On Wednesday 6 August, the Board of the Hendon Football Club Supporters Trust (the Trust) held a special general meeting (SGM) at Hendon Football Club's (the Club's) Claremont Road ground. Trust members were asked to approve a proposal that the Trust should reach an agreement in principle with the Club's current owners, the Arbiter Group, to take ownership of the Club (i.e. the football club, as opposed to Hendon Football Club Limited) by 31st October 2008. All Trust members in attendance voted to approve the proposal and a letter setting out the agreement in principle has now been signed by both parties.

There are many details to be agreed but the two parties will now work together to execute a formal Agreement and to obtain the approval of the relevant authorities. In the meantime, the two parties will work together to ensure stability in the run-up to the coming season.

In addition, Trust members were advised that steps have now been taken to secure the permission of the relevant football authorities for the Club to enter into a groundsharing agreement with Wembley Football Club. All parties are working towards securing agreement for the Club to play its home games at Wembley Football Club's Vale Farm ground. This agreement will be effected as soon as possible.

Simon Lawrence, Chairman of the Trust, said:

"The first key step towards Trust ownership was taken back in March 2006 when the Trust was formed. The agreement in principle to take ownership of the Club represents the second key step in the process and moves us closer to our goal of ensuring the long-term survival of the Club.

"While it is desperately disappointing to have to leave Claremont Road, we have been aware for some years that our time there will come to a close at some point and we have been in discussions with Wembley Football Club for quite a while.

"We are nervous about the challenges ahead but excited at the prospect of securing our great club'a long-term future"

For more information, please contact Simon Lawrence on 07976-907486 or email him at simon.hendon@btinternet.com.

About Hendon Football Club:

Hendon Football Club was founded in 1908 and is, thus, in the process of celebrating its centenary. The Club plays in the Premier Division of the Ryman Football League.

Further details relating to the Club's history, honours and records, playing record and management and playing staff can be found at www.hendonfc.net

About Hendon Football Club Supporters Trust:

Hendon Football Club Supporters Trust was formed in 2006 as supporters became aware of the increasingly precarious position of the Club. The Trust's mandate is "to do everything within its power to ensure the continuation of Hendon Football Club playing at the highest level of football consistent with its financial position".

For more information on the Trust, visit www.hfctrust.co.uk.

At the club's recent match against Maidstone United, the Trust presented a cheque for £1230 to St. Luke's Hospice, as their share of the proceeds from last season's sponsored walk to Harrow Borough in April. The walk proved successful for the second season running and the hospice, based in Kenton, were delighted with the donation, which virtually matched the sum raised the first time this event took place. In other news, the next Snowball Lotto draw will now take place during the FA Cup tie against AFC Hornchurch.

Hendon Football Club Supporters Trust are happy to announce that their AGM, held jointly on the same evening as the Supporters Association's meeting, was largely found to be successful. Around 50 members attended a meeting at which the Trust's first fully audited accounts were presented and members were brought up to date with the board's latest plans, including the formation of sub-committees to look at fundraising, improvement of matchday gates and extend our community links. It was also noted that while overall paid up membership this year is slightly down on last year's final total so far, the corprate membership scheme has been particularly successfull with 17 companies now having joined. We ask that our members and supporters of the club support these members where possible.

The minutes from the AGM will be published when available and accounts are available for Trust members from the board. Please contact us for further details.

The close season draws of the Super Snowballer Lotto have seen well over £1200 given away, with a further £280 going towards the end of year Christmas draw. Numbers 28, 46, 77 and 132 each took away over £200 for winning first prize, whilst second prizes exceeding £100 went to each of numbers 76, 89, 110 and 140. The next draw is expected to take place at the end of September game against Ramsgate during half time. If you wish to support the trust and give yourself a chance of wining one of these prizes, please go to the Snowballer Lotto page to find out how.

