Draft Minutes of the Bairn’s Trust Meeting held 14/12/04
Torwood Cub Hall, Larbert

Attendance:

Murray McIntyre, Stewart Wilson, Kirstie Adam, Steven Adam, Janice Williamson, Sandy Williamson, Brian Guthrie, Fergus Cladwell, Stephen Bird,Steven Jackson,Euan McIntyre,Jim Paterson, W Sommerville, Wayne Toft David Robertson, M Allan

Welcome:
The chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and apologised for the change of venue at short notice and thanked Euan for arranging the venue.

1. Apologies
Received from Jean Toft and Bill Anderson, George Craig, John Dick, John McCreadie and Jim Jamieson.

2. Minutes of Previous Meeting:
The adoption of the minutes was moved by Murray McIntyre and seconded by Brian Guthrie.

3. Business arising:

• Fergus and Steven Jackson had been unable to attend the Supporters Trust meeting in Dunfermline and Kirstie and Bill had not been given the details of the meeting in Dumbarton. Steven apologised to Kirstie and Bill as he had sent the attendance slip back with times of meeting on it.
  
• Concern was raised that the Supporters charter had been breached with respect to the strip being changed within a year. This was due to the current contract.
  
• Further concern was raised that the individual banned from travelling on the Supporters coaches was still travelling on the Clubs official travel bus. The concern was that it was the club who initially instigated the ban and they were now breaching the club charter. Following discussion it emerged that the Official Travel Club was not yet affiliated to the club. Fergus will take this issue to the next Board meeting.
  
• The injured supporter at the Hamilton game has now been visited and is happy with outcome.
  
• Brian and Stephen Bird visited Hi –Fli Ltd who supply flags to various Trusts. Michael White was there representing the club. Stephen will take issue of supporter’s banners being hung up around the stadium and will discuss this at the next meeting between Trust representatives and the club.
  
• Concerns were raised around some of the process in ticket sales and this will be raised by Fergus.

4. Secretaries’ report:

The Secretary reported that correspondence had been received from Dover United Trust who were seeking financial assistance to help keep their club afloat. Unfortunately the Trust could not provide financial aid but it was agreed to put the plea on the web site and urge members to help.

5. Treasurer’s report:

The Treasurer reported that he is in the process of issuing letters to members who are nearing the period to receive shares. The current balance stands at £1,700 as cheque had been issued to purchase shares. should this be in
3 people have hot returned their share save option form so shares cannot be purchased for them investigations to find an up to date address for them is ongoing. 7 more members will reach the required amount next month.

6. Video and Dance.

Brian reported that 112 tickets had been sold. It was disappointing that several Trust Board members had not purchased tickets. It was anticipated that any loss would be recouped by the raffle A Brian was thanked for the work he had put in to organise the dance.
Video sales were coming on and the DVD’s had now arrived in the shop and were selling well.

7. Board Report:

Concerns were raised that notes from Board meetings were not being supplied for the web site. Fergus advised he had not yet attended any meetings and would raise this with Bill

8. Other meetings attended.

Brian provided an update from the Supporters Liaison meeting covering the following issues:

• The North stand is on schedule to be completed on 29th March.
  
• There was some concern over the timescales but it was pointed out that the club were on top of this and are monitoring the situation.
  
• The 5 a side pitches will open in January initially the changing rooms will not be ready but it is hoped they will not take to long for completion.
  
• The Creche is well advanced and should open early in the New Year. It is hoped that the Fitness suite will open in late spring.
  
• The issue with the recent under soil heating problem has been resolved this was caused by a transmitter problem and is now working fine.

A lengthy debate took place regarding the Bar at the ground and proposals to have a membership fee to help with the fitting out costs. Several suggestions were given and Fergus will take these to the next Board meeting.

Stephen Bird reported on meetings held with George Craig which covered the same issues and that meetings had now been arranged for each home game to discuss issues between meetings.

Following discussion it was agreed to try to encourage new members to join and also to ask if buses would be willing to affiliate to the Trust.
It was also agreed that Fergus and Bill will get the “ask the reps” section up and running again on the web site.

There was a suggestion to hold a monthly surgery with Trust Board members and George Craig. It was agreed that this was a good idea and should be taken forward.

9. AGM:

A discussion took place regarding the issues to be discussed at the FFC AGM. Concern was raised regarding the increase in share prices. Following a discussion in which several members put their views forward it was proposed by Brian and seconded by Stuart that the Trust representative would vote against the proposal to increase share value. This was agreed by all present.
A proposal for Fergus to carry the Trust vote was proposed by Steven Adam and seconded by Kirstie.

10. Any other Business:

Programme of meetings: It was agreed to have a programme of meetings with invited guests and players possibly a referee coming to discuss rules of the game. This was accepted and Brian will try and arrange for John Holt of Hi-Fli to come to next meeting to discuss possible purchase of club banners and various other items.

11. Date of next meeting:

17th January 2005 with the possibility of venue being the Falkirk Stadium.

 

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