In addition, BairnsTrust have obtained a large quantity of surplus home programmes from the past few seasons from the Club for an excellent, discounted rate. Now collated into “Bargain Bundles”. These bundles proved popular before and it’s anticipated this new stock will disappear as quick, so get in early!
A Trust member also acquired a set of over 300 Dundee FC programmes over the summer and through our colleagues at Dee4Life and UlsterDees a deal was struck that will see all parties, including BairnsTrust benefiting.
A request from a Raith Rovers programme collector has also been received. They are missing the following games at Falkirk. Wonder if any Trust Member has the following for sale ... 11/09/04, 27/02/01, 03/09/83, 14/04/84 and a few others in the 1950's. Please make your interest known to bairnstrust@hotmail.co.uk
Falkirk FC has allowed BairnsTrust to become an Official Matchday Programme vendor using our stall on the concourse in the Main Stand at home games as the point of sale. We will cater for those who wish to buy INSIDE the Stadium prematch and in return the Trust will receive the standard “sellers fee” in return. This is proving a great success so far. We urge Members to purchase their copy from the stall to allow the Club to monitor how successful and necessary this point of sale is.
The home pre-season friendlies with Ajax and Millwall gave the opportunity for the Trust to introduce a new line in commemorative, pin badge, merchandising. Your Committee were busy working through the close season on this, but following a discussion between Trust Chairman and an employee at the Amsterdam Arena it was gleaned that there would not be as many Ajax fans travelling as was first thought. This proved correct and along with the small band of Millwall supporters, the Trust felt the badges was not financially viable.
The 5th Annual Supporter's Direct Scottish Conference took place on Sat 30/06/07 at the Royal College of Physicians, St. Vincent Street, Glasgow. BairnsTrust were granted permission to send more than our full delegation to the event, with six attendees. Guest speaker was new SFA Chairman Gordon Smith, before he had officially commenced his new role and Gordon outlined his vision during a polished speech without the use of any notes. A report on the topics covered will be made at the next Trust Meeting on Mon 20/08/07, but a flavour of the various break-out sessions can be found on the pdf file at ...
supporters-direct.Liaised with a number of representatives from other Trusts including Hearts, Livingston and East Fife. All delegates including BairnsTrust have now received an after event summary based on all the feedback forms collected on the day. Some of the highlights were:
The conference was attended by approximately 80 delegates and speakers.
The day consisted of an opening session, four morning workshops with a further four following lunch and the final plenary session.
The following feedback was provided by 37 delegates who returned their forms. They were asked to rate and comment on the content, presentation and overall as well as provide additional information to help plan next year’s conference.
General comments on the conference:
· A well organised conference. Worthwhile attending not only for information gained but just meeting like minded people and knowing you are not alone with the problems you face. Gave renewed enthusiasm for another year.
· Good conference. Interesting debate at times. Good opportunity to talk to members of other Supporters’ Trusts.
· Overall a very good conference – break out sessions had good content.
· Learnt a lot particularly from the other delegates and from the discussions in the workshops. Definitely valuable and we’ll be back.
· We have used the same format for the conference since day one, it would be good to freshen things up and look at a different format next year.
· Very useful to hear views of other Trusts.
· Possibly too much information in the materials pack.
· Opening and analysis best.
· Facilities great, conference / workshops well organised and relevant.
· Venue was very good as was organisation and level of participation by delegates.
Delegates were also asked to think about arrangements for next year’s conference in terms of cost, journey times and days which would attract a wider variety of speakers and most delegates.
In terms of costs most delegates paid an average of £10.00 to travel to the conference with the cheapest cost being £3.15 and the most expensive journey £30.00.
Of those replying, 61% said that they would be willing to travel between one and two hours, 15% would be willing to travel between 30 minutes and one hour, 12% would be willing to travel between two and three hours and 12% would be willing to travel over three hours.
The most popular day chosen was a Saturday (36%), followed by Sunday (27%) with a small number of votes for weekdays (6–9% depending on the day), despite the fact that it may be easier to attract a better range of speakers on weekdays.
Suggestions or comments made on how to improve future conferences:
- Workshop on fundraising and marketing.
- Just keep having them.
- Interested to have something on fundraising, i.e. sharing ideas – what works and what doesn’t.
- Membership: recruitment / retention and how to enthuse current members – turn them from passive to active members.
- Regarding dates – aware of access to speakers being easier on a week day but finding a day out of the working week is difficult.
- Would like more on fundraising.
- Better use of Audio visual media.
- Ask the Trusts what they want to hear about and discuss in advance.
- A practical example of how a successful Trust has worked with their club. Not necessarily takeover but co-operation. Speakers from Trust involved – how, why, how difficult etc.
- More speakers.
- Make slides / presentations available online afterwards.
- Make email contacts available online afterwards.
- I’d like to see some kind of info board re the Trusts attending, what they have done, what stage they are at etc. Could have the attendees’ names beside them to make for easier contact. Best thing about conference is talking to others an added bonus would be if you could target it.
- More aimed at “newer” Trusts.
- Consider Stirling / Perth next time, although venue was great.
- Take conference out of city centre! Easier to park and not as expensive! Stirling/Falkirk/Dundee all have good rail links.
- Each year, choose one of the main offices of the Trust Board and conduct training/refresher sessions. This would help new office bearers and provide information on updated and best practice for those who may already have been “over the course”
- A forum to share fund raising and other ideas.
- Useful if all speakers could be asked to:
- have materials (stakeholders workshop was very good but lacked some structure.)
- make them available electronically afterwards.
Finally delegates were asked for suggestions for future sessions, training or other services that Supporters Direct may be able to provide. Comments were:
- Flag up grant and funding opportunities that Trusts may be otherwise unaware of.
