By Ky Capel

THE proposed Dorchester Town Supporters Trust is now up and running.

Magpies’ fans gathered at the Colliton Club in Dorchester to hear from organiser Dave Ring and officials from Supporters Direct – the supporters’ trust initiative.

Also present among around 20 county town supporters were officials from the Terras Trust of Weymouth Football Club, who shared their experiences of setting up a trust.

A vote taken at the end of the meeting gave a clear mandate to Ring to collect names from people willing to serve on an elected trust board and to set up the first board meeting, expected to be held next week.

Trust spokesman Paul Breakwell said: “The night was all about giving people the opportunity to hear from Supporters Direct, and from fans who have already done what we’re about to do, exactly what is involved in setting up a trust.

“Hopefully the meeting righted a few myths about the trust just being another supporters’ club – and also being an extension of the current board at the club.

“It isn’t and that’s why fans were happy to vote to set up the trust on the night.

“We had one abstention but everyone else was clearly in favour of kicking on, and nobody was against – so that has to be a result.

“The trust, like others set up through Supporters Direct, will be a democratic, non-profit making organisation owned and controlled by no one other than the fans themselves.

"Our aims are clear – to strengthen bonds between the club’s fans and the community and to engage in regular dialogue and work alongside club officials in due course.

“We will set our own agenda about what this will involve and trust members will get to decide which direction we go in.

“We would like to emulate the Terras Trust in having an elected fans’ representative sitting as a voting member on the DTFC board, but clearly that will be one for club chairman Eddie Mitchell and his directors to decide on in due course.

“In the meantime we’d like to thank James Mathie from Supporters Direct for making all of this possible and also to Terras Trust chairman Anthony Sams and secretary Caroline Kinsella for suspending rivalries and coming along.”

For more information on the Dorchester Town Supporters Trust visit magpiestrust.co.uk

By Dev Ward.

DORCHESTER Town fans will have the opportunity to start their own supporters’ trust on Monday night.

The meeting, at the Colliton Club in Dorchester (7.30pm), sees the introduction of the supporters’ trust movement to the Magpies’ faithful with the help of guest speakers from the Supporters Direct organisation.

Volunteers will then be sought to help take the idea further with a formal launch hoped to be staged later in the year.

Dave Ring, who is leading the co-ordination of the trust, said: “The purpose of this meeting is to introduce the supporters’ trust movement to the fans of Dorchester Town Football Club. During the meeting we will ask those present to vote for the formation of a supporters’ trust.

“A positive vote will trigger the next steps in the process.

“Initially, we will be looking for a group of volunteers at the meeting to help form the steering group to take the supporters’ trust initiative forward.

“This would involve establishing the trust roles, debating our constitution, developing our strategy, initiating a membership drive, registering the trust as an Independent Provident Society (IPS) and registering the trust with the Financial Services Authority (FSA).”

Short-term aims of the trust include working alongside club officials to develop links between the Magpies and the local community, and to engage with club officials on all issues that affect the county town supporters.

The longer-term objectives involve electing a representative onto the Dorchester Town board, as well as raising funds to buy a shareholding in the club.

Also present at the meeting will be James Mathie from Supporters Direct, who assist fans with the formation of independent supporters’ trusts.

Ring added: “I would like to make it perfectly clear that the proposed Dorchester Town Supporters’ Trust will be a democratic, non-profit making organisation owned and controlled by the fans themselves.

“It will be open, accountable, affordable, actively inclusive and representative of all its members.”

Visit magpiestrust.co.uk for more details on the proposed supporters’ trust.

EDDIE Mitchell is desperate to see the proposed Dorchester Town Supporters' Trust get up and running.

Should the Trust get off the ground it would be the first of its kind in the club's history and would provide representation on the club's board for the fans, something the Magpies' majority shareholder is very much in favour of.

He said: "I would love to see that happen. I desperately want people on the board who want to represent the club. It would be great to have everyone working together.

"The main thing for me would be to see everyone joining in and getting involved with the club. I've just had to write a cheque for £10,000 to put into the club, but I can't keep doing that forever."

County town supporters will be given the chance to put their questions to Mitchell, fellow director Neill Blake and director of football Shaun Brooks tonight in a Fans' Forum at the Jewson Stadium (6.30pm).

The property developer added: "At the forum I will explain to everyone that this is not my club, I do not own it - it belongs to the fans.

"All I want to do is come in on a Saturday afternoon, have a few drinks, watch the game, maybe see my son Tom play and go home with a win because that would make me feel good about the day - that is all I want from the club."

The idea of creating the Trust comes at a time when the Magpies are struggling against relegation from Blue Square South.

Trust spokesman Paul Breakwell is calling on all county town fans to get involved.

He said: "The club is going through a turbulent time in its history, which is a shame as this season looked so full of promise.

"We could moan about it or we can get together and work to represent the views of the fans for the continued benefit of the club."

Breakwell though, states that the new Trust has a remit beyond the existing Dorchester Town Supporters' Club.

He added: "We are not a supporters' club. We are an independent Trust to give our supporters a voice that is both heard and heeded.

"The Trust will be very much about action - working to galvanise the community for the benefit of the club.

"It's all about supporters working from outside the day-to-day affairs of the club, but doing so in a complementary way that enhances the chance of us having a successful football club operating in the highest tiers of the English non-League game.

"What we need now is for more like-minded supporters to come on board. We are appealing to them to get involved for the positive benefit of the town and the club."

Anyone who wants to join the Supporters' Trust can do so by visiting www.magpiestrust.co.uk