County town fans give green light to Trust formation

9:11am Wednesday 22nd October 2008

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THE proposed Dorchester Town Supporters Trust is now up and running.

Magpies’ fans gathered at the Colliton Club in Dorchester to hear from organiser Dave Ring and officials from Supporters Direct – the supporters’ trust initiative.

Also present among around 20 county town supporters were officials from the Terras Trust of Weymouth Football Club, who shared their experiences of setting up a trust.

A vote taken at the end of the meeting gave a clear mandate to Ring to collect names from people willing to serve on an elected trust board and to set up the first board meeting, expected to be held next week.

Trust spokesman Paul Breakwell said: “The night was all about giving people the opportunity to hear from Supporters Direct, and from fans who have already done what we’re about to do, exactly what is involved in setting up a trust.

“Hopefully the meeting righted a few myths about the trust just being another supporters’ club – and also being an extension of the current board at the club.

“It isn’t and that’s why fans were happy to vote to set up the trust on the night.

“We had one abstention but everyone else was clearly in favour of kicking on, and nobody was against – so that has to be a result.

“The trust, like others set up through Supporters Direct, will be a democratic, non-profit making organisation owned and controlled by no one other than the fans themselves.

“Our aims are clear – to strengthen bonds between the club’s fans and the community and to engage in regular dialogue and work alongside club officials in due course.

“We will set our own agenda about what this will involve and trust members will get to decide which direction we go in.

“We would like to emulate the Terras Trust in having an elected fans’ representative sitting as a voting member on the DTFC board, but clearly that will be one for club chairman Eddie Mitchell and his directors to decide on in due course.

“In the meantime we’d like to thank James Mathie from Supporters Direct for making all of this possible and also to Terras Trust chairman Anthony Sams and secretary Caroline Kinsella for suspending rivalries and coming along.”

For more information on the Dorchester Town Supporters Trust visit magpiestrust.co.uk