×

Warning

JUser: :_load: Unable to load user with ID: 42
JUser: :_load: Unable to load user with ID: 938
Items filtered by date: December 2015

2005

27 January 2012

In September, the former Sheffield Wednesday Chairman, Dave Allen, offered to buy Wednesdayite's share of the club for around £330,000 (which would be put back into the playing squad budget). However Allen refused to address a Wednesdayite members' meeting to discuss this purchase and additionally it was not made clear how any ensuing Capital Gains Tax would be paid to the Inland Revenue, which would possibly leave the Supporters' Trust in tens of thousands of pounds' debt. Wednesdayite members democratically voted in favour of rejecting the offer.

 

 

2005

27 January 2012

In light of previous perceptions of the organisation, The Owls Trust received a number of candidates for its board elections in May and once elected, the new board rebranded the organisation to a much more fan-friendly name of 'Wednesdayite' in August 2005. Jim Harrison was replaced at this same time as Chairman by Darryl Keys, a former merchant banker with responsibility for Sports Finance.

Despite regular attempts to communicate with the club's directors (as dictated by the members who voted massively in favour of working with the incumbent board) many in that board were still hostile to Wednesdayite.

Whilst Wednesdayite's 10.07% shareholding was regarded as a valuable asset for a supporters' trust by the Government initiative, Supporters Direct and their member trusts, the Society courted a lot of controversy with the Sheffield Wednesday board and sections of fans.

2007

27 January 2012

In July Wednesdayite were accused by Dave Allen of being responsible for the collapse of a takeover by former Everton director Paul Gregg due to their shareholding, a claim which Wednesdayite denied. In the months and years that followed, Wednesdayite balloted both members and non-members to gauge opinion on their shareholding across the entire fanbase; and held a vote to decide if members would be willing to listen to offers from any new investor.

Members voted in favour of listening to offers and Wednesdayite, on 2 October also pledged their shares to a scheme backed by the Sheffield Wednesday Shareholders Association to listen to any offers from new investors willing to achieve a 51% shareholding in the business.

Darryl Keys

27 January 2012

Director

Jeff Williams

27 January 2012

Services Director

Paul Holmes

27 January 2012

Finance Director

Privacy Policy

18 January 2012

 

Website Privacy Policy

 

BACKGROUND

 

Wednesdayite Limited understands that your privacy is important to you and that you care about how your personal data is used. We respect and value the privacy of everyone who visits this website, www.wednesdayite.com (“OurSite”) and will only collect and use personal data in ways that are described here, and in a way that is consistent with ourobligations and your rights under the law.

  

Please read this Privacy Policy carefully and ensure that you understand it. Your acceptance of this Privacy Policy is deemed to occur upon your first use of OurSite. If you do not accept and agree with this Privacy Policy, you must stop using OurSite immediately.

 

It's Captains Night at Hirsty's Bar!

12 January 2012

WednesdayiteFIRST WEDNESDAY

 

By far the most popular First Wednesday event of 2011 was our Strikers Night at Hirsty's Bar - so we're kicking off 2012 in exactly the same fashion!

Once again we're getting some true Wednesday legends to Hillsborough to answer your questions about their time playing for the mighty Owls. And this lot should be able to keep control of a rowdy crowd, because they've all made their names wearing the captain's armband! That's right - it's time for Captains Night at Hirsty's Bar!

71 Owls Shirts to Send to India

05 January 2012

Shirts for GoaShirts for Goa

Following our request last week for Old Owls Shirts for India we are delighted to announce that Owls fans donated a total of 71 shirts for Wednesdayite Mark Lomas to take on his trip to Goa.

We'd like to say a MASSIVE thank you to everyone who dropped off a Wednesday shirt at the Wednesdayite Car Park at the Tranmere Rovers games at Hillsborough on Monday 2nd Jan 2012.  All of the shirts will be taken by Mark and his friends and given to locals in Goa.

