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nutty nigel

Rays Funds Discussion

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I posted on Facebook but I will do so here as well. It seems the masses are more in favor of a charity as opposed to the club. I understand that. However it is NCFC which have brought us all together and this message board attracts from all over the world.

In an effort to be more inclusive to those not currently residing in Norwich, if the funds must go to a charity, I would strongly suggest that we select one associated with the club or one of its players/ex-players.

It doesn''t need to be the same one every year, but I do not think we should be abandoning the NCFC connection here even if they do not need our money.

Perhaps we could make a list of NCFC-related charities and decide from those? I just think that this Rays Funds thread should reflect the growing international appeal of NCFC while maintaining its connection to the club. I would certainly be more inclined to support it, for one.

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I think its very important that PUPs remains distinctly connected to the football club. I appreciate that point that the funds are now small chips for the academy and it would be nice if contributors can feel that the funds really make a difference to something. Its got me wondering if the money could be used somehow to support footballing kids at some level in the Norwich area? Like potential future academy recruits. I don''t know if anybody can come up with a way to do this? Perhaps local junior schools could be asked to nominate a promising footballing student and PUPs could assess the applicants and fund the winning kid for a week training course with the football club or something along those lines?

Failing something that directly supports the football club then I guess a charity is the only option. In which case Hucks Trust would have to be my number 1 candidate. A significant connection to the football club is probably essential to the future continued success of PUPs.

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How it all started.......

 

http://services.pinkun.com/forums/pinkun/cs/forums/1/867308/ShowPost.aspx#867308

 

Interestingly, even Ray was unsure (page 2) where to send any winnings.......

 

"I was wondering if this could be a regular feature each week perhaps  , involving a City bookmaker for sponsorship say £10 a week all profits going to the  City Academy  or charity.  Just a thought going round my head , what do you think ? 

 

He had decided on the academy just a couple of weeks later when he started the very first "Free bet thread".......

 

http://services.pinkun.com/forums/pinkun/cs/forums/884483/ShowPost.aspx

 

You just had to love Arrdee.

 

So, so grateful to nutty for keeping it going for so long. [Y]

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My pennies worth would be to have the money raised for ''one of our own'' so to speak. And maybe by having a definite aim rather than simply putting an amount of money into a larger amount of money there might be even greater interest.A suggestion of purchasing a season ticket(s) and donating it to a worthy recipient - which might act as a target and a definite spur to chivvy folk along to reach a higher figure than before.I appreciate that there are all manner of possible obstacles and pitfalls with this idea - but I think they can be overcome and dealt with. The club could see this as a (off one annual) special case and make a ticket available to purchase. Sensitivity would need to be shown towards how the recipient is chosen and treated, and there would also have to be total transparency in how that person is selected.And for those armchair PUPs like myself there should be no excuse not to cough up some readies, even though we may not join in the weekly fun.

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Interesting idea. Or instead of a season ticket maybe pay for a mascot for a game. A kid gets a day with their heroes. The club still gets the money.

But as you say, chosing the recipient is the hard part.

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As someone that only participates sporadically (determined to fix that this season) I think a charity would now be preferable to the academy, though what somebody just posted about paying for a local child to be a mascot for the day is also an incredibly good idea.

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Not sure, but isn''t a mascot quite a bit of dosh which might rather blow the funds all in one go. Maybe kids are a bit more sensitive about this kind of stuff now, though it could me anonymous in that no one would know which game/kid it was.Much the same with a season ticket, there would have to be some form of anonymity - no PUPS Charity seat plastered all over the thing.However I am sure that there must be deserving folk out there who have been lifelong attendees at Carrow Road  however for some reason (financial) have not been able to attend recently, likewise someone with a lesser disability.This would at least give us a defined amount to raise and (as with the mascot) a very recognisble achievement .

However having just finished this post it has just occured to me that there maybe a forum regular who might qualify to be considered given the parameters suggested - oh dear

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We need to be careful it doesn''t backfire, i.e. 38 people donate £10, which means the "end prize" is affordable, but instead we gamble it away and only return (say) £150 from the original £380 and the end prize is now out of reach.  We might then feel rather worse about things.

