Are you renewing your STAR membership this season?

[Behindu]

Interesting thread, 4000 members @£10 each, so obviously £40k, never seen the accounts, where does this large amount of money go? I assume there are published accounts?

You assume all members are adults...
Concessions pay £5 and i reckon a significant proportion are concessions.
Go to the AGM for the accounts - although obviously you need to be a member !

[The 17 Bus]

I was a founder member, and never saw the accounts, was two years for the price of one, what a bargain.

[T.R.O.L.I.]

Interesting thread, 4000 members @£10 each, so obviously £40k, never seen the accounts, where does this large amount of money go? I assume there are published accounts?

You assume all members are adults...
Concessions pay £5 and i reckon a significant proportion are concessions.
Go to the AGM for the accounts - although obviously you need to be a member !

Even 4,000 concession members at £5 is £20K. Not an insignificant amount.

[Diddyroyal]

I will join star this year, never really bothered about it before, i would easily chuck ten quid away down the pub on a few pints and not think about it , so why not donate it to the club?

[Daniella]

so why not donate it to the club?

That would be lovely. Shame you're donating it to the STAR instead.

[Behindu]

I was a founder member, and never saw the accounts, was two years for the price of one, what a bargain.

Did you go the the AGM ?
Pretty standard for organsiations to provide accounts at their AGM.

[STAR Liaison]

Too late found this pic of a real STAR, and seems it goes on beers.

I know this is very funny and an easy poke to make - but as I buy my own beer and do not take anything (not even expenses) for all the time travelling and phone calls I do for STAR let alone the time, I am afraid I find this is very offensive. I know it shows my lack of humour but I thought you were more sensible than that.

Further to my earlier post it shows that you need a thick skin to volunteer which may account for why so many people feel they are capable of criticising without ever doing anything themselves. Rant over, for the moment.

[STAR Voice]

To answer the previous queries in this thread - yes the accounts are always presented to the membership at the AGM - they're also legally audited and submitted to the Financial Services Agency, who are the regulatory authority for Industrial & Provident Society's such as STAR.

And yes, we do have a sum of money accumulating - this is certainly not handed over to the club. The whole point of a Supporters' Trust as opposed to a Supporters' Club (to me, at least) is that a Trust doesn't hand money over blindly - when we hand money over we decide what it's to be spend on and it doesn't come without strings - it leads to greater supporter recognition and representation.

Small sums are given for specific projects (for instance we are funding an Academy trip to a tournament in Northern Ireland, which is something that's outside the academy budget and so they couldn't do without us, and is what we have decided to do with the money we raised for the Academy with last season's Team Predictor competition.

We have also donated sums of money each year on what we consider to be worthwhile projects supporting football in the community - for instance, last year we bought new goalposts at Scours Lane (money off for all STAR members at Reading Town matches!) plus we've supported a project for handicapped football in Wokingham and other minority football projects. (predictably, some people criticised this funding as "not benefiting Reading supporters....")

But yes, the bottom line is that STAR does have a sum of money building up - at the moment there is minimal chance of using this to purchase more shares in the club, but who knows what will happen in the future?

Of course, it's open to discussion what the spilt between saving for the future/funding external football projects/handing cash over to the FC should be, and different people have different ideas. But the key point is that the current policy is decided upon by the Board of STAR, democratically elected by the members of STAR to decide such things.

So we're always open to hearing people's opinions of this, and also would be very happy for more people to come and join the Board and help make the decisions themselves. The election process is now open, so if you've got better ideas come and join the Board.

Come and join us, come and join us, come and join us over here.... http://hobnob.royals.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=62909

[The 17 Bus]

. I know it shows my lack of humour but I thought you were more sensible than that.

.

You should know me better than that

[Ian]

I am quite happy to give STAR another tenner this year. The Fans Forums alone and are a good night out and worth the money. If you don’t want to use the facilities offered then OK don’t join but don’t take the piss out of those who work bloody hard for the common good and provide the only effective link between supporters and the Club.

Any voluntary work is a thankless task and starliaison has every right to be more than a bit miffed.

Portion of humble pie for the The 17 Bus?

[The 17 Bus]

Portion of humble pie for the The 17 Bus?

I dont do humble pie either.

[Diddyroyal]

so why not donate it to the club?

