RED BLUE ARMY FORUM

Gaz Etherington · Lieutenant

rba funding

Gaz Etherington · Lieutenant

before anyone starts im sure its floating around somewhere and im sure its being put to use and no i dont think anyone is stealing i know far better than that i just think as a fans group its important for things like money to be kept track off

anyway as the rba grows it would make the running of the rba easier?

ScOtTy BoY · Captain

if your trying to say nothing coming out of the rba ( sorry if its wrong im confussed) the money is going towards coach trips flags and the hoodies scarfs ect sorry if this has nothing to do with that as i said i am confussed

-- Edited by ScOtTy BoY at 20:32, 2006-01-12

Gaz Etherington · Lieutenant

the point im making is this the rba is growing and needs to have funds organised like i said there is no doubt in my mind the money is being put to use but without accounts the money is floating around somewhere withouht any record of outgoings such as like u say coach trips incomings unless offcourse and i assume the rba has a bank account and gets statements

seen as ur confused ill put it simple

money comes in money goes out and as the rba gets bigger the amounts get larger and more difficult to keep track of!

also i would of thought being a fans organisation set up by fans namely frank and alex it belongs to noone but every member of the rba and people who work for the rba do so for free? if not it needs a record of wages paid and rba accounts which should be open for veiwing by anyone who is a member of the rba at the "chairmans" discretion if we have a chairman

like i said im not accussing anyone of anything but as a member myself i'd like to see the workings of the rba or is that a bad thing?

i hope the organisers (alex, frank and mick) in particullar are not offended by my comments

a good organisation needs good smooth running

having said that i think the work thats been done is fantastic and long may it continue well done everyone who helps out!

Pugsley · Captain

ScOtTy BoY wrote:

if your trying to say nothing coming out of the rba ( sorry if its wrong im confussed) the money is going towards coach trips flags and the hoodies scarfs ect sorry if this has nothing to do with that as i said i am confussed -- Edited by ScOtTy BoY at 20:32, 2006-01-12

money going towards coach trips i dont know if you have realised but we do pay you know,

gaz no one has never bought this up but i can see what your saying and its good point.

FATBOY · Colonel

Excellent point, it's like the money fans are supposedly donating for Jonny Dixon. Where is it going. Is it in someone's back pocket? Will it go towads him at all?

This is the same as the RBA. !FLAGBOY! has nicked my money before (scarborough (cheeky bastard), so where is the money going?

Gaz Etherington · Lieutenant

same princible ben im sure the "donating fans" would like to see proof if u like of what their money is spent on because if they raise money for a player and its proved to of been spent on grass seed theyed not donate again

Frank · Second Lieutenant

Gaz, I agree, it is indeed a fair point and I too am surprised how long it has taken for someone to raise this subject.

At this moment in time, I am the treasurer and have been since we started the RBA. When i'm away from home Alex takesover. All the money we have received so far has gone into the Red and Blue Army account (again, set-up before the RBA began), this includes money received for memberships, coach trips, flag auctions, etc. All ingoings and outgoings from the RBA account are indeed kept record of. Records of how much either myself or Alex loan to the RBA - is also taken record of.

If you or anyone would like to see these records or would simply like to view bank statement(s) of the current RBA funds - I would be happy to show them to you.

If you have any more queries, please email us at red_blue_army1992@yahoo.co.uk

Frank

FLAGBOY · Captain

Well i hope the information below might help everyone to understand what money has been coming in and what money has been spent.

So far the only money that is coming into the RBA accounts has come through memberships, coach fees, coach quiz's and flag auctions. I think that's it. Frank might be able to say 1 or 2 other things.

We have just under 100 members who've paid £5 each, so we can give you a rough figure of £500. We've raised a small amount on coaches, unfortunately i cant give you the exact figure at the moment. The flag auctions have also raised in the region of around £200

So as you can see, not much money has been made so far. I know our aims are to raise funds for either us or the club, but it's not been the simpleist of rides up to now. Most of the efforts so far have been to 'please' the members of the RBA and show you that the RBA is worth joining. For example organising coach trips to away games. I have also tried to make an impact on the terrace as that was the main reason for the formation of the group:

"The sight of flags, banners, scarves, etc, gets the players motivated and the more we can do that, hopefully the better they play. The Big Flag that I'm sure most of you have seen is an inspiration for the team, and with more hands and money, we can expect to see bigger better flags than this one in the near future."

