Join the FST board
Current Vice-Chair Hayley Davinson has penned some words on what we’re looking for as we approach our AGM and the open period for current FST members to apply to become a board member.
We want new board members!
And this isn’t a sideways swipe at our current setup.
We just know that even when you have a Marco Silva in charge, change is always good, so we are on the lookout for some fresh faces.
A well running supporters’ trust board has a diverse range of voices sharing their opinions and trying to find solutions that work for the benefit of our fan base as a whole.
And talking from experience, to get those solutions takes significant effort.
Imagine you had to work with people with very different life experiences, backgrounds and views on the world. And your task with them was to bring to life ideas and ways to improve things for an even bigger, more diverse group of people. It’s your job to speak for them, campaign for the issues that are most important to them and not get too lost in your own views if it means not working for the collective voice.
This is an opinion piece, so feel free to argue otherwise. But to me, the key to this work as a supporters trust board member is collaboration. With significant debating skills required (which I very much learned on the job!).
You see the different views are what makes being on the board great.
I’ve spoken in the stands with friends and thought ‘bore-off’ at people complaining about something that I might think is a great idea.
I’ve then sat on board meetings and heard these same differences of opinion explained to me. And had to reconsider my view. I might not suddenly agree with alternative views, but hearing people out is an incredibly under-rated skill – in both this work and in our current state of society!
We’re a varied bunch, we sit in different stands (and everyone knows a Hammy ender and a Riversider are very different types of people). But we do (nearly!) always manage to get on. As one person recently said, he actually enjoys some of his tete-a-tetes with another board member. They are classically different people in their views, but their debating creates healthy arguments, considers others points of views, and when concluded, it generally means the conclusion that the Trust takes on a matter has been constructed and adapted a considerable amount.
We take some heat for this and it’s been argued we aren’t strong enough sometimes in our stances. That specific argument is for another day. But the point I would like to make is this. The finished view – be that our approach to meetings, our statements or our online articles – is always the culmination of some form of debate. It’s the attempt to make coherent a stance that brings together the supporter collective, not just one side of an argument, or a particularly loud group of voices over those that may not always disagree, but just not make their views heard so loudly. We are here to try and speak for all.
I write this because I would love more people to know about how we work, but also because I think it is one of the biggest gains that you get from being a board member.
If you have opinions on Fulham, if you care about anything at all with regards to our club to an unreasonably high level, I believe you would enjoy being a board member more than you know. We can speak at length about anything from toilets, to ticket prices, away days and the cost of postage for the online shop.
We don’t claim to be perfect, but there’s a hard-working bunch of people on the board, plus those who have been part of the setup in the past, and we’re keen to find new members to join our team.
I’ll be honest too about what’s needed from those tempted to join. It does require time commitment. The work regularly involves:
- A once a month online meeting of the board (allow 2 hours for this on a Tuesday evening),
- Some commitment to attend the monthly meeting with the Club,
- Support in the preparation of these meetings as required,
- Involvement and opinon via WhatsApp and email on pressing issues,
- Joining sub-groups of various interest (such as ticketing, sustainability, women’s game, EDI).
Nothing listed above is mandatory, but if you are regularly missing from any of the above, it just puts more work on other volunteers, which can be stressful, so we do request openness in what you are able to do, and when unable to attend just let us know.
Whatever your background, whatever your work experience, whatever your age/gender/ethnicity, we’re keen to here from you. Get in touch if you think you might be keen, but aren’t sure if you’d be a good fit. I’ll happily chat over email or phone with you to give you a better idea of what it involves and how you will benefit from being involved, too.
We advise that you must be a paid-up member of the Trust before October 1st to be able to stand for the 2026 election cycle. The election period for nominations will run from 1-17th November, which shall be followed, should it be required, a ballot period that will run from November 19th-December 5th 2026. Become a member of the Trust here.
