Articles 
At the time the ‘Save our Seats' debacle at the turn of the Millennium, then Chief Executive Freddie Fletcher announced that there needed to be an improvement in the relationship between Newcastle United and it's supporters. At the same time the Government, acting on one of the recommendations of the Football Task Force to ‘increase supporter involvement in the running of their clubs' set up an organisation known as Supporters Direct to put such a system in place. In turn Supporters Direct recommended the establishment of Supporters Trusts at clubs.
Over a pint or two, myself and my mate Sam being aware of both Freddie's bold statement and the work of Supporters Direct decided to do something about it and contacted Supporters Direct. We were put in contact with a guy called Sean Hamil who had set up a Supporters Trust at Celtic and as a result of his advice wrote articles in both The Mag and True Faith seeking support for the concept.
Overwhelmed by the response, from ordinary fans and even a former Director whose identity I cannot reveal we then approached the club and met David Stonehouse who had taken over from Freddie who appeared to be supportive to the concept and all praise to him.
Supporters Direct then recommended that a motion should be put to the AGM - remember Newcastle were a plc at that point - provided 100 shareholders signed up in support. We were amazed by the response. Literally 100's of shareholding fans contacted us and a simple motion was put to the AGM ‘encouraging the setting up of a Supporters Trust at Newcastle United' . As you might expect, this being Newcastle United, the motion was not recorded in the AGM papers correctly and the 1,000 word statement in support was not even circulated to shareholders. Despite this more than 10% of the total shareholders voted in favour of the motion. You don't need to guess who voted against, nor would you be surprised to learn that the club announced the setting up of a Fans Liaison Committee shortly thereafter with the help of ‘supporters champion' Rogan Taylor. Despite best efforts of the fans involved the FLC died a death.
Fast forward to the events in September 2008 and the formation of the Newcastle United Supporters Club. With the Supporters Trust movement now well established in both this country and Europe, with over 140 trusts in place from Man United down to Congleton Town and with ex-Supporters Direct Chairman, Andy Burnham now Minister of Sport and a great advocate of the Trust movement I approached both NUSC and Supporters Direct with a view to linking the two organisations together in the hope that a responsible fans organisation could be established at Newcastle United.
I joined NUSC, attended a members' open meeting in October 2008 - put down a motion to convert the club to supporter Trust status, which was passed, and was then tasked with the job of working with Supporters Direct to put in place moves to establish a Supporters Trust at Newcastle United.
After numerous discussions with Supporters Direct who analysed the proposals, plans and long term ambitions of NUSC, they decided in principal to back the proposal. Representatives James Mathie and Rob Bradley attended an open meeting in Newcastle in March (already referred to in a previous Mag article by fellow scribe Tony Fiddes) and thereafter NUSC polled it's membership about the conversion which was backed by a whopping 99.7%.
Full steam ahead! After further meetings model rules have been agreed and Supporters Direct has now submitted NUSC application to convert to Supporters Trust status which should be completed by July.
So what is a Supporters Trust? It's a democratic, not for profit organisation of supporters, committed to strengthening the voice for supporters in the decision making process at a club. It's legally registered with the Financial Services Authority, must have its own constitution, with elected officials responsible to its members.
Does it work? Well there's Trusts at over 140 clubs with over 120,000 members in total. 14 Trusts in the UK actually own their clubs, and over 100 Supporters Trusts now have shareholdings in their club, with 45 Supporters Trusts having Directors.
There are some good people at NUSC, devoted to Newcastle United. The organisation has already grown to well over 1,000 members in its short existence-much to the amazement of Supporters Direct who see this as proof of the passion of Newcastle United fans. They may have not got everything right all of the time but as a fledging organisation this is only to be expected and they have come a long way in a short time.
There is one thing of which there is no doubt. Newcastle United fans deserve a collective voice. Let a Supporters Trust be that voice. It makes sense. Rather than sniping at each other via websites/forums/on the bus home lets galvanise our support and come together under one banner. Players managers and owners may come and go but not supporters. We will always be there. The only people who give all to Newcastle United and expect nothing in return. Get yourself along to a NUSC roadshow and see what they have to say. Visit the NUSC website at www.nusc.org.uk or the Supporters Direct website for further details. There's more to follow.
You know it makes sense.
