Reproduced from the news letter of the Alty in Exile group "Fanfare for the Traveling Fans" Volume 2 Edition 2, with the permission of its Editor and organizer of the group Jacqui Forster. This excellent publication is available only to members of the group and is one of the many good reasons for joining, go to Alty in Exile for more information. However in this case because problems on the M6 prevented here from presenting her report at the last SAFE meeting and because of its interest to all Alty fans it is reproduced here

The acknowledgement of my registration said, "Could we ask whether you would wear your teams shirt, should you have one – it takes for a good photograph for publicity and also helps identify the clubs you support to other delegates, making networking and information easier!". Well, I don’t think that footie shirts actually suit women. I do have a couple but I declined and wore a sombre trouser suit.

However, networking didn’t prove to be difficult without displaying the Robins colours. I made many new friends including Norman Beverley who is the Chairman of Hatters Independent Supports Club, Stockport County. He has offered to attend and speak at our SAFE/all Alty supporters meeting when we discuss forming a Supporters Trust. Stockport had only formed their Supporters trust on the previous Monday and knew all the right moves and the pitfalls.

I also met some very nice Spurs fans! They told me that they had a soft spot for Alty due to our several F.A. Cup encounters and they told me that they look for Alty’s results on a Saturday evening! Does this qualify as one of those "Special Relationships" that we hear much of these days?

There were 141 delegates listed from Clubs all over Britain including Premiership clubs such as Manchester United and Sunderland, a great many Nationwide League clubs and a few non-league clubs. I was accompanied only by Nuneaton Borough, Chester City and Morecambe (Conference), St. Albans City, Enfield Town and Bedford Town (Ryman Premier Division), Slough Town (Ryman Division One), Newport Isle of Wight and Salisbury Town (Dr. Marten’s Premier Division), representing non-league supporter'’ associations and trusts.

There are now 38 support Trusts compared with 6 a year ago and by Christmas there will be 50. 142 clubs are registered with Supporters Direct and two league and two non-league clubs are now fully owned by their Trusts.

The day was arranged in four sections, an opening plenary when Jonathan Michie, a Director Supporters Trust opened Chaired a session when the speakers included our own Brian Lomax, Chair of Supporters Direct and registered Alty Exile, the Right Honorable Richard Caborn MP, Minister of Sport, Nic Coward, Company Secretary of the Football Association and Dr. Christine Oughton, director of Football Governance Research Centre at Birkbeck College. A new report called "the State of the Game" (pictured right) was launched and each delegate given a copy in their pack. I managed to arrange a second copy which I have given to Peter Read, the SAFE Chair. Richard Caborn had to disappear off to another meeting elsewhere but announced that the funding provided by the Government to Supporters Direct will run out in 18 months. He said that the Government shouldn’t be the sole funder and that other funders needed to be found. This angered one fellow delegate, David Conn, who writes for the Independent and wrote a report of the Conference in his paper (I have a copy if anyone wants to see it). He is also the author of the excellent book, The Football Business.

The first of two workshops followed and I was enrolled in the "How to Set Up a Supporters Trust". The speakers included Norman Beverley as mentioned above, Kevin Jaquiss, a Partner of Cobbetts, Solicitors in Manchester (and I discovered, a Manchester United supporting resident of Altrincham!) and Joff Wild, Chairman of Tottenham Hotspur Supporters’ Trust Steering Committee. We learned that it is not necessary to buy shares in the club to set up a Supporters Trust but that there is a lot of hard work necessary and plenty of enthusiasm and commitment. Model rules were distributed along with details of how to register and what is needed.

I arrived at the lunch location too late as all the food had gone due to talking to my new friends (quite out of character for me, talking too much!) but managed to get a front seat for the second workshop, "Internal Trust Governance and finance Procedures". The Chief Executive and Principal of the Co-Operative College took most of this workshop and I was amazed at the complicated procedures for financial regulations. My colleague from Nuneaton voiced what I was thinking about how difficult it is to be "open and transparent" with the accounts when Trust members are volunteers doing all they can in their spare time while also doing full time jobs and occasionally going to football matches. Not that we should hide anything or be dishonest or anything, just the time factor.

The final session was titled "The Impact and Future of Supporters Trusts" and was chaired by Brian with speakers, David Buchler, Vice Chairman of Tottenham Hotspur FC, Philip French, Chief Spokesman, F.A. Premier League, John Hemmingham, Chief Executive Officer, The Owls Trust and John Nagle, Press Officer, Football League. There was much discussion during this plenary about admittance prices and kick off times demanded by Television companies. A Conference for football fans organised by the national Federation of Supporters Clubs called Fans 2001 was announced which will be on Sunday, 18^th November at Coventry City. I understand that the SAFE chairman, Peter Read will try to attend.

I came away with a very bulging file of notes, booklets, handouts and business cards! I had to miss the post-Conference drinks in the college bar due to trains on the Cotswold line being few and infrequent but I managed to thank Brian Lomax personally before I left, having had a great day. His parting statement was that he always looks for Alty’s score every Saturday before any other! If we do form a supporter’s Trust at Altrincham, we will have a great deal of help and assistance from many very nice people involved in this organisation.

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