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Leeds United: Fresh start for fans group LUST - Hay
Leeds United's fanbase is so substantial and established – capable of producing the country's fourth highest attendance last Saturday – that a clear voice speaking for those supporters would also be a powerful one.
The Leeds United Supporters Club (LUSC), an organisation in possession of several thousand members, has taken that role upon itself for many years, but moves are afoot to revamp a different group, the Leeds United Supporters Trust (LUST), with a view to establishing it as a credible and representative body.
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LUST is by no means unheard of in Leeds and it's name came to particular prominence during Leeds United's administration in 2007, a period when former Trust chairman Rick Duniec was proactive in discussing publicly the problems afflicting the club.
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Though the ground seemed fertile for an expansion of the Trust's membership, at a time of so much concern and so little clarity, it is fair to say that its growth has been relatively small.
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Earlier this year, the strength and role of the Trust became the subject of lengthy discussion on WACCOE, one of the most popular Internet forums devoted to Leeds United. The upshot was an agreement among a number of posters that they would take on the running of the Trust with the express intention of forming a membership large enough to make LUST's voice audible and influential.
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Lee Hicken, the Trust's media communications officer, told IER: "This came about in part from a long discussion on WACCOE, started by a negative post asking what the point of the Trust was and who it spoke for.
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"It developed, a bit unexpectedly, into a constructive thread about how we could take the Trust forward to a position where it could speak properly for its members and become a really credible fans group. A few of us picked up the ideas and ran with them.
"As a concept, it's been talked about for longer than that with people discussing the idea of forming a new fans group. But the fact that the Trust was already set up and established meant it made more sense to use that framework than start something from scratch."
The changes have been sweeping. All bar two of the Trust's previous board members resigned their positions, Duniec included, letting "the new brooms have a clean sweep" in the words of its outgoing chairman.
Malcolm Christie, LUST's treasurer, and Gary Hewitt have remained in situ after three years on the board and are being joined by five new faces, among them acting chairman Gary Cooper who plans to take up the position permanently.
Cooper was previously involved with the creation of WACCOE and is, naturally, a long-standing Leeds United supporter. The other board members, pending their election, will be Hicken, John Moran, Ross Davidson and Simon Ridley, LUST's intended secretary. All will operate on a voluntary basis, as dictated by the Trust's own regulations.
The seven prospective incumbents met in Leeds on Wednesday night, and their election to the new board should be confirmed officially via a vote of members next month, the point at which the Trust intends to begin in earnest the process of recruiting new members and seeking a productive relationship with the club. An annual general meeting is scheduled for January 13.
Questions have been asked about an apparent lack of activity emanating from the Trust since news of its revamp was announced.
In response, Hicken said: "A lot's been going on behind the scenes. Essentially, we want to have everything in place and finalised before we go out there and tell everyone about it.
"There's a lot of organising to do and while the transfer from the old board to the new board isn't too complicated, it's quite a long-winded process. I can understand why people are looking at us and thinking that nothing is happening but we need to do this properly rather than rush it through.
"At the same time, we want to be in a position to move forward as soon as possible and we hope that the board's election will be confirmed next month. We'll then get full access to the accounts and the membership database and look to begin our recruitment drive – to start selling the Trust's ideas. Our aim is to provide an independent voice for as many Leeds United fans as we can."
The recruitment process will be pivotal to the Trust's success. At present, it is understood to have just over 200 members, a figure which Hicken conceded was far below the number required to give LUST genuine authority or the chance of warranting significance in the eyes of the club. With the new board in place, the Trust aims to rapidly raise that figure into the thousands, charging 5 for standard annual membership and 100 for life membership. "That needs to happen if we're going to have a credible voice," Hicken said.
Upon signing up, each Trust member will be asked to list three issues related to Leeds United which concern them. According to Hicken, LUST will apply itself to addressing and speaking out about the three most prominent concerns among their membership.
Asked what he envisaged as the issues the Trust were likely to tackle, Hicken said: "That's not for me to say.
"We've said from the start that we're going to do what our members want us to do, not what the board thinks the Trust should be doing. This will only work if people feel we're representing them and working in a way which is inclusive. The board is only there to represent the wider membership.
"It's our intention to build up a good relationship with the local media and local businesses, and of course we'd like to have a positive relationship with the club. I think we can achieve that and we'll try to speak to them (Leeds United) when the new board is in place, to tell them who we are, what our plans are and what we want to achieve.
"But all of that is secondary to making sure we offer an independent voice to the fans who are members of the Trust. If we compromise that or forget about it then we're forgetting the reason for our existence. The main job of the board will always be to speak for our members."
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LUST's new board will be aware that there has been little positive communication between the club and supporters' organisations in recent years, and attracting Leeds United's interest and attention is likely to depend on both the size of its membership and the manner in which it sells itself to the club's chairman, Ken Bates. He is not renowned for allowing his policies to be dictated by supporters at large.
Equally, as Hicken said, the Trust will be required to know its place and avoid the easily-found trap of appearing to speak for supporters who do not associate themselves with the organisation.
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"We can't speak for everyone and we don't intend to try," Hicken said. "Not everyone will agree with what we say or support what we do and it's wrong for any group to believe that they can represent every fan, especially at a club with so many supporters.
"All we want to do is to provide an independent voice and promote the interests and concerns of those fans who are involved in the Trust. Ideally, we'd like that to be a very large number of people so that we can speak with authority.
"The feeling we have is that a football club of this size with such a big fanbase should have more representation than it does. The Trust's only wish is to provide it."
* FOR more information about LUST, visit: www.lufctrust.org
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Weather for Leeds
Saturday 11 February 2012
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Temperature: -2 C to 1 C
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