The Clarets Trust held their AGM on Saturday 12th June 2010 and we provide below a statement made at the meeting by Trust chairman, Peter Pike.

STATEMENT BY PETER PIKE (CHAIR) TO CLARETS TRUST AGM 12th JUNE 2010

Firstly I would express my thanks to all those who have worked in any way for the Clarets Trust during the last year.  We have recently been able to take the membership back over the 200 mark.  The new membership leaflet and the special offers for our 5th anniversary have been a major help in this task.  Also our Membership Secretary, Martin Barnes, is now well organised to try and ensure members renew at the appropriate time and do not lapse!  This has to be a continual exercise in any group.  The offers at the present time are very attractive and have been a major factor in ensuring that of our members over 50 are now life members.

Richard Timbrell took on the post of Treasurer a year ago.  Changing signatures etc at the bank has been a major exercise and has taken over a year - I hope Richard is prepared to carry on in this post.  It would be good to get more members paying subscription renewals by Standing Order and we will try to encourage this where ever possible.

The Trust now own 100 shares in the Football Club and this did take us into the top 10 shareholder not on the Board.  Shares can now only be bought in blocks of 10 and above (for understandable reasons) but that does not make it easy for the Trust.  At the time of the refund of money to season ticket holders in accord with the Chairman's Pledge (Barry Kilby) several options were considered to make the Trust a vehicle for this.  In the end a 3rd option was offered to shareholders but this idea did not succeed - some of the ideas discussed which did have some support within the Club would probably have been more beneficial to the Trust and indeed the Club. It remains our policy to buy shares direct from the Club in order to best benefit the Club - that said any offers of shares to the Trust would be fully and carefully considered.

We continue to have a good working relationship with the Club and now have regular scheduled meetings with the Club and have agreed a working relationship with them which has been publicised in the press, Club programmes. Chris Wells acts as the key link man in organising these meetings and we appreciate the work he does.  Promotion to the Premier did entail  discussions on many issues such as the Rovers games, away games tickets; the disabled shelters; home fans in the cricket field stand; stewarding, parking; transport etc.,  It is not always possible to take decisions on some of these issues that will please everyone.  A priority now exists to discuss with the Club how we take forward this relationship and build on it - perhaps even involving some direct input to the Club Board itself. Another issue on which we need to have a discussion with the Club is the latest position and proposals in relation to the redevelopment of Turf Moor.  At the same time we are seeking to develop closer and better relationships with the various supporters clubs.  The fan base as whole with a united voice can have a much stronger input to the Club and the Trust surely must be the most open and democratic body to do this?

During last season we had a regular column in the home programmes and Phil Lea took the responsibility for this - we also had additional bits in the programme from time to time.  This exercise is a good one for the Trust but does have rigid time requirements and hopefully the experience gained on this during the last season will enable us to build on it in the years ahead.

We sponsored Jay Rodriguez again during the season.  Injury for a large part of the season made it difficult for him to establish a place in the squad in the Premier.  As yet we do not know the cost for the next season but we shall have to consider this very closely.  The two tickets for the game which go with the sponsorship were given to a member who took his grandson to the Wolves match.  They had a great day which was reported in one of our Newsletters and also a match programme.  The two tickets for the Official Player of the Year award night were also given to a member.  In each case this was done by drawing from our paid up membership.

The fan's Player of the Year award night was a very good night but we ended up with two unsold tickets - in future those booking tickets MUST pay at the time of booking them.  We had a vote amongst members and perhaps because the season was not as exciting as the year before the number of members voting was not as high this year.  Also due to injuries etc., fewer players had enjoyed long periods of consistency.  On the vote Fletcher was the clear winner with Mears coming second.

For our 5th Anniversary we signed up Clarke Carlisle as a Member of the Trust and we have a signed No 5 shirt which is now framed. In the short term it will be in the Foundation Lounge but it may well go in the new stand on the Cricket Field end when that work takes place.

The Board Meetings are now held at Turf Moor - but demand for facilities at the Ground on match days in the Premier did not always make this easy!

Our hopes to run a beer festival during the year did not come to fruition.  We have, however, had an initial meeting with Moorhouse's Brewery and when their extension works are complete we have may have potential to do something on their site.  We would need to have the help of people like John Ingham and Meg Fawcett. plus Camra, if we were to make a success of such an event.

.We did hold two successful events at the club during the last year.  The first was with Barry Kilby In the Chair and the second with Brian Laws and Barry again.  We are grateful to them for taking part and both evenings were enjoyed by all those present.  A wide range of questions came up at both meetings the first had Richard Moore from 

Emmerdale as chair for the night and the second Darren Bentley.  Thanks to them for their help and to all those who helped with each of these events in any way.
 
Our bid to the Stocks Massey fund for some display boards did not succeed.  Unfortunately the funds - due to the credit crunch - were lower than usual and the competing demands too high.

Thanks go to Phil Lea for his work on the Web site and all others who have worked for the Trust during the last year that I have not mentioned specifically elsewhere in this report. We are hoping to give the Website a revived look at an early date.  The Newsletters also are an important means of communication to members - if you would like to see us make changes do let us know!

We were saddened during the year when one of our honorary members Margaret Potts sadly died.  Margaret, although becoming frail in the last year or so, was always right until the end a great person to talk to.  Full of life and a great sense of humour and like Harry always had a twinkle in her eye.  The Trust was also saddened to hear of the death of two great stalwarts of the 60s - both true Clarets legends - Tommy Cummings and then Adam Blacklaw.  These names will always long be remembered in the history of our Club.

A year ago we were still celebrating our promotion to the Premier and now 12 months on we face our return to the Championship.  I am under no illusions that a bounce back to the Premier will not be easy but we know we can do it now.  Obviously the blow of losing Coyle and his team in January was a major setback - I very much regret the way in which it happened but that has all been mauled over at length so I will say no more.  Brian Laws was appointed as his successor and took over at a very difficult time.  The margin between surviving and relegation was really slim.  I am sure we can all think of the soft goals we let in and the easy chances we missed; and the points we let slip away.

Clearly our money did not match that of the others in the Premier but we would have been much stronger if we had secured the second season.  As it is we go down in a much stronger position in many ways.  As fans we can all have our views on certain players, team selections etc., and indeed who should or should not be the Manager.  I am firmly of the view that at Burnley we have a Chairman in Barry Kilby who is a 100% Clarets fan.

He will do, at all times, what he believes is in the best interests of Burnley FC and I believe that all of us who claim to be Clarets fans should be 100% behind him, our Manager and Team and wish them well in their fight to get us back in the Premier.

Up the Clarets

Peter Pike

Chair – Clarets Trust