HSL

[1875]

Yeah down a little again this month. November/December is probably to be expected with Christmas round the corner and it’s a bit tougher to keep momentum up outside of a transfer window.

That said, there’s been a huge increase in the last six months with many more Hibees on board.

Hopefully 2021 bring with it some more certainty which will see our monthly total climb.

As someone who was not for this scheme as the club had way too much involvement, but joined and have been paying up for the greater good of our football team, I have not seen much in the way of promoting or encouraging Hibs fans to get behind it?

Can I ask what, if anything, the commitee do, and frankly who are they and what are their plans going forward?

 

[Daniel1875]

As someone who was not for this scheme as the club had way too much involvement, but joined and have been paying up for the greater good of our football team, I have not seen much in the way of promoting or encouraging Hibs fans to get behind it?

Can I ask what, if anything, the commitee do, and frankly who are they and what are their plans going forward?

1875, I have done my best to answer your questions below. I thought it easier, and maybe beneficial to anyone looking in who has the same queries, to take each point in turn.

Hope they don't come across as sarcy or defensive - not my intention at all just keen to give as much info as I can.

Promotion
In terms of promotion I'd say the last six months Hibernian Supporters have been fairly active - we've now got ads in the match programme, we're included in the email campaigns sent to the club database, we've got a video ad on 'The Match' coverage, our Man of the Match vote runs on social media every week, we've relaunched the Francks system and pulled together news articles with competition winners, the monthly donation totals are communicated every month now etc. All of these things are produced, edited and published by volunteers with the aim of generating some extra cash for the club.

If there's other things people think Hibernian Supporters could/should be doing then we're all ears - personally I'd love nothing more than to be in a position where donations are twice as big as they are now and if there are other things we aren't doing that we should be then we've got the resources and people to put the wheels in motion.

Greg McEwan and others at the club are keen to help us but it's worth remembering resources are very stretched at the club just now so some things are easier to do/get than others.

Committee
In terms of the board, the personnel can be viewed here. The club have the right to name two people on the Hibernian Supporters board as per the company rules since the inception in 2015. Stephen Dunn stepped down earlier this year and the club have not moved to replace him on the HS board. Leeann Dempster is set to depart the club soon and will in all likelihood create another 'club vacancy' on the HS board. Aside from those two positions the other guys are all Hibs people with a shared ambition to help move the club forward with a collective fans voice.

What they do is pretty wide ranging. Responding to emails/social media/PMs on here and .net, sitting on a laptop to flick the Man of the Match vote live at 4:45pm on a Saturday and then collating the results at 10pm, running cases of champagne for the MotM winners to East Mains and Easter Road, contacting the club shop to arrange prize draw prizes, asking Leeann Dempster or others for a signed shirt to give away, pulling together 18 months of work to make sure the yellow shirt being worn this season has the right names on it. Most importantly they take the responsibility for 4000 or so fans' money each month and make sure it's handed to the club in line with the company rules. Again all being done at evenings and weekends on a voluntary basis.

Going Forward
The board's plans don't have much bearing on what will happen with Hibernian Supporters going forward. It's a members' organisation at the end of the day so whatever the members want is what the guys on the board will endeavour to help put in place. There is an AGM overdue which can't happen at the moment due to the Covid restrictions and there is a general agreement that the main aim just now is to provide a platform for fans to contribute to the club in difficult circumstances if they wish to do so.

When there's a chance to have an AGM there will have to be a wider discussion about what HS aims to be/do going forward. This will also likely require some input from Ron Gordon as the majority shareholder. From personal experience there appears to be two camps of people who pay in to HS just now; those who are keen on the idea of the support owning 25.1% of the club to allow a collective voice at a decision making level and those who are not interested in shares but simply want to help the club financially. At an AGM I'd imagine these camps will come to the fore and a decision will need to be made as to how best represent these two viewpoints.

Once any changes are agreed by members it will be put to the support to decide if Hibernian Supporters is something they want to continue to pay towards or not.

 

[tricky]

How many individuals are currently donating monthly? Guessing 1500 or so?

 

[Rocky]

1875, I have done my best to answer your questions below. I thought it easier, and maybe beneficial to anyone looking in who has the same queries, to take each point in turn.

