The Well Society

[sbcmfc]

So what term does the "benefit package" run over?

[rambunctious]

I hadn't joined the 'Well Society up until now due to a lack of funds/stable income etc. Now that I have a secure job, coupled with the fact I've moved up North and been unable to attend half as many home games and put as much money into the club, I feel as though I definitely should. Feeling guilty almost!

 

Funnily enough, I was actually on the Society website just yesterday, when I was at work, looking at the packages and payment options before i got the email. Glad i was too busy to do anything about it because this £10 per month idea is ideal.

 

I'd be quite happy to pay this £10 per month until I'm dead. Considering I'm only 22, I'd like to think I'll live long enough to reach the Amber membership in 500 months (41 years & 8 months) time. Unfortunately I don't think medical advancements will enable me to reach the 1886 membership in 2500 months (208 years & 4 months) time. In saying that, I'll hopefully be able to afford to jump up a membership, without having to do it this way, in the future.

 

Excellent move by the Society, hopefully they promote/advertise it appropriately and it sees an increase in member and an upgrade in memberships

[scott_mfc]

So can you join up with monthly payments now or not? I've had a look on the Well Society website and it's not very clear as to how to go about it.

[Big Stall]

Just read my survey email, got to say I am quite interested now. £10 per month actually suits me...... just need to ask the boss about the funds as there is now a mini steelman/steelgirl on the way!

 

Now, do I phone them myself or wait to see if I get a call from Keith??

[scott_mfc]

Just saw the statement on the website. May be a daft question, but do you only qualify for the benefits and become a full member on completion of your final payment?

[Goggles & Flippers]

Id say so Scott, whats to stop someone signing up at £10 a month, getting money off a season ticket and then cancelling?

[weeyin]

Makes sense, but Alison at the Well Society will be able to give the definitive answers to these questions. At the risk of repeating the contact info:

 

wellsociety@motherwellfc.co.uk

01698 338006

 

Always found her to be very helpful.

[superward]

Makes sense, but Alison at the Well Society will be able to give the definitive answers to these questions. At the risk of repeating the contact info:

 

wellsociety@motherwellfc.co.uk

01698 338006

 

Always found her to be very helpful.

 

Second that. Got straight back to me yesterday on my query.

[delboy]

Id say so Scott, whats to stop someone signing up at £10 a month, getting money off a season ticket and then cancelling?

if someone did that I hope someone would name and shame them

 

I should add that the discount costs the club money and the sub you pay go to the Well Society and not the club

 

When I comes to renewing my season ticket I will not be using the discount

 

I join the Well Society to try and insure the future of Motherwell FC not to get money of a season ticket which lower the income of the club I'm trying to help

[sbcmfc]

if someone did that I hope someone would name and shame them

 

I should add that the discount costs the club money and the sub you pay go to the Well Society and not the club

 

When I comes to renewing my season ticket I will not be using the discount

 

I join the Well Society to try and insure the future of Motherwell FC not to get money of a season ticket which lower the income of the club I'm trying to help

 

That's great.

 

I'd imagine for many the benefits are a way of justifying the expense though.

[Mintymac]

Well done to Lianne and co. for listening and acting on the survey and getting past the ruling which now allows many more fans an affordable way to join the well society.This might just be the catalyst required to kick start the society membership after it seemed to level out after a good start.

 

As a result of this my son and I are now signing up for the next level and my daughter is also signing up for the first time.

 

Couldn't think of a better way to protect the club for us and future generations so really happy with this decision

 

 

 

[delboy]

had a good chat with Alison this morning to clear up a few questions and this afternoon went to the bank this afternoon and changed my annual standing order to a monthly one took less that 5 minutes

 

I did wonder whaamountnt to play each month and here a few suggestion

 

£18.86 per month = £226.32 per year

 

£19.32 per month = £231.84 per year

 

£19.50 per month = £234.00 per year

 

£19.52 per month = £234.24 per year

 

£19.91 per month = £238.92 per year

 

mind you if you want to go for £10 per month there is nothing stopping being part of the Well Society

[ropy]

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had a good chat with Alison this morning to clear up a few questions and this afternoon went to the bank this afternoon and changed my annual standing order to a monthly one took less that 5 minutes

 

I did wonder whaamountnt to play each month and here a few suggestion

 

£18.86 per month = £226.32 per year

 

£19.32 per month = £231.84 per year

 

£19.50 per month = £234.00 per year

 

£19.52 per month = £234.24 per year

 

£19.91 per month = £238.92 per year

 

mind you if you want to go for £10 per month there is nothing stopping being part of the Well Society

 

I had to take a second reading of your monthly installments there.

