Minutes of the Bairns Trust Meeting
Monday 18th July 2005
at the Falkirk Stadium

Present:
S Jackson, W. Anderson, W Sommerville, P Jack, S Adam, K Adam, M Fraser, M Cattanach, S Williamson, J Williamson, S Wilson, E McIntyre, J Gardiner, M McIntyre, B Guthrie, J Jamieson, R Smith & S Bird

Apologies:
D Robertson, F Caldwell, J Toft and W Toft .

Chairman’s Opening Remarks
Steven Jackson welcomed everyone to the meeting. The sudden death of Craig Gowans had shocked and saddened all connected with the club. BairnsTrust had sent a wreath and three Trust representatives had attended the funeral, travelling with players and club staff in the bus organised by the club.
The death of Ian Rae, one of the 1957 cup winning team, had also been announced recently.
As a mark of respect to both a minute’s silence was observed.

Guest Speaker
Jimmy Black, of Drew Norloch and MAAD, came along to talk about the Bar Bistro project (now to be opened in October). A lively and informative question and answer session followed and further talks will be held to see whether the venue will be suitable for holding Trust meetings and certain fundraising functions there.

Minutes of Previous Meeting:
Had been published on the website and were adopted by Stewart Wilson seconded by Sandy Williamson.

Matters Arising:
The allegation that some fans were being allowed to spread the cost of buying season tickets was investigated. It appears that one couple were having problems with their bank account and as a gesture of good faith by a club employee were allowed to pay part of the cost to reserve their tickets and gain time to sort out their problems with the bank. The Trust were assured that this was one isolated special case.
Other matters arising from previous minutes were dealt with in report from meeting with the club and can be found in full on the website

Secretary’s Report

• Letter to Club - Following the June meeting a letter was written to the club about disabled parking at the stadium and also about the worry that with 6 visiting teams (Rangers, Celtic, Hearts, Hibs, Aberdeen & Dunfermline) being allocated the whole North Stand left very few spaces for home fans. BairnsTrust offered to write to the SPL, CS Police or anyone else if it would help increase the capacity for home fans.
  A full and informative reply was received and both topics were also covered in the report of the meeting with the club on the website .
• Registered disabled supporters with season tickets will be allocated a parking space without charge upon application. Spaces will be numbered and exclusively for the permit holder for the season. The improved traffic flow under these new arrangements should allow the accommodation of requests to drop off supporters with mobility problems who do not have a permit, but pick up after the match will be delayed to allow exiting traffic to clear the area.
• The provision of a 735 seat temporary stand at reduced cost for home supporters will alleviate the situation and should be in place for the first visit of one of the 6 clubs named above. The SPL have asked for details and have been sent copies of building warrants and safety certificates to confirm the structure complies with all relevant regulations.
• Letter from Carrongrange School
  A letter from Carrongrange school was received thanking the Trust for organising the recent special needs tournament held in memory of Tom Jamieson. The Trophy, presented on the day to the winning team by Mrs Jamieson, was presented again at the school’s end of session awards ceremony. The school is already looking forward to the 2006 event!
• Email from Tom Elliot
  Tom Elliot also thanked the Trust for the medals and trophy for the successful tournament and confirmed that he would delighted to address a future Trust meeting as a guest speaker to discuss his role in the part the club plays in the community.
• Communication from Norway - An Email was received from a Norwegian who recently visited the club with friends who live in Polmont. He wishes to join the Trust to show his support for our club. There is a strong Norwegian link with Stenhousemuir and it was suggested a Norwegian/Falkirk link might be looked into.
• Charity Stadium Tour – An email was received informing the Trust of a Charity fundraising Tour where participants are visiting all 134 senior club stadia plus Wembley and the Millenium Stadium to raise £30,000 for Mavisbank School in Airdrie (http://wwwstadiumtour.co.uk). BairnsTrust is currently involved in supplying equipment to enable blind supporters to hear the hospital radio commentary at Westfield. However, a Fortress Brockville video and BairnsTrust tie were to be offered as auction/raffle prizes. They will be handed over on Thursday 18th August at 9.40 at Westfield when those involved visit stadium No. 3 on their list.