[Snowballer Lotto]

At the last game of the season against Margate, the Supporters Trust gave away over £300 to two lucky members of the Super Snowballer Lotto draw. The April draw saw numbers 129 and 47 walk away with £205.50 and £102.75 respectively, while a further £68.50 went towards our next Super Snowballer draw at the end of the year. The previous month saw numbers 32 and 104 pick up £202.50 and £101.25 respectively. May's draw will take place at the end of next month. If you want to support the trust and give yourself a chance of wining one of these prizes, please go to the Snowballer Lotto page to find out how.

[Snowballer Lotto]

At half time on Monday evening, the Supporters Trust gave away almost £300 to two lucky members of the Super Snowballer Lotto draw. The delayed February draw saw numbers 58 and 96 walk away with £195 and £97.50 respectively, while a further £65 went towards our next Super Snowballer draw at the end of the year. March's draw will take place at the end of next month, with prizes expected to at least match those given out this month. If you want to support the trust and give yourself a chance of wining one of these prizes, please go to the Snowballer Lotto page for more details.

[Snowballer Lotto]

On Saturday evening, a total of £1398 was raised for trust funds at our second race night. The Supporters Trust would like to thank all those who supported the evening, in particular the trust would like to thank Sandra Wood, Tony Wood, Geraldine Clarke, Tony Rice, Jacqui Cox and Paul McGreal who helped the evening to run smoothly, and of course not forgetting Charlie, the Race Night promoter, without whom the event would never have happened. Thanks also go out to those people who donated raffle and auction items.

Thanks also goes out to Image Group Holdings Ltd for sponsoring the evening. Image Group Holdings own two Financial Services Authority authorised companies, Image Finance Ltd (Mortgage and Protection) and Finance 2000 (Financial Services) and have kindly agreed to pay us a commission for every completed piece of business introduced via the Trust. It does not cost you, your friend, family member or associate any more than it would do if they had gone direct. We will earn 20% commission on every completed transaction. This will be a very lucrative earner if we all play our part.

[More Details]

At half time on Tuesday, the Supporters Trust gave away almost £300 to two lucky members of the Super Snowballer Lotto draw. The January draw saw numbers 29 and 97 walk away with £186 and £93 respectively, while a further £62 went towards our next Super Snowballer draw at the end of the year. February's draw will take place at the end of next month, with prizes expected to at least match those given out at our cup tie with Hillingdon Borough. If you want to support the trust and give yourself a chance of wining one of these prizes, please go to the Snowballer Lotto page for more details.

[Snowballer Lotto]

Following the success of our Race Night last season, the Supporters Trust are now planning a second event to be held in the Claremont Road Banqueting Suites following our Ryman League fixture with Carshalton Athletic on February 24th. Tickets cost just £2.50, with doors opening at 7.30pm with the intention of starting at 8.00pm. As before, prizes are available for the winning owner and jockey in each race while an auction for the opportunity to own various pieces of footballing memorabilia will also be held.

[More Details]

We would like to remind our members that as our financial year ends on January 31st, Annual subscriptions become due from that date. All members should have been contacted by now with renewal details, so if you haven't yet heard from us, please get in touch and we will send out the relevant renewal forms for you. If you haven't yet joined, now is the perfect time as we seek to increase our membership numbers towards 300. We would also like to take this opportunity to publicly thank our latest corporate members, Alan Day Volkswagen, Licensed Carriage Hire Limited and Planet Retail Ltd. for their support and would encourage our members to consider using their services where possible.

At half time on Boxing Day, the Supporters Trust gave away just under £600 to lucky members through the Super Snowballer Lotto draw. The December draw saw numbers 27 and 80 walk away with £177 and £88.50 respectively, while the Super Snowballer draw itself saw £342.50 go to the holder of number 63.

The next draw will be on January 30th, at half time in the Middlesex Senior Cup tie against Hillingdon Borough, with first and second prizes expected to at least match those given out this month. If you want to support the trust and give yourself a chance of wining one of these prizes, please go to the Snowballer Lotto page for more details.

