On Saturday 19th July two members of the Notts County Supporters Trust interim board attended a training day in Leicester.

The event was supported by the East Midlands Co-operatives' Education Committee and Supporters' Direct, and attracted representatives from all levels of the game - from the Premier League down to the Conference - with trusts from Derby County, Grimsby Town, Kettering Town, Leicester City and Lincoln City attending. Also present were officials from Midlands Co-Op, the tireless Simon Binns (SD case worker) and the two speakers, Charlie Cattell (consultancy and training) and Vipin Chauhan (specialist in voluntary, community and public sector organisations).

The training, rather aptly, was divided into two halves. The morning session highlighted the legal responsibilities of supporters' trusts examining in some detail the legislation affecting Industrial and Provident Societies (IPSs) which is the preferred model within the trust movement.

Whilst this potentially could be a dry and uninspiring topic, it was presented in a lively and informative manner, supplemented by contributions and questions from the floor. The session also flagged up the importance of the members within an IPS, providing a number of recommendations for good practice. The session was concluded with a written test, to check that we had been listening carefully!

The afternoon workshop, entitled 'values and principles into practice' had three objectives:

a. to highlight the main principles and values of supporters' trusts
b. identify the common difficulties involved in translating values into practical action
c. explore strategies for putting principles into practice.

This was a more 'hands on' session, with each trust examining its own aims and objectives, before highlighting similarities across the East Midlands. Whilst there are common goals across the supporters' trust movement - namely 1) to promote involvement of supporters in the running and direction of football clubs 2) to develop and strengthen the bonds between the football club and local community and 3) to obtain supporter elected representation at board level - there are a range of difficulties in achieving these, such as the vulnerable relationship between trusts and club chairmen/directors, and supporter apathy.

Attention then turned to examining how some of these barriers could be overcome, providing further opportunity for the trusts present to share experiences and good practice.

The session ended with a general discussion, review and feedback of putting co-operative principles into practice.

Overall, it was an excellent training day, which provides further evidence of trusts across the East Midlands working effectively in partnership to promote the goals of the supporters' trust movement. On behalf of Notts County Supporters Trust, I would like to express our thanks to everyone who organised the event and made the day such a success.

Photographs of the training event can be found at: http://www.ramsportal.com/emtrusts/training/

Regards,

David Hindley
Interim Chair, Notts County Supporters Trust