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Having just looked at the mascot prices it does look very restrictive. £195 is the cheapest next season. Good in theory......

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I tend to agree with newyorkcanary, I think that there should be some kind of connection with the club if at all possible. It is after all the thing that brought us all together.

Whether that means donating to the CSF or the Darren Huckerby Trust or others is a discussion for another time.

However, whichever direction is decided upon, Eddie, you can certainly count on my tenner when I next bump into you.

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I haven''t took part in this for ages, and am not really up to speed with the developments over the last couple of years, but how about keeping the money in Norfolk grass roots football? Maybe we could donate balls, nets. kit etc to some youth club sides - or something similar?

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I would suggest broadening the effort somewhat by approaching NCFC and asking if they would work with us to make it into an annual 1000 pound grant joint venture on the part of the Pups and the club. Whatever we yield from our efforts through a season the club makes up the difference to the thousand pounds.

 

My thinking is that we need to encompass all that was good about Ray''s original idea, i.e. something fun for the Pups, something that connects our fun to the club and, as the club is now in a healthier financial state, seek to channel funds to a charitable and worthy cause. Regarding this  latter point, I would propose that we leave the worthy cause undetermined and, at a suitable point before the beginning of a new season, local associations supporting worthy causes would be invited, through the Pink ''Un, to apply for the grant. Eddie and a representative of the club would then review those applications and make a decision as to which football related cause could best benefit by the grant. A good way to start the season. 

 

This type of approach, in my opinion, would be an admirable way of paying homage to Ray''s memory and his belief to connect and support those having interest in all things surrounding NCFC.  

 

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[quote user="YankeeCanary"]

 

I would suggest broadening the effort somewhat by approaching NCFC and asking if they would work with us to make it into an annual 1000 pound grant joint venture on the part of the Pups and the club. Whatever we yield from our efforts through a season the club makes up the difference to the thousand pounds.

 

My thinking is that we need to encompass all that was good about Ray''s original idea, i.e. something fun for the Pups, something that connects our fun to the club and, as the club is now in a healthier financial state, seek to channel funds to a charitable and worthy cause. Regarding this  latter point, I would propose that we leave the worthy cause undetermined and, at a suitable point before the beginning of a new season, local associations supporting worthy causes would be invited, through the Pink ''Un, to apply for the grant. Eddie and a representative of the club would then review those applications and make a decision as to which football related cause could best benefit by the grant. A good way to start the season. 

 

This type of approach, in my opinion, would be an admirable way of paying homage to Ray''s memory and his belief to connect and support those having interest in all things surrounding NCFC.  

 

[/quote]

Good post Yankee.

I was wondering if some sort of representation could be made to Mr McN so that with the help of the club themselves we could do something for some deserving children, perhaps combining it with the mascot idea.

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Why not make Ray''s Funds into a charity of its own?  As long as it is earns less than £5000, it does not have to be registered.  That way the money could be raised for something new.     Such as sponsoring a seat or two at Carrow Road for underprivileged or sick children.   Or  for sending ncfc kit  out to poor countries.   Or some other  idea that pinkun posters have.  

It seems to me that the charity could grow to more than a forum based thing, money raised going into its own charity, then people could donate to that on top of  what happens now.   I have tried the pups but don''t feel my knowledge of football world wide is good enough to make much difference, just looking at odds of matches around the world - and anybody can do that - so I tend not to do it now.  But I would be prepared to contribute financially as a regular user of this board and I suspect others would too.

I don''t think being a small scale charity of its own it would take all that much extra work, but it could grow and if it was taking more than £5000 and had to become registered - then that would start to become quite significant and  whatever the charity decided on as its aims could benefit quite significantly.   Being so far away as a lot of us are, it would be good to feel that we are able to contribute more to something to do with our club.  And those local to Norwich will see the benefits more tangibly too. 

