10 Years of The Bluebirds Trust
10 Years of the Bluebirds Trust
As you may be aware, we are celebrating our 10th anniversary this summer.
We invite you to share your memories of the Bluebirds Trust and what we have achieved in the last decade.
To get us started, founding board member and current Vice Chair, Richard Ingham reflects on his memories since the summer of 2014.
10 years of the Bluebirds Trust – A personal reflection
Disclaimer: this is a personal reflection on the events and achievements of the Bluebirds Trust during the last decade. Without doubt I will have forgotten much of the work we have been involved with, the fundraising efforts, the charitable donations given and community work done. I will also probably fail to mention many of the colleagues who have volunteered their time to support the Trust, but all should be remembered for their endless endeavours.
The supporters of Barrow AFC have long organised, fundraised and worked together to help the board of the club to keep the club alive, and on occasion, to thrive.
In my own time as a supporter from the mid 80s onwards I can recall the raffle for a football, then Raise the Roof, and latterly The Survival Fund groups.
By the time I first got involved with the group, survival was just about assured under the Keens and the membership model and a change of name to the Bluebird Development Fund seemed appropriate. Eventually though, despite the best efforts of everyone involved, things were becoming more difficult to manage and change was required.
Enter Paul Casson and his family, a Barrow lad done good who wanted to give back to his home town, by buying his boyhood club with aspirations of returning us to the football league.
A few of us involved in the BDF at that time, whilst welcoming the new investment, wondered if there would still be a place for a fans group at the club, something to keep the fans involved, and to be there as a safety net in case the worst happened at some point. As the BDF, we had effectively been paying the club’s mortgage for some time, so we knew the potential was there to be able to raise funds, to be used in an emergency or to buy a stake in the club on behalf of the fans if the opportunity ever arose.
We met with other groups around the club, ISC who ran travel, the Ground Maintenance Volunteers and the National Supporters Club to see what appetite there might be to form a new group.
Alongside this we spoke with Supporters Direct (now the Football Supporters Association) about the options and to get some advice on next steps. Following a meeting in May 2014 at Lancaster Uni with their North West case worker, the much missed indomitable Jacqui Forster, a steering group was formed and we were on our way.
The steering group, subsequently elected as the Trust Board by Trust members was made up of individuals from the BDF, ISC and GMV.
That summer the paperwork was filed with SD and the Financial Conduct Authority and after what seemed like a lifetime, The Barrow AFC Independent Supporters Society Limited was registered under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014 in August. The Bluebirds Trust was officially born.
Early Seasons
Our relationship with the new owners was remarkably smooth and throughout his tenure we generally rubbed along quite well. I’m not entirely sure Mr Casson ever really “got” what a supporters trust was and why we felt it was needed, there was some resistance to us trying to get Holker Street classed as an Asset of Community Value for example, but he and his board were always willing to listen and allowed us a degree of freedom to carry on as we had done in the past which helped massively. Indirectly, because of their other roles, we had members on the club board which furthered the integration of the Trust into the new regime at the club.
One of the Casson group that was especially supportive and always had a kind word, was Jamie Reid. I remember having several chats with him towards the end of that period, about the schemes Hearts fans had embarked upon to buy their club back and how it might work with the Trust. For a long time after he left, Jamie still regularly played Russ Raffle
The Trust was based on a matchday, as the BDF had been, in the old “House on the Hill” on the West Terrace. We continued with the raffle and shop and tried new fundraising streams such as foreign coin collections and an Easyfundraising page, both of which we still run.
That first season (2014-15) around 380 of you joined our membership scheme, many towards the end of the season as we ran travel to the crunch final game of the season at Lowestoft which ended in promotion to the National League.
For myself, that weekend will never be forgotten, with many memories, happy and otherwise of helping to drive a camper van across the never ending plains of Eastern England, getting a volley of abuse from a couple from the Midlands in the next door van who were trying to watch Coronation St as we pitched up, and getting soaked by 4am as the awning which supposedly sheltered 3 of the 5 of us came away from the side of the van. And that was just the first 24 hours!!!
A week or two later our first End of Season dinner held at Barrow Golf Club marked the end of a first season where we celebrated promotion with the trophy, having stumbled along the pitch black corridor of the Crossbar to collect it a few hours earlier.
Over that summer I attended the Supporters Direct AGM and Conference in Manchester, networking with many other Trusts and gaining an insight into how to approach our next challenge, organising and running a successful AGM.
Given the way the Trust had formed we had relied on a relatively small number of volunteers from existing groups to fill posts where in hindsight, potentially we might have been better in casting the net much wider across the supporter base to find a more qualified group to establish and run the Trust.
When the steering group had been formed I was given the role of Secretary by default after I volunteered to attend a Supporters Direct training session by virtue of living closest to the venue in Manchester. It was never a role I was particularly interested in and didn’t feel I had the skillset for. Now I had an AGM to prepare for.
With the backing (ongoing to this day for which we as a board remain eternally grateful) and advice from professionals Stephen Leonard and Peter Greenwood we held our first AGM, elected out first Trust Board and filed our first year’s accounts with the Financial Conduct Authority.
We carried on growing slowly for the next few years and solidifying the Trust within the fabric of the club..