Hope they don't come across as sarcy or defensive - not my intention at all just keen to give as much info as I can.

Promotion
In terms of promotion I'd say the last six months Hibernian Supporters have been fairly active - we've now got ads in the match programme, we're included in the email campaigns sent to the club database, we've got a video ad on 'The Match' coverage, our Man of the Match vote runs on social media every week, we've relaunched the Francks system and pulled together news articles with competition winners, the monthly donation totals are communicated every month now etc. All of these things are produced, edited and published by volunteers with the aim of generating some extra cash for the club.

If there's other things people think Hibernian Supporters could/should be doing then we're all ears - personally I'd love nothing more than to be in a position where donations are twice as big as they are now and if there are other things we aren't doing that we should be then we've got the resources and people to put the wheels in motion.

Greg McEwan and others at the club are keen to help us but it's worth remembering resources are very stretched at the club just now so some things are easier to do/get than others.

Committee
In terms of the board, the personnel can be viewed here. The club have the right to name two people on the Hibernian Supporters board as per the company rules since the inception in 2015. Stephen Dunn stepped down earlier this year and the club have not moved to replace him on the HS board. Leeann Dempster is set to depart the club soon and will in all likelihood create another 'club vacancy' on the HS board. Aside from those two positions the other guys are all Hibs people with a shared ambition to help move the club forward with a collective fans voice.

What they do is pretty wide ranging. Responding to emails/social media/PMs on here and .net, sitting on a laptop to flick the Man of the Match vote live at 4:45pm on a Saturday and then collating the results at 10pm, running cases of champagne for the MotM winners to East Mains and Easter Road, contacting the club shop to arrange prize draw prizes, asking Leeann Dempster or others for a signed shirt to give away, pulling together 18 months of work to make sure the yellow shirt being worn this season has the right names on it. Most importantly they take the responsibility for 4000 or so fans' money each month and make sure it's handed to the club in line with the company rules. Again all being done at evenings and weekends on a voluntary basis.

Going Forward
The board's plans don't have much baring on what will happen with Hibernian Supporters going forward. It's a members' organisation at the end of the day so whatever the members want is what the guys on the board will endeavour to help put in place. There is an AGM overdue which can't happen at the moment due to the Covid restrictions and there is a general agreement that the main aim just now is to provide a platform for fans to contribute to the club in difficult circumstances if they wish to do so.

When there's a chance to have an AGM there will have to be a wider discussion about what HS aims to be/do going forward. This will also likely require some input from Ron Gordon as the majority shareholder. From personal experience there appears to be two camps of people who pay in to HS just now; those who are keen on the idea of the support owning 25.1% of the club to allow a collective voice at a decision making level and those who are not interested in shares but simply want to help the club financially. At an AGM I'd imagine these camps will come to the fore and a decision will need to be made as to how best represent these two viewpoints.

Once any changes are agreed by members it will be put to the support to decide if Hibernian Supporters is something they want to continue to pay towards or not.

Thanks Daniel and thanks to you and the others for volunteering your time on this.

 

[1875]

1875, I have done my best to answer your questions below. I thought it easier, and maybe beneficial to anyone looking in who has the same queries, to take each point in turn.

Hope they don't come across as sarcy or defensive - not my intention at all just keen to give as much info as I can.

Promotion
In terms of promotion I'd say the last six months Hibernian Supporters have been fairly active - we've now got ads in the match programme, we're included in the email campaigns sent to the club database, we've got a video ad on 'The Match' coverage, our Man of the Match vote runs on social media every week, we've relaunched the Francks system and pulled together news articles with competition winners, the monthly donation totals are communicated every month now etc. All of these things are produced, edited and published by volunteers with the aim of generating some extra cash for the club.

If there's other things people think Hibernian Supporters could/should be doing then we're all ears - personally I'd love nothing more than to be in a position where donations are twice as big as they are now and if there are other things we aren't doing that we should be then we've got the resources and people to put the wheels in motion.

Greg McEwan and others at the club are keen to help us but it's worth remembering resources are very stretched at the club just now so some things are easier to do/get than others.