[Goggles & Flippers]

I had to take a second reading of your monthly installments there.

 

If they showed up for the Cup Final in 2011, they could have got a bit more ..........

[delboy]

If they showed up for the Cup Final in 2011, they could have got a bit more ..........

The though had crossed my mind too

[weeyin]

Some more thoughts from Leann in today's Herald

 

 

Fir Park's big society not quite big enough yet

 

 

SHE is not unaccustomed to sitting around the table in five-star comfort with footballing royalty such as Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and Edwin van der Sar, but Leeann Dempster speaks with equal enthusiasm about picking up the telephone to Joe Soap, season-ticket holder, and doing everything she can to make him buy into Motherwell's vision of a brighter future.

 

It is a juxtaposition that almost sums up where the club finds itself exactly 10 years to the week since emerging from administration.

 

They are ambitious, forward-thinking and involved, through being full members of the influential European Club Association, in conversations likely to change the face of UEFA club competition in the next couple of seasons.

 

However, harsh financial realities, the kind still biting hard in the straitened world of Scottish football, are never far away.

 

Motherwell have been forced to borrow money over the past year from their directors as well as The Well Society, a membership scheme set up three years ago with the intention of giving overall control to the fans, to meet funding shortfalls.

 

Despite countless initiatives, increasing attendances is proving difficult and Stuart McCall, the manager, is already issuing warnings about player budgets being cut again despite his side competing for second place.

 

With all that in mind, it appears the project established to create that panacea of becoming a wholly supporter-owned organisation must surely be reaching a crossroads.

 

The Well Society needs to raise £1.5m to acquire a controlling stake in the club after former chairman John Boyle gifted his shareholding to an independent trust. They are understood to be around £1m short.

 

The society stages its agm in the Millennium Suite at Fir Park next Friday evening and you sense something may have to give before long, whether that involves settling on a smaller shareholding, seeking to bring in fresh investors or giving the green light to find a new buyer.

 

Dempster, the chief executive, desperately wants to see Boyle's intention of passing the club lock, stock and barrel to the local community fulfilled and continues to bang that drum, but she does not sugarcoat the answers when confronted on how much longer Motherwell can hold on to the dream in the present climate.

 

"We sent an email to season-ticket holders who hadn't joined The Well Society and then followed that up with telephone calls from a group of people including myself and the players," she recalled. "I think we brought in a commitment of around £40,000 by direct debit in that campaign. We don't hide at this club and I try to answer as many emails to people as I can.

 

"What I don't want our supporters to take from this interview, though, is that everything in the garden is rosy. Over the last year, we've had to take third party loans, utilise some Well Society money that will be given back and have directors' loans put in as well.

 

"We are not lying to fans. The last year has been really, really hard."

 

Dempster was brought into Fir Park by Boyle in 2008, four years after the club had come through its financial meltdown, and has helped to put it on an even keel.

 

She has no doubts Ann Budge will do precisely the same at Hearts as that club prepares to emerge from administration with a supporters' organisation, better-subscribed than the Motherwell counterpart, in line to take full control down the line.

 

Dempster welcomes the idea of those without a footballing background entering the game and believes Budge will face no problems whatsoever in entering an industry in which women remain underrepresented.

 

"Ann is a very experienced businesswoman and she is not going in there with her eyes closed," said Dempster. "The idea football now is still the domain of tracksuited men and people in grey suits isn't true. I see football as full of opportunities for people that haven't been involved in the game because they bring new skills and ask different questions. It has made real progress."

 

Her next big idea, influenced by the trouble she has encountered in bringing new faces through the door at Fir Park, is to see a proper study performed into whether the costs of watching football need to be addressed. "It has never been done," said Dempster, whose background lies in advertising and media.

 

"You keep hearing football is too expensive. Is it? Our team is performing well and I don't have an answer on why we had only 3800 people paying in at home to Kilmarnock recently."

 

For all the challenges at home, though, Motherwell enjoy an enviable and rarely-publicised position at the heart of European football. Dempster attended the annual meeting of the ECA in Barcelona last month and is excited by discussions currently taking place with UEFA over altering the format of the Europa League.

 

"The first time I was involved in an ECA conference was in Doha a couple of years ago," said Dempster. "I got into the lift and found myself standing beside Rummenigge and van der Sar. It felt like some kind of paralell reality. We are now full members as a club and I am on the communications and marketing committee. There are some early talks about a different set-up in the Europa League from 2015-16, and it is great to be part of that.

