29 May 2008
Grecians Promotion Drives Membership Surge!
Supporting Exeter City has long been described as a rollercoaster ride, and
no-one can deny any Exeter fan the highs that this season’s promotion
has brought. Our club's recent promotion back into the Football League has
been made all the more sweet because of the input our fans have had in making
this feat possible.
In 2003 the Supporters’ Trust stepped in to Exeter City Football Club
and took over its day to day running. With the club millions of pounds in
debt, there looked to be little hope that ECFC would even survive, let alone
achieve one of only 4 promotions in its 104 year history, under the ownership
of its fans!
The Supporters’ Trust has been supporting the Football Club financially
throughout the last 5 years, and to date, has input in excess of £850,000
to the coffers of ECFC. Much of this thanks to the fantastic support the Trust
has received from its members.
Following recent successes on the pitch, the Supporters’ Trust is pleased
to announce that membership requests are now coming in steadily. Trust membership
co-ordinator Martin Lawrence commented; “The Trust has always noted
that membership numbers have had a tendency to mirror successes on the pitch.
Last season we saw an up surge in membership around the time of the playoffs
and this year has been even better. With our subsequent promotion, there is
an obvious feel good factor amongst the fans at the moment and this is reflected
by the number of new members that we are seeing joining the Trust”.
Prior to Exeter City’s fantastic win at Wembley, the Supporters’
Trust made investments to the tune of £1,900 in promoting itself, with
promotional material being sent out with all Wembley tickets dispatched through
the ticket agency Ticketzone. Martin Lawrence added; “The Trust went
big on its own promotion at Wembley and it would appear this is paying dividends
with as many as 100 new members already joined up. We are also noticing a
significant number of current members that have now upped their contributions
to the Trust, with many opting to increase their contributions by as much
as five times the minimum subscription level of £2 per month. This is
a fantastic gesture and just shows the sense of feeling there is towards what
the Supporters’ Trust has achieved at Exeter City”.
The Trust board of society would like to thank the entire Supporters’
Trust membership for their support over the last 5 years, without which the
events of the 18th of May 2008 might not have been possible. Chairman of Exeter
City FC and the Supporters’ Trust Denise Watts commented; “The
Support we have received in the last five years has been immense and I would
like to thank everybody who has made a contribution, no matter how small.
I would also urge anybody with a little bit of Exeter City in your heart,
to join the Supporters’ Trust and be a part of this fantastic success
story that is Exeter City FC”.
To join the Supporters’ Trust go to our "how
to join page" for further details, or email trust@ecfc.co.uk
with your name and address to request an application form be sent to you.
If you are a current member of the Trust and would like to increase your contribution,
please email trust@ecfc.co.uk
or write to; ECFCST, PO Box 231, Exeter, Devon.
28 May 2008
Signed Wembley Edition White Shirts Up for Grabs - Silent Auction Gives You the Chance to Own One of these Special Shirts
The Club is pleased to announce a silent auction for a selection of individually
signed player shirts.
Not only are they just signed shirts, on offer are a selection of the special
Wembley edition of the white shirts that the players wore at the Blue Square
Premier Play Off Final 2008. Each shirt has been embroidered with the special
gold Wembley crest and has the players name and number printed on the rear.
The shirts have all been signed on the front by the selected player.
The player's shirts that are up for auction are:
• Paul Jones (orange goalie top)
• Andy Marriott (yellow goalie top) - No name and number on rear
• Steve Tully
• Danny Seaborne
• Matt Taylor
• Rob Edwards
• Dean Moxey
• Ryan Harley
• Adam Stansfield
• Richard Logan
• Paul Tisdale - Signed on front and back of shirt
There are three ways which you can place a bid on a shirt:
Email
Along with your bid, email your name, address and telephone number to gary.moore@exetercityfc.co.uk.
Text
Along with your bid, text your name, address and telephone number to 07717
398 102.
Phone
To enter a bid via phone contact Gary Moore on 07717 398 102.
Bidders will be notified when they have been outbid on a shirt and regular
updates will be released on the Club's official website, www.exetercityfc.co.uk.
Bidding Closes at noon on 30th June.
