Livi For Life Trust - ideas

It would be good for the Club to review their Social Media Policy and remove the Twitter Blocks that were imposed a few years ago. Our fan base is not that large and to ban people from accessing important information about the club does not seem like the best way to engage people.

Players that have been let go have announced their departures online but there is still nothing official on the website, and for people like Burton and Talbot their efforts over the years do deserve to be formally thanked, having a regular update about what is happening is vitally important as we can go weeks without hearing anything and that does not help with fan engagement

Advertising is the thing that the club have rarely ever got right and we simply do not sell ourselves nearly as well as we could. As has been suggested by people over the years, perhaps we could look for a tie in with the college and utilise the students on their Marketing courses to embrace new ideas and get our brand out there. Equally, getting the details of the next home game to appear on the "Welcome to Livingston" boards dotted around the town could be an easy way to promote us.

I would like to see a lottery style mechanism where say a member can pay ten pounds per month. Most of the money can be used for support the youth teams, improving facilities for the disabled but a portion could be the prize for those that are signed up to the program.
I would also like a more regular news update.

TJD - what is the ultimate goal of the Trust and do you currently have the means to achieve it ? There has been so much focus on the trials ( literally and figuratively ) at the club over the past few years, I think the concept of what the Trust was set up to do has been pushed further and further from supporters minds. Not belittling the work the Trust members do its just not had the profile which it perhaps should have.

The trust gave the club 50k. What did the club give the trust?

It's been said by many. The club need to be much more transparent and communicate better on the channels it has with the fans. Engage a community level not drive people away at that level. The citizens of West Lothian are fed up hearing negative noises/stories coming from Livingston FC. (Engage a small team of fans to help. Don't keep driving them away)

Fan representation with the club - is that concept/idea dead?

When will the club start to live within its means (once and for all) and if that means PT football why aren't we doing that?

Mark Burchill is a West Lothian lad how much time does he spend (or his team) back in the community?? (In schools, after schools clubs, youth clubs, other boys clubs FC)

LFL need to become the organisation that it promised the West alothian people it would be. Open, transparent, engaging, and much, much more. They have fallen into the same trap of Livi FC and never communicate and hide behind 'confidentiality'. Every meeting should be minuted, but openly published only sensitive information not being published that is deemed to hurt LFL or LFC, but the topic should be openly recorded. People on that board need to remember if they are going to sit on that board they are accountable to the fans - I think that point is lost and has been since the beginning. The current office bearers need to get back to the core values of what a football trust is all about.

Not involved enough to post an opinion, just some thoughts for the Trust to consider:
Should the Trust distance it's self from the club until things are sorted out and a level of trust is established?
Should the Trust focus on self promotion and increase it's profile?
Should the Trust focus on schemes to increase attendances at games?
- buy season tickets/tickets through the Trust (and negotiate some promotional ticket offers for the Trust to use, e.g. some type of flexible offer for those who can't/don't go every Saturday).
- a half time indoor offer to heat up and grab a quick coffee ( I'm sure the cold puts a lot of people off).
Don't know the details about Trust shares in the club, but have held the view that unless you have the means to buy substantial shares, maybe even a majority, Trust funds could be used much more effectively .......... ?
- is buying shares in the club just a waste of money?
I read that the next Trust meeting is on Thursday, but where and when and who is invited?

As a long time season ticket holder, and a fan who travels to all away games, it's clear that the half time refreshments at Almnondvale are the most expensive in the league. That's not a trivial matter and contributes to the total cost for fans to support their team. Ridiculous prices for soft drinks and snacks simply stops people buying them and may also deter the casual supporter to attend occasional home games (let alone commit to a season ticket).
Therefore, it would make sense to bring some pressure to bear on those who can influence such matters.
A parent taking a couple of kids may think twice if he feels he'll have to fork out another £10 for two Cokes and two pies on top of the gate prices. It makes commercial sense to cater for such supporters. They're the future of the club.
Much as visiting Alloa and Cowdenbeath aren't among my favourite grounds, at least they have sensible pricing for catering. Makes a lot of difference over the course of a season.

Thanks for the responses so far (and apologies if the format below isn't the best way of responding!)

@ bobafett - I wasn't aware of the club's social media policy. I'll add it to our list of things to bring up when we next meet with the club. They may say that they'd rather moderate the comments on their own social media accounts however this is probably one of the easier ways the club could potentially engage with fans - something which appears to be a major compliant across our fanbase.

Similar marketing ideas were mentioned to the club when we met with them in January and are on the agenda for the next meeting - particularly in relation to making the most of local galadays.

@ livimoaner - Auldrick beat me to mentioning the lothian lotto. The trust also has a monthly lotto where half the money goes to winner and the remainder is used to fund the trust's activities. I note that this either isn't on our website or isn't easy to find on there. I'll look to get that updated asap. If it's something of interest, feel free to send me a PM and I'll pass on the details.

@ Durnford - Fair points. If the mods here don't have any objections, I'm happy to provide updates on here where I can. I know that improved communications were discussed at our last trust board meeting, so hopefully things will improve over summer.

@ Monkeysocks - I had another look at the formal rules which governed the set up of the trust to see if there was a specific goal of the trust contained within there. There's a section on them, the main two (in my opinion) being "to strengthen the bonds between the club and the community" and to "encourage the club to take proper account of the interest of the supporters and of the community."

In relation to whether there is the means to achieve these goals, I believe so - although we need to raise our profile. As I see it, the main limiting factor is manpower as we are all volunteers which limits the amount of time which can be actively devoted to this - anyone wishing to join the trust board would be more than welcome.

@ Afro - I'll add your points to the agenda for the next meeting with the club. Thanks for mentioning Livi Room. It wasn't a forum I was aware of but I'll post up a similar message there.

@ Theflashingblade - I believe the £50,000 you are referring to is two payments in the form of cash and volunteering time. In return, the trust received shares in the club.

The trust has received three tranches of shares. The first tranche was 12,000 shares in 2007 and predates the £50,000 above
The second tranche was 30,000 shares (noted on the 2012 annual return for the club, where the shareholding of the trust increased from 12,000 to 42,000)
The third tranche was 20,000 shares (noted on the 2013 annual return, where the shareholding of the trust increased from 42,000 to 62,000)

@ JayKay - Thanks for the comments and ideas. I'll add them to the agenda for the trust board to discuss on Thursday. Unfortunately Thursday's meeting is only a board meeting but if there's sufficient interest, I can look into organising an interim general meeting with the trust members?

Thanks for the redirect to the other thread too.

@ colcal - Thanks, I'll add the comments on the serveries to the agenda for the meeting with the club and pass these concerns on.

No I was meaning with LFL so that such monies created can eventually result in fan ownership, not for daily running costs.

Any chance of letting us know? 

Minutes will be published on the trust website. They are still in the process of being typed up and uploaded

Yes the Trust still retain a share holding in the club. I believe it is around 5%.