- As well as Scottish conference, it would be good to have meetings more locally e.g. Trusts in Lothian and Fife – less formal and open to all, perhaps non-Trust members and might then be able to convince them to join. I think if you had an interesting panel discussion on 1 or 2 topics (with contributions from the floor) and with high profile speakers publicity would raise the profile of Supporters’ Trusts.
- General training from SD for Board Members in particular new members. Once yearly training session for specified positions, the session on responsibilities of Trust secretaries was very useful at the National Conference. If this type of session was planned well in advance I think most Trusts would send a person in position training session was aimed at.
- During the day there was reference to services which are coming online which reinforced the range of support available (e.g. membership application, induction, insurance).
- Keep advising Trust Treasurers of IR/FSA legislation amendments that are applicable.
- Practical stuff – how to chair meetings.
- Consider mini workshops centrally, say Stirling, (2 – 3 hours evening during summer months) Topics? Email and teleconferencing?
Now looking forward to the National Conference on Fri 19/10/07 at the GMEX Centre, Manchester. BairnsTrust have been represented at the National before, with the delegates doing so at their own expense.
Subsequent contact from one of the speakers has been received by BairnsTrust. We quickly signed up at the conference to the newly funded anti-bigotry campaign. Watch out for the new logo on our website for a direct link for more details at ... www.kickoutbigotry.org/
You will hear a lot more of this through upcoming media campaigns. On Wed 08/08/07 the first announcement was made in the national press:
Minister for Communities and Sport Stewart Maxwell today launched the 'Kick-Out Bigotry' website, part of Scottish football's united campaign against sectarianism - 'Kick-Out Bigotry'.
The website features news, views and much more as the Kick-Out Bigotry campaign gathers momentum during the 2007/08 football season. It also includes a Sectarian Incident Notification Form providing fans with the opportunity to record complaints of sectarian behaviour at any level of football.
The Kick-Out Bigotry campaign has been developed by new Scottish charity Football For All (FFA), which promotes positive social messages through football.
Launching the site, The Minister said "It's my pleasure to launch the Kick-Out Bigotry website, which I know will be an invaluable resource for all real football fans. Football For All is supported by the SFA, SPL, SFL and sportscotland - as well as by the Scottish government - and it is our shared hope it will build on the good progress made so far in defeating bigotry and promoting harmony on the terraces and in our communities."
Football For All Campaign Director Roddy McNulty added "To date, fans from every club have responded positively to the Kick-Out Bigotry campaign - the overwhelming majority of football supporters have had enough of the sectarian hatred associated with Scottish football. Football For All calls for united fan, club and authority action this season – a concerted effort is required to confine religious bigotry to Scottish football history. If there is a will, there is a way to tackle this problem effectively ."
Notes:
1. The Kick-Out Bigotry website has been funded by the Scottish Executive as part of the 'One Scotland' campaign, and Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE), UEFA's anti-discrimination partner.
2. The Sectarian Incident Notification Form system is an independent, completely confidential third party reporting mechanism. Football For All (FFA) will use information from the system to campaign for enforcement action within relevant national and international bodies.
3. The establishment of FFA was announced at the reconvened Sectarianism Summit in December 2006.
4. FFA Campaign Director Roddy McNulty co-ordinated the Show Racism the Red Card campaign in Scotland from 2003-2006.
Trust member Michael White has also given the Trust a stock of his new "Book of FFC Lists" with the Trust receiving a donation from every copy sold. To purchase please contact a Committee Member, intimate via our email contact address at bairnstrust@hotmail.co.uk or visit our stall or online shop at BairnsTrust/shop/sales
Stocks are being obtained of the rare "1957 Cup Winners Re-union Brochure" from Michael. Again to purchase please contact a Committee Member, intimate via our email contact address at bairnstrust@hotmail.co.uk or visit our stall or online shop at www.bairnstrust.com/BairnsTrust/shop/sales.htm. If you are eager to purchase we also recommend doing so via the Club's online store at ...
www.falkirkfc.co.uk/webshop
Many of you will have seen our very own BairnsTrust's Treasurer on the pitch at half time v Celtic on Sat 11/08/07 taking part in the Clydesdale Bank Crossbar Challenge and shrewdly opted to make certain that £250 went to Falkirk Football Club's chosen charity ... Strathcarron Hospice. All other monies from the other participants' attempts went to the Clydesdale Bank's charity of the year the British Heart Foundation. Slide show pictures can be viewed on our website ...
Finally, if you have any topics or articles you wish to be included in future BairnsTrust Electronic Newsletters, please respond by your preferred contact method below.
... have you seen the excellent work of a young FFC fan at ... www.travellingbairn.co.uk/index.htm
Look forward to seeing you at the next monthly meeting where there will be a chance to win a prize for attendees!
Thanks.
Peter Jack, FCCA
BairnsTrust Treasurer
www.bairnstrust.com
Please support the Trust's Corporate Sponsors:
Thomas Johnston Quality Butchers Limited
Amarillo Bistro Bar / Eleven Restaurant
J H Kilt Hire
BSH Limited
John Mitchell Haulage
Building & Renovation Services
Beijing Villa Chinese Restaurant
Links of interest:
The Wheel .net
Pie and Bovril
Bedsearcher
Keepy Uppie King
Contact methods:
a) Email to bairnstrust@hotmail.co.uk
b) Post your query on the message board at our website:
c) Visit the BairnsTrust stall located on the concourse in the Main Stand at home games.
d) Attendance at the monthly BairnsTrust meetings at the Falkirk Community Stadium on the third Monday of the month, KO 7.30pm.