Committee
In terms of the board, the personnel can be viewed here. The club have the right to name two people on the Hibernian Supporters board as per the company rules since the inception in 2015. Stephen Dunn stepped down earlier this year and the club have not moved to replace him on the HS board. Leeann Dempster is set to depart the club soon and will in all likelihood create another 'club vacancy' on the HS board. Aside from those two positions the other guys are all Hibs people with a shared ambition to help move the club forward with a collective fans voice.

What they do is pretty wide ranging. Responding to emails/social media/PMs on here and .net, sitting on a laptop to flick the Man of the Match vote live at 4:45pm on a Saturday and then collating the results at 10pm, running cases of champagne for the MotM winners to East Mains and Easter Road, contacting the club shop to arrange prize draw prizes, asking Leeann Dempster or others for a signed shirt to give away, pulling together 18 months of work to make sure the yellow shirt being worn this season has the right names on it. Most importantly they take the responsibility for 4000 or so fans' money each month and make sure it's handed to the club in line with the company rules. Again all being done at evenings and weekends on a voluntary basis.

Going Forward
The board's plans don't have much bearing on what will happen with Hibernian Supporters going forward. It's a members' organisation at the end of the day so whatever the members want is what the guys on the board will endeavour to help put in place. There is an AGM overdue which can't happen at the moment due to the Covid restrictions and there is a general agreement that the main aim just now is to provide a platform for fans to contribute to the club in difficult circumstances if they wish to do so.

When there's a chance to have an AGM there will have to be a wider discussion about what HS aims to be/do going forward. This will also likely require some input from Ron Gordon as the majority shareholder. From personal experience there appears to be two camps of people who pay in to HS just now; those who are keen on the idea of the support owning 25.1% of the club to allow a collective voice at a decision making level and those who are not interested in shares but simply want to help the club financially. At an AGM I'd imagine these camps will come to the fore and a decision will need to be made as to how best represent these two viewpoints.

Once any changes are agreed by members it will be put to the support to decide if Hibernian Supporters is something they want to continue to pay towards or not.

Thanks Daniel, very thorough answer.

 

[Jack]

1875, I have done my best to answer your questions below. I thought it easier, and maybe beneficial to anyone looking in who has the same queries, to take each point in turn.

Hope they don't come across as sarcy or defensive - not my intention at all just keen to give as much info as I can.

Promotion
In terms of promotion I'd say the last six months Hibernian Supporters have been fairly active - we've now got ads in the match programme, we're included in the email campaigns sent to the club database, we've got a video ad on 'The Match' coverage, our Man of the Match vote runs on social media every week, we've relaunched the Francks system and pulled together news articles with competition winners, the monthly donation totals are communicated every month now etc. All of these things are produced, edited and published by volunteers with the aim of generating some extra cash for the club.

If there's other things people think Hibernian Supporters could/should be doing then we're all ears - personally I'd love nothing more than to be in a position where donations are twice as big as they are now and if there are other things we aren't doing that we should be then we've got the resources and people to put the wheels in motion.

Greg McEwan and others at the club are keen to help us but it's worth remembering resources are very stretched at the club just now so some things are easier to do/get than others.

Committee
In terms of the board, the personnel can be viewed here. The club have the right to name two people on the Hibernian Supporters board as per the company rules since the inception in 2015. Stephen Dunn stepped down earlier this year and the club have not moved to replace him on the HS board. Leeann Dempster is set to depart the club soon and will in all likelihood create another 'club vacancy' on the HS board. Aside from those two positions the other guys are all Hibs people with a shared ambition to help move the club forward with a collective fans voice.

What they do is pretty wide ranging. Responding to emails/social media/PMs on here and .net, sitting on a laptop to flick the Man of the Match vote live at 4:45pm on a Saturday and then collating the results at 10pm, running cases of champagne for the MotM winners to East Mains and Easter Road, contacting the club shop to arrange prize draw prizes, asking Leeann Dempster or others for a signed shirt to give away, pulling together 18 months of work to make sure the yellow shirt being worn this season has the right names on it. Most importantly they take the responsibility for 4000 or so fans' money each month and make sure it's handed to the club in line with the company rules. Again all being done at evenings and weekends on a voluntary basis.

