New Investment

[Cress]

In my opinion I would put the whole Ward windfall into Scouting and Analysis and complement it with a philosophy. This will tie up the money over for a few years and give us the advantage of spotting players who can play higher earlier and that fit into our philosophy. Plus these players will hypothetically move higher up the pyramid generating us future transfer fees and the ability to further invest.

[pagl]

Originally Posted by Inside Left

I think there are figures if you have time to trawl past minutes
eg last May there were 3237 members and for this May it is 3376.

Also there were 5651 emails sent out to remind members of memberships.

Membership is one of the WSTs more transparent areas of activity.

For those interested its just a case of looking at the minutes of their general meetings.

Hope that answers the query .

Thanks.
So we ended with 3376 members and the truer number will be after the renewals and the Aug/Sept figure.

So the key is what happens to the 5651 and 3376 difference and what is the strategy to bridge this gap? The #5,000 aim could be achieved from these contacts alone.

So yes membership is transparent in terms of numbers but growth seems to be based on fans coming to us and not us actively growing the numbers.

[DoomandGloom]

Originally Posted by el poncho

A few years ago I tried to start a campaign on Red Passion for #10,000 owners

Around the time we were at Wembley for the 1st time in our clubs history and we had amongst the fan base that day an extra 20,000 people who don't go regularly to the Racecourse, but who still love our club and look out for our results. They might also have had £12 of goodwill to become a member of WST. Although Wembley and all the trims/merchandise etc was a very expensive day out, it was also a unique one off occasion.

Before the match the Club / Steven Cook were looking for sponsors to take out adverts in the Wembley match day programme. With my own personal funds, I tried to sponsor a red passion page with an advert for #10,000 Owners, to try and help increase the membership. For reasons I still don't quite understand I was told by Steven thank you, but that it would be politically difficult for him to do.

I think #10,000 owners was perhaps considered too ambitious, which I can recognise in hindsight, was perhaps true, our membership at that time was around the 2,500 mark I think, although it could have been quite easily adjusted to #5,000 owners etc.

My main philosophy with all this stuff, is how to harness the energy and goodwill of the fan base? Sometimes fundraising ideas can be run independently of the WST and still greatly help the club.

There are lots of proactive Wxm fans with some really good ideas and business capabilities and somehow we need to get all of their knowledge and expertise into the right areas of our Community Owned Club, where they can all make a positive difference. Otherwise lots of fans like pagl will continue to feel frustrated/concerned and carry on posting those thoughts on RP.

If their is a practical mechanism for most fans to feel aligned to the club and that their voice is heard, then that will give our club the greatest chance of success.

Red Passion still has the most visibility of all the websites connected to WAFC, and with that visibility it represents the voice of the fans, so it is a valid part of the process.

I think this sounds similar to what Spencer was discussing at the AGM. The plan being to set about offering something that benefits the member beyond the perceived value of membership. Pretty sure he mentioned CAMRA and someone who set up a scheme so members got discounts on real ale over and above the membership cost making it a no-brainer to be a member if you liked real ale. I guess cheaper season tickets does it for some but we need to hit people outside the current circle of influence of the club.

[Welsh Kiwi]

Originally Posted by DoomandGloom

I think this sounds similar to what Spencer was discussing at the AGM. The plan being to set about offering something that benefits the member beyond the perceived value of membership. Pretty sure he mentioned CAMRA and someone who set up a scheme so members got discounts on real ale over and above the membership cost making it a no-brainer to be a member if you liked real ale. I guess cheaper season tickets does it for some but we need to hit people outside the current circle of influence of the club.

Yes exactly.

The real growth potential is from people who like the idea of a Community Owned Football Club that does good in the Community for the wider community, but who don't necessarily like football, but would consider becoming a Club member in support of the good work the club does in the community. It doesn't need to just be reaching out to those people living in Wrexham either. The world is a big place.