The money we've raised so far has gone towards a few things:

1) Booking up coach travel: we have to pay the coach company in advance.

2) Towards the cost of the scarves we have on order. I'd just like to mention that Frank has put in some of his own money towards the scarves as we didn't have the sufficient funds at the time for the whole cost

3) The website: yes, we've had to pay for the website domain and bandwidth as well as the forum. The forum could be free but we'd have to put up with adverts at the same time which is not what we want.

This year has been a successful one so far which i hope you all agree. Please dont forget that it's our first full season as a group and myself and Frank are pretty much organising everything that the RBA have done. Even being a student, it's hard to find time to keep on top of things with the RBA. From the lessons we've learnt this year we'll include next year and we'll correct the mistakes that we've done so far.

The money which we have in the bank at the moment is there to pay for coaches in the future as well as the hoodies that are soon to be ordered. We are also saving up to reward the loyalty of the RBA members who've been on most coach trips this season. With out you the paying members, we would have not got to the stage we are now and so we want to give something back to by offering a greatly reduced away travel on the trip up to Southport.

Things will only get more organised in the future and next year will be a much better than this one. If you are still keen to see for yourself the accounts or want to ask further questions, please email Frank: red_blue_army1992@yahoo.co.uk and he'll happily help

I'd also like to add that i've spent over £600 of my own money to help get things up and running, from purchasing a huge bulk of material at the beginning of the season for our displays (which there will be more of) to help pay for the first couple of coach trips, and i've not seen a penny back and probably wont. I've put a lot of hard work into this and I really hope to make the RBA one of the most respected groups in the country. So the money is certainly not going into our 'back pockets', but to help keep our reputation rising.

I hope this makes sense to all of you

!FLAGBOY!

-- Edited by FLAGBOY at 22:52, 2006-01-12

Gaz Etherington · Lieutenant

cheers frank

and im glad you got your arses covered no more questions on the subject im glad you say you have records which is good enough for me.

i think maybe you should talk to mick as he believes he is the treasurer from what he's been told i dont mind i trust you all

keep up the good work

ZeJesus · Sergeant

Alex/Frank if you want to talk to me about the hosting of the website and stuff please do so.

If you didnt already know i work in the it industry and have many customers/friends that do webhosting for a living and depending on how much the hosting and stuff costs i may be able to save us some money

cheers

AD

-- Edited by ZeJesus at 23:14, 2006-01-12

Gaz Etherington · Lieutenant

alex

you could clearly see i did not mean to offend you or anyonelse involved so no need for little digs i agree you do a great job and that you are dedicated but if i was better with words then you would see where i was coming from

surely it was not unfair of me to bring this up? i know the rba is but a baby in the football world and it takes a long time to get established and its not about that or how dedicated you are or about your own money that you have chosen to put in but not been forced and the way you put it it sounds like "i want to rule the world"

the fact is people would like to know where their money is going and how much of a difference it is making so its not all about your hard work though it is much appreciated its about the members contribute just like you not as much granted but i simply said yet again in simple terms ........

you contribute you get to see all the ins and outs of the fundings so surely the others such as members that contribute have as much right to view figures if they wish .......... or is this "your private club" ??

frank indeed contributes but has a different attitude towards this than you im not having ago alex trust me i like and respect you very much i was just bringing up so valid points

thanks and as always keep up the good work

FLAGBOY · Captain

Gaz,

I guess my use of words has gone across in a slightly agressive manner to you but that's not the case at all. I've simply written as much as i can to inform you of all the activities the RBA have undertaken during this season.

as for 'i want to rule the world' and 'your private club', not at all. I like most shots fans feel our support is second to none and only want to improve that image as much as possible. Ok, so frank and i got the ball rolling but as you said, we've all contributed towards our reputation and everyone is as important as each other to make the RBA what it is.

We as a group will get bigger and better each season and there are exciting times ahead of us. Give it 5 years and i can see the RBA being miles ahead of anyone else in terms of support towards our team.

