MAY 2018
The May 2018 edition of Co-op News: connecting, challenging and championing the global co-operative movement. This issue shines a spotlight on governance – and how co-operatives do it differently. We also look at co-ops on the agenda in Westminster, sustainability supporting and preview some of the motions being put to the vote at the Co-op Group AGM.
The May 2018 edition of Co-op News: connecting, challenging and championing the global co-operative movement. This issue shines a spotlight on governance – and how co-operatives do it differently. We also look at co-ops on the agenda in Westminster, sustainability supporting and preview some of the motions being put to the vote at the Co-op Group AGM.
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OBITUARY<br />
Jacqui Forster (1962-<strong>2018</strong>), pioneer of supporter ownership<br />
p Jacqui Forster at the launch of Women at the Game in Manchester, May 2017<br />
Jacqui Forster, a devoted campaigner for<br />
supporter trusts, has passed away at the<br />
age of 55, nine years after being diagnosed<br />
with cancer.<br />
A legal practitioner, Jacqui dedicated<br />
a significant amount of her career<br />
to empowering sports club supporters.<br />
Her love of football developed early on,<br />
sparked by attending matches of her local<br />
club, Altrincham FC, with her father, and<br />
she remained committed to the club all<br />
her life. She helped to set up a supporters’<br />
trust for the club and later became its vice<br />
president and honorary head of diversity<br />
and inclusion.<br />
Her involvement in the co-op movement<br />
started in 2003, when she joined<br />
Supporters Direct. The organisation<br />
enables fans to set up democratic<br />
co-operatives, known as supporters’<br />
trusts, to gain influence in the running<br />
and ownership of their clubs. As head<br />
of casework and constitutional affairs,<br />
she worked with supporters to purchase<br />
and develop community-owned clubs.<br />
In December 2015, she was given<br />
just months to live. In spite of this, she<br />
continued her tireless work, starting<br />
a campaign to encourage women<br />
supporters to attend football games. In<br />
January 2017 she set up Women at the<br />
Game, a movement aimed at bringing<br />
women football fans together to attend<br />
matches; it was officially launched<br />
in May 2017.<br />
The initiative became a platform for<br />
women to get together and attend football<br />
games as a group, with Jacqui arranging<br />
pre-match meet-ups and doing interviews<br />
in local and national media to spread the<br />
word. She believed in making football<br />
accessible to all. The first Women at the<br />
Game event at Altrincham FC attracted<br />
regular football fans as well as women<br />
who had never been to a match, some<br />
of whom had been reluctant to attend<br />
a game on their own.<br />
Alongside Altrincham FC, Banbury<br />
United, Doncaster Rovers and Huddersfield<br />
Town Supporters Association embraced<br />
the campaign, all hosting Women at the<br />
Game events. The initiative also reached<br />
the Premier league, with Manchester City<br />
organising Women at the Game events<br />
for its fans.<br />
p Jacqui Forster set up Women at the Game<br />
in 2017<br />
Jacqui’s optimism, kindness, and<br />
determination were an inspiration for<br />
everyone who had the chance to meet her.<br />
“Jacqui was passionate, dedicated,<br />
and has been involved in almost every<br />
one of the 200 supporters trusts at some<br />
stage of their development,” said Ashley<br />
Brown, chief executive of Supporters<br />
Direct. “Alongside her professionalism<br />
was a personality and warmth that will<br />
be fondly remembered and sadly missed<br />
by all in the movement, and more latterly<br />
from her inspirational new venture,<br />
Women at the Game.”<br />
Ed Mayo, secretary general<br />
of Co-operatives UK, said: “We have lost<br />
an exemplary spirit of co-operation, hope<br />
and values. What a life she has shared!”<br />
Elaine Dean, friend of Jacqui and<br />
former vice-chair of Supporters Direct,<br />
said: “When a collection was made to help<br />
her, she used the money to found Women<br />
at the Game, her legacy initiative to<br />
encourage women to attend live sporting<br />
events. She launched this in Manchester,<br />
three days after the Arena bombing, at<br />
Gary Neville’s Hotel Football – as the<br />
original venue of the Football Museum<br />
was within the police cordon. It took more<br />
than a terrorist bomb to deter Jacqui!”<br />
Ms Dean first met Jacqui when<br />
she joined SD in 2003.<br />
“Jacqui’s fortitude and determination<br />
not to give in was an inspiration to<br />
all who knew her,” she added. “She<br />
travelled widely and ticked things off<br />
her ‘bucket list’ on a weekly basis, such<br />
as parachuting, attending a Grand Prix,<br />
and skiing. She also travelled to New<br />
Zealand and Italy and made the most<br />
of her time left.”<br />
Altrincham FC also published<br />
a touching tribute to Jacqui.<br />
“Altrincham FC is deeply saddened to<br />
learn of the premature death of Jacqui<br />
Forster, a longstanding supporter of the<br />
club and a national figure associated<br />
not only with organisations such as<br />
Supporters Direct and Women at the<br />
Game but also many other initiatives<br />
to improve the experience for women,<br />
the disabled and minorities in the<br />
football environment.<br />
“In recent years Jacqui and her husband<br />
Pete have lived directly opposite the<br />
J Davidson Stadium and they attended<br />
as many matches at home and away as<br />
her health permitted. It is particularly<br />
poignant that Jacqui’s death comes<br />
on the same weekend that Altrincham<br />
clinched the EvoStik Northern Premier<br />
League title.”<br />
14 | <strong>MAY</strong> <strong>2018</strong>
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