The Dons Trust recently released the latest in its series of regular updates emailed to Dons Trust members who opt in to receive digital communications. We have reproduced the recent edition in full below…
Dear Dons Trust member,Welcome to the latest monthly Dons Trust Board newsletter – a collection of news and views shared by your representatives between website news items and Board meeting minutes.These updates come straight to your inbox (and appear on the Dons Trust website) once a month. If you have any thoughts or feedback drop us a line via contact@thedonstrust.org.
Reminder: voting deadline approaching
First things first, if you would like to vote by proxy on the resolutions in the upcoming AGM (more on that below) you can find a proxy form here.Please return this form, to arrive no later than noon on Friday 16 December 2022. Forms received after this deadline will not be counted. We would prefer you to email the form to secretary@thedonstrust.org to ensure it reaches us on time. Up For The Cup
The votes are in…
December has already been a big month for the Dons Trust Board, with the results of the DTB elections being announced on 4 December.As well as congratulating the successful candidates, we would like to thank everyone who stood and gave members not only a contested election but also a diverse range of views to choose from.We would also like to place on record our thanks to the Election Steering Group – David Hall, Julian Edwards, Matt Breach, George Jones and independent scrutineer Neil Springate – for their help in ensuring a fair and transparent election.The new board will be officially sworn in at the Dons Trust AGM on December 19. Speaking of which…
Dons Trust AGM 📅
The other big thing the DTB has been doing over the past few weeks has been gearing up for this year’s Dons Trust AGM, which takes place on Monday 19 December. You can find the papers on the Dons Trust website.This year’s event sees the culmination of an extensive consultation relating to the operations and oversight of the club – or what some might call a governance review.This itself followed on from DTB proposals outlined at October’s SGM and involved a temperature test, surveys, debate on ProBoards and online and in-person discussion.Having taken on board feedback, the DTB has produced a series of proposals as to how we think we should do things going forward, and there will be a raft of resolutions to vote on at the AGM. Please find details on how to attend the AGM and how to vote – in person or using proxy – on the Dons Trust website. The AFC Wimbledon PLC AGM is scheduled to take place immediately after the AGM has concluded.We’re reliably informed the bar will be open. We hope you can join us!
Membership feedback 🗣️
The number of Dons Trust members goes up and down at certain times of the year. Each October the number goes up (people renewing in time to be eligible to vote) while there are always some memberships that lapse at the end of the membership year.With regards to the lapsed memberships, we will be contacting former members (where appropriate) for feedback as to why they haven’t renewed – with the intention being that we use that feedback to help shape the DT membership offering in the future. We hope to be able to report back to you on our findings in the New Year.In a similar vein, we did conduct an extensive membership survey earlier in the year, and the results have been used to formulate the current offering. You can find the full results, with a brief analysis, on the Dons Trust website.
Junior Dons Christmas Party 🎅🎁🎄
The Junior Dons Party made a welcome, post-pandemic return on Sunday 4 December. We’d like to offer a huge thank you to all the playing staff and volunteers who helped make it a fun time for all.If you would like to sign your child up to become a Junior Don or buy them a JD membership for Christmas (surely no stocking is complete without one) go to the Dons Trust website.
Big Sleep Out 2
On Saturday 3 December, the Dons Local Action Group (DLAG) held its second Big Sleep Out. Club management joined fans and volunteers to spend a night sleeping in the open air at the Cherry Red Records Stadium for the fundraiser which has now raised over £64,000. A huge thank you to everyone who took part!
If you would like to donate to DLAG, please see donslocalaction.org.
Updates from the DTB theme groups:
Oversight
Charlie writes: The club’s new MD Danny Macklin is now in his second month and working with the PLC board on implementing operational strategies to drive revenues and improve fan experience. Danny and Mick Buckley joined Johnnie Jackson on Wednesday 7 December at an informal Meet The Manager event, with the Q&A now on available on the club’s YouTube channel.As promised last year, a new HoFO – Craig Cope –has now been appointed to start in January, while Jamie Johnson continues in his recruitment role ahead of, and during the January window. A bit further down the line, there will be a member consultation early in 2023 looking at possible routes to make more equity available as part of the medium and long-term financial planning strategy. We hope to bring you a bit more detail on this shortly.
Member Services and Engagement
Michele writes: Much of the DTB’s recent engagement activity has been covered already with the governance consultation and the membership numbers follow-up. As a board, we’ve also been working on an internal handover to minimise loss of corporate memory once the old board dissolves and the new board is inducted. The aim is to seamlessly continue with DT projects as outlined elsewhere in this newsletter.We’ve also been working with the Club team on next steps in integrating our Dons Trust membership renewals with the Club’s ticketing system – more to follow in 2023.
Community
Niall writes: We have a couple of projects on the go at the moment. Firstly Graham has been liaising with the club on a survey to find out how we might entice 18 to 30-year-old fans to spend more time at the ground either side of games – whether that be a DJ or gaming tournaments or happy hours. We’ll be looking to ask fans in the not-too-distant future. Secondly, we are currently working with the club and other stakeholders on creating a Hall of Fame voted on by the fans. Watch this space!
Culture and Mission
Kris writes: One of the things we said we would do at the recent SGM was to come up with an updated policy on signing players who have played for MIlton Keynes. We have since discussed this as a group and will be taking our ideas on this to the wider DTB at next week’s monthly meeting.
Club enquiries email 📧
The club has set up a dedicated email address to deal with any queries about match tickets, merchandise or our stadium. Email enquiries@afcwimbledon.ltd.uk for a response within one working day.
Correction ✏️
In a recent newsletter we stated that We Are Wimbledon Fund (WAWF) had funded the purchase of some tech for the team management. We got this wrong, as that particular purchase (a ‘Sky presenter’ screen) was made using funds raised by a group of fans. The tech itself would however be a good example of the type of one-off purchase that the WAWF may fund in the future. We are happy to clarify and look forward to bringing you more news on WAWF shortly.
That’s all for now. As ever, please let us know what you would like to see more or less of in future editions at contact@thedonstrust.org. Thanks for reading.The Dons Trust Board.
