February’s board meeting summary

Posted on April 3, 2019 by The Dons Trust | Leave a comment

The Dons Trust board (DTB) held its usual monthly board meeting in a meeting room at The Prince of Wales pub, Wimbledon, on Wednesday 27 February 2019. Ahead of publication of the redacted minutes, this article summarises the main points discussed.

The meeting was attended by DTB members Rob Crane, Mark Davis, Colin Dipple, Roger Evans, Cormac van der Hoeven, Anna Kingsley, Hannah Kitcher, Jane Lonsdale, Luke Mackenzie. Also in attendance was club chief executive Erik Samuelson; club chief operations officer Joe Palmer was unable to..

Dons Trust Special General Meeting – Wednesday 17 April

Posted on April 2, 2019 by The Dons Trust | Leave a comment

The Dons Trust is holding a Special General Meeting (SGM) on Wednesday 17 April at the Cherry Red Records Stadium (7.30 pm start).

Papers have now gone out in advance of the first SGM of the Dons Trust for 2019. As you may know, the Dons Trust holds at least three general meetings each year. These are opportunities to seek formal approval for various decisions and for members and the board to discuss policies and developments within the organisation and..

New Trust treasurer

Posted on March 28, 2019 by The Dons Trust | Leave a comment

We are pleased to announce that Mukesh Desai has stepped forward to become the Trust’s new treasurer.

Mukesh volunteered following an appeal for help made by the Trust board in February. His offer was formally accepted at last night’s Dons Trust board meeting. Mukesh’s is a non-board role looking after the Trust’s own accounts and finances.

We would like to thank outgoing treasurer Sean McLaughlin for his 13 years of service, including continuing to carry out the role until Mukesh’s..

The April SGM

Posted on March 23, 2019 by The Dons Trust | Leave a comment

Mark Davis, Chair of the Dons Trust Board, runs through the topics that will be discussed at the first Dons Trust meeting of the year.

I will shortly be writing to members to invite them to a Special General Meeting to be held on 17 April. These meetings are at the heart of the Dons Trust Board’s accountability to the membership. Members get to approve (or not) some important decisions and have a chance to quiz the DTB on the..

New stadium update – 22 March 2019

Posted on March 22, 2019 by The Dons Trust | Leave a comment

Last night Merton Council’s planning committee voted in favour of a ‘resolution to approve’ our request for some amendments to our original planning application. A significant amount of work had gone into preparing the documents that were submitted to the council in support of our request, so we are pleased that the planning committee has agreed with the case for approving them.

The amendments won’t be officially approved until a deed of variation is signed, documenting the necessary changes to the..

Betting partner: survey result and next steps

Posted on March 21, 2019 by The Dons Trust | 2 Comments

The Dons Trust recently held a ‘temperature test’ survey amongst its members to help determine our approach to a possible partnership between the club/Trust and a betting company.

Previous surveys had suggested that the Trust’s members had a fairly split attitude towards such a tie-up. With a firm proposal on the table, we wanted to explore again members’ attitudes towards the principle of a tie-up in this area.

We asked:

‘Would you be in favour, in principle, of..

January’s board meeting summary

Posted on March 17, 2019 by The Dons Trust | Leave a comment

The Dons Trust board (DTB) held its usual monthly board meeting at the Cherry Red Records Stadium on Wednesday 23 January 2019. Ahead of publication of the redacted minutes, this article summarises the main points discussed.

The meeting was attended by DTB members Mark Davis (Chair), Rob Crane, Colin Dipple, Roger Evans, Cormac van der Hoeven, Anna Kingsley, Hannah Kitcher, Jane Lonsdale and Luke Mackenzie. Trust secretary David Growns took the minutes.

The DTB were joined by club chief executive..

Betting partner survey: thank you

Posted on March 15, 2019 by The Dons Trust | Leave a comment

Thank you to all our members who took part in our “temperature test” survey about a possible betting partner. Voting closed at 5pm yesterday.

We’re doing the number crunching and the board will take your views into consideration when making its decision. More news soon, including how you voted.

New stadium update – 14 March 2019

Posted on March 14, 2019 by The Dons Trust | Leave a comment

People who have travelled along Plough Lane recently may have noticed a lot of activity, with diggers and lorries coming and going, and wondered what’s happening on the stadium site. The answer is, ‘Actually, nothing right now’ – but that’s set to change soon.

The site of the old greyhound stadium has now been split in two. One site is owned by us following our acquisition of the freehold in December, and will contain our stadium. The other site is..

An update from the Chair

Posted on March 14, 2019 by The Dons Trust | Leave a comment

Mark Davis, Chair of the Dons Trust Board, has a round-up of progress on various fronts at the club and the Trust.

In my programme page for the Boxing Day game against Plymouth Argyle, I set out what our newly elected Dons Trust Board (DTB) members could expect over the next year. Now is a good time to summarise how 2019 is shaping up so far.

First of all, with four of the nine elected members new to the DTB,..