The NUST formally announces the election process for the appointment of Trust Board Members as announced at the 2012 AGM on 24 January 2012.

There are 5 Trust Board positions to be filled and candidates are standing for a position on the Trust Board only, not specific roles.

All eligible NUST members have been sent an email or a letter (if no email address held) announcing the 2012 elections with all the relevant details.

Any member interested in nominating a candidate or voting must be at least 16 years of age and a fully paid up member of the NUST as of 24th January 2012. Should you wish to run as a candidate then you must be at least 18 years of age and a fully paid up NUST member as of 24th January 2012.

Even if you’re not interested in standing for a place on the Trust Board please take an interest in these elections; this is your Trust and elected individuals will be representing your interests together with the aims and objectives of the NUST.

All relevant information can be found in the election section of our website

Newcastle United Supporters' Trust was set up in July 2009 with the aim of working with the Club and its supporters to help put in place a long-term stable financial future for Newcastle United, as well as success on the pitch.

In order to continue to give you a say in how we are run as a Trust, as well as to get your thoughts about Newcastle United Football Club, we want your feedback.

So we can collect this from all our followers around the UK and the world, we hope you can complete the survey at the link below.

All responses to this survey are entirely confidential and will help us to better understand how we can take the Trust forward in the coming months and years.

We will present the results of this survey at a special event on October 21st at Sport Central, University of Northumbria starting at 7.30pm. This FREE event will have presentations from former NUFC director and Chairman of Newcastle United plc Denis Cassidy and football governance expert Sean Hamil and will also include other football experts, journalists and members of the Trust. More details of the event will be sent later this month and will be on our website. The results of the survey and the event will also be published on our website.

We will be closing the survey later this month, so please spend 10 minutes now to give us your views.

To complete the survey, please click this link :   Complete The Survey

Many thanks.

NUST’s giant Newcastle United shirt on display at Newcastle Central Library.

As part of Newcastle City Library's Sport Exhibition, NUST's giant NUFC shirt will be hung on display in the library from August 1st until September 5th.

The shirt which was presented to the Trust by Northern Rock, measures 15 metres high and 10 metres across and will be hung from the balcony inside the library.

Come along and see it for yourself.

The exhibition itself kicks off on the 25th of July and runs until the end of October 2011. On display will be images from the library’s illustrations collection interspersed with items from their extensive reference collection. The exhibition highlights the sporting heritage of the region, including sport on the Tyne, the Blaydon Races and of course, Newcastle United Football Club.

The latest initiative from the Newcastle United Supporters Trust is our very own ‘Blog’. The Blog will be used to stimulate debate on Trust related issues such as; supporter ownership, football governance, parliamentary inquiries, UEFA’s fair play agenda and finance in football. A vital component will be that both NUST members and non-members can comment by logging in via their email address or by using their social network accounts and become part of the debate.

The first Blog is online here with NUST Chair Norman Watson kicking things off with ‘Do NUST still want to help supporters own a stake in Newcastle United?’.

Please get involved and comment on the Blog but please read our Blog rules before adding to the discussion.

NUST are delighted to announce that Trust Chairman, Norman Watson, has been approached to join the Board of ‘Co-operatives North East’. This is a body which performs a valuable role in representing all the co-op organisations in the NE and seeks to promote them throughout all sectors. Norman has over 30 years of experience in this area and was happy to take up this prestigious position, which will allow NUST to provide a key input into the co-operative sector overall. There will also undoubtedly be benefits to NUST as the appointment places the Trust at the heart of the co-operative movement in the north east. The vacancy arose due to a longstanding representative from Darlington Supporters Trust having to retire for health reasons.

Co-operatives North East Website

-Safe standing for Newcastle United?

The Football Supporters Federation (FSF) brought their Safe Standing Roadshow to Gateshead and NUST were invited to check it out. The campaign roadshow is to promote the potential of introducing German-style safe standing areas at football grounds in the Premier League. Clubs in the Bundesliga teams have safe standing at their grounds with for example Borussia Dortmund having 27,000 standing for league matches. UEFA regulations state that European competitions and internationals must be played in all-seater stadiums and to comply, the German clubs have developed ingenious methods of quickly converting the safe standing places into all-seater for these matches. The image above shows the seats at Hannover (C) Stationwelt.de (see more images below)

The roadshow demonstrated one of the options -  ‘rail seats’ from a batch made for VfB Stuttgart. These consist of a safety barrier and a seat on each row, then for domestic games the seats are locked upright and the extra space allows around twice as many supporters to stand within the same area. For European games the seats are simply unlocked.

