Dear Fellow ArsenalAmericans,
As I stated in my recent email, the decision has been made by the Executive Council to apply to Arsenal FC for ?Official Supporters Club? status. There are several requirements which must be met in order to be considered for such status by the club. The majority of these can be handled be the executive committee, and are rather de rigueur.
However, there are some requirements which will of course need everyone?s involvement, most importantly:
1.) The supporters club must consist of at least 30 due-paying members who are residents of the supporters club?s designated area (in our case
the US and Canada.)
The Executive Committee agonized for some time over the idea of having to charge a membership fee. In the end it was decided that the best way to handle this was to establish a tiered membership system. There will be two tiers, consisting of paying and non-paying members respectively.
Paying members will be known as ?Premier? members. Premier members will be able to exclusively enjoy the following benefits:
a.) 20% discount on all Arsenal Online Store orders made via ArsenalAmerica (bulk orders will be made periodically by regional designates)
b.) access to a secure system designed exclusively for the buying and selling of extra match tickets at face value.
c.) preferred status for trips to Highbury / Ashburton Grove
d.) personalized ArsenalAmerica t-shirts designed by AFC incorporating our new Official Supporters Club crest
e.) will be in the running for things like free books, calendars, video games, DVDs, etc.
Non-paying members can continue to count on ArsenalAmerica.com for the great content you?ve come to expect from the website, as well a few surprises we have rolled up our sleeves.
The amount we are looking to charge for annual dues is a whopping $3.65 US a year. That?s it. A penny a day.
The fees collected will be invested right back into ArsenalAmerica. It is a strict stipulation of Arsenal FC that all of the official supporters clubs remain non-profit entities. As such, the Executive Committee recognized that an immediate application of the funds would be for the continued upkeep of ArsenalAmerica.com. As things currently stand, Andrew Leyden has been taking care of the web hosting fees out of his personal funds, along with the help of a few generous donations he was able to collect last year. Rick has been going out of pocket for years when shipping the various give-aways. Annual dues would be used to pay for such activities rather than having individuals go out of pocket.
There are several other applications for the money that we are interested in pursuing. To mention just a few that have been discussed:
1.) The establishment of annual five-a-side matches to be played against members of other clubs’ supporters groups (ie. AjaxUSA, etc.) The location of this match would change every year, so as to allow the greatest amount of participation by members of both groups around the US and Canada. Funds would be used to obtain playing facilities, create event specific t-shirts, and for the creation of a trophy that would be presented to the winning team.
2.) Having a plaque or trophy made to honor the ArsenalAmerica player of the year, which would then be presented to the chosen player either during the annual ArsenalAmerica trip to Highbury/Ashburton Grove?
3.) ?or if we?re lucky enough, at a dinner here in the U.S.
4.) Creation of banners for each region covered by ArsenalAmerica, ie: ?ArsenalPhans? for Philadelphia based-Gooners, L.A. Gooners for Los Angeles, etc.
As an added incentive, everyone who signs up to be a Premier member between today and October 22 will be automatically entered to win one copy of one of the following books; The Immaculate Season, 2003-04 Arsenal Official Yearbook, or Va-Va-Voom, a fan’s diary of
the 2003-2004 season. We have four copies of the The Immaculate Season and the Yearbook to give away, and one copy of Va-Va-Voom.
Only Premier members will be eligible for this and all future give-aways.
What I hope is apparent from the above is a desire to make ArsenalAmerica the biggest, strongest, and best supporters club in the world. Not just in terms of Arsenal supporters, but of football/soccer supporters period.
Rick and Andrew started us on our way to that goal when they started ArsenalAmerica four years ago. It?s now time to take the next step.
If you?re interested in helping us achieve greatness by becoming a due-paying, ?Premier? member, please visit www.arsenalamerica.com/members
Arrangements for the payment of dues have been made via a secure on-line process using PayPal. If you are not comfortable with using PayPal, alternate methods will be announced on ArsenalAmerica.com soon.
Thank you, and COME ON YOU GUNNERS
Mike Kavanagh
President, ArsenalAmerica
mikek@arsenalamerica.com
10 Responses to “Arsenal America - Official Supporters Club explained”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
September 28th, 2004 at 8:44 am
Mike, I attempted to send my whopping fee (I spend exactly that for breakfast each morning) at the “direct email stage” of this post, so I hope you received it. Is there anyway we can get confrirmation just so we know that we’re in the book. A receipt, of sorts?