Gaz Etherington · Lieutenant

alex maybe it was the way it was worded but to me it sounded like it was all "i,i,i,me,me,me" ok so its not the case we have gone of the subject here i think you should have left it franks post and just made ur feelings known towards the aims of the rba

if your un happy with the work others put into the rba or the amount of work you have to do why not ofload some wait e.g treasurer mick i think is the perfect candidate and as for organising things like coaches teach someone else how to do these things if offcourse anyone else will do so it seems the rba is on its way to bigger things than terrace support it the begginings of a huge project so sooner or later you will have to advertise for volunteers??

news letters could be a good bit of income say a small some for a news letter in email every month? even i could do that im full of ideas not many of them are very good but i try lol

you cant do a project of this size without help!

anyway i think its all been said?

FLAGBOY · Captain

Everyones contribution since the RBA has been formed has been fantastic, be it from helping out with displays to suggesting an idea. Not once have i been unhappy with the work put in by others towards our group. Ok so i went on a bit about how much time, money, etc, but it was only to inform you that your money has not been put into our back pockets; apologies for that.

The RBA has been a bigger a success than it was predicted and we've all learnt this over the last month or 2. There have been discussions to properly form a committee recently which has to take place in order progress forward, and stop myself going 'me me me me me me me'! Yes i will now admit that!

So please make your opinions on the matter of forming the committee. How do you as an RBA member think the group should be run? What positions should there be? Would you be interested to join the committee? The sooner we sort this out the better.

IMO the RBA should perhaps stay as it is until the end of the season, if you disagree, let us know. As soon as the season is over we then have a committee in place to start work over the summer.

-- Edited by FLAGBOY at 23:45, 2006-01-12

Gaz Etherington · Lieutenant

alex,

i think a comitee is a fantastic idea and would be very interested in being part of it i know i havent been able to help much myself being a new daddy aswell if you could find me things that can be done from home i could do my best it's just not easy with a young child around.

i also think leaving the comitee until end of season a good idead as new season new important addition to the rba and the best way to get comitee members is probably to put it to vote on here if too many people are interested.

i appoligise about my coments on back pocketing money and anything else you took offence to

gaz

FLAGBOY · Captain

Forming a committee is key to advance the RBA but it wouldn't be up to me to decide what people should do. We need to bring all the ideas together and work out amongst ourselves what positions there should be and then vote for the person they want for that position.

I think that we should organise an afternoon in the phoenix club just after the final game and spend as long as it takes to organise the positions that are needed and then take a vote, whilst drinking ourselves into a coma!

Gaz Etherington · Lieutenant

good idea lets get it organised!

Dylan · Lieutenant

There seems to be some confusion in part as tho whose who as far as running the rba goes... as far as i was aware it was a joint effort between four people, Frank, Alex, Dave and Mick. For me it's clear that the RBA has so far been successfull so obviously things are covered, however, would a simple solution not be to create a link on the main page that lists the names of the people who are currently dealing with the upkeep and the roles they are playing.... if this was actioned then anyone who has a question regarding anything behind the runnings of the RBA would know who they could speak to directly and hopefully smooth over any confusion.

I've spent a lot of time moderating ChatRooms, Forums etc online and though you can't compare that to the running of an organisation such as the RBA the principals for me remain the same, and for every place i've moderated we have always had a link to the "staff" if you will explaining who does what, this prevents people from needing to post or type publically and keeps everyone up to date as to whose doing what.

Thoughts?

-- Edited by Dylan at 11:57, 2006-01-14

Gaz Etherington · Lieutenant

i think......

your a nob! lol

also you have a good point with a contact us page all i can see can be used for this is the rba email but see what alex and frank say i suppose

Worthing_Shots · Sergeant

I think you need to get the commitee sorted out as soon as possible, so that when the summer arrives everyone already knows what they are doing and then an "plan of attack" can be constructed.

This would enable the RBA "to hit the ground running" when next season commences.

Just my two-peneth worth.....

paul blundell · Second Lieutenant

Hi chaps, dear boys you can have my money dont mind where it goes but please could i have my membership card. think ive waited long enough, thanks, Paul blundell, fatboys old man.