Welcome To Wednesdayite

25 December 2011

Wednesdayite is one of the many supporters clubs that exist for Sheffield Wednesday fans. While disabled fans are catered for by SODA, and our longest-serving supporters have the Wise Old Owls, as well as there being a plethora of brilliant regional groups - from the London Owls to the New York Owls, our aim is to provide a wide range of services to Wednesday fans of all ages, all locations and all requirements!

Most importantly of all, Wednesdayite is a means to bring together supporters of Sheffield Wednesday and its community - to do what we can to make it as easy, attractive and fun as possible to be one of the SWFC family.

We aim to be a democratic and inclusive organisation, with the only pre-requisite of becoming a member being that you are a supporter of Sheffield Wednesday Football Club.

Our remit is to benefit our football club and community, with many schemes and facilities aimed at assisting supporters both locally and around the world, on both matchdays and non-matchdays.

Wednesdayite are a member of Supporters Direct - the government-led supporters trusts initiative, and the Football Supporters Federation.

 

Aims and Objectives

MISSION STATEMENT

"To develop and strengthen the bonds between the fans, the club and its community; and to provide services, assistance and advice to all three to help drive Sheffield Wednesday forward successfully and sustainably."

 

Wednesdayite has always been an independent supporters organisation - we believe the supporters have an important role to play in the progress and well-being of our club.

As Sheffield Wednesday supporters, we want to do our bit to help the club regain and thereafter maintain its rightful position amongst the elite clubs of the English game. We believe that Sheffield Wednesday deserves its place amongst the top teams in the country in terms of potential, supporter numbers, loyalty and passion. 

Our aim is to develop and maintain a democratic organisation for all Sheffield Wednesday supporters, dedicated to helping to realise the club's potential.

Players come and go; Managers come and go; Chairmen and Boards come and go. But we fans are the one constant and we believe that fact alone makes us a huge resource for the club to use in its drive to progress both on and off the pitch. This doesn’t mean that all the fans are going to agree on all of the issues all of the time. But with an effective, open and democratic supporters’ organization it does mean that there is a channel through which the democratic views of the membership can be conveyed to the club. And with greater membership numbers comes a louder, more representative voice of the fans - which is all the more valuable an asset to SWFC.

We at Wednesdayite are driven by the same fanaticism as you and our fellow Owls - fanaticism that sees us spending hundreds of pounds and traveling thousands of miles a season in support of the team. We see clearly that individual supporters are keen and able to do even more in support of their club and we believe that they should be encouraged and given the opportunity to do so!

Wednesdayite seeks to represent its members’ views in an open and democratic fashion. We are a members’ organization and we represent and articulate the democratic view of our members on the issues which are important to them. Sheffield Wednesday is our club. Wednesdayite is your supporters club.

 

Membership

Sheffield Wednesday fans join Wednesdayite for a variety of reasons. The Wednesdayite car park, Lounge and away coach service are all examples of fans helping to make it better for other fans to be fans! And the only criteria for membership of Wednesdayite is that you support Sheffield Wednesday. As a member, you have a voice. As a membership, we have a louder voice. And as an organized group of committed and passionate Wednesday fans, we have the desire and ability to mobilise efforts towards lending added advantage to Sheffield Wednesday Football Club and its community.

 

Democracy

Every Wednesday fan wants footballing success for Sheffield Wednesday. We may have different ideas as to how best that is achieved and indeed as to what level of input and influence the fans, both individually and collectively, can have in the process.

Wednesdayite policy is determined by its members. We undertake regular surveys seeking members’ views on a wide variety of matters affecting the club and encourage members to get involved in our Events and Policy groups. Whilst the Wednesdayite board of directors is elected to run the organisation’s affairs on behalf of its members, no material decisions affecting the organisation will be taken without the democratic mandate of the members.

 

Relationship with SWFC

There's no getting away from the fact that - for a large portion of the previous decade - Wednesdayite were not a welcome organisation in the halls of Hillsborough. But equally true is that those dark days are behind us all. The landscape at S6 has changed beyond recognition, and so has Wednesdayite and our aims and remit.

We are honoured and privileged to have a positive and mutual working relationship with the Club - from chairman Mr Chansiri down, and have developed close links with all SWFC's departments, which enable the club to better access our services and help where needed, and allow us to enjoy fantastic access to the manager and first team squad for events, support from the communications department such as having our own page in the matchday programme, and a mutually-beneficial relationship with both the SWFC Community programme and the SWFC Academy. 