[Snowballer Lotto]

Last weekend saw over £340 given away in prizes by Hendon FC Supporters Trust. The November Snowballer saw numbers 63 and 7 scoop prizes of £162 and £81 respectively with a further £54 going onto the Christmas Snowball draw and a pleasing £243 into Trust funds. In addition, the first Birthday Lottery was drawn last weekend, with the date April 11th winning a prize of £100. In addition, a very successful night was had last Thursday when Peter Taylor visited the club and entertained supporters answering questions about his time at various clubs and on the international scene both as a player and manager. We would like to publicly thank Peter for his time and assistance in raising £1014.06 for our cause.

As part of our ongoing fundraising campaign, the Hendon Football Club Supporters Trust are delighted to announce that current Crystal Palace and England Under-21 manager Peter Taylor will be appearing at the Banqueting Suite at Hendon's Claremont Road stadium on Thursday 16th November at 7.30pm.

[More Details]

Due to lack of support for this event, the Supporters Trust Board has regretfully decided to cancel the Casino Night due to take place on Saturday evening. The Board regrets any inconvenience that this causes but hopes that you appreciate that events such as these cannot be allowed to operate on a loss-making basis. As mentioned at the recent AGM, the only way that the Board will be able to ensure the survival of the club is if Supporters Trust members support fundraising activities. To that end, the Supporters Trust Board would ask you to make every effort to support our next event - An Evening With Peter Taylor.

The monthly Snowballer Lottery saw 94 entries into the September draw, and has already topped 100 members for October, meaning a prize fund of over £225 for the coming month. In the September draw, numbers 38 and 44 scooped £141.00 and £70.50 respectively, with a further £47 going into the Christmas Snowball draw and £211.50 into Trust funds. It's not too late to join for the October draw. Either see our Snowballer Lotter page on this site, or speak to any board member at a game for full details.

[More details]

The trust's first AGM was held recently with over 50 members in attendance. As well as a report from acting chairman Simon Lawrence and acting treasurer Mike Harte, the meeting approved the appointment of Gerald Edelman & Co as auditors for the trust. Also, the trust board was appointed and consists of Simon Lawrence, Mike Harte, Bryan Roberts, Robert Fraser, John Rice, Dave Garner, John Rock, John Neville, Phil Rogers and Steve Rogers. Chris Rogers will continue in his role as secretary of the trust but is not a member of the board.

Due to secretary Chris Rogers currently being on holiday, minutes of this meeting will be delayed, but will made available as soon as posible.

Hendon Football Club Supporters Trust are pleased to inform all supporters of their first AGM, to be held at 1pm on Saturday 23rd September (before our FA Trophy tie with Ramsgate) in the Banqueting Suite at Claremont Road. All Trust members should already have received or shortly recieve formal notification of the meeting via e-mail or post.

The meeting is open to all, although only members will have voting rights. These will be enforced using your membership cards. Please bring your card to the meeting if you already have it, and if not you will be able to collect it on the door. Non-Members may join on the day if they wish.

Please do your best to attend and use your vote as you see fit.

We are happy to inform supporters of our first few fundraising events for this season, and will inform supporters of further events over the next few weeks. Details of a further affiliate scheme with TradeDoubler are available, allowing supporters to earn us a cut of purchases from companies such as JD Sports and Tesco in a similar manner to the existing buy.at scheme. In just a couple of weeks time, Dave Garner is planning on Skydiving to raise money for the Trust. Supporters at games may already have spoken to Dave about sponsorship, but those unable to attend are encouraged to sponsor him if possible.

On October 7th, a full day will see a sponsored walk to Chesham in a similar vein to the walk last season to Harrow, followed by a fun Casino night with buffet for just £10 (or £5 for children) at Claremont Road after the game. In addition, at the Casino evening, we will be auctioning some signed items from Manchester United. Details of how to place a proxy bid for these items if you can't attend are available on the Casino webpage.

