Many thanks to Pam Wilkins for providing the following answers to my questions.
Are you a shareholder? Yes, I have one share myself and also bought a joint share for my son and grandson.
How do you think the PST and its Board can most effectively support and influence the future growth and development of Portsmouth Community Football Club? Through our three Trust representatives on the Club board who are involved with specific areas within the Club and know what is going on. PST should be monitoring what is going on at PCFC. I would suggest that the TGFC can play a big part in bringing supporters concerns to the Club.
As a PST Board member what would be your top priority for the next 12 months? To make sure the Club continues to pay off the debts and develops on a sound financial basis, as well as supporting Andy Awford in hopefully bringing success on the pitch.
What role do you think borrowing should play in Pompey's long-term financial strategy? I do not think PCFC should be borrowing money especially in the near future, we should be living within our means. Football in general is in a terrible financial mess due to the amount being borrowed, with most clubs living well beyond their means and many very close to administration. At Pompey we need to be building a sustainable club going forward, not borrowing money.
How would you like to see the Trust improve how it communicates with members and prospective members? With information on the website, email communication and news emails also with our page in the Sports Mail. Perhaps run some member only events. Roadshows in different areas outside Portsmouth have been suggested but these are historically not well attended. I know there are still a few people without email but sending out information by post is expensive so unfortunately we only send by post things like election and agm notification that we have to send. Members can help us by giving their correct email addresses and by reading emails sent to them. We answer queries by email and phone and the Trust bus is open from 12.30 to 14.40 on every home matchSaturday. I would like to ask members to tell us how they would like information passed to them.
What do you think should be done to increase PST membership? History has shown us over the last 4 years that PST membership increases when there is a problem at the club and decreases when all is well.. All shareholders are now life members of PST, although some of them still wish to pay for membership as a donation. The higher the profile of the Trust the more members.
How do you think the Club can, once it has paid off its debts, give something back to the local charities and firms let down so badly by previous regimes? It is not within the domain of PST to settle these debts as PST is not a Charitable Trust as defined under the Act/Regulations, so it is not really a decision for the Trust. I believe St Johns was paid in full, the other small creditors and local charities who were promised the money by Chainrai were, as far as I know, never paid. These debts were from the previous administration. I would suggest that as a gesture of goodwill perhaps they could be invited to free match day hospitality and match tickets for each group or free use of Club rooms and facilities for an event, but that would be a Club decision.
Pompey have drawn local rivals at home in the quarter finals of the FA Cup. History tells us it will be a glorious 4-1 victory. Everybody on the PCFC database wants to be there. On what basis do you think PCFC should allocate tickets? This would be a decision for the Club not PST, although this could be a future possibility that is discussed with the TGFC ticketing group. For a home draw against our old rivals I assume that the whole of the Milton End would be for away supporters and even if not sold out it is unlikely that the police would allow the space to be split between rival supporters. (It is also likely it would again be a bubble match, but that is another and much longer discussion which I am sure we would again have with the clubs and police). There are currently around 11000 season ticket holders who would have first option to buy their seats. After that I would allocate the tickets to those who had attended the most home matches that season, or perhaps as has been done in the past, give out vouchers at a match which is likely to have low attendance and give voucher holders first chance with season ticket holders. Whatever method is chosen somebody will be disappointed.
How often do you think a community football club should be changing its kits? Again this is a Club decision based on commercial reasons although supporter concerns should always be taken into account. The Club has to be run on a sound business footing. In an ideal world I would say not more than every second season, or when the sponsor changes. However please bear in mind that in April 2013 PCFC had to start from scratch with everything that needed doing at the Club and those that run the Club set up what they believed to be the best deal available at the time with Sondico, from which the Club has received good financial benefit.
Do you have any commercial relationships with PCFC or any of its sponsors? None whatsoever.
Pam is one of 6 candidates competing for 5 places. Votes have to be cast by September 5th. More details about the election, including the election statements of each candidate, can be viewed at http://www.pompeytrust.com/pages/pst-election.
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