A number of pledgers have been in touch to ask us when the Bid will reopen to new pledges, at what point community shares might be issued.
Two important points:
1. The original agreement between the Bid group and the club to set a target of £750,000 for conversion to community ownership was time-bound and expired at the end of the original share offer period.
2. The original prospectus, which was based on that time-bound agreement and on a business plan starting in 2015, is also now out-of-date.
This means that, in order to reopen the Bid, we will need to present pledgers with a new prospectus, and pledgers will need to give their express consent before community shares can be issued.
This new prospectus will have to receive the Community Shares Standard Mark from the Community Shares Unit in order to remain eligible for Microgenius, so some more work needs to be done in this in the next few weeks.
We are currently seeking advice on how we may best reopen the Bid under a new prospectus that works best for the stage we are now at.
We would like to thank you again for your patience and continued support of the community ownership project for Bath City FC. We expect to be able to provide details of a new approach and prospectus within 2-3 weeks. We have also been in touch with other individuals willing to contribute further to significantly boost the money raised.
Continued communication with the Board
There is quite a lot going on at the moment, with discussions between the current shareholders of Bath City and some members of the Bid team about the ownership structure of the Club and also about the proposed re-development of part of the ground. It is a complicated process and we will update you as soon as we can. The re-development itself also has many elements to consider, as it is at a very early, theoretical stage at the moment. As soon as they can, the current shareholders will share their thinking with the whole Bid team and the wider supporters group.
Working groups set up
The 1000BC working group continues to make progress alongside the club's Commercial Executive Bob Chester to improve the day-to-day sales and marketing of Bath City FC.
We have also set up a Community working group and are in the process of establishing a Commercial working group. Both are aimed at improving how the Club works now and setting up the Club for a wider group of volunteers to be able to contribute in future.
In particular, we are delighted that Jamie Luck of charity Mentoring Plus and Sally Harris of AgeUK BANES will be bringing local organisations together later this month to help establish what a successful ground redevelopment would look like for local people.