Don Foster, MP for Bath, has put forward a bill to reintroduce safe standing and 145 MPs have signed an Early Day Motion calling for a reopening of the debate on Safe Standing. The sports Minister, Hugh Robertson, has also confirmed he would listen to the FSF's case – a small but significant step in the right direction as no previous minister has gone this far.

Read more about the FSF's Safe Standing campaign here

Sign the FSF's Safe Standing online petition here

Montagu Jaguars – one of NUST’s partners in our web presence initiative for local teams  - have just rounded off an excellent season by completing a league & cup double. The Jaguars were only formed this season and they play in the Northumberland Girls Football League at under 12 level, winning the championship at their first attempt. This week they won the NGFL Shield by beating Bedlington Town 2-0 to complete an amazing double. Afterwards the girls celebrated their double with NUST’s giant shirt (pictured) which was kindly donated to the Trust by Northern Rock PLC. The Jaguars are part of the famous Montagu and North Fenham FC and NUST would like to congratulate the girls and their coaches David and Ian on their achievements. A  local success story that NUST are proud to contribute to in a very small way.

If you are involved in a local football club/team/school etc and would like to take advantage of NUST's free web initiative then please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Montagu Jaguars on NUST site

NGFL final tables

As one of (SD) Supporters Direct’s model Trusts, NUST were asked by SD to help in the formation of a Trust at Blackburn Rovers. Chair of NUST, Norman Watson, attended the launch meeting of Blackburn Rovers Supporters Trust, where the Blackburn fans present voted unanimously to set up their Trust. Norman explained the history of NUST and the key elements involved in forming and developing a successful and vibrant Trust, which involves a lot of commitment and hard work from those involved. Also speaking was Jacqui Forster of Supporters Direct who are the umbrella organisation for Trusts throughout the UK and who will oversee the progress of Blackburn’s embryonic Trust. In addition, Rheagan Hendry (daughter of former player Colin Hendry) attended and a raffle was held in support of a Charity that Rheagan has set up in memory of her mother who died as a result of medical negligence.

Blackburn would join existing Supporters Trusts in Premiership Clubs including Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool and of course Newcastle United. NUST wish BRST the best of luck for the future.

http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/9025252.Blackburn_Rovers_fans_vote_to_set_up_trust/

http://www.blackburncitizen.co.uk/news/9026436.Blackburn_Rovers_Supporters_Trust_boost_for_Hendry_charity_fund/

NUST were delighted to be invited along by Show Racism The Red Card (SRTRC) to the recent winners ceremony of their national ‘Anti-Racist School Competition. The event took place at St.James’ Park with Sol Campbell and Tamas Kadar doing the honours, handing out prizes to the various winners.

The ceremony was hosted by ex-professional footballer Leroy Rosenior and actress (and United fan), Charlie Hardwick. All of the winners and their families were given a tour of the stadium and there was a plethora of entertainment in the Bamburgh Suite, as well as all of the competition entries on display, having previously been on show at The Sage for three days.

The young people had come from as far away as Devon and they were able to meet former professional players (and SRTRC patrons) such as John Anderson and Olivier Bernard.

At the end of the ceremony press photographs were taken in the Directors Box where NUST’s giant ‘Sign The Stripes’ United shirt made a guest appearance, the shirt having been kindly donated to the Trust by Northern Rock. The event was a great success and NUST wish to express their thank to ‘Show Racism’ for letting the Trust play their part on a very special day.

As part of his prize, north east winner Jack Collins (pictured below) visited the Newcastle United training ground. Read about Jack’s trip here

Over 4700 fans responded to NUST's recent survey. NUST would like to thank all of those who took part in the survey. You can now view the results online.

Click here to view the results in pdf format