We now have a PayPal facility available for donations to be made online by individuals. We are looking to extend this facility to also allow regular monthly donations to be made in the future, but for now only one off donations are possible. Donations made through Paypal can be made in local currency and via credit or debit card. To use this facility, simply click on the button available on the front page or go to the PayPal page in the fundraising section of our site.

[More Details]

Our first monthly report has recently been sent out to trust members. While not containing any updates about the ground situation (we hope have more for the next report), it does cover the latest on our membership, fundraising and our initial plans for the AFC Wimbledon game.

The Supporters Trust would like to thank two of our former players, Graeme Sewell and Roger Wade for returning membership forms and becoming the first to declare their support of our cause formally. In addition we would also like to thank all the former players who took the time to attend our launch against AFC Wimbledon and also those current and former staff members who have supported our work in their own ways.

[April 2006 Report]

Last weekends wrestling night was a successful evening for the Trust, with the final total raised after costs standing at £1847.28, all of which will go into Trust funds for the football club's future. The Trust would like to thank all those who contributed to the night, not least Steve Lytto for his hard work in organising the evening, the Wrestlers for giving up their time and putting on a superb show, Lee Harding for producing posters and tickets for us and all the others who helped on the day to make it so successful.

Our next major event, a Race Night, will also be held at Claremont Road on May 27th. Full details will be made available shortly, but in the meantime, please support out Snowballer Lottery and ensure you sponsor Phil Rogers in the London Marathon this year (see the links to the left or on the news item below for full details of these events).

The Supporters Trust have announced details of two fundraising ventures in addition to those already available, and alongside have also undertaken a minor revamp of thier website.

First of all comes the Super Snowballer Lottery, a new scheme being launched to start in May, with monthly draws aiming to provide a solid regular income to the organisation and give entrants the oportunity to win some cash. However, as with the National Lottery, the prize levels depend on the number of entries, so the more people that enter the larger the prizes are! Please get your friends, family and workmates to enter so we can raise as much as possible.

Meanwhile, Supporters Trust and Working Group member Phil Rogers is running the London Marathon for the second year running, and aiming to raise money for the Trust in doing so. Last year, well over £2000 was raised which was split between the football club and Cancer Research UK, and with the assistance of fellow members it is hoped that a similar amount can be raised this year. This year, all sponsorship money raised is to be split 50/50 between the Trust and Cancer Research UK.

Further details about both schemes can be found using the links below or to the left.

[Snowballer Lottery] [London Marathon Sponsorship]

Full minutes from the Trust's Special General Meeting last Saturday are now available online, detailing discussions held before the game against Windsor. Included are the latest developments regarding the Working Group's efforts to secure the future of Hendon FC for 2006/7.

In addition, the Working Group are happy to announce that we have invited some additional members into our committee to consolidate our skills base. In addition to Chris Rogers (as Acting Secretary) and Dave Garner, both on the front table at the meeting on Saturday, Robert Fraser, John Rice, John Rock and Steve Rogers have all agreed to join the Working Group and assist as we look to raise funds for next season.

[Minutes from SGM]

We have recently signed up to a wide ranging affiliates program which covers over 100 different companies online. By shopping with any of these affiliates the Trust will recieve a fee which will go towards the maintaining of our football club in the future. To access the shop, click on the link on the left hand menu.

The affiliates network covers a wide range of products, from phones and electrical goods to credit cards. In particular, a Consumer Products Survey earns us 70p for each one filled out: if each member of the trust filled one out we would earn around £150 for nothing but a little of everyone's time.

We are sorry to announce that we will be postponing our General Meeting on the 4th March until the 25th. Please accept our sincere apologies for any inconvenience caused by this delay, but due to Simon Lawrence's sudden illness we've been unable to give all of our members the required 14 days notice of the meeting that is necessary under the Supporters Trust rules. As a result of this, we've had to re-schedule the meeting and we hope to send formal notification of the new date to all members shortly.