That would be lovely. Shame you're donating it to the STAR instead.

yes who then give it to the club

[readingfc_4_life_and_beyo]

I am quite happy to give STAR another tenner this year. The Fans Forums alone and are a good night out and worth the money. If you don’t want to use the facilities offered then OK don’t join but don’t take the piss out of those who work bloody hard for the common good and provide the only effective link between supporters and the Club.

Any voluntary work is a thankless task and starliaison has every right to be more than a bit miffed.

Portion of humble pie for the The 17 Bus?

Apart from the transfer of money

[STAR Liaison]

so why not donate it to the club?

That would be lovely. Shame you're donating it to the STAR instead.

yes who then give it to the club

Which part of the following reply do you not understand? Join STAR and come to the AGM and you will be better informed.

[qote='STAR Campaigns"]And yes, we do have a sum of money accumulating - this is certainly not handed over to the club. [/quote]

[STAR Liaison]

so why not donate it to the club?

That would be lovely. Shame you're donating it to the STAR instead.

yes who then give it to the club

Which part of the following reply do you not understand? Join STAR and come to the AGM and you will be better informed.

And yes, we do have a sum of money accumulating - this is certainly not handed over to the club.

[Diddyroyal]

having read the earlier posts, i assumed that money was given to the club, not chucked at it, but given with instructions as to where it was to be spent, which i was more than happy with, am i wrong to assume this then? and no money what so ever is given to the club?

[TFF]

having read the earlier posts, i assumed that money was given to the club, not chucked at it, but given with instructions as to where it was to be spent, which i was more than happy with, am i wrong to assume this then? and no money what so ever is given to the club?

Money donated to RFC Academy and to local 'causes'. The club itself has enough money.

[STAR Voice]

having read the earlier posts i, assumed that money was given to the club, not chucked at it, but given with instructions as to where it was to be spent, which i was more than happy with, am i wrong to assume this then? and no money what so ever is given to the club?

A small proportion of our money is given to - if you include the Academy as "the club" - but actually none is given to the football club. What we do hand over is given to the Academy for specific things which we agree to(like the trip to a tournament in Northern Ireland we are paying for soon). This lets them do "extra" things outside their budget - things that they couldn't afford to do without our help.

In the 5 years that STAR has existed, I can't remember us ever giving money to the football club side of things - what would be the point? Anything we could give would be tiny compared to the sums they receive from the TV contract and tickets, etc. How would it benefit the supporters of Reading FC if we were to pay a player's wages for half a day or whatever it would be?

So no, I'm afraid your assumption is wrong. Supporters' Clubs tended to hand over money blindly, but we are a Supporters' Trust, which has very different aims and objectives. Blind financial support of the club - especially when they have Premier League levels of income - is not one of those aims and objectives.

[Diddyroyal]

having read the earlier posts, i assumed that money was given to the club, not chucked at it, but given with instructions as to where it was to be spent, which i was more than happy with, am i wrong to assume this then? and no money what so ever is given to the club?

Money donated to RFC Academy and to local 'causes'. The club itself has enough money.

I am referring to the club as a whole, so that includes the academy and anything else associated

[Diddyroyal]

having read the earlier posts i, assumed that money was given to the club, not chucked at it, but given with instructions as to where it was to be spent, which i was more than happy with, am i wrong to assume this then? and no money what so ever is given to the club?

A small proportion of our money is given to - if you include the Academy as "the club" - but actually none is given to the football club. What we do hand over is given to the Academy for specific things which we agree to(like the trip to a tournament in Northern Ireland we are paying for soon). This lets them do "extra" things outside their budget - things that they couldn't afford to do without our help.

In the 5 years that STAR has existed, I can't remember us ever giving money to the football club side of things - what would be the point? Anything we could give would be tiny compared to the sums they receive from the TV contract and tickets, etc. How would it benefit the supporters of Reading FC if we were to pay a player's wages for half a day or whatever it would be?

So no, I'm afraid your assumption is wrong. Supporters' Clubs tended to hand over money blindly, but we are a Supporters' Trust, which has very different aims and objectives. Blind financial support of the club - especially when they have Premier League levels of income - is not one of those aims and objectives.

i am more than happy to give money towards the academy, that is the future of the team