After the struggles of the past, we are finally what and where we want to be - as a supporters club that SWFC can call upon to help where needed, and that the fans can use to get closer to the club we all love.

 

Communication

Effective communication of our core values, our policies and our activities is absolutely key if we are to retain existing members and enthuse and gain new members. We produce not only weekly email newsletters to members, but have a cutting-edge, constantly-updated website allowing all fans to access our services, join Wednesdayite and even make their voices heard through blogs and articles. We also communicate with over 32,000 followers on Twitter and 6,000 on Facebook.

 

Financial & Marketing

Our core values and objectives centre around furthering the club’s on-field progress and the part that the fans can play in helping achieve this. All of our fundraising efforts ultimately benefit the club whether directly (for example through Smile Tickets or events) or indirectly through the SWFC community (such as sponsoring The Wednesday Cricket Club or our free school coaching programme).

The very size of the fan base enjoyed by Sheffield Wednesday should in itself bring financial advantage to the club and even more so if that fan base is capable of mobilising to generate further funds over and above that which it spends on official club products and services. With everybody pulling in the same direction, it is our belief that the fans can get a real momentum going both on and off the pitch - and we see Wednesdayite as key to pulling those fans together.

In addition to promoting the club’s own products and services, Wednesdayite has successfully developed its own income streams to further its aim of greater fan enjoyment in supporting the club. Our successful matchday car park and away coach services continue to generate funds that we plough into doing what we do bigger, better and to bring even more benefit to Owls fans and our community.

 

Community

Our Wednesdayite community initiatives take the Sheffield Wednesday brand into the heart of the community. Smile Tickets enable deserving children and adults to attend matches at Hillsborough where they might not otherwise be able to do so - with the club benefiting from the full ticket income. The Primary Schools Coaching Scheme reaches literally thousands of the city’s youngsters at an age when football allegiances can be determined for life. And aside from promoting the use of sport – football in particular – as an integral part of a healthy lifestyle, who knows - we may even uncover the next David Hirst!

Wednesdayite will continue to champion the cause for all SWFC fans to be able to attend home matches, presenting ideas and initiatives to the club to attract all identified fan concessionary groups, i.e. families, university students, OAP’s, children and those on social benefits. We will continue to play an active part in the Owls Against Racism (OAR) Steering Group and provide practical support, wherever possible, to the aims of Sheffield Owls Disabled Association (SODA).

 

Fundraising

We need to be able to raise a healthy level of funding to be able to fund all of our activities. Our community initiatives all rely on a regular source of funding and if we are to help the club, then we need to empower Wednesday fans to do their bit. 

We are grateful for the donations we often receive from members - none of the money we receive is used for admin costs as we are all volunteers.

Through a range of new and dynamic ideas, opportunities and events we believe that - thanks in no small part to our positive relationship and support from the club, we can increase enormously the levels of funds raised by a supporters organisation of a club with such a large and loyal fanbase.

 

Some Promises you can hold us to

  • As Directors of Wednesdayite we promise to be accountable to our members and transparent in our dealings. Our board minutes are published on the website for all to see and contact numbers or e-mail addresses of all Directors are made available so communication at all levels is not only possible but encouraged.

  • As Directors of Wednesdayite,we promise to consult and communicate with our members through contact on all matters relevant to Wednesdayite, our policies and our relationship with the Club.

  • As Directors,we promise that on key issues Wednesdayite will always be run in a democratic fashion with the democratic vote both absolute and final.

  • As Directors of Wednesdayite we promise to encourage the Club to take proper account of the interests of its supporters and of the community it serves in its decisions, so protecting the Club for future generations.

  • As Directors, we aim to encourage and promote the passion and enjoyment of being a Wednesdayite through encouraging inclusivity. We work tirelessly to help the club spirit, that sense of belonging, the sense of being valued grow and is experienced by every one of the loyal supporters of Sheffield Wednesday
Page 8 of 9