The Liverpool FC Forum > Fan Welfare & Campaigns
Spirit of Shankly Q&A
Paul Gardner:
Been saying I would do this for ages and here it is a Q&A about SOS. Should be around for next couple of hours to answer questions and I will answer them afterwards whenever I get a chance as well and am sure Graham and others will pop in from time to time as well.
There is loads I can say about SOS obviously but will do a summary below of all the areas we deal with so that this isn't just a protest ideas thread.
Spirit of Shankly was set up at the end of January 2008 when around 350 fans turned up at the Sandon one night to address what could be done particularly with regard to the owners. Since then we have evolved to be so much more. We have a democratically elected committee and the Union is FSA regulated as well. It is £10 to join and you receive a badge and membership card with this as well and the £10 just about covers these and all admin fees including the elections. One important point to make which always gets dragged up as well is that we only ever claim to represent our members. By being elected we have a mandate from our members alone to speak for them and work for them.
We are there to be contacted by e-mail and wherever to answer any questions we want and we try to have regular mass meetings to discuss more issues with our members. Our last mass meeting was on the 12th September at the Olympia and our next one will be our AGM, which as long as Blackburn don't get to the League Cup Final it will be before that game (full details will be announced closer to the time). Mass meetings offer the chance for members and non members to openly debate any ideas and ask questions of the committee.
I will cover some of the committee's roles in the best attempt to explain what we do. If I miss anything still feel free to ask any questions.
Club Liaison
Probably one of the main things people like to know about. We have contact through Ian Ayre who is the Commercial Director of the club. The whole committee met him last May, but we have had regular contact with him to be able to sort things like the PTS changing to All Red (and supporting our members views on this to press for loyalty criteria), and the Fiorentina mosaic. In September, the a small number of us met with Christian Purslow who is the Managing Director of the club to raise more questions with him to help try and push what is best for the club. He promised to have regular meetings with the committee and details of this will be announced later. This role offers an important point of contact to press many issues that our members will have with the club.
Travel
We operate coaches to the majority of Away games now at prices to allow best value for members. Coaches are ran on a not for profit basis. We also operated a coach to Liege away last season. This season we got a discount from World Choice Sports for day trips to European Away Games. They couldn't do all games in the end, so for Fiorentina we got a discounted rate for members on the Day Trip that was operated by Thomas Cook who operate the club's official European Travel.
Supporter Liaison
We have UK and overseas supporters liaison officers to talk to members across the country and world and address various issues and spread the word about what SOS do and what is happening at the club. We have visited Dublin, Oslo and New York after invitations from the groups. We would be willing to talk to more supporters goups in this country and abroad if it was feasible to do so.
Direct Action
Probably what most people will be aware of for SOS. This will include all protests including trying to stop directors of the club into the ground at Arsenal game; the march at the United game; Leaflets at Burnley, Stoke and Arsenal games; confronting Gillett before Hull City game. We have had some youtube videos of the protests done by Morrovision and we did some videos on the lies of Gillett from a secretly recorded meeting prior to the Hull City game. All Youtube videos and more details of direct action can be found in the News section of our website or by going to our youtube channel which is SOSLiverpool, or Morrovision's youtube channel. We will be continuing to keep pressure on the owners via Direct Action and we should be holding a meetig on Direct Action in the near future. If you are interested in this meeting then e-mail Jay at directaction@spiritofshankly.com and we will let you know of details when we arrange it.
New Media
We have a fantastic site thanks to Dan and the website and e-mail contact via it allows us to keep in touch with our members. We also have a facebook fan page and a twitter account which I take care off to help spread the word more. There is over 11,000 fans of SOS on Facebook. Links below:
http://www.facebook.com/spiritofshankly
http://www.facebook.com/spiritofshankly
Events
Had many events already including a Joey Jones sportsman dinner, Michael Shields Fundraising Evening, End of Season Do's and the most recent one being the 50th Anniversary Shankly Do before Christmas.
Community and Regeneration
This is my area. We have a regeneration sub committee which have met once and will hopefully be meeting more to discuss more issues once we get answers from the club. We are keen to not only to ensure that the Stadium is built not only for the club, but for the good of the community. We have met with local groups, academics and representatives from housing groups to learn more about what SOS can do to help and we will keep members up to date on any developments that need to be addressed.
Community wise, we have done a variety of things as our own events and to help other schools and charities. Most recently we helped by providing volunteers to help with a street collection for the Rhys Jones Memorial Fund in Liverpool City Centre before Christmas. We ran free Summer Coaching Camps for children in the Summer which saw local children and some as far afield as Hong Kong given coaching by volunteer coaches and SOS members. All with CRB checks and coaching badges. There was also free travel from Anfield to the venue in Crosby as well. We provided coaching for a day in a Kensington school as well to help celebrate their award of international status when they had a Spanish Day. There have been other small scale events and obviously we are working on a lot more in the future as well.
There is much more work done by others whose roles I haven't covered that allows the union to grow from strength to strength with marketing, things like minutes of meetings to communicate with members, admin of memberships and everything else. All of the people on the committee do this in their own time as well as having full time jobs as well.
Think that should cover the main points. Any more questions, then ask and I will try to anwer them here, or you can also e-mail the officer it concerns as well directly.
More about us can be found on our site at http://www.spiritofshankly.com
Let's try and keep this as a civilised debate as well and try to cover as many issues as possible and not just protest ideas.
itsgunnabebarnes!:
a simple question from me really. What are the long term aims of SOS regarding the ownership of the club? all i have heard and read is get the yanks out. if there is no buyer , there is no buyer. So how can all this action and protesting help the team at this current time?
koppite118:
Whats the truth behind the build on the new stadium starting in April???
Paul Gardner:
--- Quote from: itsgunnabebarnes! on January 10, 2010, 07:47:39 pm ---a simple question from me really. What are the long term aims of SOS regarding the ownership of the club? all i have heard and read is get the yanks out. if there is no buyer , there is no buyer. So how can all this action and protesting help the team at this current time?
--- End quote ---
The ultimate aim for SOS is fan ownership. Something that we have been disapointed in the speed at which Share Liverpool has moved and an area which we may have to take over to push forward. It can be a tricky one for people to see about forcing them out. My view is that they are doing massive damage to the club and they need to be forced about before they can do anymore damage. They also actively seeking investors for the club, so it is not as though they aren't willing to sell, but the problem with nobody coming in to buy the club from them is their ridiculous valuation of the club which puts people off. We need to keep the pressure up to get them to make a decision that is for the good of the club and not their pocket. Also, the liverpool way is about making things happen ourselves and this is what we are trying to do.
Alan_X:
Can we stick to the topic.
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