28 May 2008
Lifestyle Spring Ball A Fittingly Stylish Finish to City's Season
Exeter City Football Club finished their season in truly stylish and hugely
successful fashion by hosting the Lifestyle Spring Ball in a grand marquee
on the St James Park pitch.
Over 400 guests were treated to arguably one of the biggest events ever hosted
at the club. Neil Diamond and Abba tributes were the excellent live entertainment
and many player and special presentations were made on the night by the club,
the Trust and supporters groups. The highlights were the special achievement
awards made to Mel Gwinnett, Steve Perryman, Julian Tagg and Paul Tisdale
and outstanding contribution awards given to the richly deserving Sally Cooke
and Richard Knight.
The event was kindly sponsored by Lifestyle Enterprises (UK) Ltd, which incorporaties
Tiffany’s, Mambo and Tiger Bill's in Exeter. Owners James and Julie
Eyre presented several of the awards, including the Player of the Year award
to Matt Taylor (see photo) and the Golden Boot award to Richard Logan.
The moment that raised the roof of the marquee and the biggest cheer from
guests was when Director of Football, Steve Perryman MBE, presented the Play
Off trophy to Paul Tisdale and his players on the dance floor. This evoked
memories of the Wembley celebrations themselves and these and those of the
whole evening's fun will stay with all those attended for a very long time
so please don't miss next year's event!
The Lifestyle Spring Ball was a fitting tribute to all those people who have
helped Exeter City Football Club return to were they belong, in the Football
League.
28 May 2008
Why Not Shop with the Trust?
For several years now, the ECFC Supporters’ Trust has hosted an online
sales facility through our official website (http://buy.at/ecfcst)
that offers fans the opportunity to make purchases and rent equipment and
services from a variety of renowned national and international companies,
with the Supporters’ Trust netting a percentage of commission through
this facility. A handful of these companies are listed below:
• Amazon.co.uk
• Asda
• BT
• Cartridge People
• Goldsmiths
• HMV
• John Lewis
• Mothercare
• Tesco
• Travelcare
• Thorntons
• Sky
To date, our Buy.at facility has netted the Trust in excess of £2000
which is a fair achievement. Through further promotion, we believe we can
exceed this sum. We would therefore ask you all to join us in promoting this
scheme by telling your friends, relatives and work colleagues about the advantages
of shopping through the Buy.at facility…Why not email all your friends
about the fantastic opportunities that are available with Buy.at or promote
this through online communities such as Facebook or Myspace.
With our Football Club's fantastic promotion back to the Football League,
the Trust is committed to driving all of its current revenue lines hard, and
with your help, we hope to increase both awareness and usage of our Buy.at
facility both with fans of ECFC, and the wider community.
You do not have to be a member to take advantage of some of the fantastic
deals available through our Buy.at facility so why not make this site one
of your favourites and earn our Trust come money when you shop online.
26 May 2008
Going Full Circle - The end of an Era
Sunday 25th of May 2008 should be remembered by all Exeter City fans for
years to come, for this was the day that our clubs fans could truly celebrate
the end of an era:
From left to right: (Elaine Davis, Sandra Please, Steve Moxey, Anne Moxey,
Adrian Sproston, Catherine Jowitt, Dacre Holloway, Martin Lawrence, Brian
Moore, Clive Davis, Sam Bigwood, Helen Bigwood).
Photograph taken by Martin Weiler. Also attending this work party was George
Jowitt. – THANK YOU ALL!
Much of the foundations upon which Exeter City Football Club has been built,
has derived from the ethos of community engagement and fans involvement with
THEIR football club. How fitting it should be, that it was be a volunteer
work party that marked our clubs passing out of the ranks of Non League football,
with the removal of the “Blue Square Premier League” welcome sign
outside the St James Park entrance at Stadium Way (exactly 5 years after a
similar work party was assembled to erect a comparable greeting board upon
the clubs relegation).
The work parties have been a resounding success at Exeter City Football Club,
and have been a shining example of just how much can be achieved by a group
of fans. The very first work party was organised some 5 years ago by club
officials and like minded fans, in response to the rigorous demands placed
on the club to improve its St James Park headquarters following the clubs
relegation to the Conference. Five years have now passed, and much hard work
done to improve our club both on and off the pitch.
