Election Information

The independent election committee formed to ensure the Trust Elections were run in a fair and impartial manner have announced their findings following the closure of the nomination window on October 2nd.

The committee was made up of five trust members who were not standing for election. It was this group who received all the nomination forms via Daniels Solicitors.

To ensure full impartiality, the existing board members and any new nominees had no contact with the forms themselves or any involvement with the election committee.

The committee has now made the following statement to announce the results of the initial stage of the election proceedings:

"Nominations for election to the Trust board closed on 2 October 2006.

"As there were 12 vacancies and the number of nominations received was less than 12, it will not be necessary to hold an election and the nominees are appointed unopposed.

"Details of the new Board will be announced at the AGM on 18 November 2006."

Background Information

One of the key elements of the constitution of the trust is that it is diplomatic, this means that once established and in a suitable position to do so the board will be elected by its membership body as a whole.

The interim board's legal expert Dave Ellis spoke at the meeting on this subject.

"The trust only became a legal body on the 26th January 2006 and the trust needs to be in a healthy sustainable position in order that elections make take place." said Dave.

Committee groups are often founded before elections so that initial work may be done to action any immediate goals, one such in the case of the Silkmen Supporers Trust was the fundraising required to assist in share ownership in the club and to assist the club with the repayment and fine. Other work is currently being done in the areas of media, community, fundraising all with specific aims. The general timescale for Supporters Trusts throughout the Supporters Direct community is for elections to take place six months to a year after incorporation.

"It's important to realize that these elections must be more than just a 'show of hands', more detailed information of this procedure will follow but to give you a general idea the interim board will notify all members of the proposed elections and nominations will be asked of the members for people to stand. These nominations will be open to every member of the SST."

An election committee must then be formed with the specific responsibility of ensuring the election is fair and transparent. Nominees will then submit a manifesto on themselves stating why they should be voted for and what they can do for the trust. These must be restricted to 100 words and will be submitted to the electoral committee and these will be sent to the membership as a whole.

"Members of the electoral committee will be independent and will not be up for election." added Dave. "It is also the case that as well as an electoral committee some trusts use professional logistical support, whom are experienced in political elections to assist in ensuring the system is fair and democratic."

Once the elections have taken place it is often the case that initially the new board are less experienced than the old board or interim board if they have not been elected. The new board may also lack the skill set in running the trust in certain areas. To this end the board is required to co-opt no less than 2 board members who are able to assist in this area and so the board may co-opt a suitable professional eg accountant to act as treasurer. Other members of certain groups may be co-opted, IE representative of Silk Alliance, Supporters Club or Fans Forum should this be deemed necessary. The current members of the interim board will also be available to ensure a full and smooth handover period.