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The VSC is to hold its Annual General Meeting 2012 at 11.30AM on Saturday 25th August in the Belle Vue Bar at the Keepmoat Stadium.

The agenda will include a review of the year, updates on projects the VSC has been working on with the club, election of new board members, and a Q&A session with the club's Chairman, John Ryan, and Chief Executive, Gavin Baldwin.

The meeting is open to all supporters, although only VSC members will be eligible to vote on matters.  There will also be an opportunity to join the VSC on the day, or alternatively you can join via Paypal by clicking here.  Membership of the VSC costs just £12 per annum.

The VSC is wholly staffed by Doncaster Rovers supporters willing to volunteer some time for the benefit of the supporters and the club.  We act as a critical friend to the club, and the relationship between the club and the VSC has never been stronger.  We also support community projects and make linkages between the club and supporters. 

The VSC's Board of Directors is looking to recruit up to six new members at this AGM to become involved in exciting projects in partnership with the club.  If anyone would like to join the VSC team as a board member please contact chairman@drfc-vsc.co.uk for further information.

Today sees the VSC launch the Tomorrow's Rovers project, a new fundraising initiative aimed at supporting the development of youth players.

As I'm sure all supporters are aware, six of last season's excellent u18s squad are now signed on as professionals with the club - Jordan Ball, Liam Wakefield, James Husband, Patrick Mullen, Andrew McCormick and Jonathan Maxted.  James Husband was given his opportunity in the first team towards the end of last season and turned in some impressive performances, not looking out of place on a field of players with combined career transfer fees well into the tens of millions of pounds.

This development of local young players is, in the view of the VSC Board, vital to the future of the club - a steady stream of players developed in the Doncaster Rovers way, who understand the way we play because that is the way they have been taught, and are able to come into the first team and be comfortable, prepared and excel.

This summer the VSC has been speaking to the club about supporting the continuation of the successful youth development programme, and has decided to sponsor one of the youth squads.  The club have introduced this sponsorship for this coming season, and have ensured that sponsorship money is "ringfenced" to be spent only on youth development projects.

This is where you, the fine members of the Viking Chat forum, come in!  We spoke with the club about barriers to the young players' development, and the resounding response was transport.  The club need a dedicated minibus to take young players to away matches, training opportunities, development days, etc, and these are opportunities that some squads are missing out on, so we have decided to run a fundraising drive to sponsor a second youth team to assist the club in securing that minibus for the benefit of all the young players at the club.

The Tomorrow's Rovers project gives us all a chance to invest in the future of our club and the future of Doncaster's talented young players.

We know times are hard, but see this as a very worthy cause with a tangible payback.  Many supporters tell us that seeing local lads come through and pull on the iconic red and white hoops gives them an enormous sense of pride.

Please support this cause by donating via Paypal using the button below, or email chairman@drfc-vsc.co.uk if you would like to donate via an alternative method.  As little or as much as you can give will be gratefully received, and move us closer to securing that minibus.

This pre-season sees the Rovers take on a number of Yorkshire rivals in what promise to be stern tests for Dean Saunders' squad, culminating in three derbies at The Keepmoat Stadium against our neighbours from Sheffield Wednesday, Hull City and Barnsley. 

Adult tickets are priced at just £10, with under 17s attending for just £1.  Tickets are available now from the Stadium Ticket Office, online at the Keepmoat Stadium website or by calling 01302 762576.

Be there to support the team and give the lads a boost in their preparation for this season in League One.  Come on you reds!

Tonight sees Doncaster Rovers hold their Forum for the Future event at the Keepmoat Stadium.  The Rovers Chairman, John Ryan, will address the supporters on the future plans for the club, and there will be opportunity for supporters to ask open questions. 

The event has proven to be so popular that a second meeting has had to be scheduled to enable access to all supporters wishing to attend.  The events are free to attend, but tickets must be obtained from the ticket office first.

The "sold out" first event kicks off at 6.15pm, and the VSC will be tweeting live updates for those fans who cannot attend.  Follow these on Twitter using @VSCOfficial or the hashtag #fftf.

Tickets are still available for the second event, which starts at 7.15pm, so if you are able to attend you will be made more than welcome.

The evening will also provide fans with an insight into the results from the recent "In Rovers We Trust" questionnaire, which is a collaborative project between the club and the VSC.  This programme of activities and consultations will enable the club to shape its services, products and experiences to benefit the enjoyment of fans, and puts the fan experience at the heart of decision making.

Saturday 28th April 2012 marks the day the Rovers play Ipswich Town in our last nPower Championship match before our (hopefully short) sabbatical in League One.