Sunday’s work party indeed marked the end of an era for Exeter City
Football Club and its band of hard working volunteers, but the work does not
stop here. Further work parties are planned for the summer with volunteers
sought for the weekend of Saturday 7th to Sunday 8th June. This work party
will mark the clubs annual Cat and Fiddle training ground work party, much
marvelled by ECFC fans as the event of the summer, with painting, decorating
and fun and games towards the evening. This event also gives volunteers the
chance to camp overnight at the Club’s training ground and meet up and
talk about the season past (and WHAT A SEASON). Anybody interested in attending
this event is urged to contact the Trust at trust@ecfc.co.uk
for more details.
Exeter City Football Club has now gone full circle and we now find ourselves
back from whence we came. The start of the 2008-2009 season will mark our
first in the ranks of league football as a fan owned club, a football club
supported by its fans and rebuilt by the fans. The club has a lot to be thankful
for and it owes its fans a huge debt of gratitude for the efforts of the last
5 years. The future is uncertain, but one thing is clear, the work parties
will continue, whether it is fans sweeping up the terraces or painting the
wooden cladding of the clubs training ground, the hard work will continue
and so to will the clubs progression as a Trust owned club.
On behalf of the Board of Society of the Supporters’ Trust, I would
like to thank all who have lent their support to the club through the work
parties over the last 5 years and to everyone who has helped our club progress
back to the Football League throughout this time. I would also urge anyone
who has yet to sample the work parties, to come along on the 7th or 8th of
June to really get a taste for what being a community club is all about.
WITH THANKS
Martin Lawrence
ECFC Supporters’ Trust Press Officer & Work Party Volunteer
12 May 2008
Latest Winner of Director's Box Places - Wembley
Trust member, Jeremy Bastone, is the latest winner of 2 places in the Director's
Box, and will take advantage of them at the Conference Play-off Final match
at Wembley, against Cambridge on Sunday 1th May.
Jeremy was fifth on the list of ten for this game.
Also on the list for this prize were: Margaret Bond, Stephen John Bishop,
Phil Uzzell, Ray Leworthy, Andrew Swan, Andrea Lacey-Malvern, Patrick O'Shea,
and Maureen Jones.
The geographical spread this time was: 2 from Exeter, 3 from other EX postcodes
(Exmouth, Exminster and Feniton), one from elsewhere in Devon (Chudleigh),
and three from outside the fair county (Herne Bay, Kent, Taunton, Somerset,
and London).
Don't forget if your details are not correct on the database you may miss
out so make sure they are accurate now by checking at www.ecfcst.org.uk/members
- you will have to register first but it may well be worth the trouble!
The Trust Board of Society and the Club Board have agreed to make two
Director's Box places available at each home game.
The two places will be for Trust members and are allocated by way of
a random draw from the membership database.
7 May 2008
Devon Red Flag Car Stickers
'DEVON FLAG' Car Window Sticker, so Exeter City Supporters this might appeal
to you. Red looks so much better than Green in my opinion, so why not show
you are not only from Devon, but from the fabulous historic CITY of EXETER.
Drive around with pride displaying this Red, Black and White rear window sticker
which measures 6" X 4" in old money and 15cm x 10cm in new.
Now a nice percentage of sales from these stickers will go to the Supporters
Trust, and for just a measly sum of £2.50 which includes postage costs,
you can not only be driving around proudly displaying this Devon Flag, but
also be helping your local Football Club financially. Why not buy a few of
the little blighters and save us some postal costs, by handing out to family
and friends.
To order just email Barrysansom2@sky.com with your details and the amount
you want to order. Turn around from receipt of payment is 24 hours.
2 May 2008
Latest on Grecian Trust Scheme
David Hamilton ‘ALSO’ Makes Money for the Trust!
