This article originally appeared in the Exeter City programme on 25 January.
- Walking Further for Wimbledon 7: Ambling to Accy
- Making the most of our wonderful volunteers
- Your Dons Trust: Championing your views
Walking Further for Wimbledon 7: Ambling to Accy
The seventh staging of our annual sponsored walk – which benefits both the club and local charities – heads for new territory this year on the weekend of our last game of the season, at Accrington Stanley.
To celebrate our (re)entrance to the Football League and Accrington’s own troubled past, the walk will start at the Etihad Stadium – scene of our play-off victory over Luton Town – and will wind northwards past Gigg Lane, home to Bury and our friends FC United of Manchester, before arriving at the Crown Ground in Accrington. The 31-mile route will be covered over the Friday and Saturday, with an option to join at Bury for those unable to make the early Friday start.
If you are interested in taking part, please email matthew.breach@thedonstrust.org, otherwise please keep an eye out for our intrepid walkers and their sponsorship forms at home games nearer the time.
Making the most of our wonderful volunteers
A lot of great work has been done over the last few months in the Dons Trust People Group focusing on volunteering. This group, led by David Growns, includes both our own volunteers and Dons Trust members, plus representatives of outside volunteering organisations and charities, and human resources specialists.
We have surveyed both past and present volunteers to find out what they think, and looked at best practice both internally and in other organisations. We have produced a number of recommendations, both acknowledging where we do well and pointing out where we can improve. We have looked at the entire volunteering cycle, from how we attract volunteers to how we recruit, induct and retain them – all supported by a database.
We are looking at ways in which we can introduce more than 20 recommendations including such diverse topics as improving recognition of what our volunteers do, providing accreditation and establishing the post of Volunteer Liaison Officer to look after volunteers’ interests.
If you have expertise in this area we would like to hear from you: please email david.growns@thedonstrust.org
For the excellent work they have done so far, the Dons Trust Board would like to thank the Volunteers Working Group: Clive Yelf, Cormac van der Hoeven, Chris Hutchinson, Collette Mulchrone, Eileen Samuelson, John Woodruff, Julia Brown, Mike Padmanathan, Roger Rogowski, Tudor Jennings, John Stembridge, Tim Hillyer and Colin Gales.
Your Dons Trust: Championing your views
We live in an age when the voice of the true football fan seems less and less relevant to the big-money earners of the Premier League and, indeed, our game’s governing bodies. The Dons Trust wants to do all it can to change that by taking a stance, on behalf of our 2,000-plus members, on the football issues that really matter. For example, we have expressed views on issues as diverse as safe standing and feeder clubs. Our high profile and influence in the supporters’ trust movement is such that we can help make a difference for fans across the country, working with our friends in Supporters Direct and the Football Supporters’ Federation to influence opinion-formers and decision-makers at the highest levels. We will continue to campaign on behalf of fans of AFC Wimbledon, alongside other members of the supporters’ trust community.
So if there is any burning football issue you think the Dons Trust should be campaigning on, we want to hear from you. Please let us know what you would like us to tackle, on behalf of Dons fans and football supporters in general. You can contact us in several ways: email us at secretariat@thedonstrust.org; via our website (follow the “Contact Us” link); or send us a tweet @thedonstrust using the hashtag #fanschampion.