Going Forward
The board's plans don't have much bearing on what will happen with Hibernian Supporters going forward. It's a members' organisation at the end of the day so whatever the members want is what the guys on the board will endeavour to help put in place. There is an AGM overdue which can't happen at the moment due to the Covid restrictions and there is a general agreement that the main aim just now is to provide a platform for fans to contribute to the club in difficult circumstances if they wish to do so.

When there's a chance to have an AGM there will have to be a wider discussion about what HS aims to be/do going forward. This will also likely require some input from Ron Gordon as the majority shareholder. From personal experience there appears to be two camps of people who pay in to HS just now; those who are keen on the idea of the support owning 25.1% of the club to allow a collective voice at a decision making level and those who are not interested in shares but simply want to help the club financially. At an AGM I'd imagine these camps will come to the fore and a decision will need to be made as to how best represent these two viewpoints.

Once any changes are agreed by members it will be put to the support to decide if Hibernian Supporters is something they want to continue to pay towards or not.

Hi Daniel.

I was involved with the Hibs Lotto when it kicked off. It was born from an idea I had to run a 50/50 draw.

For those that don't know punters pay a small amount each month, through a standing order, and there's monthly cash prizes. Its known as a 50/50 as 50% goes on prizes and the rest, in this case, would go to Hibernian Supporters.
If its going well there could be bumper prizes 2 or 3 times a year. The more people that sign up or take multiple tickets the higher the prizes obviously!

These cash prizes could be supplemented by the sort of stuff you're already acquiring from the club.

After the initial set up it doesn't take a lot of administration time.

A simple example.

£2.50 monthly entry paid for with a £30 annual standing order.

1,000 members.

£15,000 a year in prizes and the same to HS.

 

[Smurf]

I'm paying in each month although struggling a wee bit financially. And doing that and my two season tickets is because our club needs our support. Without us we have no club. You guys are doing a tremendous job. However, as a supporter of Ron Gordon I think he needs to be a little bit more creative in supporting this initiative for us to continue to "Pony up"....

 

[Purple & Green]

Sadly going down though?

Because you can't sustain fans chucking money at the club for nothing in return; the model is unsustainable - IMHO.

 

[Purple & Green]

Thanks for the thorough answer Daniel -

I'll highlight two bits in particular:

The club have the right to name two people on the Hibernian Supporters board as per the company rules since the inception in 2015. That's a massive red flag to me, and goes back to how HSL was set up, and the reasons why. It's time to boot that clause out the association rules IMHO

Committee Aside from those two positions the other guys are all Hibs people with a shared ambition to help move the club forward with a collective fans voice. The hibs guys on the committee IMHO are solid Hibs people, putting in untold effort and its a thankless task. But, we are miles behind other clubs on this. I think that's something that needs to be addressed, a vision for HSL. If that vision is give us cash and HSL will hand it over to the club, then we're never going to tap into the latent financial support that is out there again IMHO.

I think the guys to an extent had the rug pulled from under them when RG pitched up. We are where we are, and we need some kind of plan or vision that isn't just treating Hibs as a charity.

1875, I have done my best to answer your questions below. I thought it easier, and maybe beneficial to anyone looking in who has the same queries, to take each point in turn.

Hope they don't come across as sarcy or defensive - not my intention at all just keen to give as much info as I can.

Promotion
In terms of promotion I'd say the last six months Hibernian Supporters have been fairly active - we've now got ads in the match programme, we're included in the email campaigns sent to the club database, we've got a video ad on 'The Match' coverage, our Man of the Match vote runs on social media every week, we've relaunched the Francks system and pulled together news articles with competition winners, the monthly donation totals are communicated every month now etc. All of these things are produced, edited and published by volunteers with the aim of generating some extra cash for the club.

If there's other things people think Hibernian Supporters could/should be doing then we're all ears - personally I'd love nothing more than to be in a position where donations are twice as big as they are now and if there are other things we aren't doing that we should be then we've got the resources and people to put the wheels in motion.