In a recent Programme it was reported that Jake Dillon donated an item which
was a signed LP by the group ‘Bad Manners’ which I put on Ebay
as ‘BAD MANNERS SKA 'N' B - LP with authentic autographs’, and
that it had sold for £34.16. Well I have another good piece of news
to share with you in relation to the David Hamilton story. As previously mentioned
David donated a large collection of Football programmes from the 60’s
and 70’s for various football clubs English and Scottish, also many
collectable sporting cards and coins etc. I am pleased to say the total raised
via Ebay for the coins and cards reached over £220. Some cards of note
were a set of 1920’s Queens Park Rangers photo cards which sold for
£26.00, Subbuteo Famous Footballers cards from the 50’s selling
for £29.00 and Kiddy’s Favourites cards of Popular Boxers dating
back to the 50’s, these sold for £45.00, also I sold some Pinnace
Photo Football cards individually which in total raised £35.00.
The previously mentioned Two Dinky Toys dating back to the 1940’s have
been receipted by VECTIS and will come up in a sale in June, and the result
published on the Trust website which is www.ecfcst.org.uk/ we still have to
sell the programmes that have been donated by David and hope to have these
listed with Ebay by the end of next week. So a great big thank you to David
thus far, and the story continues.
Some further items donated by past Grecians Trust Supporters, were sent to
a local auction house and raised around £20.00, we still have a lot
of very good and some not so good items to sell, either on Ebay, Ebid or at
Boot Sales, but we could still do with as much as you can give. The Club and
Trust really do appreciate your donations, and of course should you want to
get something back for yourself, you can simply donate 20% of any sold items
to the Trust. Some have already done pretty well out of the scheme so far,
so don’t be slow in coming forward, just give me a call.
We still have many items on Ebid with lots more going up on there soon. Also
on Ebid, the Devon RED Flag Car window stickers are still up for grabs.
More thanks to other recent donators include Jon Carden and to Damien Mills,
Martin Lawrence, Richard Harvey who have pledged items to the scheme, hopefully
there might be a story to tell from these guys as well. Still got items from
Helen Bigwood, Sam Bigwood, Hubert Fernbank, Tony Badcock, Alistair Young,
Jim Eastment, Norman Shiel, Mr Tatchell, Jake/Matt Dillon, to sell which I
will do very soon.
This will be the last mention of the Grecians Trust Scheme for this season,
and what a season it has been, so well done to the players and supporters
for reaching the play-offs, and the very best of luck today and for the return
leg. Onwards and upwards!
Thank you to all who have supported the Grecians Trust Scheme this season
and in particular Tony Badcock for the support he has given in helping to
keep the scheme going, and Terry Pavey for his ‘pearls of wisdom’
advice here and there.This is a Trust initiative for it’s supporters
and ECFC, so please donate all you can. The scheme will continue to run 52
weeks of the year, so just because the season is drawing to a close, the work
still goes on to raise as much money as possible. As Nigel Banks (Trust Treasurer)
said in a recent E & E article, “The Trust is also undertaking a
review of its operations, which will include consideration of a number of
income generation opportunities. Schemes such as the Grecian Trust, run by
Barry Sansom, are in their infancy but it is hoped that they will, in time,
generate significant additional income, which can be ploughed back into the
club”.
And on to the Really Good News!
To date we have sold a total of £686.76 of goods with items currently
being sold at Live Auctions, Ebid, Ebay, Vectis and a Boot Sale. From the
sales figure £34.93 went in selling Fees at live and Internet auctions,
with £103.50 going back to the donators leaving the Trust and Club in
profit to the tune of £548.33. Not bad considering the scheme is still
very young.
Here’s How You Can Help
We could really do with your help and donations, whilst making some cash
for you if you want. So if you have something old or new you don’t want
anymore, we would love to hear from you. Call Barry Sansom on 01392 214071.
You might be surprised to find what sells and what doesn’t, those old
toys you have lying around some place, that old vase you hate, old toys, or
even old photos, posters, postcards, cutlery, pictures, drawings, furniture
and so on the list is endless. Don’t throw it away until Barry has had
the chance to say whether you are doing the right thing or not.
Please help this scheme make as much money as possible for YOUR Club by donating
whatever you can. Contact Barry Sansom on 01392 214071 if you have something
to donate – collection can be arranged.
Thank you on behalf of the Trust
Barry Sansom – Grecian Trust Co-ordinator