The Club and the VSC would love it, just love it (in the style of another Doncastrian son) if we could say goodbye to this Division in the same way we said hello to it at Derby County, some 44 glorious months ago - with colour, passion, deafening support and our heads held high.

This season has been difficult for a number of reasons, but in the words of John Ryan, "Please keep the faith and back the club in every possible way you can", and what better way to answer that rallying call than turning up at the Keepmoat stadium to see the club bow of this Division and maybe, just maybe, show a team finishing this campaign comfortably mid-table a thing or two on the way?

Wear your colours, bring your flags, and cheer the team on to one final victory in the Championship.  Remember, its an early kick off (12:30pm).

Rovers 'til WE die.

Calling all Rovers fans (and their families)!  How would you like to appear in a new Channel 4 documentary series, aimed at exploring the issues facing British families in 2012?  Robin Ockleford, a researcher from TwoFour Media, has contacted the VSC to see if any Rovers supporting families would like to take part.  Robin goes on to say......

We're making a landmark series for Channel 4 about what life is really like for British families in this iconic year.  While the attention of the world is on the Diamond Jubilee, Euro 2012 and the Olympics this summer, most of us will be trying harder and harder to get by.  Against this backdrop we're hoping to tell the stories of inspiring, warm and engaging families - from all areas and backgrounds across the UK, living through these tough economic times. 

 

While we are looking for all types of families from all over the country - we would really like a football mad family from Yorkshire to reflect the fact that this summer is not only a big one for the Olympics and the Queen's Jubilee, but for football as well.

 

We'd like to reflect the range of issues faced by families in 2012 - from redundancy, money worries and the need to find a new job, to fears about your own business and paying your rent or mortgage.  We also hope to talk to people on benefit, to really understand the struggles they face.  And to explore the pressures parents deal with - supporting their children, from new babies arriving home to school leavers and graduates, often struggling to find work. 

 

We'd like to talk to families about different relationship stresses too, perhaps how they cope with divorce, or find out what happens when the in-laws have to move in.  Ultimately, we want this to be a definitive series looking at British family life, celebrating their resourcefulness, strength and even humour as they take on the challenges of this year.

 

We're currently researching the series and would like to speak to as many families as possible about their experiences. Any conversations will be informal and confidential and do not commit people to taking part.  I'd be really grateful if you would let me post on your forums or help me get in touch with Donny fan-families in any other way you might know of.

 

Best wishes,

Robin

 

If you and your family would like to take part in this documentary, please contact Robin directly on 0207 438 1871 or via www.facebook.com/2012Families

A warm welcome from the VSC team to the new, improved, “go-faster” VSC website!

It’s fair to say the old site had “issues” and despite many lost hours of adjustment, reconfiguration and tweaking we were unable to resolve all the problems, so we took the plunge and designed a new site from the ground up.
 
To existing members and users of the VSC site, we’d like to thank you for your patience whilst we tried to fix the old site and develop this new one, and to former users and new users alike we hope you like what we’ve done with the site.  It is a little bit different, but hopefully just familiar enough for you to feel at home.

We’ve also developed a new “mobile version” of the site, which is much more efficient, downloads less data (so is ideal for those with limited mobile data tariffs) and simpler to work on a phone.  Just log on to the normal web address on your smartphone and the website does the rest.

Users of the forum will also notice that all their posts have been migrated across from the old website already (hopefully nothing got lost or broken by the removal men!) so we start where we left off.

You will also be able to see the VSC’s new aims and objectives, rules and policies on the site, and there will undoubtedly be exciting times ahead for the Supporters Trust movement.  Maybe even some of you reading this now would like to become involved and join the Directors of the VSC in making a difference to our club.  Watch this space over the coming weeks for more on this.

Dive on in, and let’s give the team our full support for the run in to the season.

The VSC Directors

PS - there are a few new features in this forum, including buddy/ignored user management and easier social media integration.  We also have plans to "drip release" more features over the coming weeks!

Wednesday 29th February saw the Viking Supporters Co-operative launch it's first Community Project in partnership with Doncaster Rovers Community Foundation, Age UK and Active Doncaster. The 'Leap into Life' scheme is aimed at men over the age of 50, and promotes health and wellbeing.  During the launch event 5 lucky Rovers fans were picked to go up against 5 Brighton fans in a 'beat the pro' challenge and watch the match in one of the VSC Hospitality Boxes.

This is the first of a number of Community activities the VSC is promoting, which link in with the community-led objectives in the VSC's recently published aims.

Photo above: Leap into Life!  Supporters from the Rovers and Brighton and Hove Albion ahead of the penalty shoot-out.