Supporters Direct News Email

Dear %FirstName%


We hope you are enjoying the summer and that our football members are looking forward to the new season.



The big focus at the start of the month was on the Supporters Summit and SD AGM which took place at St. George's Park. Below you will find more information on what happened at this year's event.



This month Bath City FC played Exeter City FC in The Brian Lomax SD Cup. We were delighted to be joined by Brian's wife, Catherine, who presented the cup. More details below...



As you should have seen, we launched the new SD Hub (which replaces the old SD website) so hopefully you're now signed up with your preferences on the articles that interest you. We will be contacting you in the coming weeks to invite you to your network areas so that you can make the most from the system.



In June we spent 46.25 hours providing one to one support to our members.



Please keep in touch with any stories or updates you have. Don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to keep up-to-date with news from the movement.


News flash: The New SD Hub!

As mentioned we have launched the new SD Hub.


The SD Hub gives us the ability to support the movement online, with a platform set-up to help you progress your work locally as well as better connect with others in the wider network. You will now see this at the old SD web address. Some of the reasons we think it will help are…


  • An ‘Ask the expert’ private area where you can ask questions and put forward ideas to be discussed with fellow experts, activists and the SD team.
  • These cover a range of topics from running elections to supporter takeovers and everything in between.
  • A personal feed so that you can set up your own preferences for the type of article you want to see and those you want to filter out.
  • Private network areas covering the different sports and leagues that SD and our members work in so that you can discuss and debate in a closed forum with people facing the same challenges and opportunities.
  • Live streaming which can be utilised either for public consumption or for private groups

You should have received an invitation email to sign up, however, if you haven't completed your registration you still can do so directly on the site.


Visit the hub



If you have any questions about the hub, please get in touch.


Member focus: The Well Society

The Well Society is less than a year into community ownership and they are already heading in a positive direction on and off the field.



Last weekend they held a number of events to kick off the club’s first full campaign under the Well Society’s ownership. Activities included the visit of Syrian guests, the club’s Open Day and the Well Society’s 7-aside tournament.



Read more



The events also help the Well Society’s main aim which is to ensure that the club maintains and strengthens its reputation as a community-focused football club.



The club has also recently announced a number of new commercial partnerships and their season ticket sales have risen by 15% on last season.



Keep up the good work!


Supporters Summit Round Up

We were delighted to be joined by over 200 supporters' at the Summit.



The main focus of the event was 'Clubs in Crisis'. We heard about the experiences of Leyton Orient Fans' Trust, Sky Blues Trust and Blackpool Supporters' Trust at the opening session.



There are articles and features on the Summit on the SD Hub:



* The two-minute round-up

* Trust reactions

* Delegate reactions

* David Conn interview

* Video assisted refereeing workshop



If you attended but haven't yet completed the survey then there's still time to give us your feedback. It should only take around 5 minutes of your time and helps us to find ways to improve the event in future.



Take the survey


At the SD AGM, which took place on Sunday 2nd July, there were seven resolutions passed.



Read more



The Richard Lillicrap Award was also presented to Alan Russell of the Raith Rovers Supporters Trust.



Read more



The Brian Lomax SD Cup 2017

Congratulations to Exeter City FC who beat Bath City FC to win the Brian Lomax SD Cup.


Read the report


Supporters Direct Appoints New Chair

We are delighted to confirm that Tom Greatrex has been elected by the SD Board as the new Chair of the organisation, replacing Brian Burgess who stood down at the Annual General Meeting on Sunday 2nd July at the end of his term of office.


Read more


People in the movement: Oliver Holtaway

This month we hear from Oliver Holtaway.



Q. Can you remember and tell us about the first football match you attended?

OH: I’ve supported Bath City since 2000, when a mate of mine took me to the Boxing Day match. I was 20, and up to that point football was just something I watched on TV – I’d lived in Bath my whole childhood without ever having heard of the club. It was pretty much love at first sight, I was very attracted to the local, down-to-earth, communal feeling.



Q. What trust are you a member of?

OH: I’ve been a member of Bath City Supporters Society since about 2010. Work took me away from Bath, and becoming a trust member was a great way to keep my connection to the club going.



Q. Are you a board member of your trust, and if so what is your role and how long have you been involved?

OH: I’ve just stepped down after a two-year term on my trust board, during which time I also served as Secretary, in order to focus on a new role as the club’s partnerships manager.



Q. What have been your major achievements at the trust over the past year?

OH: That’s an easy one – last year we raised £365,000 in a community share offer and acquired a majority stake in the club, making Bath City FC one of the UK’s newest community-owned clubs. Since then we’ve appointed a full-time general manager, set up a more professional working group structure for volunteers and competed in the SD Brian Lomax Cup – although sadly we were outclassed by a determined Exeter City side! Overall, we are making progress in raising the club’s profile and building new connections in Bath.



Q. What first made you want to get involved with Supporters Direct?

OH: Supporters Direct was an immense help to us when we pulled together our initial community share offer in 2015. I was heavily involved in the drafting of the prospectus and had a good working relationship with James Mathie, our “caseworker”. I was elected in 2016 for a three-year term – I wanted to do my bit in ensuring that SD is around in the future to give clubs like mine the help they need to secure their futures.



Q. What do you see for the future of support engagement?

OH: I really want to see more collaboration between trusts and particularly member-owned clubs, and I’m confident that SD’s new online hub will help on this front. Having attended a couple of SD Europe conferences, I’m amazed at how much clubs and trusts from completely different leagues and completely different places can learn from each other.

More broadly, I think there’s an opportunity to show that supporter trusts are about citizenship and cooperation as much as they are about sport. SD’s roots as part of the cooperative movement are important.



Q. Apart from football do you follow any other sports?

OH: I’m a migrant to the UK, so my original family sporting allegiance is to the New York Giants. Football is definitely my favourite sport now, but I also love Test cricket..


A special thanks to...

We would like to thank Martin Robinson for his generous donation to Supporters Direct.

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