The address to send money to needs to be somewhere where it is easy to see, perhaps on a locked thread at the top of the board.  So the original idea can remain and money from pups going into the charity, but it would then be easier for people to make anonymous contributions.

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Having now read at least three posters suggesting that we contact the club and or Mr.McNally and involve them by bringing them on board to work alongside the PUPs I think some have lost sight or in blissfully unaware of the attitude towards working with supporters. Today the club uses Twitter,Facebook and e-mails to interact with its supporters,face to face meetings,roadshows and forums are a distant memory.

This thread started out as working with FONCY to give money to the Academy.That total exceeded £360,000 over the years but because the club sidelined FONCY and no longer was prepared to work alongside side them FONCY duly threw in the towel.Without giving an even longer history lesson the SCG was disbanded,NCISA who over the years gave circa.£50,000 to the club has gone and all because the club have moved away from consultation. How easy it is in this day and age to fend off questions and concerns with Tweets of less than 140 characters than sit round a table for a couple of hours and meet people face to face. That is the world moving forward in 2013 like it or not.

So in a nutshell if people seriously think the club will play ball with us on any PUPs charitable project I say think again guys.We raise a few hundred pounds a season which is great and it is wonderful entertainment for us and has brought good friendships amongst some but it is an insignificant sum of money as far as NCFC is concerned for them to bother about. I respect everybody''s point of view and do not wish to appear negative but I am a realist. We will be on our own with this one but I am sure we will be fine led by Eddie and hopefully a few willing volunteers.

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Does that mean we should not ask? All I''m saying is that this thread has to maintain a connection to the club, whether it be choice of charity or whatnot. If this becomes a thread to support some local civic initiative with no connection to NCFC then what is it doing on this forum?

I would be happy to reach out to McNally as Chairman of the NY Canaries if you all thought it helpful. He has been very good to us as we host people here almost every week her ein NY as well as organize the tailgate parties for the 2 games in CA this week. What''s the point in asking?

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[quote user="TheNewBoy"]Not involved of course so my vote should perhaps not count, but some ideas would be:


  • Darren Huckerby Trust

  • Hillside Animal Sanctuary 

  • Norwich Foodbank

If I did have a vote then a local charity such as these would make sense. 

[/quote]

Just to be clear Hillside Animal Sanctuary is not a charity so i certainly would not vote for them.

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[quote user="TIL 1010"]

Having now read at least three posters suggesting that we contact the club and or Mr.McNally and involve them by bringing them on board to work alongside the PUPs I think some have lost sight or in blissfully unaware of the attitude towards working with supporters. Today the club uses Twitter,Facebook and e-mails to interact with its supporters,face to face meetings,roadshows and forums are a distant memory.

This thread started out as working with FONCY to give money to the Academy.That total exceeded £360,000 over the years but because the club sidelined FONCY and no longer was prepared to work alongside side them FONCY duly threw in the towel.Without giving an even longer history lesson the SCG was disbanded,NCISA who over the years gave circa.£50,000 to the club has gone and all because the club have moved away from consultation. How easy it is in this day and age to fend off questions and concerns with Tweets of less than 140 characters than sit round a table for a couple of hours and meet people face to face. That is the world moving forward in 2013 like it or not.

So in a nutshell if people seriously think the club will play ball with us on any PUPs charitable project I say think again guys.We raise a few hundred pounds a season which is great and it is wonderful entertainment for us and has brought good friendships amongst some but it is an insignificant sum of money as far as NCFC is concerned for them to bother about. I respect everybody''s point of view and do not wish to appear negative but I am a realist. We will be on our own with this one but I am sure we will be fine led by Eddie and hopefully a few willing volunteers.

[/quote]

 

You are of course right Tilly - just a bit of wishful thinking on my part!

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Good discussion so far PUPs. I''m a bit surprised that nobody has suggested we leave things as they are. That suggests to me that some sort of change is favoured. It also seems most people would like to fund a good cause but keep a connection with the football club. I''m sure there are possibilities within those parameters.