Can I have a word?
We had had a turnover in many of the roles of the board over the initial years but possibly our best appointment was that of Steve Herbert as chair in 2017. As a headmaster he had the natural authority and skills to “lead”, a creative spark to take on new initiatives and quickly became “the voice” and face of the Trust too. He also brought another level of professionalism by allowing us to meet at his school. Up until then we had been holding meetings in either the Crossbar, Trust Shop or The Ambrose Hotel with all the distractions lunchtime kick offs on TV and a well stocked bar could provide.
By the time of Steve’s first AGM as chair for the 2017-18 season in late 2018, it was clear change was in the autumnal air as Paul Casson had announced his decision to depart. Paul Hornby had asked if he could have a few minutes at the end of that AGM with the board and we crowded into Ian Evatt’s office as he explained the current situation and his consortium’s plan to take the club on and move it forward. Finally, he told us he wanted the fans to be an integral part of the new ownership group and asked if we wanted to join them.
It didn’t take a lot of discussion for us to agree to be involved. Although we realised it would require a step change in the way the Trust was run and level of activity to increase our turnover, this was what the Trust had been set up for!
The size of the task to raise the initial £50,000 stake for 10% of the shares in the club was matched with enthusiasm from the fanbase, with donations pouring in from all over country and many Bluebirds exiled around the world. Having previously Hitch Hiked his way to Torquay and Maidstone to raise money for tickets for kids, in January 2019 Steve announced his plan to go European and hitch to Cologne as part of the effort to reach £50k. A hugely eventful journey, where those of us monitoring his progress back in the UK feared for his safety more than once, ended in success, several beers and a weekend spent with the German branch of the Barrow AFC supporters, a link which goes from strength to strength to this day.
With membership up to 500 and a seat on the Club Board for elected Trust Director (Levi Gill) we ended 2018-19 having achieved a great deal. That summer we launched the 1901 Club, our biggest out of season source of income now entering its sixth edition. That first summer brought in over 900 entries, a tremendous start. We also moved from our West Terrace base to our new Cabin at the end of the Popular Side. This of course was required so the terracing could be demolished and the area prepared for future development.
COVID-19, Promotion and beyond
Obviously the 19-20 season will be remembered as the season the club achieved promotion back to the EFL after almost 50 years. It is also the season that we invited you to “Play Your Part” to fund our £65,000 stake.
As COVID-19 struck in the spring of 2020 and lockdown curtailed our season we wondered how on earth we could complete the fundraising required and keep going during the uncertain period ahead. The answer as it turned out was right in front of us. For decades, Russ Rawley, now our Life President has been the very visible face of the matchday raffle at Holker Street. In various guises he has given away bottles of whisky, various prizes and cash in a 50-50 format. With a little creativity “Virtual Russ” was born as an avatar and we took “Russ Raffle” online. It was an immediate success. The draws quickly began giving over £1k a week away and boosted our reserves enormously. The 1901 Club Mark II grew to over 1200 entries and we managed to negotiate what could have been a very tricky time.
As those running club worked like Trojans to meet the EFL requirements all the while adapting to life with a myriad of new rules (even without the pandemic), Steve replaced Levi as Trust Director as Levi stepped up to the CEO position. Helping him to launch his career in the football industry (he is now employed by Altrincham FC) was a step up from his first involvement with the Trust as Secretary, and is another achievement I believe we can be proud of.
Steve’s experience from safely running his school through the pandemic also provided the perfect skillset required for making the club safe for those that worked in it. Sadly very few of us were able to visit the ground to watch games that season, and even the few games that fans were allowed in for coincided with the “Tier System” which prevented me from travelling up from Chorley. Not for the first (or last) time I had a swear filled rant at Boris. By the following summer though, restrictions were lifting and the Trust helped the club launch the Fanzone, both with the decoration and themed boards on the outer wall, and by running the bar during the Covid delayed Euro 2021 tournament.
Financially though we had a fairly calm season, with no need to revert to the “begging bowl” approach of first two seasons as a part owner. That stability has been maintained over the last few of seasons too, despite our share of the losses increasing, up to £80k per annum. Another achievement worth celebrating.
Following on from Steve’s time with the club board, our third elected Board Director, Frazer Stewart has again had a skillset (Engineering) the club needed to make use of as it rapidly grew and raced towards the deadline for adding extra seating capacity. Modest as he is, he doesn’t like taking the credit for his considerable efforts, but he deserves all our thanks as supporters for the project he designed and managed through some often difficult and obstructive opposition and to a very reasonable budget. Well done mate.
Travel to away games has been a core function of the Trust since our early days and has grown hugely in the last few years. The Barnsley FA Cup trip was the first time we have ever taken 6 buses to a single game, but this has been repeated a couple of times since. The scheme we now run to let accompanied Under 16s travel at discounted rates has allowed many families to travel and experience great days (if not always results) following the Bluebirds.
While we as a board fully appreciate Steve’s decision to step away last season, it has left a massive gap as the “face and voice” of the Trust to many of the fanbase. However, under the leadership of Chris Taylor as Chair, we are slowly regrouping and looking forward to the challenges ahead in the next decade.