So You Fancy Helping Us

JOIN THE CO-OP BOARD AT OUR FORTHCOMING AGM

The Stockport County Supporters Co-Operative have arranged our AGM for the 24th November at the Spinning Top on Wellington Road South and we are looking for new board members to join our team.

We expect two board members to be stepping down at the AGM and need to strengthen our board to continue our work.

Nominations for new board members need to be in by the 19th November and nominees must have been a member of the Co-Op before the 29th September. Don’t worry if you don’t have any Co-Op members to nominate you, we can arrange this for you.

Provide County Fans with a Stronger Voice

The Co-Op board work tirelessly to represent the interests of our members and the wider Stockport County fanbase. We meet with the Club two or three times a year and communicate with senior management on a regular basis.

Recent action has included:

Attending meetings between a group from the Pop Side, concerned about heavy handed stewarding and leaks from the sanitary system, and representatives of the club.
Raising issues experienced with the new ticketing system with the club. We hope that this will lead to involvement in a focus group to improve the way the system works.
Lobbying for pre-paid tickets for away matches to be available for collection right up until kick off on match days. This has saved extra trips to the ground for exiles which has been a major bone of contention in the past.
Ensuring that the statue of Danny Bergara, itself the subject of a crowdfunding campaign led by the Co-Op, continued to be illuminated after dark in honour of one of our most influential managers.

Independent Football Regulator

One of the aims of the new Football Governance Bill is to require clubs to have an effectiveframework in place to regularly meet a representative group of fans to discuss key strategic matters at the club and other issues of interest to supporters, including club heritage and ticket prices. We need to ensure that the Co-Op is able to fulfil this role rather than reinvent

the wheel. This will be much easier to do with a full board and an increased membership.

Redevelopment of Edgeley Park

It is part of the Co-Op’s role to be a critical friend to the club and as such we were delighted to help secure planning permission to redevelop Edgeley Park at the Council Highways and Planning Committee in August. This involved providing a constructive and positive counterbalance to the opposition from the Edgeley Wildlife Group and engaging in interviews with the BBC and the Manchester Evening News which appeared in their on-line publications.

Our board lobbied and wrote to members of the planning committee at Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council and our board member, John Bilsbury, spoke in favour of the application at the Area Committee meeting alongside the club’s representative, Alice Routledge of Asteer Planning.

Charitable Work

In addition to looking after the interests of our members and the wider fanbase, we have supported charity events including an evening with Fraser Horsfall and Lewis Bate, which raised over £3,000 for Forever Friends of Uganda. At the game before Christmas, we will be holding a collection for the Wellspring homeless charity and resource centre, which is based on Harvey Street in Stockport.

The Co-Op are teaming up with The Scarf Bergara Wore podcast to arrange events with former County legends during the season.

Supporting the Local Community

The Co-Op recognises the importance of bringing local youngsters into the County fold to build the fanbase of the future, work to this end has included:

Sponsoring the Community Trust’s flag bearer scheme, which enables up to 400 children from junior football clubs to welcome the teams onto the field.

Launching a crowdfunding scheme for tickets for cup games, which are allocated to children on the programmes run by the Community Trust.

Raising funds to buy four season tickets which can be used by any County fans that are struggling financially.

General Membership

Stockport County is a club on the up at the moment and at times like this it may be tempting to regard the Co-Op as being of secondary importance. To coin a well-known phrase, however, the time to mend the roof is when the sun is shining, so the more we can grow the membership, the better equipped we will be to counter any issues which may arise in the future. To this end, the Co-Op is the holder of the Guardian Account, which was set up some years ago to ensure that the club could survive if the worst should happen.

Joining is easy and inexpensive, bringing discounts on coach travel to away games and live events in addition to the opportunity to influence the club to the benefit of its supporters.

Adult membership for 12 months - £12

16-18 membership for 12 months - £3

Child (under 16) membership for 12 months - £1

Details of how to join can be found here: https://webcollect.org.uk/coop/subscription

If you are interested in standing for the Co-Op board, please email info@countysupporterscoop.co.uk