September 28th, 2004 at 9:34 am
Scotty,
Andrew is working on that right now, but it may take a day or two, as he is absolutely swamped. I’ll keep everyone posted.
September 28th, 2004 at 10:52 am
Just wanted to say ‘Cheers!’ to the $3.65, that’s just an incredible price.
Further proof that some clubs are about heart over money..
September 28th, 2004 at 11:12 am
Certainly cheaper than my yearly subscription to “Coaching Youth Soccer Through Fear and Intimidation”, and probably more helpful.
September 28th, 2004 at 11:43 am
I got this via email and signed up as soon as I finished reading the whole message
Feels no different…so what next now that we are official?
September 28th, 2004 at 3:04 pm
All of this sounds great and I’m all for it. However, I must be totally out of the loop. I don’t think I ever got the email, so I was surprised that not only are we official, but that an executive council had been named! I thought that we had scrapped the idea of going in that direction. When did all of this happen? Who are the officers? Please bring me up to speed.
Thanks,
Luke
September 28th, 2004 at 5:00 pm
I’ve also signed up! Can I get a confirmation? Thanks!
September 28th, 2004 at 11:23 pm
Luke,
I sent the following email about two weeks ago. We must not have the proper email address for you. If you have any questions for me, fire off an email to my mikek@arsenalamerica.com.
Cheers,
Mike
Dear Fellow ArsenalAmericans,
I write you today with news regarding the exciting changes that have taken place within our beloved supporters organization.
As you will most likely recall, there was much discussion earlier this summer as to whether or not ArsenalAmerica, as an independent supporters group, should accept Arsenal FC?s invitation to become an ?officially recognized supporters club.? One of the first steps that was to be taken, if we were to even entertain the possibility of becoming an ?official supporters club? was to name an Executive Council.
ArsenalAmerica News
The immediate reaction/assumption was that the founding fathers of ArsenalAmerica, Rick Liebling and Andrew Leyden, would assume the roles of President and Secretary respectively. However, both gentlemen decided that after three years of doing everything on their own, the time was right to infuse some new blood into the mix. So it came to be that the call was made for volunteers from the ArsenalAmerica membership community to fill the roles of President, Secretary and Treasurer.
I am pleased to announce that Rick and Andrew, based on nominations, personal contacts and references, chose the following gentlemen to share the helm with them as we steer ArsenalAmerica towards a new relationship with AFC.
Executive Council members::
Rick Liebling (New Jersey), Founder, rick@arsenalamerica.com
Andrew Leyden (Washington D.C.), Chairman/Webmaster, andrew@arsenalamerica.com
Mike Kavanagh (Delaware), President, mikek@arsenalamerica.com
Charlie Kapp (Washington D.C.), Compliance, charlie@arsenalamerica.com
Brad Hudson (Texas), Secretary, brad@arsenalamerica.com
Dave Connick (Washington D.C.), Treasurer, davec@arsenalamerica.com
On July 18, we held our first meeting of the Executive Council. All were present (via an online webchat) except for Dave Connick, who was not officially named treasurer until a few days later. It was during this meeting that a plan for becoming an officially recognized supporters club was formulized. In the next few days I will be sending out a second email containing the specifics of our decision, and what it will mean for you, the members of ArsenalAmerica.
I look forward to working with all of you in making ArsenalAmerica the greatest and most powerful supporters group in the world.
Thank you, and COME ON YOU GUNNERS,
Mike Kavanagh
President, ArsenalAmerica
mikek@arsenalamerica.com
September 29th, 2004 at 11:56 pm
Paid my Due - Hope that everyone is checking their email accounts. Maybe putting something up at BigSoccer would be a good idea.
Dave P.
October 1st, 2004 at 10:31 am
Hi,
I am currently working in India. My H1 is under process and expected to reach US in 2-3 months time. I am very active in checking Arsenalamerica as creating familiarity with familiar gunners out there in US. I doubt whether I can use my Indian Credit cards to make this payment. It will be wonderful if I can do so. Otherwise the first thing I am going to do after starting a Bank Account will be taking the Premier Membership with Arsenal America.
Thanks in advance.
Cheers
Ben