Greg McEwan and others at the club are keen to help us but it's worth remembering resources are very stretched at the club just now so some things are easier to do/get than others.

Committee
In terms of the board, the personnel can be viewed here. The club have the right to name two people on the Hibernian Supporters board as per the company rules since the inception in 2015. Stephen Dunn stepped down earlier this year and the club have not moved to replace him on the HS board. Leeann Dempster is set to depart the club soon and will in all likelihood create another 'club vacancy' on the HS board. Aside from those two positions the other guys are all Hibs people with a shared ambition to help move the club forward with a collective fans voice.

What they do is pretty wide ranging. Responding to emails/social media/PMs on here and .net, sitting on a laptop to flick the Man of the Match vote live at 4:45pm on a Saturday and then collating the results at 10pm, running cases of champagne for the MotM winners to East Mains and Easter Road, contacting the club shop to arrange prize draw prizes, asking Leeann Dempster or others for a signed shirt to give away, pulling together 18 months of work to make sure the yellow shirt being worn this season has the right names on it. Most importantly they take the responsibility for 4000 or so fans' money each month and make sure it's handed to the club in line with the company rules. Again all being done at evenings and weekends on a voluntary basis.

Going Forward
The board's plans don't have much bearing on what will happen with Hibernian Supporters going forward. It's a members' organisation at the end of the day so whatever the members want is what the guys on the board will endeavour to help put in place. There is an AGM overdue which can't happen at the moment due to the Covid restrictions and there is a general agreement that the main aim just now is to provide a platform for fans to contribute to the club in difficult circumstances if they wish to do so.

When there's a chance to have an AGM there will have to be a wider discussion about what HS aims to be/do going forward. This will also likely require some input from Ron Gordon as the majority shareholder. From personal experience there appears to be two camps of people who pay in to HS just now; those who are keen on the idea of the support owning 25.1% of the club to allow a collective voice at a decision making level and those who are not interested in shares but simply want to help the club financially. At an AGM I'd imagine these camps will come to the fore and a decision will need to be made as to how best represent these two viewpoints.

Once any changes are agreed by members it will be put to the support to decide if Hibernian Supporters is something they want to continue to pay towards or not.

 

[paigntonhibby]

Hi Daniel.

I was involved with the Hibs Lotto when it kicked off. It was born from an idea I had to run a 50/50 draw.

For those that don't know punters pay a small amount each month, through a standing order, and there's monthly cash prizes. Its known as a 50/50 as 50% goes on prizes and the rest, in this case, would go to Hibernian Supporters.
If its going well there could be bumper prizes 2 or 3 times a year. The more people that sign up or take multiple tickets the higher the prizes obviously!

These cash prizes could be supplemented by the sort of stuff you're already acquiring from the club.

After the initial set up it doesn't take a lot of administration time.

A simple example.

£2.50 monthly entry paid for with a £30 annual standing order.

1,000 members.

£15,000 a year in prizes and the same to HS.

Would definately sign up to something like that Jack

 

[Daniel1875]

Thanks for the thorough answer Daniel -

I'll highlight two bits in particular:

The club have the right to name two people on the Hibernian Supporters board as per the company rules since the inception in 2015. That's a massive red flag to me, and goes back to how HSL was set up, and the reasons why. It's time to boot that clause out the association rules IMHO

Committee Aside from those two positions the other guys are all Hibs people with a shared ambition to help move the club forward with a collective fans voice. The hibs guys on the committee IMHO are solid Hibs people, putting in untold effort and its a thankless task. But, we are miles behind other clubs on this. I think that's something that needs to be addressed, a vision for HSL. If that vision is give us cash and HSL will hand it over to the club, then we're never going to tap into the latent financial support that is out there again IMHO.

I think the guys to an extent had the rug pulled from under them when RG pitched up. We are where we are, and we need some kind of plan or vision that isn't just treating Hibs as a charity.

P&G - thanks for your response.

I think in terms of the Hibernian Supporters board the ball is in the club's court. If Ron Gordon/Hibs board doesn't want to fill the two 'club vacancies' on the HS board then that would be a sure sign that it might be time to become more independent of the club. Again this would need to come from a majority of members to push forward and I guess the time between now and a Hibernian Supporters AGM will give us a better idea of the majority shareholder's intentions.

