Hello and welcome to the Supporters Direct Scotland newsletter!

With the World Cup over it's back to domestic football as pre-season gets going and Motherwell start their European campaign. It's been a big summer for supporters' trusts with the Cowdenbeath and Inverness Clachnacuddin fans effectively in charge and the Buy Stirling Albion campaign in the process of completing the buyout of the club. Meanwhile Clyde are moving into the final stage of their consultation to become a fully democratic membership club.
In other news Co-operatives Fortnight was a great success and Supporters Direct along with Co-ops UK have just published a report on the ownership and statutes governing FC Barcelona. These provide a great insight into the running of one of the world's biggest clubs which is of course owned and run by its members. The Scottish Parliament is running a debate on Scottish Football as part of their Festival of Politics and the Scottish Football League have substantially upgraded and improved their website for the new season.
All in all there's lots going on both on and off the field and we hope you'll find some interesting reading in this newsletter.

All the best for the new season,
James Proctor
Development Manager

Supporters Campaign
As we mentioned in our last newsletter Supporters Direct is looking to increase the profile and voice of the supporters' trust movement and of fans issues in general in the coming season. As part of the process we are still looking to recruit a small team of volunteers with the skills to take this campaign forward. If you have experience in the following areas and could contribute about two hours a week over the next four months then please get in touch with us:
Campaigning - setting strategy, targets, influencing people.
Traditional Media - working with the press, radio and using traditional communications routes.
New Media - working with digital and electronic media to communicate directly to people.
Political/Advocacy - designing and executing lobbying campaigns.
Negotiation - experience in negotiating and strategy.
It goes without saying that the ideal volunteers will agree that football fans should have a greater say in the running of football. If you would like any more information about this or just to find out more please get in touch.

Fans Take Charge

Despite the close season it has been a busy time for many fans groups in terms of the ownership. Towards the end of the season the Clach Trust announced that they had effectively taken over the running of the club after it had been in administration since late 2009. At Cowdenbeath the fans are also effectively running the club as the present owners look to promote community ownership as the way forward.
Clyde FC has been in consultation with shareholders and trust members to agree an innovative conversion to a democratically-owned community club and this process is now nearing a conclusion.
Meanwhile the big news is that the Buy Stirling Albion campaign have reached an agreement with the current club owner Peter McKenzie to take over the ownership and running of the club.
After many years of substantial increases in supporter representation on the boards of clubs these successes represent a big leap forward for fan and community involvement in clubs.

Festival of Politics

The Scottish Parliament are hosting a debate on Scottish Football at 6pm on Tuesday 17 August as part of their Festival of Politics season. The debate, organised in conjunction with Real Radio, will feature a panel from football and politics and an audience of 400 fans and will be broadcast live that evening.

SD Training Events

With the new season almost upon us the schedule of training and development events provided by Supporters Direct is also back. Initial development events are scheduled for the North Region in early August and a Chairperson's session will follow in the Central Region in September. Check the SD website or get in touch for more details of these events.
At present these sessions are run free of charge for directors of member trusts. Feedback from those who have already attended is that they greatly improve the individuals knowledge and understanding of their role and responsibilities as a trust director and help to make them a more effective director and thereby lead to a more effective organisation.
Check the SD website or get in touch for more details of these events.

Scottish Football Reform

Henry McLeish has now moved on to the second stage of his review of Scottish Football for the SFA. The first part concentrated on Grassroots, Recreation and Youth Development and this part will have a greater focus on the professional game. We expect to meet with Mr McLeish over the next couple of months to ensure he is aware of fans concerns and the success of the fans movement in Scotland.

Co-operative Fortnight Highlights

The first co-ops fortnight has just ended and Co-ops UK has listed some of the major highlights from the two week campaign to raidse the profile of co-operatives and co-op solutions.

• Over 4,000 people watched the Co-operatives Fortnight film

• Over 3,000 stores and premises celebrated nation-wide

• Thousands got involved through online social networks

• Over 150 events took place, in every part of the UK

• 13 co-operative schools established
  2 parliamentary motions got passed: one in Westminster, one in Edinburgh
• Co-ops UK announced that the co-operative economy has grown to £33.5 billion

Youth Action Plan

Many trusts contribute and fundraise for their clubs' youth development. We're keen to find out what you think of the SFA's Youth Action Plan, whether you know what it is about, if you think it's a positive development or if you think there could be some improvements. If you've got a view on the Action Plan drop us This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with your views.