Treasurer’s Report

• Peter Jack again brought up the Junior Bairns situation and a suggestion was made that we allow them free membership of BairnsTrust in the hope that they will continue to join the Trust when they are older. Further discussion will be necessary before a final decision is reached.
• New membership forms and fees are already starting to come in – membership cards will be sent out in early August.
• The invoice for sponsoring Craig Ireland’s shirt is now in and will be paid as soon as Fergus returns from holiday.
• Final costings for the equipment for the blind equipment are being sought. A system will be trialled during the Cardiff game and the possibility of grants for part of the costs is also being looked into.
• The invoice for the last instalment on the dvd/video having now been paid, a final statement from AMA showing the full account settled has been received.
• A cheque previously issued to FFC for "goody bags" re the special needs tournament has been scrapped and is to be redrafted as payable to "Falkirk Football Club Retail Ltd" for £75.
• £100 Corporate Membership received from J R Gowans (Fishmongers).

Social Committee Report

• The Christmas Dance (Friday 30th December) would be tables of eight and top class entertainment has been line up as previously minuted. Tickets should be available this weekend.
• As part of the Retail Department reorganisation the Falkirk Shop will not be stocking Trust merchandise after current stocks run out, but the Trust will still have the stalls in the stands on matchdays.
• Written permission would be sought for the use of the club logo(s) on future merchandise on the understanding that designs would have to be approved by Falkirk Retail Ltd and ensure that we would not be in direct competition with the club. This would also prevent illegal users of the logos to point the finger at the Trust.

Board Members Report

The next board meeting is on Thursday.
Information from previous meetings can be found elsewhere on the Trust website.

Saturday Meetings

These will begin again with the ICT match. A report of a midweek meeting with the club is on the Trust website (as shown in Matters Arising).

BairnsTrust Website

There had been delays in getting information on the Trust website as the two people who could do this both had family members ill at the same time. It is proposed to increase the number of operators to prevent future problems.
Also any suggestions for improvements to the existing website would be welcomed.

Falkirk FC Website

The new Falkirk website is up and running and BairnsTrust would like to extend congratulations to those involved who have improved this facility beyond recognition. Also we’d like to offer thanks for the prominent link to the BairnsTrust site.

Trust Priorities

The new membership form has space for suggestions on how to improve the Trust. The Chairman asked those present to consider what they feel should be the Trust’s priorities for the coming season and email their suggestions to himself or the secretary or bring them to the next meeting to aid us in taking the Trust forward.

Trust Membership

An explanation of new membership arrangements was now on the Trust website and season ticket holders would be receiving forms with their season tickets. Clipboards would be purchased before Saturday and volunteers were requested to help sign up as many members as possible at the Cardiff, Morton and ICT games.
Along with the incentives of the £100 FFC shop voucher prize draw and chance to be a guest in the boardroom on matchdays the possibility of a free BairnsTrust polo shirt for members is being considered. Designs should be available for Saturday.

AOCB

• Memorial for Craig Gowans
  The Trust would like to be involved in helping to organise some memorial for Craig Gowans.
  Various suggestions were made ranging from a memorial cairn to an annual weekend youth tournament in his memory. It was felt that we should communicate this to the club and ask that supporters’ suggestions should be considered in the process.
• BairnsTrust Sign
  Although we were told there would be no problem with a sign to advertise BairnsTrust, it was felt that this permission should clarified as we would like a permanent sign on the East side of the ground and removable signs at the Trust tables for displaying our whereabouts on matchdays.
• Bus Stops
  It was requested that we contact the club about the bus stops being used for dropping and uplifting car passengers. There have been frequent occasions when buses have gone right past without stopping, those waiting for a bus presumably being obscured by cars waiting for their passengers.
• Unused Season Ticket Vouchers
  The club have considered this but feel they would be breaking their own rules on ticket transferability so will not take it further. The problems involved in physically taking receipt of vouchers and re-selling them would have to be overcome also if the Trust was to consider taking this on. Postponements/re-arranged dates as well as somebody misbehaving in a season ticket holder's seat in his absence would also have to be considered. If anybody can come up with a workable scheme the Trust would go back to the club to look at possibly taking it forward.
• Former Players’ Association
  The suggestion made previously that the Trust should organise a Former Players’ Association along the lines of the one run by Everton FC was put to the club and was met with approval to go ahead. The club will help and liaise with the Trust with information already held. All we need now are some willing volunteers to get this off the ground.
• Address & ShareSave Query
  Member R Smith raised query on record held by BT of his details re address and ShareSave contributions. Peter Jack to investigate. (Reply has now been given).

Next Meeting
The next meeting of BairnsTrust will be at 7.30pm on Monday 15th August at the Falkirk Community Stadium.