I totally agree that a model of just funnelling money to the club for very little in return is not a sustainable model and one which, in my opinion, won't last very long once things are back to normal. This is when a more nuanced model of - for example - 50% going to a share fund and 50% going to something else, perhaps in the form of a 50/50 draw as suggested by @Jack, could come into play.

At the moment there is an understanding that some people are more willing to donate to the club for nothing other than their own peace of mind given the wider circumstances, but I know very few people who are happy with that being the situation in the long run.

That is all just my opinion as an ordinary member and I'll be interested to hear the thoughts of others in the run up to setting an agenda for an AGM.

 

[Sir Shrink]

Would definately sign up to something like that Jack

I think that's a great idea - I'd sign up too. Pretty sure it would be very popular.

 

[tricky]

Saw this old club 86 ad online, some good membership benefits

 

[Purple & Green]

Saw this old club 86 ad online, some good membership benefits

I’d pay up to something like that tomorrow.

this is the problem that HSL now finds itself in - it can’t be all things to all people.

some people want to donate money to the club in a simple transaction

some people want to secure a meaningful ownership of the club to ensure things like 1990 never happen again

some people want a value added package

hsl has set up as the second one, and taken shares off fans on that basis. I think that ties them to that vision. Morphing into something else because the owner decided to stop the transfer of all shares has been a knee jerk reaction to an unforeseen problem that could have been given a lot more thought. To balance that COVID has blown a massive hole in our finances, and fans naturally want to do something - and hsl became that vehicle.

I cannot see how a way out of this now that isn’t messy. It will rumble along happily while the team is on an upward spiral. That won’t last forever - the natural cycles of sport - and I suspect hsl will face scrutiny over the decisions made by fans contemplating whether to chuck more money at the club

Edit:

Comparing Club 86 to HSL - Club 86 got better access to the club than HSL do. I'd suggest that one view from that might be HSL need to be much more robust in their dealings with the club.

 

[Purple & Green]

@Daniel1875

HSL at one point sought donations of shares from fans to build their shareholding.

Is my understanding right that presently, if I wanted to donate my shareholding to HSL, Ron Gordon would not approve the transfer?

 

[Purple & Green]

I'd also suggest that HSL need to get on top of member engagement, and whilst I appreciate COVID has messed a lot of that up - what they could do what many other organizations do - and get engagement with members on zoom calls etc.

I know my view comes across as highly critical, but I stress, I have utmost respect for the hibs fans that are involved in HSL - its a thankless task, and are volunteers. God knows how they find the time to do what they do.

 

[Hibee Kev]

Saw this old club 86 ad online, some good membership benefits

My Dad took me to one of the Club 86 player of the year bashes, was great, got my photo taken with John Collins! ?

 

[Daniel1875]

@Daniel1875

HSL at one point sought donations of shares from fans to build their shareholding.

Is my understanding right that presently, if I wanted to donate my shareholding to HSL, Ron Gordon would not approve the transfer?

Yes I believe that is the case. I’m sure he’s said publicly before that the board would not approve the transfer of shares from individual to individual or from individual to other shareholder groups, which means at the moment there is no way for HS to increase its shareholding in the club.

 

[Daniel1875]

I'd also suggest that HSL need to get on top of member engagement, and whilst I appreciate COVID has messed a lot of that up - what they could do what many other organizations do - and get engagement with members on zoom calls etc.

I know my view comes across as highly critical, but I stress, I have utmost respect for the hibs fans that are involved in HSL - its a thankless task, and are volunteers. God knows how they find the time to do what they do.

That’s a good point and one I’ll pass on to the board.

Perhaps an update from Jim and the rest of the board in advance of an AGM on Zoom would be worth setting up and it would give members a chance to ask any questions they have at the moment.

 

[Purple & Green]

Yes I believe that is the case. I’m sure he’s said publicly before that the board would not approve the transfer of shares from individual to individual or from individual to other shareholder groups, which means at the moment there is no way for HS to increase its shareholding in the club.

Thanks Daniel.

That seems a really high handed approach by RG.