an independent body to work with any potential new owners to ensure some stability to make sure this never happens again.

So lets stop contemplating our navals or planning what we will do next summer on Sunday afternoons.

So come on you Dons

I admire your enthusiasm....but it won't happen.
As the meerkat says...'simples'.
There is no appetite for it anymore.
And I don't say this lightly.....if this is the level of governance of the Dons....what's the point?
I want the Dons to continue....but this 'rally round lads' stuff is just words.

Don't worry about me I raise about 5K for Moorends before the start of every summer season.

I don't and I'm talking now and not the past. SO organise the tickets for the raffle and show me the evidence that you have sufficient numbers selling tickets and I will sell my £100.00 worth as long as if the scheme does not work the money raised goes to the development of Rugby League (Dave Marshall already has a development project) within Doncaster and does not sit in a bank account for ever and a day.

I know your post was made at just after five this morning-- but don't understand the part of your post that i've highlighted in your quote.

When has any monies raised by the fans of the Dons ever sat in a bank account for ever and a day?-------Never,as far as i'm aware.

your my hero

with this or it might be too late and your last chance

All the best

Much of what you say makes good sense and I sincerely thank you for your concern but we recently called a meeting to update fans of the situation at the Club and only 40 people turned up which supports much of what Karlos has said.

The reality is that when you take off the travelling support, our regular support at home games (ignoring the Toulouse game with its freebies) is probably in the region of 600. Of those something like 40 or 50 have been involved in various activities such Supporters Trusts, Supporters Groups and other similiar committees and groups.

Each time something new is tried, you can gaurantee it will fall to some or many of those same people to try and make it happen.

The remaining 550 will attend on match day but appear to have little or no interest beyond that. Indeed a Club that once had a travelling support that was the envy of many of the lower division Clubs is lucky to get more than a handful at away games. There were about 50 supporters from Doncaster at Featherstone recently for a local derby which is 25 minutes away by road.

You make a number of valid points but the truth of the matter is that some of the things you suggest have been tried before either by the Club itself or groups of supporters and sadly it seems that [size=109the vast majority of people in Doncaster do not care if there is a Professional / Semi Professional Rugby League Club in the town.[/size

Agree with your last comment-but what's the alternative?
If a supporters trust is maintaning a RL team in Rochdale then its worth a shot-it may be your last chance.
The only proviso that i would recommend is that the existing management have absolutely nothing to do with the running of the club as i'd stake money on it been doomed to failure before its been given any chance if they are.
Keep RL going in Doncaster and every traditional RL area or else the games up.

Rochdale have less fans than Doncaster and their supporters trust has ensured that their team has survived. I would strongly urge one of you to contact the relevant people to set up your own trust whilst you still have the chance to do so.

Agreed. RL clubs have always been run by a small number of enthusiastic supporters. Some people are prepared to chip in cash but do no work.

What's the alternative ? Wait for a rich bloke to come along?

that works doesn't it???

No. Exactly my point.

This may have been read on the other post but I m doing it anyway. Taken from the Hornets Supporters Trust.

The new club is a Supporters’ Trust - registered as an Industrial & Provident Society in January 2009. Its full title is “Rochdale Hornets Rugby Football League Club Society Limited”. But as that would make for a very large badge, it’s much easier to call it ‘Hornets Rugby League’.

Where we differ from other clubs in the Co-Operative Championship and Super League is that - as an IPS - we are owned entirely by our members.

Any Rugby League fan over aged 16 or over can become a full member of the Trust. By becoming a member you will be issued with a £1 share in the Trust. This will give you an equal share in the ownership of our club with other members. No-one can own more than one share.

An IPS is a special type of company that is regulated by the Financial Services Authority. Members of an IPS are protected from any liabilities that the Trust may incur - your liability only extends to the £1 share that you own.

Our annual membership scheme will enable us to raise much needed funds - and the first £1 of your membership covers the purchase of your share. As a member you will be the owner of one share, which will entitle you to one vote at General Meetings, and also in board elections. In addition, membership entitles you to stand for election to the committee if you want to get more involved.

Our basic annual membership type is Bronze. This costs only £15 per year, and includes full membership of the Trust.

Fundraising and donations will be absolutely key to our survival, so if you want to give more to help Hornets Rugby League, please sign up to be a Silver or Gold member.

Silver and Gold members have exactly the same share ownership and voting rights as regular bronze members, but also have the benefit of knowing that they are contributing more to the financial wellbeing of the club.

Silver membership costs just £10 per month; Gold membership costs £20 per month. You can either pay this as one lump sum each year, or set up a standing order to ensure we get the money each month.

Membership payments are absolutely vital to our survival as they give us a guaranteed income stream - and if we could raise £10 per month (only £2.50 per week!) from 100 members, that would raise a crucial £12,000 for Hornets.

100 members on £20 per month (only £5 per week) would give us £24,000 which would put us well on the road to a secure future

This must be worth giving it a go and personally I would want the Supporters Trust to look at running the club itself and remove all the current administration. I m not sure how or if this could be done, but I m prepared to contact Laura Harrison for more information.

Currently I m paying £8 a month for the lottery and winning bugger all, I d rather know it was going to ensure the clubs survival, because I ve no idea how much money the lottery is earning or how much it is costing to administer.