Hendon Football Club are to stage a great night of Professional Wrestling in aid of the Supporters Trust, on Saturday 8th April at 6pm following the home game against Chelmsford City. Two of the country's top promotors, NWA UK and Dropkixx Wrestling have joined forces and a fun night is guaranteed. Scheduled to appear will be some of the UK's top stars, including 30 stone monster Hugh Mungus, NWA Junior Heavyweight Champion Zack Sabre Junior, and a ladies tag match. Further details and tickets will be available soon.

The Working Group have now recieved full details of the Trust's bank account and have therefore now prepared a Standing Order Mandate form for monthly donations. If you have pledged a monthly sum to the trust on your application form, please fill out a standing order mandate form and return it to the Working Group in the usual way; either direct to a member of the working group, via the Supporters Assocation Club Shop or by post to the address on the form.

Please also note that if you have paid your membership by cheque, we will be presenting these to the bank shortly, so please ensure you have enough funds in your account to cover your membership and any donation you have made.

[standing order mandate]

The Supporters Trust Working Group will be calling a General Meeting of members of the Supporters Trust to provide an update on developments since the last meeting.The meeting will be at the club on Saturday 4th March at 1:00pm, ahead of the home game against Slough.

Admission will be limited to only those people who have paid their first annual subscription in accordance with Supporters Direct's guidelines and the IPS rules that are being set for the trust.

More details will to follow shortly - please do what you can to join the Supporters Trust and be eligible to attend this important meeting.

As many supporters will be aware from previous announcements through other club channels, the Supporters Trust are planning a sponsored walk to Harrow Borough on Saturday 11th March with the aim of arriving before our league fixture that day.

Walkers will be leaving Claremont Road at 11am, and the distance of the walk is approximately 9 miles. The proceeds of the walk will be split 50-50 between the Supporters Trust and St. Luke's Hospice, who carry out their work locally in Harrow and Brent.

Sponsor forms are downloadable from the documents section of this website, or the link below, or will be available at home games through the usual channels. Should you wish to walk, then please ensure you let a member of the working group know either in person or let us know by e-mail (info@hfctrust.co.uk) so we can plan fully.

[sponsor form] [more about St. Luke's]

As supporters will be aware, a meeting was held before the home game against Braintree Town on Saturday 7th January 2006 to discuss whether a Supporters Trust should be formed. The following is a summary of the meeting, informing supporters of the current situation at the club and what is now required so that the working group can move forward with the formation of the trust

The meeting was attended by over 70 people, all but one of whom voted in favour of forming a Supporters Trust (the one dissenting voice being a local resident who chose to abstain).

Consequently, the Working Party will now proceed to establish a Supporters Trust as an Industrial and Provident Society (IPS)....

[more]

The future of our club is now in serious doubt and because of this a group of supporters have been meeting regularly with a view to setting to up a Supporters Trust for Hendon Football Club. The next stage of this process is to hold an open meeting on Saturday 7th January 2006 at 1.30 pm (prior to the home game with Braintree Town).

This meeting will be held in the Banqueting Hall to discuss the formal establishment of a Supporters Trust with the aim of working towards the survival of Hendon FC beyond the end of this season, and for many years to come. Tough times are ahead which will require some difficult answers to questions which are going to shape the future direction of our club; help us to find those answers.

If you want to be involved and help Hendon FC to survive it is important that you attend this meeting, time is short: YOU NEED TO ACT NOW! We are looking to begin the New Year by taking the first steps towards securing the future of our club, so please make a note of this date in your diary.

In the meantime if you have any questions or can offer any suggestions, help or skills please speak to one of us behind the goal at any home game.

Hendon Football Club Supporters Trust (working group)
Simon Lawrence, Mark Bohm, Mike Harte, John Neville, Bryan Roberts and Phil Rogers

[pdf version]

A small working party of supporters are currently looking into the possibility of forming a supporters trust to help work for the club's future. At present, the idea is only being explored, but as part of this the working party are requesting that anyone with any interested in the future of the club provide them with some basic information to assist with their plans.

[more]