 

"One idea is to have regional mini-leagues that could secure two home games, for example, and that would be interesting for us."

[texanwellfan]

Unfortunately I think we need some additional help over and above the society.it owuld be good if that came from a local source such as the counclil or region but pretty sure that will not happen.

 

Perhaps we need to court an individual willing to at least invest enough in the club to ease financial worries, we certainly don't want to fo down the route of trying to buy a team again.

 

 

 

Alternatively, maybe we could ( or have to ) become a feeder team for a more financially well of club, be that in England or abroad.

 

 

 

To be honest I don't know what we really have to do although I am sure if we could finally manage to progress in europe and maybe get to group stages the income from that would go a long way to helping. I don't think we need massive amounts of cash to ease the situation but I am not sure how long we can survive with our limited fan base.

[Goggles & Flippers]

Based on our last accounts, the club isn't worth anything near £1.5m, 800k would be closer and I reckon Boyle would snap the fingers off anyone who offered it.

 

With respect to the council getting involved, the Clyde/Broadwood thing plus the proliferation of fans of a certain East End club a particular non-starter.

[Brazilian]

Boyle has nothing to sell

[Goggles & Flippers]

Approx 60% of the shares, no?

[Brazilian]

No, he handed them over in trust, he could have sold until when the first shares were purchased by the Society there was then some time period which has now lapsed , so he has no interest in them

 

they could be sold currently but its a bit of a legal minefield , not least, in that all?majority? shareholders need to agree to any sale. the society being shareholders get significant input into that decision

 

 

EDIT: and quite significantly if I recall correctly the funds from any 'external' sale of those shares go into the separate and charitable Motherwell community trust ( or a similar entity but I think that's correct)

[Goggles & Flippers]

Thanks for clarifying.

 

So the shares are held in trust and so would the WS pot until the exchange takes place?

[Wellimp]

The biggest help we could get is for local people to start supporting their local team (and a successful one at that) !!

 

How many people leave Motherwell and other Towns and Cities in Scotland to watch the 'Old Scum' ??

 

We all know however that the bigger draw for most people is to jump on the religious/media bandwagon and support whichever side of the 'Old Firm' their school or family upbringing dictates!

 

Until we get rid of the religious divide in Scotland (Mainly the West/Central area) nothing will change.

 

Took me to move away many years ago to realise just how bad it is!!

 

 

 

[Brazilian]

Thanks for clarifying.

 

So the shares are held in trust and so would the WS pot until the exchange takes place?

 

yeah I'm not sure of the legal terminology but the shares are no longer in general circulation and are sitting waiting on the Society reaching the next purchase point.

 

 

Society funds remain within the society accounts , until they are used in increments to pay MFC for shares to be transferred into the Society's holding.

 

the money that goes from Society to MFC,to pay for shares is effectively Motherwells money, but the primary function of it is to provide security so the club hold it separately and draw upon it when needed returning it to that account when the situation has passed.

 

so if we had a bad winter with no cash income for a prolonged period, the club would draw upon the funds in their own account that was from society share purchase to pay the bills etc, but when the matches are then played or other income like league payments kick in then the money would be returned to the separate account (this is the critical function of the funds as we do not have borrowing facilities from usual institutions)

 

one additional option is open to club and society, if the club needs more fnds but the society hasn't yet transferred them for shares, the society can loan the club some of its funds. real difference here being that if the club entered an insolvency event it would be the society that was a preferential creditor ( providing no laws had been broken (unpaid tax) or football creditors were lurking)

[Brazilian]

But one thing that's keep s getting lost I feel is that

 

if the club losses money in a financial year, its not society money that pays it, like any business they losses get carried over into the start of the next financial year and its up to the business management to budget to cover those losses.

 

it doesn't take a financial guru to work out that after two years of quite significant losses, that our budget is now cut quite considerably for this year.

 

so the grey area form LDs interview above is that the club need growth on two fronts , we need to earn more money as MFC the business to maintain the relative success.

 

and on the other hand the society also needs to grow its funds to help provide MFC the security.

 

and its a cruel blow that our club has been successful when league income is at it lowest, a few years earlier or optimistically a few years down the line, the league payments would have more than covered losses and provided some capital for security ( i'd like to think and it has been intimated as such, that the club can also put money into the society)

 

maybe the Europa group stage could be the prize we've been working towards............