Regular readers of this blog will know that I wrote some very critical things about the Shrimps Trust just over a year or so ago. Whether you agree with my criticisms of the organisation or not, there is no denying that massive changes in the Trust’s structure, personnel and strategy have come about since the so-called `Open Meeting’ of which I have been so scathing which happened at the Exchange pub in Morecambe last year. Why this has happened is irrelevant: the important thing is that these changes have come about – for the sake of Morecambe Football Club and everyone who has its best interests at heart.

So let me go back to the articles I wrote about the Open Meeting. In them, I have singled-out a female member of the Shrimps Trust who appeared at the Exchange and asked a really pertinent question from the floor about the relationship between the Bond Group and Sarbot Johal – the mysterious mogul who has been touted as a potential saviour of our club. She suggested that he could be actually be a Straw Man working in tandem with Jason Whittingham and his cronies as a ruse to keep the asking price for Morecambe FC artificially high and to put-off actual serious bidders. She asked the Panel on the night if they had any thoughts about this. They, in turn, seemed genuinely astounded by a question of this sort: it was clearly far beyond their Pay Grade to even think about it, let alone provide a sensible answer to.

I thought to myself at the time – and I’m sure I wasn’t alone: “There’s something wrong here! That is the sort of intellect we need on the Board of the Shrimps Trust rather than asking them questions they can’t answer!”

The clearly intelligent, well-informed and articulate young woman who provided this brilliant (and still unexplored) thought on the night turns out to be Tarnia Elsworth. You may have heard her single-handedly bring the plight of our club to the attention of a much larger audience on radio programmes such as the BBC’s Wake Up To Money earlier this year.

Tarnia has just been elected as the new Chair of the Shrimps Trust. One of the very welcome changes she has implemented is a regular update for the benefit of Shrimps Trust members about what is actually happening behind the scenes as far as Morecambe Football Club is concerned.  I have her permission to publish the first of these in order to introduce herself to a broader audience than Shrimps Trust members and let them know what vision she has for her new role and the strategy she hopes to use to implement it.

This is It:

Introduction

As this is our first monthly Chair’s Update, I wanted to properly introduce myself for those that I haven’t met. My name is Tarnia Elsworth, and I have the privilege of being the chair of the Shrimps Trust this year. I am a Morecambe FC season ticket holder and, along with my wife (Annabel) and the kids, we travel away to support Morecambe too. Professionally I am a financial adviser, and we have a family firm based on the prom in Morecambe.

I have supported the work of the Trust from afar, and thought it was high time I pulled my finger out to support in a more substantial way. I have lots of experience being a ‘board member’ and I currently am the vice president of Lancaster & Morecambe Chamber of Commerce, which gives me a good set of skills that I hope to bring to the Trust board.

We have set up a dedicated chair contact channel in the form of the following email address: chair@shrimpstrust.co.uk. I think open lines of communication are key, so if you would like to contact me in relation to the Trust, that email is the best and right way to reach out. I am on social media but prefer not to communicate ‘official business’ through that medium as things get lost, and it can be quite a negative place to hang out. So, please do contact me via email – I am happy to hear from you.

What have we done, and what are we doing?

We have had a lot of new board members join the Trust this year (me included), so the starting point has been to get organised. When running a board, things don’t just happen by chance, so we booked a strategy day on 15 September which all 12 board members came to and participated in. We set out our priorities for the year and allocated roles to each board member.

You will have seen an organisational chart posted which tells you who we all are, how to contact us, and what each person is in charge of.

All trustees have also signed up to a code of conduct to ensure every one of us understands the expectations and behaviours that are expected to be able to represent you, our members.

In the coming weeks you will also see published an overall strategy document, so that you can all see our short, medium and long-term goals for the Trust. I really think this will help us focus our priorities. It will also help current members understand what we are doing for their membership fee, and show prospective new members what value they get if they join us.

We are all really proud of the cost-effective nature of our membership fee and strive to keep it low. With ever increasing costs (for everything), it is important that we are realistic in what we can provide for that £10. Rest assured that our membership lead, Paul Crabtree, is working hard to make sure we have an offering we can all get behind.

I am also keen to move away from the train of thought of ‘what do I get for my £10’, and move towards a mindset of ‘what is my £10 enabling the Trust to achieve’. In today’s sums it is a nominal amount, and I want to really be able to communicate the value you are getting for that through our communications.

The high-level priorities that I commit to leading in the coming months are:

  • Getting our much-anticipated memorial garden across the line. Matthew Newsham is heading this project, and I can’t wait to see it come to fruition.
  • We remain committed to providing away travel over the long term, and plans are in place to help fund any deficit on the cost of this. Thank you to everyone that has supported this so far and if you haven’t yet used one of our coaches to travel away, please do book yourself on: https://shrimpstrust.fws.store
  • We are introducing a business membership tier to our offering, which Rich Allan and Paul Crabtree are leading on. I am signing my business up to that, and I hope you consider doing that too. You get great value for a £250 joining fee. Please contact Rich or Paul on hello@shrimpstrust.co.uk if you want more information.
  • Our ownership situation and the discussions around football governance continue. I remain committed to providing regular and transparent updates to you on those topics, as you will have seen from our statement a little while ago. Ben Cassar is leading the Football Governance work we are undertaking, so please do reach out to Ben (hello@shrimpstrust.co.uk) if you have any comments for him. We are in regular contact with the FSA, the EFL, and our local MPs in relation to this work.
  • We remain committed to having a strong working relationship with Morecambe FC, the board and the team there. Watch out for James Main (our secretary) getting in touch – he will be asking for your questions which we can then put to the Morecambe FC board and team. We are excited about the fan engagement plan that the club are working on, and we commit to working with them to deliver that plan.

I promise that this is the tip of the iceberg of what myself and your brilliant board are covering. Look out for our strategy document being published, which we hope gives you even more of a flavour of the plans we have in the pipeline.

I don’t know if anyone is interested in my on the pitch opinion, but for those that are…despite only having four points, I am not worried. The team Derek has managed to build is strong; they have fight and we have seen that they don’t give up. With a bit of change in luck, I think we will go on a strong run. I am excited to see what happens in the coming months.

Up the Shrimps.

Tarnia Elsworth

Shrimps Trust Chair

chair@shrimpstrust.co.uk

The details of how you can join the Shrimps Trust are included in Tarnia’s message above. I think that everyone who supports Morecambe FC will welcome her appointment and the dynamism that this will give to the revitalised organisation. I am a member of long standing of the Shrimps Trust and I urge you to join if you have not done so already.

Together, we really are stronger…