 

The football club have an Official Charity Partner which is the Norwich City Community Sports Foundation (CSF) : -

 

http://www.communitysportsfoundation.org.uk/

 

Keep the discussion going. Whatever we end up with will be decided by you PUPs. Hopefully we will end up with a few realistic options which we can vote on.

 

 

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[quote user="PKC"][quote user="TheNewBoy"]Not involved of course so my vote should perhaps not count, but some ideas would be:

  • Darren Huckerby Trust

  • Hillside Animal Sanctuary 

  • Norwich Foodbank

If I did have a vote then a local charity such as these would make sense. 

[/quote]

Just to be clear Hillside Animal Sanctuary is not a charity so i certainly would not vote for them.

[/quote]Under Grant, Roeder and Gunn, I think our club has already done quite enough in terms of giving a few old donkeys a home.

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It looks like a charity is in the majority. Which one though?

My choice is Hucks''s.

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Instead of opting for just one charity, could we perhaps have a small list of charities we feel would be relevant for us to raise money for, and then that week''s picker can pick the one we donate any winnings to?

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[quote user="Graham Humphrey"]Instead of opting for just one charity, could we perhaps have a small list of charities we feel would be relevant for us to raise money for, and then that week''s picker can pick the one we donate any winnings to?
[/quote]

*This*

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I would also agree that a charity with a NCFC connection is a great idea. The CSF seems to be a good choice. There appear to be lots of different elements and areas that they support. The PUPs could support them in general or maybe a particular area, for example children, young people or adults. For children there is a Boys'' Player development Centre and a Norwich City Youth Development Programme for Girls and Disability Sport so there are lots of worthwhile causes which aren''t a million miles away  from what Ray''s Funds is all about!

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Just back from hols, so my tuppence = I like what Grahame and Kathy are saying about smaller charities - to them even a few tens of pounds could make a massive difference. Maybe the free bet could chose the charity as well as the teams??Also really like LDC''s idea about making Rays Funds the charity in itself - it would give us more scope and freedom to chose what we did with the money, so could always maintain a connection to the club in some way.Great discussion anyhoo, of course count me in again next season - I''m so bad at it, I make all you guys look good!!

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Think it is a good idea to give the money to a charity. My choice would be CSF but will go along with whatever is decided.

Can''t wait for the new season and Ray''s funds to start again, will send you my tenner soon, Eddie. Hope you are all enjoying the summer and well done Inchy! the thread is going to be much lighter all round as I''ve got rid of 3 stone also!![:D]

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[quote user="Cosmic Twin"]I would also agree that a charity with a NCFC connection is a great idea. The CSF seems to be a good choice. There appear to be lots of different elements and areas that they support. The PUPs could support them in general or maybe a particular area, for example children, young people or adults. For children there is a Boys'' Player development Centre and a Norwich City Youth Development Programme for Girls and Disability Sport so there are lots of worthwhile causes which aren''t a million miles away  from what Ray''s Funds is all about![/quote]This raises a genuine question or two I have about the Community Sports Foundation, simply because I know virtually nothing about it, and some posters might. But from looking at its website, which is all I have to go on, it appears mainly to exist to make it easier to be sporty, which is admirable and useful, but hardly an urgent charitable need that no-one else is providing. If you want to be sporty you can do so at school, or join a club as a youngster or an adult. The exception seems to be the work done with the disabled, which may well be vital.The other question concerns finance, and whether the CSF is as in need of money as some charities or whether it is already well-funded.I am not necessarily arguing against the CSF; as a sports organisation with links to NCFC it could be the perfect replacement for the Academy. But it would be helpful to be better informed about just how crucial and charitable is the job it does.

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I haven''t forgotten about this. I have taken on board all your comments and suggestions and I''m waiting for some input from the football club before we finally make up our minds. I still aim to begin Rays Funds on weekend 17th but if this takes a little longer then we can wait. I feel the most important thing is to get this right.

 

For you PUPs who are going to the Everton game we will meet after the match in The Nelson to present last years trophy and have a chat. I chose that venue and time because Kev will be here from Leeds.

 

 

 

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